She & Me – Part VII

‘Me’ visited a local branch of the marriage registration office for filing a request for a marriage certificate. He had filled up the form correctly and had checked and re-checked the list of attested documents to be attached just to make sure that all papers were in order.

Me was waiting at the office for ‘She’, the lady who checks and accepts the marriage registration form.

She (after arriving 1 hour late): Yes?

Me: I wanted to apply for a marriage certificate

She: Have you already married and want to apply for a certificate or you want to marry here and then get it registered?

Me: I have married a few months back and I have brought this form and the necessary documents

She: Do you live in this area?

Me: Yes

She: Ok, show me the form

She: (mumbling and ticking) Age… Proof… Address… Proof… Photographs

She: What is this? (pointing to the city of the marriage venue)

Me: Gurgaon

She: Is this outside our Pune city?

Me: (trying to suppress a smile) Yes, it is in Haryana

She: Outside Pune city but within Maharashtra state, right?

Me: (suppressing my laughter) Err… no it is in the state of Haryana

She: Oh ok! Gurgaon… hmmm… this is in Punjab state, right?

Me: (suppressing wtf! expression) No it is in Haryana state

She: Ok then you will have to file the request in that city itself or the District Collector office of our city

Me: Well ok… I will take this form to the DC office then

She: No this form is for marriages held within our city. You will have a separate form to fill up at the DC office.

Me: But nothing has been mentioned on this form about venue of marriage!!

She: (smiling)

Me: I understand that the 100 bucks I paid for this form have gone waste

She: (still smiling)

‘Me’ later went to the DC office and found that the ‘marriages-outside-city’ form was fortunately free; though that form also didn’t have a mention about venue of marriage clause. A few trips to the DC office for lack of address proof (I guess officer’s hints of a bribe) and Me’s form was finally submitted (without shelling a single rupee in form of bribe). A month later three witnesses will have to sign a declaration at the DC office and then ‘Me’ will get his marriage registered and a marriage certificate. Now ‘Me’ can ‘legally’ touch his wife eh?

Life is an old lady’s tears

One of the families in our neighbourhood in the earlier place comprised of an old lady and her son, who was afflicted with polio. The lady got a meagre pension from her deceased husband’s last job and the son had a bank job in which he was doing well when they left that place, to move into a bigger house, around 8-9 years back. I remember the son as a cheerful guy who used to play cricket with me, even when it was quite difficult for him to run around. During holidays I used to spend maximum time at their place. Somehow I did not get to meet him after they left to the new house. He got married, but I was not able to attend it. The lady being close to my mother always paid a visit to our house whenever she was in the neighbourhood. Around 3-4 years back I spotted him at the bank when I was running an errand. I went to his desk and noticed that he looked rather dull. He smiled back when he saw me but I felt that the cheerful guy which I knew was missing. My mom said that they were having some family problems and the lady and her daughter-in-law were not on talking terms. I am not interested in family gossip so I ignored the later part of the narration. After a few months I saw the old lady in tears while talking to my mother. I came to know that the things between the two ladies in that house had reached to such an extent that the son had asked his own mother to live in a separate house. We always hear or read stories of children neglecting their aged parents but seeing someone closely I felt very sad that day. Last week the lady had come to our house to see our Ganesh idol and also had brought a few ukdiche modak as prasad. She was looking very frail and I had to hold her by her hand while dropping her off from our house. Later back home mom told me that the son had stopped going to the bank and since he was absent for a very long time he was sacked from his job. He was facing a serious inferiority complex and had stopped using his crutches. Dragging himself on the floor he had refused to get up. So the lady was putting aside a major part of the pension as savings and was helping to fund the education of her grandchildren. She was skipping meals to save costs and on a few days she lived on 1-2 bananas only. Even then she was refusing any kind of help from others.

A few years back the son and wife had driven the old mother out of her own home. They had refused to provide monetary help to her and had left her to live off on her own. They had ordered her not to meet her grandchildren. Now the same mother is fighting a lone battle to feed the family of four and providing a decent education to the kids. What is her fault in this situation? Is life treating her badly? Rather than life it is the people who treat each other badly. How can a child, who has been brought up by his/her parents, neglect them when the parents need him/her the most? Isn’t it a child’s basic responsibility to support the parents? I mean the answers are so simple yet we fail to think clearly. That day I vowed that the least I can do for my parents is to respect them and be there when they need me. I hope you also realize it in time. Last heard my mother was trying to help the lady’s son regain his confidence and had given him some confidence-booster books by Swami Sukhbodhananda. I am not sure how much that will help but I sincerely hope the family re-unites and leads a happy and healthy life.

P.S.: Uploaded a few images of our Ganesh idol and the puja.

In dependence?

Independence Day wishes to all my Indian friends.

Tomorrow the celebrations all over will be low key due to the swine flu outbreak (and mainly the panic). Independence Day always makes me think of patriotic songs. My mother loves almost every patriotic song I know of, and she even cries while listening to them. As for me, I never felt a sense of pride or a feeling of Indian-ness just by listening to the songs, except for two. One is the national anthem, when played after a victory (not in a theatre before a movie). The sportsperson standing on a podium, sporting the national colours, draped in the national flag. Awesome! It must be such a great feeling and a proud moment to stand on that podium and listen to the national anthem in the midst of people from all nationalities. The second song is actually a poem by the revolutionary Ram Prasad Bismil. It was adapted as a song in the movie Rang De Basanti. Maybe the movie sequence/situation is the reason the song is so inspiring, but I absolutely love the lyrics. I am sharing a part of the actual poem here.

Hai liye hathiyaar dushman taak mein baitha udhar,

Aur hum taiyyaar hain seena liye apna idhar

Khoon se khelenge holi gar vatan muskhil mein hai,

Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil mein hai

Haath jin mein ho junoon katt te nahi talvaar se,

Sar jo uth jaate hain woh jhukte nahi lalkaar se

Aur bhadkega jo shola-sa hamare dil mein hai,

Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil mein hai

Hum toh ghar se nikle hi the baandhkar sar pe kafan,

Jaan hatheli par liye lo badh chale hain ye kadam

Zindagi to apni mehmaan maut ki mehfil mein hai,

Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil mein hai

Dil mein tufaanon ki toli aur nason mein inquilaab,

Hosh dushman ke udaa denge humein roko na aaj

Duur reh paaye jo humse dam kahaan manzil mein hai,

Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai

Dekhna hai zor kitna baazuay qaatil mein hai

I have not checked the news yet so I hope the ID celebrations in Pakistan went off well today. Hoping no untoward incident occurs tomorrow. Let peace prevail. Happy weekend everyone.

Life is a circle

Our company has seen a trend for the last 6-7 years that people spend 2-3 years here and then they join our client company. They become client contacts on one of the many projects we handle here. 2 years back I had a team-mate in this company with whom I shared a good friendship. We both were on the same level as in title/position and pay package, but never did any thought of personal competition ever cross my mind. It might be due to the fact that I knew I was working hard enough to prove myself better than the rest of the lot. One fine day this friend of mine told me that he has resigned from our company and is joining the client company. Frankly speaking, this was a pleasant surprise to me, pleasant because I was happy for him and surprised because I wasn’t aware that there was a vacancy at the client side and many people from our company had actually applied there.

Later when he went abroad, another common friend of ours told me that since most of the client contacts were pretty much impressed with my work, the friend had kept me in dark about the vacancy. For a moment I felt bad that I had not been pro-active to look up some sites but never blamed anyone else since they were looking for a job switch and they did what they thought was right for them. I mailed this friend asking him how he was putting up in the new country and asked him to pass over his new mobile number. He replied back that he was a client now and I was a contractor/vendor so he wanted to maintain a distance. I actually felt bad reading that reply. I was looking for my moment of vengeance since that day and a few days back I got the message that this guy was terminated on grounds of poor performance. Now he is jobless and with added responsibility of a newly married life. Sweet revenge? Actually it should have been but I felt sad for him. Maybe I should thank him for not letting me know the vacancy otherwise I would have applied, got selected (another client contact who is a senior told me last month that they were expecting my resume for that post and had finalized before the interviews to pick me up) and maybe got kicked out due to the recession period. I should be happy that I stayed back, did good job on the work front, convinced two sets of parents that I was a good boy for the girl I wanted to marry, got married with her, and I am spending a good time with my set of wonderful friends. Yes, I did miss out on a better pay package. I did miss out going abroad. But I am sure my turn will come one day. After all, life goes full circle.

Ek kunwara phir gaya maara

Last month end we friends attended a wedding reception of an engineering classmate. He lives in UK currently. Many of the guys in our group are scattered due to job related postings so I had written a mail to the group just to cheer up people who had missed attending the event. Posting it here to keep this mail stored on a shared site so that anyone of us can visit it in future even if jobs and mail ids’ keep on changing.

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From: Sudeep

To: “Ajit”, “Anky”, “Darya”, “Dukkya”, “Bhopya”, “Amdya”, “JP”, “Shirish”, “Suraj”, “Babaji”

Date: Tue, Jun 2, 2009

Hey guys or should I say Hey COETians :p

Wassup? Most of you missed attending JP's wedding reception on the 31st so thought to write down a detailed mail of the entire event so that you can relive the moment, virtually. After much discussion among the group of 11, finally only 4 could make it to the venue and the 5th one being JP himself. I am sure that by the end of this mail you would be either happy not attending with us or repenting for the same reason :D.

As decided over mails we were to meet at Amdya's place at 6:45. Much to our surprise Amdya was the first one to reach his home and a greater surprise that he was watching Da Vinci Code on his computer. I am sure that the movie must be an adult version of the original because I can't imagine Amdya all alone at home and watching Robert Langdon and Sophie, running across the Grand Louvre, completely dressed. Shirish, as usual, was late by around half an hour. Ok fine.. mostly I am the one who is late but this time I was the first one (leaving Amdya aside) to reach. Later someone had initiated the topic that I have become punctual after marriage, but someone else (yes, yours truly) successfully changed the topic. Now that it was clear, after a few calls, that only Amdya, myself, Ajit and Shirish would be going to the reception we quickly discussed about the wedding gift for JP. Amdya was the first one to suggest - his personal hard drive with his complete pr0n collection (spelling altered so that office id's don’t block the mail). 'His complete' in the sense, which he has collected diligently over the past few years. We had a good laugh over this suggestion and then Shirish suggested that we (mainly Amdya) gift JP a pillow. For those who are wondering whether a pillow signifies something nasty or $exually explicit, please hold on to your vivid imaginations. Pillow was suggested after the (in)famous 'Pillowgate scandal' at JP's room after Amdya's highly intoxicated state and later JP being (almost) pushed to tears saying "Arre! Amdya ne mere pillow ki waat laga di" in his inimitable style. Ajit was of the opinion that we would be embarrassing JP by gifting him in front of other people since it was specifically mentioned in the invitation card not to bring bouquets/gifts. But the others were already wondering how embarrassed he might be seeing us among all the erudite people there, so that thought was scratched out immediately. Thanks Shirish for mentioning about my initiative for the gift in another mail thread but actually it was Bhopya who had instructed me on phone to get a gift since JP would be leaving abroad and we were not sure how soon he would be meeting us again. Amdya blurted out Planet M in between and we 4 headed towards the music store to see if we could get something for the music lover JP. As Amdya and I were skimming through movie titles under the Romantic genre, Shirish insisted that we get some C-grade Bollywood movies. He also pro-actively fished out a list from his pocket which featured movies like Chetana, Radha Ki Jawani, Shaadi Basanti Ki Honeymoon Gabbar Ka etc. Sensibility prevailed and we bought Notting Hill, If Only, Music & Lyrics, 'i-can't-remember-the-name' and The Pursuit of Happyness**.

Then we headed for the venue with Ajit driving the car, Amdya sitting beside him and Shirish and myself in the backseat. Talks went on from Darya's accident (a new version was created of the incident since Ajit was not aware, sorry Babaji you were not the originator of this version like the other 3 versions :p) to Andaz Apna Apna. Most of the funny lines were re-delivered from the movie. Aila Juhi Chawla to Yeh Teja Teja kya hai, yeh Teja Teja. It was decided that we should all gather at someone's place and watch the historic movie together. Maybe after the T20 WC final. During the dialog deliveries we lost the diversion near the venue and had to go a few kilometers extra for taking the next turn towards the venue. While heading for the next turn we spotted Sadanand Residency, a huge building glowing with lights. A voice in the car said "Is the venue Sadanand Resorts or Sadanand Residency?". He he he.. so we decided to check out both the places and halted near the Residency building first. The car parking gave an impression that very few people would be inside the building so it was decided that 2 of us would go in and ask for JP :D. No one voluntarily came forward, so we went to Sadanand Resorts, which fortunately was the correct location.

When we entered the reception hall on the 2nd floor a single known voice ARRREEE!!! boomed through the crowd in front of us. Guess what guys, it was Mehta. Not the Electronics professor, but Pratik Mehta. It was quite (initially pleasant) surprising to see him there as no one from us knew that he was back in India. This guy has moved from Sweden to Switzerland to Germany to USA and currently he is in Austria. Yeah we also initially thought that his 'exploits', which we had heard during the year after our graduation, were the reasons for the countries to expel him but he has been around the world for various reasons like internship, studies and jobs (the regular ones). This guy will give a very tough fight to our original loudspeaker K.D. We guys were seated in the hall and Mehta, looking towards the stage, asked (should be read as shouted at) JP, who was posing for the camera, "Oye JP, change your position. Kya raat ko hi positions badlega kya?". The initial thought of JP being embarrassed by us was instantly washed away :-). With Mehta as company, naturally the topics of discussion were how-Mehta-accurately-told-us-about-adult-movie-timings-during-engg and how we all had troubled all professors of our college. The conversations as usual involved professors JSK, Nagoshe, Chinni, Chirmule etc. We also recollected how JSK had cried during one lecture and how Ranga had confessed of throwing the chalk towards Modak (which actually had not hit him) :D.

The ambience of the entire venue was very nice. A good thing was that the crowd was limited so the bride and groom could talk to every person on the stage at a comfortable length of time. We were not aware that JP had invited A R Rehman to play in the background. Rehman was performing exactly in front of the venue and when we were having food on the terrace we could see the Balewadi stadium lit up brightly and dazzling fireworks along with Rehman's music. The food was wonderful, esp. the non-vegetarians found it finger-licking good :-). JP and Nilshia were looking beautiful in the traditional wear and were smiling throughout the entire ceremony. We all wish the couple to smile like this forever and have a nice married life.

We clicked a few weird (actually these should be called natural) photographs which I am mailing in a few minutes. While driving back to Pune, Amdya was either sleepy or scared in the front seat coz he mentioned a couple of times to Ajit "Kasla raanti chalavtoy gaadi". In the backseat Shirish and I were stuck on Paresh Rawal's line from Daud, "Imandar baap ka jaandaar beta, roz use karta hai Colgate".

Darya, Sudeep, Dukkya and JP are the names which have been scratched out from the Eligible Bachelors' List. Who will be the next one? By the way, if you are not aware one of our good friends outside our group, Tathya/Narya is getting engaged to a Mumbai girl. Going by the fact that I have troubled him a lot I am sure that he won't invite me to the wedding. Nor do I see Shirish and Babaji getting an invite. So who ever will be attending it please do mention what happened to Elsa ;-).

** My company had screened The Pursuit of Happyness for us. Before the screening, one of my colleagues came into my cubicle and asked us, "You guys are not coming to watch the prostitue of happiness?". Had I written the spelling of coming as cumming (like many spell it in text messages), it would have led to an entirely different connotation for the question, right?

P.S.: In case you are wondering how I have managed to write so much, well I possess a skill known as multi-tasking. I assign all tasks (including mine) to multiple junior resources. Multi-tasking is in ;-).

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Have a great weekend everyone!

I scream

Last November I fought with myself and persuaded to give up ice-cream for a pre-decided time period. The reason was partly for a noble cause and partly to see how much control I have on myself. 7 months since that day I have somehow managed to stay away and trust me it has not been easy. For someone who had ice cream at least on a weekly basis, it is till date going tough to conjure up new excuses for not eating and then to watch others gorging on the delightful flavours. No one in the family or friends circle knows that I have stopped eating ice cream and all are under the impression that I have a very sore throat for the past few months. But finally the craving won the war against determination and I gave in. ‘Gave in’ in the sense I took an ice-cream quiz and found out that I am a chocolate chip ice cream. Now whatever that might mean but my favourite flavour is indeed the chocolate one. So yay for that!! Which is your favourite flavour?

You Are Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

You are kind, popular, and generous. You tend to be successful at anything you try. A social butterfly, you are great at entertaining a crowd. You are most compatible with strawberry ice cream.

What Flavor Ice Cream Are You?

Butt obvious

One of my very good friends was smoking a lot of cigarettes a few years back and I tried and tried to get him quit smoking but failed. Failed in the sense, I could get him down to 12-13 a day from his count of 20. I considered this as an achievement till a girl walked into his life and when she asked him to cut down on the smoke he came down up to 2-3 a day. Now after a quite nasty break up he is back to around 15 a day. Talk about girl power!

Desktop Goddess # 15

Every moment spent with you

Something different, always something new

I watch you sleeping, I hear you sigh

Oh I even love the way you cry

Now every kiss is a season

And every touch keeps me believing

Girl you make it feel, like the first time

Like there's never been another

Girl you make it real, like the first time

Every time you lay down by my side

It's the first time

“We love you Shilpa” shouted the poster in the stadium and the person holding it danced frantically for the camera, probably to catch Shilpa’s eye to it. The whereabouts of the poster are not known but the Rajasthan Royals team must be headed out of South Africa after losing out of the semi-final race. The last year’s champions were not up to the mark this year even after a few wonderful last moment victories in the past two weeks. Maybe they (and Yashita) were missing all rounder Shane Watson. But I am not here to analyze RR’s performance; instead we will talk about their team owner Shilpa Shetty. Do you remember any super-hit movie starring this beautiful lady? Ok, I get your answer as you laugh and fall off from your seated position. My very first memory of watching Shilpa Shetty is in a song from her debut movie Baazigar, which was way back in 1993 and I was just 11 years old then. In a dance sequence of the song, she asks the hero to zip her shorts and SRK bends towards her and obliges by pulling the zip up. In those days we friends used to stare at the television screens with open mouths (more in an astonished way than lecherous) wondering if boys were socially and legally allowed to do such an act in public. 15 years after that incident we were enlightened that zipping up is not an illegal act but getting unbuttoned on a fashion ramp surely is and can land one in jail.

Acting skills or no acting skills, I confess that she is one hot babe. If I am asked to name a few hot and perfectly toned bodies in the film industry then definitely her name will be the first one in the list. Who can forget her Big Brother racism episode with Jade Goody? From that point of time, her life has catapulted to a dizzying height which Bollywood would not have given her. Then she came out with the yoga DVDs’ and later the Rajasthan Royals team stake. This goddess has been scaling new heights with each smart move. Shilpa might reach newer heights but her fondest memory for me would be the first time I saw her on screen in that Baazigar song.

Tarun, I am not sure if you like Shilpa Shetty but this one is dedicated to you. You had asked earlier if the DG series will stop post-marriage; I guess the answer lies in this post. Some things never change :-). Have a good weekend everyone!

Inspiration!

So after all the sessions and advertisements for voting, only 46 percent people voted from Pune. Mumbai also paints a similar voter turn-out picture. Seems people liked the ‘Jaago Re’ (wake up) campaign but decided to sleep over the polls. Initially I went to the wrong polling booth after reading half part of the address and mumbling “Ah! I know it”. Later I walked to the correct one as the parking lot was full and it would have been stupid to vacate my space and later finding no space at the new location. If there were so many vehicles, how come only 46% turn-out?? I noticed that last time there were far many (seemingly) educated people out there standing in queues to cast their votes. This time it was more of the lower class out there. Or at least that is what I felt. The most bizarre thing was when I showed my index finger to the lady who was applying ink, she demanded the middle one. Middle one? I wondered about the advertisement which urged youngsters to be proud to show the inked index finger rather than showing the middle one to the administration. I met a colleague on the way out and she said that photographs were being taken at her booth with the middle finger up showing the ink. Ha ha ha! A few days back the Mumbai election photographs showed many celebrities showing off their middle fingers. And some were laughing too. Anyways, 16^th May will decide the winners and I hope that competent contestants do win.

A good leader inspires people to have confidence in the leader; a great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves.

Are you interested in cricket? Yes. Are you watching IPL? Yes. In case you have the answers as no then you are missing it big time. The point table is getting topsy-turvy with every match. It is really getting very difficult to predict the winner. I am rooting for Mumbai Indians like last time and sadly my team is sitting at 7^th spot out of the 8 teams. Sad indeed. Sigh! I am hoping against hope that they bounce back to form and win all the remaining matches to enter the semi finals stage. Sample these conversations in our company:

Guy1: It amazes me that Yusuf Pathan is a match winner in the IPL matches but when he plays for India he hardly scores.

Guy2: Well there is a very important reason behind it. The reason is ‘inspiration’.

Guy1: Hmm.. Shane Warne is a good captain.

Guy2: Nah! Shilpa Shetty is sexy. She makes everyone do her yoga thingie watching the DVD and the match winner gets to do a personal yoga session after the match. Carrots and stick approach, simple.

Guy1: Ha ha! Then why did the team lose the initial matches?

Guy2: Shilpa took her sister along with to South Africa and the guys got scared. But the baboons were not.

Guy1: Have you seen how sloppy is KKR’s fielding?

Guy2: Yeah, lack of inspiration.

Guy1: Hmm.. The captain himself has butterfingers.

Guy2: Nah! The team owner. Look at other teams like Punjab and Rajasthan. They get nice hugs after the matches. Remember how a guy had cried out on the field last year just because he did not get a hug. Incentives matter a lot. Are we working now? No. Why? Lack of incentives. Lack of inspiration. Simple.

Any sort of resemblance of guy2 with the blog owner is a mere co-incidence. Today’s match is between Mumbai Indians (my team) and Delhi Daredevils (wifey’s team). Looking at the current form of players of both teams, her team is going to thrash my team it seems. If her team wins I will have to cook the dinner and if my team wins then I will have to sleep on the couch. A contra-win-win situation eh? Quite an inspirational thought to leave for home.

She & Me – Part VI

This one was lying half-written since many days. The incident took place back about… mmmm 5 months back.

‘She’ is an ex-colleague of ‘Me’.

She (somewhere in her office): Hello!

Me (at his desk): Hey! Long time eh?

She: Yeah, loads of work in the new company :-(. Congrats on your engagement.

Me: Thanks :-)

She: Though it is hard to believe that YOU are getting married and that too with her

Me: He he he... nice guys get nice girls :-P

She: Nice girl I totally agree but nice guy?? *ahem*

Me: Ok ok.. how are you doing after your marriage? I hope you don’t beat your husband if he doesn’t cook well :-P

She: Grrr!! Anyways, marriage date?

Me: April first week.

She: Ohh… I won’t be able to attend :-(

Me: Why???

She: Will be on my honeymoon that time :-)

Me: You got married long time back! Honeymoon in April?

She: Well, we thought it is better to practice first at home and then go on a honeymoon. It is better to fail at home in the initial days rather than on a honeymoon :D

Me: Ha ha.. nice nice! I hope you guys have practiced a lot then :-P

She: Where are you guys going for your honeymoon?

Me: Nowhere! I mean we don’t have enough leaves sanctioned so joining back office after all the wedding functions are over

She: Liar! You changed your mind and want to practice first at home, isn’t it? :-P

Me: He he he…

 

Latest news is that ‘Me’ still hasn’t got any leaves sanctioned for a vacation but prefers to say that he is practicing because practice makes a man perfect :D

Edit:

Graffiti line for my whiteboard:

Did you know that a seven day honeymoon makes one week?

Bo down!

Dear terrorist friend,

How are you doing? Glad to say that long time no see. But I thought maybe you will be showing up soon somewhere as my country goes into parliamentary election mode. Oh ho ho hello hello this letter is for the external terrorist and not the internal terrorist as Sonia had quoted. God save me from raking up any controversy on this blog. I am not sure how interested you are in the political scenario but sometimes watching the mud-slinging between the political leaders is fun. ‘Sometimes’ by the way means just 20 minutes of your day otherwise you can get hooked up to the television set 24x7. There is a vicious circle of slandering doing rounds, literally. The head of one party targets the prime minister in his speech. Then one family defends the PM and in turn targets the party head. The party head’s supporters then dig in the origins of the political family. Then the other parties go left (pun intended) and right clobbering everyone. Phew!

So what is your plan of action for the next 1 month? Nothing, you say!!! Ahh.. I get it, I get it. We already have our politicians who are on the verge of killing us so we really don’t need your services. We have a Mumbai blast accused person as a national secretary of a political party. We were a bit lucky that the Supreme Court put a stay on his contesting the elections this time. Then we have a candidate who took cue from inflammatory speeches by others and found himself behind the bars when he gave one. By the way this young man had given false education details reports tell us. Tch tch tch! Maybe you should cool your heels and let these people do your job staying within the country. We do have some good contestants this time also but I don’t think they will get elected or hardly a few will reach the doors of the parliament house.

But let me tell you that in case you want global attention then instead of targeting the elections go for IPL. The T20 cricket festival has been shifted to South Africa. I won’t go in detail why it was shifted from India because you already know that some of your colleagues had attacked a cricket team in my neighbouring country. Everyone will be glued to the television sets till next month and most probably everyone would be watching the cheerleaders than bickering politicians. Sad maybe, but true.

By the way friend in case you are not married and looking for someone to tie a knot with then you can take part in Rakhi ‘Indian Jade Goody’ Sawant’s search for a husband. I bet it will be fun; not for you but for us.

Till next time... tada!

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EDIT: Urging all the Indian citizens to vote for the right candidate. For Pune, the date is 23rd April so please cast your vote as it is precious. Thanks!

Guess who’s back, back again

The detective asked her the reason why people marry. Mrs. Clarke replied, “We need a witness to our lives. There's a billion people on the planet... I mean, what does any one life really mean? But in a marriage, you're promising to care about everything. The good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things... all of it, all of the time, every day. You're saying 'Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it. Your life will not go un-witnessed because I will be your witness'.”

On 4^th March I got a witness in my life and became one myself, as well.

Get a belt and get kinky

In case you are reading this post and living in or visiting Pune and you have a car in which you drive around the city then you better have your seat belts fastened up. The sleepy police have woke up and instead of the usual practice of eyeing erring bike riders the four wheelers are the new target and they are minting money with the fines (or the bribe being offered to let go). By the way a lady police officer who mans (err womans?) the signal near University, with her junior guy in tow, used to stop me daily for 'random' license checking. Finally I got fed up and told them that they stop me daily and they retorted "Ah! No wonder the helmet looks familiar"!

Life is an expectation

I was reading Parag’s blog and came across a post about expectations. I paste an excerpt directly from the reader feed (without his permission, sorry for that).

We take some people for granted. We make up a mind about how they are, how they behave, how they'll react and then we expect. Expectations is always the root cause of turbulence. I read a quote few days back which has stuck in my mind. Cause of all bad is ignorance and laziness.

Going back, when we have a certain getup of a person in mind, we make expectations of how they are. And when they cross those boundaries we feel they have done something that was at least not completely right, if not wrong.

Now that is very true, isn’t it? You can easily remember when someone crossed the boundaries but can you remember when you crossed the boundaries? As I was reading that post I remembered an incident which took place not quite long back. My dad, my soon to be father-in-law and I were sitting at our place that day. Somehow the topic of discussion turned to wedding anniversaries and I congratulated both of them for completing a combined more than half century years between them in their respective marriages. They started handing over tips to me in the talk and both mentioned that for a successful marriage or for that matter any successful relationship one needs to stop expecting. Where there are expectations there is bound to be disappointment at a point. Bitterness follows disappointment and dents a huge blow to the relationship. Lastly they concluded that not expecting is a very tough job as it comes to us naturally.

And Sam Walton had said
High expectations are the key to everything

I expect that all of you have a nice weekend :-)

I got engaged!!

Nice title for the first post of the year, isn’t it? Though like the last time I am not misleading anyone by the title :). By now most of you know and have seen the pics as well but well to let my blog know that on October 18^th (yeah I know I post quite late) I got engaged to Neha. We have been together in the same company for last two and half years now. Yep, I know I have to take back my words from that last post on people working in same company and getting married :-). But it has been a fun ride till now… the entire secret love affair thing and hiding it from other colleagues, confronting parents with the news of intentions to get married when they were thinking of other marriage proposals, being a good boy in front of in-laws (well I am good but you know..) and then facing the barrage of questions about future plans from parents and in-laws and then later from friends on the entire story how it started, who proposed and how etc. Phew! Looking back at the last two years it feels good that all pieces of the jigsaw puzzle* fell in the right place, somehow. The engagement ceremony too was a good experience as I never knew I had so many relatives ha ha. That too when, only the close ones were invited for it. I dread the fact that I am going to have a tough time recalling names of everyone in the marriage reception and plus names of relatives from Neha’s side as well… sigh!

I am not sure if it is a good time or not but before the engagement or marriage one starts remembering all the excess… err ex-s and the crushes till date. The infatuations which we thought were true love and the gut feeling that no one in this world could make us part our ways. When I was mailing the invites for the engagement pics, I did send out the link to all such. I remember the girl from college with whom I always thought of getting married to. Looking back it makes me laugh because I hardly ever talked to her. Then there was this one from school days on whom I had what we call now a childish crush. That time I could never think of any other girl and was dead sure that she was the one for me. On seeing her mail after ages I did not think I would be glad to read that she is married and doing well; in fact I was happier that I am with Neha. There have been umpteen crushes and the fond memories (some not so fond) associated with it. Such is life and memories! Well the marriage is set for March and we would need all your good wishes for the future.

I just had a look at my archive section and found this post written a year back. Memories, I tell you :).

*At the mention of jigsaw puzzle I remembered a story book I got as a birthday gift from my parents. It had a nice image of a jigsaw puzzle land and a boy who sets out to solve the jigsaw mystery. I distinctly remember that I loved that book a lot, sadly mom gave it later to a cousin (who must have thrown it away after reading). Did I mention memories?