Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Desktop Goddess # 14

phir chhidi raat baat phulon ki
raat hai ya baraat phulon ki


phul ke haar phul ke gajre
phul ke haar phul ke gajre
shaam phulon ki raat phulon ki
phir chhidi raat baat phulon ki


aapka saath, saath phulon ka
aapka saath, saath phulon ka
aapki baat, baat phulon ki
phir chhidi raat baat phulon ki

I love this song and I love this wallpaper. Courtney Cox looks delicious in this photo. I had mentioned sometime earlier that love my goddesses images when they are lying in a couch or some place like this. And the flowers added here make a wonderful combination. I simply love it. This is the last post of this year. So wishing all the readers a very happy new year. May the coming year be like a phul (flower) to you without or least thorns. Well we can wish for that, right? Har din aapka ho phulon jaisa aur har raat ho aapki phulon jaisi. Enjoy the New Year's Eve and please don't drink and drive. Be safe. Be good. See you all in the next year and heading for a party with friends. Ciao!

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Neo-bharat Times!

Neo and Oracle sitting on a bench in a park…

Neo: Merry Christmas Oracle!

Oracle: Merry Christmas Neo! You look happy today. Got a gift from Santa? Got a date for New Year’s Eve?

Neo: No, it’s just the Christmas spirit

Oracle: Hmmmmmm hmmmmm…

Neo: What?

Oracle: Nothing… just humming ‘Last Christmas I gave you my heart’

Neo: Please stop. You know I don’t like that song.

Oracle: No I didn’t

Neo: For God’s sake you are the Oracle

Oracle: Yeah yeah, I know. Have you checked your horoscope for the next year?

Neo: Where?

Oracle: Peter Vidal’s column in the Neo-Bharat Times

Neo: You daily read those columns? For God’s sake…

Oracle: (cuts in) Yeah I know I am the Oracle. Listen, your sun sign says that you should stop making mountains from molehills

Neo: Does that have something to do with the moles on my body?

Oracle: Err... no. I am not talking about Melanocytic nevus

Neo: Ok… Yesterday night I was counting the moles on my body

Oracle: Why?

Neo: Didn’t you read the mail which said if your lover kisses all moles on your body then your sexual life will be great?

Oracle: Eewww.. Why do you read such spam mails? Anyways remember that you need to stop making mountains from molehills

Neo: Ok fine! But it would be fun when Trinity kisses my moles

Oracle: I don’t see that happening since she is dating Agent Smith

Neo: (frowns) Of course she will. I just need a few more moles on my body

Oracle: Shave off your hairy chest and you will see 4 moles

Neo: (ecstatic) Really? How do you know that?

Oracle: For God’s sake Neo I am the Oracle

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Vinte e Seis

I have this notion that how you celebrate your birthday or the first day of the New Year is a reflection of how the coming year will be. Taking a look at yesterday the coming year would not be much different for me I feel. Yesterday I had fun with friends and also did a lot of work due to the ongoing client visit. Yesterday I had my share of laughs and also had some sad moments. So many called up, mailed and send text messages that I was soaking in the blessings. I always wonder that no matter how many times I forget to wish everyone, all have been very understanding and remember to shower their love on me. No matter how much you achieve in life these are the small moments when one feels truly accomplished. As per tradition I had a small mishap on the birthday eve but don’t worry as I am perfectly alright. Lost my bike key yesterday at the place we had dinner and then we all searched for it all the way on the road where we had gone for a walk. Then climbed up the wall as the restaurant had closed down and found the key near the table where we were seated. Lost a key and found it. Lost a few people in the past year and found some new gems. Well that is what they call it life. I still wonder how fast the last year has flown by. It just seems a few days back that I had entered the quarter life crisis he he he. Cheers to the coming year… bring it on I say! One of my colleagues gave this to me :-)

Saturday, December 06, 2008

When will enough be really enough?

Dear Terrorist Friend,

I know you would be smiling reading the words dear and friend thinking that you have got one more stupid person to carry out a fidayeen attack. But I want you to think that I am your friend so that we can embrace and then I can rip your stomach off with bagh nakh with me visualizing that I am Shivaji and you are Afzal Khan muahahahahaha! I prefer that you ought to be tortured to death and not killed in an encounter. Yesterday I received a mail which had a presentation attached along with. It had pictures and names of all the soldiers of my nation who laid down their life defending Mumbai. The presentation depicted these brave men as heroes and on the last slide it had a photo of one of the Mumbai attackers. Beside that image it was written that “You might be a hero to someone but you definitely are not human”. I agree with the last part of the line because I read in newspapers that you did not even spare the stray dogs which were barking at the railway terminus. You mercilessly killed every living thing which came in your way. A person capable of doing such a thing would have been brainwashed since a long long time. I have full sympathy for your parents and especially for your mother, who must be cursing herself for giving birth to such a scoundrel. But yes I really think that you deserve some praise for planning this attack. Before this attack you used to target the common man and a few days of mourning later no one ever talked about the killings or bothered to secure the borders. This time you attacked the elite people and the tourists especially the westerners. And everyone can see the outrage of this. The streets are flooded with people carrying banners against you all and the politicians. Well you all would have sufficed because the politicians come under your banner. We have seen heads rolling down on pretext of ‘moral responsibility’ and thankfully the Rajs’, the Uddhavs’ and the other rogues who usually put Mumbai under threat have gone hiding. I heard a few days back somewhere that this time the public outcry will make the politicians aware that they can be held responsible for such attacks and the masses will rise to protect the nation. Let me tell you that I was an optimistic guy but somewhere down the last few years I have given up the optimism and embraced reality. I don’t think that the politicians of India will think good for the people. I don’t think that security will be beefed up to prevent such attacks. The common man and the elite person will go back to do his/her normal routine. All news channels will gear up for the coming elections. Everyone’s focus will be back to the upcoming cricket series against England. The politicians will be back to their mudslinging game blaming the rival parties. Basically everyone will be back doing his own business and you will be back to plotting another attack at some another place. But let me remind you that such attacks won’t cut India into pieces. No matter how much we fight amongst ourselves we are a nation. Ours is the country having the largest democracy in the world and sooner or later when the endurance limit exceeds people like me will take up arms if need be and barge into your country. Then it wouldn’t matter to us whether your country is in the neighbourhood or is a far flung country. We would not sneak in and I promise you that we will take care to wipe away the entire spoilt race of yours. The innocent will be spared and respected and the guilty would be punished. After that the world will live in peace. I have that much of optimism left in me.

Yours truly

A friend turning into a fiend

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone


aankhon mein tu saanson mein hai tu meri
manzil hai tu kaise bhulun yaadein teri
tu paas rehkar bhi hai mujhse duur
na honge phir bhi hum majboor
sehlenge hum saare sitam
bhulega mann tujhe na sanam
teri kasam sehlenge hum saare sitam
bhulega mann tujhe na sanam

Friday, November 07, 2008

For a change little Johnny will be behind the Barracks

Never had an election aroused such an interest all over the world. Might be the global recession and the impact of the new elected person on the economy was a main factor that most of my colleagues were following the Presidential race. I was about to leave for work on Wednesday morning when my cousin tuned into a news channel and then the stage was set for Obama to give his victory speech. I waited and waited but finally left as I had a meeting to attend. Later in the night while having dinner I caught up with his victory speech. I loved his oratory skills. I loved the way he kept the huge crowd nodding their heads to his lines and then erupt in 'Yes we can' cry. I loved the way the crowd behaved. It was such a nice thing to see a leader speak in a style which I am not sure can be matched by Indian politicians and it was even nicer to see that the entire crowd was standing all the time and still it was not looking/behaving like a mob.


In the last few months whenever I saw Obama's picture I would think about 24 Season 1. The image of Dennis Haysbert comes up though later Elisha Cuthbert overshadows that image :D. Keeping Elisha aside for a while… I always wonder why over all these years I have always seen a 'coloured' person in my imagination when anyone said the words 'US President'. Bill Clinton didn't come up, nor did George Bush, Senior or Junior. Most of the times it was Denzel Washington… might be the surname has influenced my imagination. Then sometimes it was Dennis Haysbert and a very few times it was even Lawrence Fishburne. But since Obama has been in the news, Haysbert has been looming large on my mind. Maybe watching Obama a few more times on TV will clear my thought bubble.


One of my colleagues said that the Americans love the letter C coz they have had Bill the Casanova, George the Comedian and now Obama the Coloured. Might be the Coloured term will be replaced by Change, gradually. But Sonia Gandhi must be very happy and dreaming of becoming the Indian President. Well everyone has a right to an American Dream, right? :-)


For a change Elisha rules my thought bubble ;-)

Saturday, November 01, 2008

Happy Diwali!!

Wish you all a very happy Diwali. A bit late in wishing all of you but most of you will pardon me for that. Some of my maternal cousins were here with us this time. It was fun supervising the kids bursting crackers and taking them to the roof to show the brightly lit city and the wonderful display of fireworks over the city horizon. Scrumptious Diwali goodies to gorge into and 2 days of holiday… bliss! Not all was good this Diwali though… some parts of India had terrorist attacks while some didn’t need terrorists as the people have started fighting amongst themselves. With some persons aiming for political supremacy the common man has been made to suffer. My heartfelt condolences to the family of the boy, who was gunned down by the Mumbai police. Instead of lighting lamps during Diwali we are more desperate to snuff out the light out of someone’s lives. I hope God gives all of us sensibility as well this time along with the wealth which comes with the festival of Diwali. Have a nice weekend everyone.

Friday, October 03, 2008

Happy Birthday Google!

You must have heard and read about the masseuse who turned rich on Google shares. As Google celebrated its 10th birthday I was thinking of the tools and sites I have been using and contributing to the success of the company and well the other masseuses working there :). Here is a list…

Google
When Yogesh introduced me to the internet, apart from Yahoo’s mail and a few porn sites, Google was one of the first sites he had shown me. “Type in a word and hit Enter, you will get all the information”, he had said and Google crawlers have kept his word true till date. Long back I had noted down in a post that I hate Google when someone searches for Sudeep Sharma and I am not the first one to be linked. When my girl friend’s cousins came to know about our engagement plans the first thing they did was to google me out to see my photo and landed here. Now her family knows about this blog where as mine doesn’t, great isn’t it? Don’t be surprised if you find censored posts on this space now on :D

Blogger & Blogspot
If Suraj had not shown me his blog three years back, then I doubt I would have used these servers and I wouldn’t have been typing this and you would have been reading something more entertaining somewhere else :). Even though Blogspot is blocked by the System guys I am lucky that I can access Blogger to keep posting.

Reader
My access to the blog world for staying updated with all the nice, very nice, not-so-nice posts everyone writes on their blogs. I have some complaints regarding Reader but I won’t turn my post into a jeremiad. If you are a Reader user, then have you got directed to a feed which you hadn’t subscribed to? Well I got one such feed, when I had entered a changed url of a fellow blogger who had moved to different url; and unfortunately it was of a teenage girl who was fed up with something/someone and was contemplating either running away or committing suicide. Soon that blog turned into another language (probably Spanish) blog and I don’t know what happened with that girl, if she was real. I hate bloggers who don’t set their blog feed to the full :-.

Gmail
Earlier I hated the fact to compulsory shift to Gmail for Blogger and Orkut login id but when I started using Gmail, I found it to be great. In fact I have stopped using Yahoo and Hotmail since then. The best part of Gmail is the conversation windows (cascading mails).

Orkut
Yesterday’s newspaper carried an article how some companies have started looking at the social networking site profiles of candidates to get an insight of the person’s character which is not seen in the resume. Orkut in the initial days was an addiction; with no messengers allowed at the work place it was the only source of free networking and reaching out to friends. Now that Orkut is also blocked it has been a year I have logged there but I loved it (and still like it) for many reasons.

Gtalk
Even though this is also blocked, people here find out amazing ways to meander their way across the firewall. I use this rarely but since all the address book contacts are present this is a good way of interacting. Absence of invisible mode (not in the applet of Gmail) is one complaint regarding this.

Picassa Albums
I use my photo blog to share my pics but most of my friends use Picassa to upload their stuff. Thanks to this I came to know that there are many wonderful photographers in my friend circle. And Sean still prefers Photobucket! :D

iGoogle
The live cricket score gadget on iGoogle was the main reason I accessed it. A lot of nice gadgets shows how immensely talented people are coming up with such stuff. Jokes, puzzles, astrology, games, videos, weather etc. all come under one roof. I had subscribed to Babes of Googledex gadget on Google’s recommendation but they have only Angelina Jolie and Jessica Alba’s photos. Not that I don’t like these two but they are ranked way below in my list of hot babes. So later I subscribed to Sports Illustrated Model of the Day and now I rub shoulders or let’s say eyes with hot bodies like Ana Beatriz Barros :). Did someone mention censored posts somewhere in the post? :D

Google Groups
The conversation windows in Gmail are best to be used for group activities. My katta group had a conversation of about 150 mails in one day on a very silly topic.

Then there is Google Analytics for analyzing blog visits but I prefer Sitemeter, when I have time, for having a good laugh at the search words people use to land here. Also had started using Google Docs but for a very very short time. Google’s Language Tools also comes handy to me when I am working on my company projects as I have to deal with 8 foreign languages. When my company’s ex-CTO was with us we used to surf Google Earth and he used to tell a lot of interesting stories about some places he had been to.

Google has launched a project on the 10th birthday, so if you have a great or simple idea, which will change the world, then participate in it. With all the creative juices flowing may God bless you, me, all bloggers and readers, Google and the masseuses working there :)

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Bull’s eye or Bull Shit?

(Had written this when the Games ended but was in Drafts till now)

2008 Olympics has been wrapped up. Beijing had its share of highs and lows and London is gearing up to match the set standards. Someone said over lunch that India might get to host the one in 2020 to which someone else countered that “The Commonwealth Games are a few months away and see the condition of the roads. How can India build a roadmap to Olympics if we can’t maintain our roads?” The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and the authorities concerned with road development has (or rather had) taken up the task of cementing all roads leading up to the Commonwealth Games venue here and to sum up the status and situation of the task in one word will be ‘pathetic’. It was expected that the repairs work will be over before the monsoons hit Pune and the 10 km patch which I use for travelling to and from office does not have a single road which has been completed. Where ever one goes the roads are dug up, the rains (this year they were below normal) have added to the misery of the commuters and no one from the governing body really cares about this.

So what do the authorities care about, you ask? Well they care about our Olympic gold medalist Mr. Abhinav Bindra. I am really happy and proud of the fact that India has bagged 3 medals (1 gold and 2 bronze) this time but I am rather amused at the
15 lakhs award for Bindra by the PMC. Let me make it clear that I am happy to know that Mr. Mittal has come forward to help Bindra and much more happy that in a cricket crazy nation even the Cricket Board has awarded the shooter. But PMC?? It is good that his state awards him; it is fine that other states including Maharashtra are awarding him but why the hell the PMC, when they have so many right areas where money needs to be put into for the citizens. Anyone please enlighten me if there is some plausible explanation for this. Drawing attention to the Commonwealth Games being hosted here might be one reason I can think of. Whatever the reason might be but it goes from the tax we all are paying, right?

I just hope that the athletes coming here from all over the world don’t find this place bull shit just due to the apathetic behaviour of the PMC and all involved in the hosting.

Monday, September 08, 2008

Hat trick!


And when we were kids we thought that it meant a magician pulling out a fluffy rabbit from his black hat. The devil sure finds work for idle hands.

Friday, August 29, 2008

Pssttt.. lemme tell you a secret

I was going through my reader last week and noticed that the number of unread posts from PostSecret had gone up as I had not checked it since quite a long time. I find this site quite intriguing. It sometimes amuses me, it sometimes saddens me, and most of the times it makes me feel that people are so talented to put down their secret so creatively. I had seen the PostSecret link many times on various blogs but never bothered to check it until one idle day when I subscribed to it. Going through a few posts had me hooked to it instantaneously. Till date I have gone through hundreds of secrets of hundreds of people spread all over the world and I am amazed by the courage people show to jot down their secrets which otherwise could have stayed buried forever. Amazed just for the fact that I never reveal my or someone else’s secrets. Secrets are just meant to be secrets, is my view. Might be it is this view point that many people show confidence in me to open up their hearts and minds. I have been stomaching many such secrets since school days and luckily I have been able to keep them with me. In spite of the fact that many people have shown me the skeletons hidden in their closets I have never had the urge to share my secrets with anybody. Not my parents or cousins and not even my best friends. I remember Sean writing in his post that it is confusing how much to reveal on the blog about his relationship. Blogs are double-edged swords as Parag had said, and it is difficult to keep the nosey-parkers in real life away if one starts writing minute details on the blog. I had successfully kept my relationship under wraps and now that I am marrying her next year I can openly discuss about it without caring for the real life pesky characters analyzing each post here to know who she is. Yes, I heard your congratulatory wishes and sincere thanks for that :). I have already conveyed the marriage information to my close blogger friends and a few guessed it right even before I could tell them. How much do you reveal about your life on your blog? Or to your closest friends in real life?
I got an e-mail today on eagles and one paragraph in the mail was:

When an eagle grows old, his feathers become weak and cannot take him as fast as he should. When he feels weak and about to die, he retires to a place far away in the rocks. While there, he plucks out every feather on his body until he is completely bare. He stays in this hiding place until he has grown new feathers, then he can come out.

We occasionally need to shed off old habits & old memories that burden us and add no value to our lives.
We skim through the old items in our households and throw away articles, which we had thought we would need some day but till date never used them. Life could have been better if we could do the same for the thoughts and memories in our minds. Try weeding out the garden of your mind from today and let colourful flowers bloom to make your own life colourful; after all we get only one life to live, don’t we?

Images from PostSecret

Monday, August 25, 2008

Friendly advice of the day!

Ignorance may be or may not be bliss but ignoring is definitely bliss.
Especially when you want some people out of your life. Permanently. Start ignoring mails, stop replying to mails and text messages, avoid meeting them even in public places, stop reading their blogs, block them from your messenger list, don’t pick up their calls etc. Sooner or later they will realize that you are avoiding them and they won’t contact you again. Life would definitely be better then. Your and their as well.

Friday, August 08, 2008

08/08/08

Glad I am not late in posting on this special date. Or am I early and should have posted at 08:08 pm?

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Desktop Goddess # 13

soch zara jaane-jaan tujhko hum kitna chahte hai
rote hai hum bhi agar teri aankhon mein aansu aate hai
gaana toh aata nahi magar phir bhi hum gaate hai
ki aditi maan kabhi kabhi saare jaha mein andhera hota hai
lekin raat ke baad hi toh sawera hota hai
kabhi kabhi aditi zindagi mein yuhi koi apna lagta hai
kabhi kabhi aditi woh bichad jaye toh ek sapna lagta hai
ki aditi hasde hasde hasde hasde hasde hasde tu zara
nahi toh bas thoda thoda thoda thoda thoda thoda muskura

tu khush hai toh lage ki jaha mein chhayi hai khushi
suraj nikle badalon se aur batte zindagi
sun toh jara madhosh hawa tujhse kehne lagi
ki aditi woh jo bichadte hai ek na ek din phir mil jaate hai
aditi jaan tu ya jaane na gul phir khil jaate hai
kabhi kabhi aditi zindagi mein yuhi koi apna lagta hai
kabhi kabhi aditi woh bichad jaye toh ek sapna lagta hai
ki aditi hasde hasde hasde hasde hasde hasde tu zara
nahi toh bas thoda thoda thoda thoda thoda thoda muskura


Aditi Govitrikar is one of the 13 sexy ladies (Sakshi, on her blog, prefers to call them wannabe bimbettes :D) playing a dangerous game on Khatron Ke Khiladi program on the new channel Colors. I was watching re-runs of the initial episodes of this show over the weekend with cousins and fortunately amongst us guys we had one sister, who shrieked along with the contestants at the sight of rats and snakes crawling over their bodies. The Fear Factor India version was expected to be more of a skin show and a bitching club with these ladies taking part but they are fully clad in clothes and safety gear and the dares/stunts performed surely are worth applauding. When my mom saw Aditi she said I have seen this girl in a show. Her name is mmm… and while she was recollecting it I said Aditi Govitrikar and in an instant I rattled off all the 13 names. My mom and cousins were looking at me and wondering how I knew all names… he he he. And I say that I can’t remember names sigh!

During a few stunts my mom said that she too wanted to do those and I need not worry since the harness and safety gear are well taken care of. I was like yeah sure I am cool about it. Even if the thought of bungee jumping is exciting I am sure I won’t be doing it but I really think my mom will do it if given a chance. Aditi is also a mom by the way and a doctor, model and actor as well. Shailaja Bajpai, in her Indian Express column, says that the dares are nowhere near as shown in the original Fear Factor but I like what is being shown. If someone is attempting what I can’t, I would definitely see it. And what fun to see a pretty lady shrieking when a python slides over her belly or when an iguana licks her face. Sadistic? Maybe, but I say bring it on baby!

P.S.: I think Anita Hasnandani is the cutest of the lot though I don’t understand why she needs 2 names.

Friday, August 01, 2008

True Lies


We have heard and read so many tales (some true and some made-up) of professors having trouble with English grammar. The stories like "I have 2 daughters, both are girls" or "Ssshh! The principal has just passed away" when the principal was passing by the classroom, are a few of the famous ones. Today a guy from another team joined us for lunch and somehow the discussion went on to this English speaking ability. An anecdote shared by him…

During his engineering days a classmate of this guy wanted to go out so he faked illness and took permission from the professor to go home. Unfortunately for him the lady professor spotted him the very same evening roaming in the city. The next day the lady asked him to stand up in the class and said"Tell the whole class the truth that you were lying on me yesterday."

Like the class on that day, our canteen was roaring with laughter today.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Life is a dream

Streets we have never walked on
windows we have never opened
hands we have never held
dreams we shall never, never see again

lives we have never lived
hopes we have never realized
fires we have never lit
loves we shall never, never make again

sun in the earth, sunflower
bird in the air, rain
eye within eye, daybreak
i hear the strange whispers again

Baanwara mann dekhne chala ek sapna


A nice track from the movie Hazaaron Khwaahishen Aisi. It does take a lot courage, hard work and patience to achieve one’s dreams but I think it needs more courage just to dream. To dream what seems unachievable. Pushing yourself to the next level when you know you just can’t go any further. I am not sure who quoted this but a wonderful quote:

Dream is not what you see in sleep. It is the thing which does not let you sleep.

Baanwara or not keep on dreaming and keep faith that one day you will achieve them no matter what the entire universe advises you.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

She & Me - Part V

I am back after a wonderful leave of one week. A little bit of rest and did some work back at home to help parents selecting a few things for the house. I am leaving in a while for the movie Kismat Konnection but before I make a move, leaving you with an (un)interesting story of the rather (un)interesting couple on this blog.


Place is the living room of Me’s home and the people sitting there making the room ‘living’ are Me with parents and She with parents.

Me: *looks at She*
She: *looks at Me*
Me: (through telepathy) Why are we sitting here?
She: (through telepathy) I am wondering the same and I am tensed.
Me’s parents: (to Me) We like She and her family.
She’s parents: (to She) We like Me and his family.
Me & She: (in unison) So?
Parents: So we think that you should be together… like forever.
She: But I don’t like Me.
Me: I also don’t like She.
Parents: WHAT??
Me & She: Yeah coz we love each other MUAHAHAHAHA!!

I am not sure what is going on but do keep watching this space for more updates. Have a nice weekend everyone! :-)

Saturday, July 05, 2008

Just weight and watch!

Mom and Dad are coming back home today after one and half months of stay in Jabalpur. I bet the first thing my mom will be saying after seeing me will be Kitna dubla ho gaya hai!! (You have turned skinny). No matter how much fats or weight kids put on, mothers (in general) will always think that their kid is not having food probably :-). But seems that I really have put down weight ‘coz the pair of jeans which was perfect now looks like a low-waist jeans without a belt :D. I checked my weight at a recent blood donation and initially I was confused whether to feel happy or sad on losing 5 kgs. But then intelligence prevailed and I chose to be happy ;-). I fail to understand why losing weight is an achievement with the female species but when it comes to males we should be all bulging biceps and pumped up or have a beer belly. I never liked tole-shole and cannot imagine myself with a nice rotund belly. I might not have a perfect six pack set to flaunt on the Dard-e-disco song but I m happy with my flat stomach and lean (yet athletic I call it :p) frame. But someone is having an inferiority complex these days and constantly egging me to put on weight. I have now got quiet used to the Have you lost a lot of weight? question hurled at me and I patiently tell them that I am aiming for size zero after watching Tashan (I swear I did not see the movie, really) :D.

How to lose weight you ask? Well let me tell you a story before going on to answer. Yesterday evening I was heading home and while passing the hotel Radhika on F.C. Road I remembered Parag’s post that being in the U.S. he missed eating S.B.D.P. from this place. Somehow my bike read my mind (aliens, I tell you) and from the next signal she (the bike) took me to the hotel. So watching the rains I sat over steaming hot cups of espresso coffee, wonderful plate of S.B.D.P and an interesting conversation… I was not alone, she was also there (here she is not the bike, dumbo). I was feeling heavy on a heady conversation and the puri and dahi were as if acting like intoxicants. Reaching home I got engrossed in the book The Three Mistakes of My Life till a point where I noticed that around 20 pages were missing. Out came the newspaper in front of me as if it was waiting for this opportunity (again those damn aliens!). So I read Harsha Bhogle’s column and a few more articles and was skimming over pages when I realized I should have dinner since the SBDP was meant to be just a starter. Looking at the watch I was shocked to see the hour hand on 2 and minute hand on 12. That meant 2 a.m. IST. Sorry, I don’t know what that means in other time zones but here it means 2 a.m. I remember eating a packet of bakharwadis at around 3 a.m. while doing the submission work for the civil subject in the first year of engineering but apart from that I had never eaten something that late though I have been up many times way past midnight. The hunger pangs had really set in by now but blowing whistles (of the pressure cooker) at such an hour was not a good option as the neighbours still love our family. A drawer of the kitchen cabinet opened (not the aliens, I opened it) and two Maggi noodles packets were shining brightly in their yellow suits seducing me to rip their pretty suits apart and have a steamy hot dinner. Well I should confess that I find Maggi noodles as an aphrodisiac *ahem*. By 2:30 a.m. I was done with my dinner and feeling satiated with the events of the day I went to sleep thinking what to tell my mom the next day if she asked what I had for dinner. Hmmm I am still thinking. Oh sorry I totally forgot to answer your question. Well some other time ;-).

Have a nice weekend!

Monday, June 30, 2008

Life is a train

Eric Foreman says "Life is like a train. It's bearing down on you and guess what; its gonna hit you. So you can either start running when it is far off in a distance or you can pull up a chair, crack open a beer... and just watch it come."

I want to take a look in the future. Now, where did that stupid crystal ball roll away?

Thursday, June 26, 2008

26 letters make an alphabet

Letter writing is an art but the timing of the letter to be written and delivered is more important. One who masters this, is a real artist.

Friday, June 20, 2008

The art of doing nothing!

How many times have you thought or dreamt of doing nothing and laze around like Garfield? I do that every day but yet don’t succeed in it. This Sunday I managed to do nothing at all :-). Well one always does something while doing nothing. I got up at about 12:30 when a friend called up to ask if I would accompany for a movie which I later politely declined. I wanted to go to bed again just to break my earlier sleeping record but then somehow dragged myself to brush and make a cup of coffee (with banana wafers and moong ki daal). Yes, I believe in healthy breakfast :D. Then I settled down again with a book in my hand ‘The 3 Mistakes of my Life’ and switched on the TV. Just 8 pages into the book I preferred to catch up a movie as Cameron Diaz was a beautiful option in the movie The Mask than the person who had tried committing suicide in the book. Plus it was dubbed in Hindi (though I don’t like dubbed movies) which actually made it hilarious with voice imitations of all Bollywood actors for Jim Carrey’s role. After that there was another in English starring Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas in which the guys are (separately) hired to kill someone. I don’t know the movie name and watched only about 30-35 minutes of it (Google says it might be Assassins). Then I switched on the computer and dragged a couple of oldies in the player and sang merrily along with he he. I hope the neighbours don’t complain when my parents are back home. Later decided to skip lunch and got myself a good shower. It is a wonderful feeling to know for sure that no one will bother you reminding to come out of the shower in time. This is one of the few differences between Calvin and me. After that I settled down again to solve the crossword in The Sunday Express. Dad called up and asked me to meet the kitchen trolley maker and tell him to complete the work by this weekend. So had to get up and visit the person who promised to complete it by this weekend. I think it was a fake promise and he will take one more week. While returning I decided to have pizza for dinner. Going by the trend of the day I should have ordered it but then thought of baking my own cake pizza and having it as well. So did some shopping for all ingredients and went home. Later, I watched (complete) Bunty aur Babli movie on TV while cutting the veggies for the pizza topping. Till date I had watched only the 'washing machine swindling' and 'Taj Mahal marriage procession' scenes from this movie. The pizzas did turn out good. I wonder how I forgot to get a pack of ice-cream to top up the fantastically spent day :-). I did have a sound sleep after such a hectic day :D.

It is not that we get such a day now and then, so one needs to think wisely in order to spend them ;-). One of my friends had this status line on messenger:
There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is in having lots to do and not doing it.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Life is a dilemma

The mystery gets solved. The dilemma is dealt with. The choice is made. Neo is happy. And then comes another crossing and another fear. The Oracle says life is always full of dilemmas and crossings, it is just that we concentrate on one or two, which we feel are the important ones out of the whole lot.
I was never ever tensed in my life as today. Pray for me.

Tee-Tee time

Updates from the company Table Tennis matches:
Lost Doubles in first round 11-6, 11-8
Won Singles first round 5-11, 11-6, 11-6
Lost in second round against a state champion he he... 21-8, 21-8
*sigh*

This is the tee design on the front side by our group. The backside reads 'All for one, one for all'. The theme we selected from the options was One World, One Culture. I will upload more pics soon; and lots of other pics pending to be uploaded as well.

Have a great weekend folks :-)

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Amnesia

Nothing could be better on a rather dull day than to receive a mail from the cute HR girl declaring the company Table Tennis tournament this month and then me remembering the last post and the ensuing fracas on it and then having a nice laugh. O Navdy babes, where art thou? Memories and more memories! Don’t we live for such times? :-)
Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose - The Wonder Years
This year I have registered for the T-shirt painting competition as well. I wanted to take part in the singing one as well but these vocal cords in our entire family I tell you *sigh* :D

Yesterday it poured here heavily throughout the evening. Did I tell you I love rain and hate it as well? No? Ok then forget it. It is time for the colourful umbrellas and raincoats to put some colour on the city streets.

I completely forgot that this space completed 3 years of existence in January. Wishing It's MY Space a belated happy birthday. The first two anniversaries are here and here. The reason I remembered this was a post by a blogger completing 1 year in the blogsville. So thanks to that girl, who will probably never come here to read this. I have started loving her posts and I really look forward to them popping up on my reader. I also love the fact that she posts regularly. There was one time when I used to drop in here regularly. Did I mention memories?
Memory is what tells a man that his wife's birthday was yesterday - Mario Rocco
My blogger dashboard tells me that this is my 251st post.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Life is a circus


A tête-à-tête with a circus clown…

How is the circus life?
Tough! Less people are coming to watch the circus these days and survival is becoming a challenge every day.

Why did you become a clown?
I like to make people laugh. Seeing a smile on the faces of people is a wonderful thing.

But if your life is so tough how do you manage to be content by making people smile? And more importantly how do you manage to make them smile if your life is sad?
Hmm… interesting question. The people who come to watch a circus do not share the sorrows of their lives with me. But I am aware that they are here to forget all that and have a good time. A clown’s important task is to make them forget all the pain and keep them smiling from the moment they enter the circus tent till the moment they step out. You know sandalwood? When you rub a sandalwood piece it gives out a nice smell. We clowns remember this and even when our lives are not so happy we make sure to make our customers happy. At the end of the day, we neither know the suffering of people coming here nor we share any of our problems with them, so what really matters is the sharing of a few smiles which gives me a peaceful sleep at night. I think everyone should be like a clown in their lives – expect less and give more.


I walked out a bit wiser from that short conversation. A joker is important in a circus and a pack of cards as well. Are you a joker in your life?

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Maa(r) ki bhasha

Move over reality shows; IPL is here to bring the TRPs’ down for the tear-jerky soaps and song-and-dance shows. But IPL is itself turning out to be a huge reality show; agreed it is ‘real’ but it is becoming more of a show these days. Where is cricket you ask? Well cricket is definitely there but the media attention is more on the stuff that sells in public and cricket for sure takes a backseat in this. Harbhajan’s tight slap to Sreesanth, the we-are-the-moral-police brigade hitting it out at the teeny-weeny costumes of cheerleaders, racism accusations within the cheer-girls squads, public spat between the team owners and team captains, ICC code-abuse with owners in players’ dressing rooms etc. IPL has been there, done that and seen all.

After watching a weeping Sreesanth on TV I really thought that he was crying ‘coz his team owner Preity Zinta had hugged Yuvraj and not him ha ha. But later the news trickled in through the news channels that Bhajji had hit him just after the match. How could Harbhajan Singh walk away with just… JUST… a 5 international matches ban? Yeah I agree he lost 3 crores for not playing in the remaining 11 matches for IPL but that was not enough for a person whom we all (probably all) supported during his racial-abuse allegation in Australia. After this incident I doubt whether I was right in showing my support to this guy who after the whole fracas stays calm and says to the media “It is a family matter please don’t interfere”. BCCI with all its money power had (definitely had) turned the Aussie incident in Bhajji’s favour and had set a very wrong precedent in doing so. After all the ‘we-are-still-brothers’ hugs and photo-ops I feel that 5 match ban was a very shoddy display by the BCCI… shoddier than the Bangalore and Hyderabad defeats. Harsha Bhogle had written a nice article in his Indian Express column, on this issue (will put up a link if I get it).

Initially when the IPL started off with a spectacular opening ceremony I checked the teams and was uninterested ‘coz it was hard to fight over national pride and root for a regional team especially when your favourite players are playing in different teams. But 2 days into IPL I was (and still am) rooting for Mumbai Indians. The basic concept of IPL (apart from the players and organizers drawing in huge moolah) is people rooting for their regional teams and not donning national colours for support. Such concept is more likeable by people akin to Raj Thakarey. Seems Yuvraj (captain of Mohali team) has not understood this when he complained that the Mumbai people were not supporting his team even when the team had our national team players. Aawww… I feel so sorry for this poor a$$hole. Especially when his team has advanced to semi-finals stage with the help of international players like Sangakarra, Pomersbach, Shaun Marsh etc. and he has not played well in any match so far. I feel happy that I never supported Mohali team (and I don’t like Preity Zinta as well); and even though Mumbai Indians didn’t reach the semi-finals stage I am glad I was rooting for a team which had players like Tendulkar, Jayasurya and Pollock who defied the T20-is-for-young-players tag and played well with all matches reaching a nail-biting finish. I should have supported Royal Challengers too for Katrina Kaif (latest Desktop Goddess) ;-), but then team owner Vijay Mallya, the beer baron, probably had all his players drunk before the matches and the team was defeated tamely on many occasions. Or else he did not get the Kingfisher models, we see on his calendar, out in the stadium to woo the other team players and distract them :D. One thing I don’t like about most of the teams is their dress colour… Jaipur team’s colours are the best I feel… easy on eyes.

IHL (Indian Hockey League) was a great attempt to revive the dying support for hockey and find budding players. IPL has outclassed IHL for mainly 2 reasons, loads of money involved and cricket being a more favourite sport than hockey. The national game might have gone for a toss but IPL is here to stay baby and it definitely is in. In case you might want to check the different sites of the teams...

Monday, May 12, 2008

Life is a fairytale

Saturday, 10th May 2008 will go down in the annals of history as freedom day. Probably!

Sir Teabing was responding to Sophie's query:
Meaning that history is always written by the winners. When two cultures clash, the loser is obliterated, and the winner writes the history books - books which glorify their own cause and disparage the conquered foe. As Napoleon once said, "What is history, but a fable agreed upon?"
It remains to be seen who will be the winner and loser; or will history just repeat itself?

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Desktop Goddess # 12

Kabhi kabhi mere dil mein khayal aata hai
ki zindagi teri zulfo ki narm chhao mein
guzarne pati to shaadab ho bhi sakti thi
Yeh ranj-o-gham ki siyaahi jo dil pe chhayi hai
teri nazar ki shuaao mein kho bhi sakti thi
Magar yeh ho na saka
Magar yeh ho na saka aur ab yeh aalam hain
ki tu nahi, tera ghum teri justaju bhi nahi
Guzar rahi hai kuchh is tarah zindagi jaise
isse kisi ke sahaare ki aarzoo bhi nahi
Na koi raah, na manzil, na roshni ka suraag
bhatak rahi hai andheron mein zindagi meri
inhi andheron mein reh jaaunga kabhi kho kar
main jaanta hu meri hum-nafas, magar yun hi
kabhi kabhi mere dil mein khayaal aata hai


I was watching TV day before yesterday when Katrina Kaif's Slice (mango juice) ad was shown during a break. The ad campaign is aptly titled as Aamsutra; on lines of Kaamasutra for the uninitiated (though I doubt if there is someone in that category). The way she slithers on a couch uncorking the bottle and drinking that lucky mango juice it sure is an eye-candy ad for guys and definitely reminds one of KS teachings *ahem*. I am not sure if the lines above go well with the ad or post but Katrina likes her pics with her hair untied (5th grader GK stuff :p) and if not for Salman who would not love to be in her zulfo ki chhao :). Thanks to Rajbir for the lyrics.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

She & Me - Part IV

In the midst of a hot summer month, a sudden change in weather with white and dark clouds hovering in the sky and making the atmosphere pleasant. Me and She sitting at their favourite spot and thinking about the weather…
Me: *looking at the sky*
She: *also looking at the sky*
Me: Do you know what is perfect on such a wonderful day?
She: Yes, a long romantic drive and a tight hug
Me: Well I was thinking about a big playground and a football match
She: *looks at Me*
Me: *looks at She* Do you think we will think alike anytime?
She: Who wants to think on similar lines? Forgot that opposite poles attract? *smiles*
Me: *gives a tight hug*
She: My long drive?
Me: I didn’t get my football match so you ain’t getting the drive
She: Devil!
Me: *adjusts the fake horns with a wicked smile*


I was listening to a song and a line from it goes like this
Life is a gamble boy
so you better know to play your cards right
and if you gonna take a chance
then you better know to stand up and fight

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Cast(e)away

How good is good enough I ask myself. Seriously I am tired of this ‘good boy’ image now… yeah I can see you raising your eyebrows… but I have this invisible crown on my head which reads Family Idol. You may not notice the crown… I already said it is invisible… but you may notice the efforts put in to carry it properly all the time. Like King Henry IV said Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. I don’t want my cousins to look up to me as a great person whom they want to ape. I don’t like telling my cousin to attend his college regularly because I never did but still everyone in the family tells him to attend the college like good old Sudeep bhaiya did. I don’t want my cousin brother at home to like my clothes and ask me which coloured tee or shirt he should buy ‘coz my clothes are selected by my friends so I don’t have a good taste. I also don’t like anyone wearing my clothes. Anyways ranting here won’t help the case but I want to do something bad, real bad. At least then everyone will not expect only good stuff from my side and paint their own faces white in horror saying OMG! IS that you Sudeep? We never expected this from you. I see myself doing something of this sort in the next few months and might be this will lead me to being an outcast in the family or maybe the whole society as someone warned me. But heck I am going to do it and have fun. I don’t care if I have a few major dents on my goody-goody image. I suddenly remembered how Spiderman changed his red attire into a black one in the third part of the movie… ha ha. Seems the music list in the media player also knows what is going on in my mind. The song playing is
Seene mein jalan aankhon mein toofan sa kyu hai
Is shahar mein har shaks pareshan sa kyu hai
Seems everyone out there has a crown eh?


Finally I went to see a doc today for my sore throat ‘coz it had got worse over the past 2 days. Keeping mum was the only option to avoid the coughing. Took the medicine in the morning and it worked coz I am back to speaking in spurts. Want to thank Ekta for her post, though I read it a few days late. Also to Sakshi for her Durex condom testers' post ‘coz we guys had a good laugh here. Now that blogspot is blocked seems I will be putting in comments for other posts here itself. Hmm… on that thought I will take your leave. Have a good weekend… err or maybe bad weekend :D. I will be back to tell you about the bad part success or failure and maybe the encounter with a seems-to-be-a-pimp and foreigners on a recent trip to Mumbai.

Friday, March 21, 2008

The game I never played...

We are having our company's annual cricket matches (inter-department). For the last 3 years I was a team member of the spectator gang cheering our players and jeering at the opponents. This year one of my project team members added my name in the playing eleven and last Sunday I found myself on the cricket ground on the other side of the rope. I love watching cricket but I have never been able to play it; all I can do is field well. Our team bowled and fielded well to restrict the opponents for 85 runs but our lead batsmen returned to the spectator stand as quickly as they went in to bat. God knows what struck me when I stood up and took up a bat lying nearby and walked in to bat even when some 'I-bat-well' players in our team refused to go in. Well I did not turn out to be Bhuvan from Lagaan but scored 20 runs (highest by an individual in that match :D) which included 4 hits to the fence. We lost the match by 8 runs but all of us were smiling 'coz we had tried our level best. At the end of the day I was happy to show my 2 bruised knees back at home. I had been waiting for this moment for the last 3-4 years... glad to find my normal self back :)

Happy weekend and Happy Holi to all. Enjoy the festival of colours and may your life be filled with loads of myriad colours.

Thursday, March 06, 2008

The cat is out of the bag...

Remember that curiousity kills the cat. But still Dachshunds are cute.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Attempted Live Blogging...

A/B styled update…
I am sitting at my company desk and frankly speaking I can go home now and check the installation scenario tomorrow morning. I can also stop scribbling this random post and put it off for some other day. But I am not in a mood to leave the office today. Might be by the time I reach the middle of this post I might just lock the computer and leave. Let’s see...

Race saanson ki song from the movie Race is playing at a blaring level in my ears in a loop. I loved this song. I generally play songs at medium volume but today is an exception. Yeah sue me! I saw National Treasure 2 and Turista movies last month. The recent kidney scam in North India reminded me of Turista.

I am removing the bulleted format, Sean. I don’t like bullets; paragraph is fine for me. But still your bulleted post looks much better.

Mom reached home now and called up to ask if I was coming home for dinner. There was a dinner party somewhere today and I skipped going there. Luckily I saw the cell display blinking otherwise I would have missed the call. Accidentally I dropped my cell on the floor a month back. The vibrator stopped functioning. Cell vibrator… you and your perverted mind. I always keep my cell on silent mode so since a month I have not been noticing incoming calls. The list of missed calls is increasing each day and people have started thinking I am avoiding them. I am too busy and bored these days to call them back. I hope I don’t have to explain the reason of my absence, to each of them.

I was talking to a friend a few days back about some incident and we both noted that a lot of time has passed since then. Time is flying a bit too fast these days it seems. I am totally confused. There seems to be no decision left to be made on instinct or time to do something out of the mundane routine.

The installation failed… yay!

My Google Reader unread posts count has reached to 560. I wanted to post a few things on Google Reader earlier. Another pending action item eh? I am also planning to start a WTF series. No, seriously WTF! But it won’t be related to the F word. I have 3 parts ready in my mind.

The developers are uploading their builds and they have thrown the bandwidth into a haywire. Blogger is throwing up an error. I will have to publish this post tomorrow. Also I don’t have a C&H strip ready for this. Some kind of live blogging this was. Ciao!

Back again today! Wow… what a bleh mood that was. I was really in a very good mood yesterday morning and something happened down the evening time. Sheesh what a depressing post this turned out to be when I read it today. Anyways I am posting this un-edited. Today I am back to my cheerful self because I am aware that tomorrow I am going to a cousin’s marriage and I will be one hell of an irritated chap by the evening. Happy weekend to all of you!

P.S.: Race song trailer link
P.P.S.: I remembered one of the good text messages I have received on 'marriage'. Old people used to annoy me at weddings, pinching my cheeks and telling me that I am the next. They stopped doing it when I did the same to them at funerals. Old people beware tomorrow… Muhahahaha!! Damn tomorrow is a wedding not funeral.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Maslow shopped at Piramyds...


Since a few months when I have a problem and I am trying to find an answer to it, I find myself seated on the bench of Piramyd shopping mall on SB Road. I find myself looking at the huge building of the mall and the even taller buildings of some IT companies surrounding the mall. Awed by the immense concrete structures and the cool breeze blowing steadily with that whoosshhh sound I find myself dwarfed by them and the problem seems like a speck of dust on the huge glass panes of the buildings. Might be the winds are trying to blow away those specks of dust and then the next gust of wind brings dust back onto them from some other place. I find myself looking towards the starlit sky and the crescent moon wondering about the life in those places. I find myself staring at the huge cut-out of a Maria Sharapova look-alike model with 2 buttons of her shirt open and playing peek-a-bra with everyone in sight. I find myself wishing that she would come out of that larger than life poster and take my hand into hers’ and assure me that everything will be alright. Out of the blue I find a hand clasping mine and a look of assurance which says I am not alone. The winds seem to stop dead in their tracks and the buildings fade into oblivion. I find myself staring into deep eyes of a lovely face. And then I find myself.

It seems I have disliked the shopping malls for quite a long time now; if not the interior, these days the exterior has developed a liking for me and vice-versa. Wishing all my friends and near-n-dear ones a Happy Valentine’s Day!

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Hindi Chini, bye bye

Today morning I was going through Navdy’s post and remembered I had not seen Russell Peters perform since quite a long time now. So I went to YouTube and was watching clips of his show where he was mimicking a Chinese shopkeeper. I had to pause it in the middle as we all were called to the cafeteria for a send-off of a colleague. Currently, we are hosting 2 employees from our company branch in China and since they had worked earlier with this girl, they were also invited for the send-off (not everyone is asked to attend if that’s what you are wondering). I was sitting with my desk partner at a table when these Chinese friends enter and immediately my mind went to the Russell’s Chinese shopkeeper saying “Hey! Be a man” and I was trying hard not to laugh (on Russell’s accent, no offence meant to anyone here). Then I see the Chinese girl looking at us and telling her male friend something and they both come walking towards our table. I whispered to my friend that in case they sit here at least we should wish them a happy new year (thanks to Elaine for reminding through her post). Those guys came at our table and the guy says, “You both are Europeans?” Hearing this I just couldn’t control my laughter and almost brought the roof down. I am not sure what they both must be thinking about me but I just couldn’t stop myself that time. Last year one of my colleagues had shown me a mail from his friend. He had sent some of our group photos to his friend and she had written back to him “Great to see that you work with an American there”. I was staring at the reply with a puzzled look and the friend said “Yeah, you look like one”. Now I am confused… :D

Have a nice weekend everybody and here is a link of the video :-)