This is my 1st post from the new 10" 1.1Kg Asus Eee netbook :), its soo small n cute that I'm afraid it might crush! I bought it as I had to return the old laptop to my prev company. I needed this for my presentations n etc while I try to start a new firm of my own. On that note, I haven't told anyone but things are not going really well :( I hope I don't get discouraged, afterall patience and persistence are the most important characteristics for any new startup. My potential partner who was supposed to be the face of the company seems to not be interested anymore, he hasn't mentioned anything but I get the signs. I now have to live without him, not that my plans would change without him, but the finances would take a hitback. Good that I had my plans both with and without him :)
Its been 6months since my surgery, pumped air into my cycle again, plan to start from tomorrow morning. I should start skipping and jogging too, one at a time, dont want to put too much strain on that leg.
What's with people and twitter?? I understand a medium to vent/shout their inner thoughts without any filters, but is it worth the hype ? I guess no point tryingt understand the mob mentality and better put it to the best use.
I planned to write a paper, never happened. I think that will be this year's resolve, to finish the paper I started 1yr back :D No hopes of getting it published, but will send for sure, and if I like the draft will publish as a blog, good conversation starter huh!? :)
I was supposed to finish 100posts by 31st, but this is just the 74th. Atleast I made it that far, didn't expect to hehe.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Saturday, December 26, 2009
All is well :)
Sometime in your busy life you don't get time to sit back and thank the people who made a difference in your life. How lucky am I to have parents who let me quit my routine job and do whatever I intend to do, how lucky am I to have friends who support, how lucky am I to have investors who trust my vision, how lucky am I to have partner who let me take the front seat inspite of having a greater deal of experience, how lucky am I to have cousins who back me up among relatives !!
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Best Reads - 1
Why do we try to pick out a title even before we write a post? Strange na, and half the time we discontinue the post coz we couldn't come up with a suitable title, funny.
So here is a series of the best posts I have come across, a story or a one liner, just a few :)
Just Another Love Story
It was a lovely December morning in the hottest city in the world. All right, so that was a little unfair. Chennai is not the hottest city in the world. But it certainly is the city with the most uncomfortable weather among the cities that I have lived in. And I've been around. But I digress.
I was in the company bus on my way to work, as usual trying to catch up with my sleep. On this particular day, a girl got on the bus, came to my seat and sat down. “Good Morning,” she said. I looked back at her through half closed eyes, replied “Good Night,” and then proceeded to return to my half hour nap before the bus reached the office. Unfortunately, I was woken up by a punch in the arm.
“Wake up, bozo!” She was looking at me with a big smile on her face. “I'm not sitting next to you to listen to you snore.”
Half-heartedly, I opened my eyes and turned to her. “What's up?” I asked.
Preeti Mehra was tall, good-looking and slightly tomboyish. She was also my best buddy. “Come on,” she said. “Don't look so disappointed. You'd rather sleep than talk to me?”
“I talk to you everyday, Preeti.”
“You also sleep everyday.”
“It's not enough.”
“So you've had enough of talking to me, eh?”
You can't argue with a statement like that, so I had to give up. I grinned and said, “OK, sweetheart. What's on your mind?”
“I wanted to tell you what happened yesterday. Can you guess?”
“Anurag called you last night.”
“How did you know?” She was stunned.
“Oh, he asked me for your number yesterday.”
“And you gave it to him?”
“What else could I do? And stop complaining. You've been drooling over him for weeks now. He must have thought he had a chance.”
Preeti was the kind of girl who would openly ogle at every other guy she saw. And yet, she would not respond to any advances of a romantic nature. She'd happily join a group of boys to go to a cricket match, but if asked out to a movie, dinner, or even coffee, she'd never say yes. She defined 'Hard-To-Get'.
“You like putting me in these situations, don't you?” she said.
“No. That's not true. I love putting you in these situations!”
That invited another punch in the arm.
I had known Preeti for a year. We'd tell each other about our joys and our sorrows, our victories and our defeats. I'd tell her about all my crushes and she'd scold me for being silly. She'd drag me to classical music concerts and I'd add them to the list of things she 'owed me' for.
And though I never let it show, I must say that she punched pretty hard.
~*~
It was 12:00 am and my phone was ringing. “Hello,” I said, as I picked it up.
“Happy Birthday!” It was she.
“You're supposed to throw me a surprise party, sweetheart. Not just call to say Happy Birthday.”
“Well then open your door, dumbo!”
So I did and found her, cell-phone in hand, at my doorstep -- with what seemed like half the population of my company. My roommates were supposed to be working late that night. Now I knew why.
I blew a lot of candles (seemed like much more than 25), cut my cake, got kicked in the behind, and got painted with the cake's icing. If Preeti had had her way, she'd probably have preferred to use a paintbrush and a can of paint. But I bribed her with a copy of the book ”Lord of the Rings”. She'd borrowed it from me three times already. I thought it was about time I gave her a copy for herself.
We chatted for an hour after everyone had gone. “I think it's time I left,” she said finally, trying to stifle a yawn. I nodded. I dropped her home in my roommate's car. As she was getting out of the car, I stopped her.
“Hey, Preeti.”
“What?”
“Thanks.”
“Hey, don't get senti on me now!” she smiled. “Are you trying to worm out of that gift you promised me?”
“You know, it's interesting how I'm getting you a gift on my birthday.”
“That's just because you're stupid,” she grinned. “And you better get me that book, or I won't return your copy.”
“Hey, that copy was a gift to me from my dear friend Preeti Mehra. I can't let you keep that.”
She wasn't falling for that. “Your dear friend? And what about me? Am I not dear to you?”
“Very smart. That won't work with me. I'm not one of your Love Crazy suitors. Why do you need the book anyway? You've read it umpteen times already.”
“That is besides the point. You are getting me the book. We both know that.” She smiled that wide confident smile of hers. “Good night.” And she got out of the car.
I sat there for some time, just thinking. Our conversations were always like this – a little joking, a little teasing and a lot of demanding. But somehow, I felt that something had changed since the moment she had turned up at my door that night. I was still in my reverie when a paper ball landed on the windshield. I craned my neck out of the window and looked up. She was standing in her balcony.
“What are you still doing there?” she whispered loudly.
“Waiting for you to start a paper-ball fight,” I whispered back.
“We can do that tomorrow. Go home now. It's way past your bedtime!”
“Ok, mommy,” I grinned back. “I'm going home now!”
~*~
I'm an extravagant gift-giver, and it is definitely going to be my downfall some day. I made her wait for it, but finally bought her the book. That, and half-a-dozen other omnibus collections of various authors, including a copy each of `The Complete Works of Shakespeare' and `The Complete Short Stories of Charles Dickens'. All I got for it was an “I told you so.”
I started spending a lot of time at her place after that. Mostly because I wanted to read all those books, and she wouldn't lend them to me.
“I'm not as stupid as you, ape-man. I'm not falling into the same trap I laid for you. Plus, you dog-ear your books. You're not doing that to these masterpieces. So if you want to read them, you read them here. And if you want to mark your place, use a bookmark.”
So that's what I did. She'd even make me wash my hands before I touched the books. It was as if they were sacred.
“Need I remind you that it was me that bought you the books in the first place? For my birthday!”
“So? They're mine now.”
“Well, then. I've been meaning to ask you this for a long time. Where exactly is my birthday gift?”
“It was in your tummy at one point of time. It's probably been washed into the sea by now.”
“Huh?”
“Remember the cake I baked you on your birthday?”
“You what? You can't bake cakes!” That was a mistake. She looked hurt. “You baked me a cake?” She didn't say a word. She just shrugged.
I was stunned. “But you never told me.”
“You didn't ask.” That was typical of her.
“It was fantastic! And you wasted most of the icing on me!”
“The cake was for you, dumbo.”
“How long did it take you to make the whole thing?” It had been a two-layered vanilla-chocolate cake with three flavors of very creamy icing. She had done all that!
“Well, the chocolate cake took an hour and fifteen minutes, and so did the vanilla. Then cutting them up and putting them together took another 15 minutes. Each flavor of icing took 20 minutes for preparation, and then putting it on the cake took another half hour. Cleaning up the mess took an hour.”
She seldom claimed the credit for anything, but once she started bragging, there was no stopping her. However, I wasn't thinking about that right then.
“You spent over five hours on that cake?”
“A little over four hours preparing it, and an hour cleaning up. Yes.”
I was speechless. I didn't know how to react. She hated cooking.
“I forgot to mention,” she continued, “the hours I spent the week before that, practicing. Even the birds wouldn't touch the first three cakes!”
I couldn't help but ask. “Why?”
“Because the first one got burnt, the second one was only half cooked, and in the third one, I forgot to add sugar.”
It was just like her, to try to divert the conversation. “I mean why did you spend so much time on baking me a cake?”
She looked at me like I'd asked her why the sun rises in the east. “For your birthday, stupid. Of course, I also wanted to beat every gift you've ever got me. Try beating this one.” She was grinning like she'd won the world championship.
As far as I was concerned, she had. I'd never spent a week making her anything. I'd never even spent an hour making her anything. Getting her a gift normally involved me taking her to the store, letting her choose and use my credit card. Suddenly, I felt cheap. “Thanks,” was the only thing I could say. ”Thanks a lot.”
“Hey. Are you getting senti on me again?”
I was.
~*~
I was still mulling over my feelings for Preeti the next day at work when my boss asked to speak to me.
I went over to his cabin and he started with the usual greetings, asking how work was going and whether I was comfortable. He then told me that the company wanted to send me to New York for a couple of years. Normally, this wouldn't have made much of a difference to me. I could work anywhere and didn't have too much love for visiting places foreign. But right then, the first thought that came to me was that I'd be away from Preeti for two whole years. Twenty-four hours before, I'd have been disappointed to lose her company. But right then, I was devastated. That was when I knew I was in love with her. I'd had crushes before. Lots of them. But this was different.
“Do you have any problem in going?” my boss asked, since I hadn't responded.
“Not really,” I replied. What else could I say? That I was in love, and couldn't bear the separation?
“When do I have to leave?”
I had a month.
~*~
“Wow! New York! Great! I've heard it's a fantastic city! Did you know it snows there in winter?” Preeti was obviously very excited about my going. She didn't seem to share my disappointment on what I now saw as 'separation'.
I had not decided then if I was going to tell her how I felt. We'd known each other for a little over a year, and we were very close, but beyond some mild flirting, the relationship had never got even close to romantic. That was, of course, until I found out she had spent a week baking me a cake. It's funny how small things seem to make such a big difference.
“What happened?” she asked. “You don't seem very happy.”
“Oh,” I replied, “it's just that it's so sudden, that's all. And you know I was never all that interested in going to America.”
“What an idiot. Go see the place. I've heard the women there are amazingly beautiful.” She had a sly smile on her face. I wanted to tell her I didn't care if I laid my eyes on another woman again, if she wasn't with me. But I didn't.
I realized that I only had another month with her. She'd rejected every guy who'd asked her out ever since I'd known her. I didn't want the same to happen to me, and I didn't want to make it awkward between us. I didn't want to risk that month. I wanted it to be the best time I had ever spent with her. After I came back from the US, I might not even get to meet her again. Two years was a long time.
We ate out almost every night. We visited some of the best restaurants in the city. She also helped me shop for warm clothes, formalwear, shoes, toothpaste and a million things I'd never have thought of on my own.
“You need to buy a nail-cutter.” My roommates and I shared one.
“I've prepared a list of must-have medicines that you should carry.”
“Your iron won't work in the US. No point buying one here as you need one that works at a hundred and ten volts and has flat pins. You can buy one at a K-Mart or Wal-Mart as soon as you get there.”
“You need at least two pairs of formal shoes and at least ten pairs of dark socks. The East Coast has a formal dress code. And you won't do your laundry more than once a week or two.”
“How many ties do you have? And which trousers do your blazers go with?”
“Better get a haircut before you leave from here. Knowing you, you'll postpone the first haircut for too long.”
She'd call me up at one in the morning to tell me to add 'one more item' to my list.
And with every passing day, I was falling more deeply in love with her.
The month swept by quickly. The day I was supposed to leave, I asked her to come with me to the airport. “Of course, dumbo. You think I'd let you go just like that, or what?”
After packing my bags for me and checking the lists for the hundredth time, she finally pronounced me “Good to go.”
We reached the airport four hours early to beat the rush, because it was an international flight. She got a visitor's pass to sit in the waiting area while I went ahead and checked-in my bags. Preeti had got a spring balance from somewhere and so we knew my bags were well within the weight limit. I finished the formalities and came to sit with her. We had only a few hours before I had to go for my security-check. We decided to get something to eat at the food court. And all the time, the one thing that was going through my head was that, after this, I wouldn't see her for at least another two years.
“Hey, Champ. Why so glum?” She saved 'Champ' for special days. Normally, it was just 'dumbo', 'bozo', 'ape-man', 'matchstick man', 'weirdo', or if she was very irritated with me, 'nutcase'.
“I don't want to go,” I said.
“I don't want you to go either.”
“No, you don't understand.” I couldn't hold it in any longer. “I can't stand the thought of living without you by my side.”
She stared at me. There was a strange look in her eyes. I couldn't read it.
“I am madly in love with you, Preeti.”
At this, a sound escaped her lips that sounded like a cross between a sob and a laugh. “Well, dumbo, you've picked an absolutely fabulous time to tell me about it!”
A tear escaped her eyes. It was all I could do to stop myself from wiping it off her cheeks.
“How long have you felt this way?” She seemed amused, though she was definitely crying. I didn't know what to make of it.
“From the day I found out you had baked me a cake.”
She laughed. “That's all it took? Well, bozo, I guess a way to a man's heart is certainly through his stomach! Hold it. A month? You waited a month? You were the one who kept saying that if you really liked a girl you wouldn't waste a day in telling her!” She was smiling widely now. It looked funny, with her eyes all wet.
“Well, I was confused. How did I know how you'd react? In fact, I still don't understand your reaction. I thought it would change things between us. You've rejected every guy who ever proposed to you!”
“That's because I'm in love with you, you overgrown idiot!”
“What?” Somehow, I'd never expected her to say that. She was in love with me? “How long have you been in love with me?”
“Ever since the day you offered to carry my suitcase for me.”
“But that was the first day I met you!”
“I guess I was always a sucker for chivalry.”
“All this time you've been in love with me and you never said anything! Then you go and complain that I waited a month!”
“You guys are so bad at reading a girl's mind.”
“You women are so good at keeping your thoughts a secret! Even Einstein couldn't figure you out.”
“Einstein was a nerd. Casanova, on the other hand, understood us very well.”
“I love you.”
“I know.”
That moment, my dear friends, was magic. I looked into her eyes and took her hands in mine. Physical contact for us had been limited, until then, to a punch in the arm, a slap on the back of the head, or giving each other a 'high five'.
“You realize, don't you,” she said, “that this is our first date?” Leave it to her to notice the little things.
“I really don't want to go.” I'd always maintained that love is a bucketful of emotions. I wasn't exactly delighted to be proved right.
“Don't worry. I'm coming there in a couple of months.”
“How? On a dependent visa?”
She laughed. “For that, I'll have to wait, won't I? I've got a project in New Jersey.”
I couldn't believe my ears. “What? When did that happen? You never even told me!”
“Well, I wasn't sure you'd propose before you left. And I couldn't exactly sacrifice you to those New York women, could I? I had to watch out for myself. So I went on a project-hunting spree. There is an opportunity coming up for a project in about two months. Someone is coming back to India, so I'll be taking his place. They want me there for a little less than two years.” She was beaming. “I realized I had struck gold!”
“And if I'd not told you how I felt? When were you planning on telling me about it?”
“Around a month before I reached there. I had to make it look natural. Or you'd think I was desperate.”
“Well, you are desperate!” This was incredible. All I'd done in the past month had been to mope around, listen to sad songs and write her letters that I never intended her to read. “You've been scheming all this while! How come you didn't lay a trap for me a year ago?”
“I tried giving you hints, dumbo, but you just wouldn't pay attention!” She was laughing. “You're the only guy I ever spent any time with. Wasn't that a big enough hint?”
That was true. She would happily join a group of boys to go to a cricket match, but I now realized, only if I was one of them.
“What if I had rejected you?” I was extremely flattered that she'd been crazy about me for a year. My ego was swelling.
“You must be kidding!” she was clearly amused. “I get proposed to every few days. You are the one who's been rejected more times in the last year than I can count on two pairs of hands!”
She really knew how to burst my bubble.
“Hey,” she said softly, “don't look so dejected. I said 'Yes', didn't I?”
I grinned. “Yes, you did. And you've made me a very happy man. But you know what would make me even happier?”
“What?”
“If you learn to cook as good as you bake cakes.”
So she punched me in the arm again.
The End Beginning
PS: This is picked from a blog which doesn't exist anymore, I used to read his posts regularly, Mr.Rajesh J Advani. He also used to run a series of funny conversations between God and him :). I'm sure one of them will pop up as best reads.
So here is a series of the best posts I have come across, a story or a one liner, just a few :)
Just Another Love Story
It was a lovely December morning in the hottest city in the world. All right, so that was a little unfair. Chennai is not the hottest city in the world. But it certainly is the city with the most uncomfortable weather among the cities that I have lived in. And I've been around. But I digress.
I was in the company bus on my way to work, as usual trying to catch up with my sleep. On this particular day, a girl got on the bus, came to my seat and sat down. “Good Morning,” she said. I looked back at her through half closed eyes, replied “Good Night,” and then proceeded to return to my half hour nap before the bus reached the office. Unfortunately, I was woken up by a punch in the arm.
“Wake up, bozo!” She was looking at me with a big smile on her face. “I'm not sitting next to you to listen to you snore.”
Half-heartedly, I opened my eyes and turned to her. “What's up?” I asked.
Preeti Mehra was tall, good-looking and slightly tomboyish. She was also my best buddy. “Come on,” she said. “Don't look so disappointed. You'd rather sleep than talk to me?”
“I talk to you everyday, Preeti.”
“You also sleep everyday.”
“It's not enough.”
“So you've had enough of talking to me, eh?”
You can't argue with a statement like that, so I had to give up. I grinned and said, “OK, sweetheart. What's on your mind?”
“I wanted to tell you what happened yesterday. Can you guess?”
“Anurag called you last night.”
“How did you know?” She was stunned.
“Oh, he asked me for your number yesterday.”
“And you gave it to him?”
“What else could I do? And stop complaining. You've been drooling over him for weeks now. He must have thought he had a chance.”
Preeti was the kind of girl who would openly ogle at every other guy she saw. And yet, she would not respond to any advances of a romantic nature. She'd happily join a group of boys to go to a cricket match, but if asked out to a movie, dinner, or even coffee, she'd never say yes. She defined 'Hard-To-Get'.
“You like putting me in these situations, don't you?” she said.
“No. That's not true. I love putting you in these situations!”
That invited another punch in the arm.
I had known Preeti for a year. We'd tell each other about our joys and our sorrows, our victories and our defeats. I'd tell her about all my crushes and she'd scold me for being silly. She'd drag me to classical music concerts and I'd add them to the list of things she 'owed me' for.
And though I never let it show, I must say that she punched pretty hard.
~*~
It was 12:00 am and my phone was ringing. “Hello,” I said, as I picked it up.
“Happy Birthday!” It was she.
“You're supposed to throw me a surprise party, sweetheart. Not just call to say Happy Birthday.”
“Well then open your door, dumbo!”
So I did and found her, cell-phone in hand, at my doorstep -- with what seemed like half the population of my company. My roommates were supposed to be working late that night. Now I knew why.
I blew a lot of candles (seemed like much more than 25), cut my cake, got kicked in the behind, and got painted with the cake's icing. If Preeti had had her way, she'd probably have preferred to use a paintbrush and a can of paint. But I bribed her with a copy of the book ”Lord of the Rings”. She'd borrowed it from me three times already. I thought it was about time I gave her a copy for herself.
We chatted for an hour after everyone had gone. “I think it's time I left,” she said finally, trying to stifle a yawn. I nodded. I dropped her home in my roommate's car. As she was getting out of the car, I stopped her.
“Hey, Preeti.”
“What?”
“Thanks.”
“Hey, don't get senti on me now!” she smiled. “Are you trying to worm out of that gift you promised me?”
“You know, it's interesting how I'm getting you a gift on my birthday.”
“That's just because you're stupid,” she grinned. “And you better get me that book, or I won't return your copy.”
“Hey, that copy was a gift to me from my dear friend Preeti Mehra. I can't let you keep that.”
She wasn't falling for that. “Your dear friend? And what about me? Am I not dear to you?”
“Very smart. That won't work with me. I'm not one of your Love Crazy suitors. Why do you need the book anyway? You've read it umpteen times already.”
“That is besides the point. You are getting me the book. We both know that.” She smiled that wide confident smile of hers. “Good night.” And she got out of the car.
I sat there for some time, just thinking. Our conversations were always like this – a little joking, a little teasing and a lot of demanding. But somehow, I felt that something had changed since the moment she had turned up at my door that night. I was still in my reverie when a paper ball landed on the windshield. I craned my neck out of the window and looked up. She was standing in her balcony.
“What are you still doing there?” she whispered loudly.
“Waiting for you to start a paper-ball fight,” I whispered back.
“We can do that tomorrow. Go home now. It's way past your bedtime!”
“Ok, mommy,” I grinned back. “I'm going home now!”
~*~
I'm an extravagant gift-giver, and it is definitely going to be my downfall some day. I made her wait for it, but finally bought her the book. That, and half-a-dozen other omnibus collections of various authors, including a copy each of `The Complete Works of Shakespeare' and `The Complete Short Stories of Charles Dickens'. All I got for it was an “I told you so.”
I started spending a lot of time at her place after that. Mostly because I wanted to read all those books, and she wouldn't lend them to me.
“I'm not as stupid as you, ape-man. I'm not falling into the same trap I laid for you. Plus, you dog-ear your books. You're not doing that to these masterpieces. So if you want to read them, you read them here. And if you want to mark your place, use a bookmark.”
So that's what I did. She'd even make me wash my hands before I touched the books. It was as if they were sacred.
“Need I remind you that it was me that bought you the books in the first place? For my birthday!”
“So? They're mine now.”
“Well, then. I've been meaning to ask you this for a long time. Where exactly is my birthday gift?”
“It was in your tummy at one point of time. It's probably been washed into the sea by now.”
“Huh?”
“Remember the cake I baked you on your birthday?”
“You what? You can't bake cakes!” That was a mistake. She looked hurt. “You baked me a cake?” She didn't say a word. She just shrugged.
I was stunned. “But you never told me.”
“You didn't ask.” That was typical of her.
“It was fantastic! And you wasted most of the icing on me!”
“The cake was for you, dumbo.”
“How long did it take you to make the whole thing?” It had been a two-layered vanilla-chocolate cake with three flavors of very creamy icing. She had done all that!
“Well, the chocolate cake took an hour and fifteen minutes, and so did the vanilla. Then cutting them up and putting them together took another 15 minutes. Each flavor of icing took 20 minutes for preparation, and then putting it on the cake took another half hour. Cleaning up the mess took an hour.”
She seldom claimed the credit for anything, but once she started bragging, there was no stopping her. However, I wasn't thinking about that right then.
“You spent over five hours on that cake?”
“A little over four hours preparing it, and an hour cleaning up. Yes.”
I was speechless. I didn't know how to react. She hated cooking.
“I forgot to mention,” she continued, “the hours I spent the week before that, practicing. Even the birds wouldn't touch the first three cakes!”
I couldn't help but ask. “Why?”
“Because the first one got burnt, the second one was only half cooked, and in the third one, I forgot to add sugar.”
It was just like her, to try to divert the conversation. “I mean why did you spend so much time on baking me a cake?”
She looked at me like I'd asked her why the sun rises in the east. “For your birthday, stupid. Of course, I also wanted to beat every gift you've ever got me. Try beating this one.” She was grinning like she'd won the world championship.
As far as I was concerned, she had. I'd never spent a week making her anything. I'd never even spent an hour making her anything. Getting her a gift normally involved me taking her to the store, letting her choose and use my credit card. Suddenly, I felt cheap. “Thanks,” was the only thing I could say. ”Thanks a lot.”
“Hey. Are you getting senti on me again?”
I was.
~*~
I was still mulling over my feelings for Preeti the next day at work when my boss asked to speak to me.
I went over to his cabin and he started with the usual greetings, asking how work was going and whether I was comfortable. He then told me that the company wanted to send me to New York for a couple of years. Normally, this wouldn't have made much of a difference to me. I could work anywhere and didn't have too much love for visiting places foreign. But right then, the first thought that came to me was that I'd be away from Preeti for two whole years. Twenty-four hours before, I'd have been disappointed to lose her company. But right then, I was devastated. That was when I knew I was in love with her. I'd had crushes before. Lots of them. But this was different.
“Do you have any problem in going?” my boss asked, since I hadn't responded.
“Not really,” I replied. What else could I say? That I was in love, and couldn't bear the separation?
“When do I have to leave?”
I had a month.
~*~
“Wow! New York! Great! I've heard it's a fantastic city! Did you know it snows there in winter?” Preeti was obviously very excited about my going. She didn't seem to share my disappointment on what I now saw as 'separation'.
I had not decided then if I was going to tell her how I felt. We'd known each other for a little over a year, and we were very close, but beyond some mild flirting, the relationship had never got even close to romantic. That was, of course, until I found out she had spent a week baking me a cake. It's funny how small things seem to make such a big difference.
“What happened?” she asked. “You don't seem very happy.”
“Oh,” I replied, “it's just that it's so sudden, that's all. And you know I was never all that interested in going to America.”
“What an idiot. Go see the place. I've heard the women there are amazingly beautiful.” She had a sly smile on her face. I wanted to tell her I didn't care if I laid my eyes on another woman again, if she wasn't with me. But I didn't.
I realized that I only had another month with her. She'd rejected every guy who'd asked her out ever since I'd known her. I didn't want the same to happen to me, and I didn't want to make it awkward between us. I didn't want to risk that month. I wanted it to be the best time I had ever spent with her. After I came back from the US, I might not even get to meet her again. Two years was a long time.
We ate out almost every night. We visited some of the best restaurants in the city. She also helped me shop for warm clothes, formalwear, shoes, toothpaste and a million things I'd never have thought of on my own.
“You need to buy a nail-cutter.” My roommates and I shared one.
“I've prepared a list of must-have medicines that you should carry.”
“Your iron won't work in the US. No point buying one here as you need one that works at a hundred and ten volts and has flat pins. You can buy one at a K-Mart or Wal-Mart as soon as you get there.”
“You need at least two pairs of formal shoes and at least ten pairs of dark socks. The East Coast has a formal dress code. And you won't do your laundry more than once a week or two.”
“How many ties do you have? And which trousers do your blazers go with?”
“Better get a haircut before you leave from here. Knowing you, you'll postpone the first haircut for too long.”
She'd call me up at one in the morning to tell me to add 'one more item' to my list.
And with every passing day, I was falling more deeply in love with her.
The month swept by quickly. The day I was supposed to leave, I asked her to come with me to the airport. “Of course, dumbo. You think I'd let you go just like that, or what?”
After packing my bags for me and checking the lists for the hundredth time, she finally pronounced me “Good to go.”
We reached the airport four hours early to beat the rush, because it was an international flight. She got a visitor's pass to sit in the waiting area while I went ahead and checked-in my bags. Preeti had got a spring balance from somewhere and so we knew my bags were well within the weight limit. I finished the formalities and came to sit with her. We had only a few hours before I had to go for my security-check. We decided to get something to eat at the food court. And all the time, the one thing that was going through my head was that, after this, I wouldn't see her for at least another two years.
“Hey, Champ. Why so glum?” She saved 'Champ' for special days. Normally, it was just 'dumbo', 'bozo', 'ape-man', 'matchstick man', 'weirdo', or if she was very irritated with me, 'nutcase'.
“I don't want to go,” I said.
“I don't want you to go either.”
“No, you don't understand.” I couldn't hold it in any longer. “I can't stand the thought of living without you by my side.”
She stared at me. There was a strange look in her eyes. I couldn't read it.
“I am madly in love with you, Preeti.”
At this, a sound escaped her lips that sounded like a cross between a sob and a laugh. “Well, dumbo, you've picked an absolutely fabulous time to tell me about it!”
A tear escaped her eyes. It was all I could do to stop myself from wiping it off her cheeks.
“How long have you felt this way?” She seemed amused, though she was definitely crying. I didn't know what to make of it.
“From the day I found out you had baked me a cake.”
She laughed. “That's all it took? Well, bozo, I guess a way to a man's heart is certainly through his stomach! Hold it. A month? You waited a month? You were the one who kept saying that if you really liked a girl you wouldn't waste a day in telling her!” She was smiling widely now. It looked funny, with her eyes all wet.
“Well, I was confused. How did I know how you'd react? In fact, I still don't understand your reaction. I thought it would change things between us. You've rejected every guy who ever proposed to you!”
“That's because I'm in love with you, you overgrown idiot!”
“What?” Somehow, I'd never expected her to say that. She was in love with me? “How long have you been in love with me?”
“Ever since the day you offered to carry my suitcase for me.”
“But that was the first day I met you!”
“I guess I was always a sucker for chivalry.”
“All this time you've been in love with me and you never said anything! Then you go and complain that I waited a month!”
“You guys are so bad at reading a girl's mind.”
“You women are so good at keeping your thoughts a secret! Even Einstein couldn't figure you out.”
“Einstein was a nerd. Casanova, on the other hand, understood us very well.”
“I love you.”
“I know.”
That moment, my dear friends, was magic. I looked into her eyes and took her hands in mine. Physical contact for us had been limited, until then, to a punch in the arm, a slap on the back of the head, or giving each other a 'high five'.
“You realize, don't you,” she said, “that this is our first date?” Leave it to her to notice the little things.
“I really don't want to go.” I'd always maintained that love is a bucketful of emotions. I wasn't exactly delighted to be proved right.
“Don't worry. I'm coming there in a couple of months.”
“How? On a dependent visa?”
She laughed. “For that, I'll have to wait, won't I? I've got a project in New Jersey.”
I couldn't believe my ears. “What? When did that happen? You never even told me!”
“Well, I wasn't sure you'd propose before you left. And I couldn't exactly sacrifice you to those New York women, could I? I had to watch out for myself. So I went on a project-hunting spree. There is an opportunity coming up for a project in about two months. Someone is coming back to India, so I'll be taking his place. They want me there for a little less than two years.” She was beaming. “I realized I had struck gold!”
“And if I'd not told you how I felt? When were you planning on telling me about it?”
“Around a month before I reached there. I had to make it look natural. Or you'd think I was desperate.”
“Well, you are desperate!” This was incredible. All I'd done in the past month had been to mope around, listen to sad songs and write her letters that I never intended her to read. “You've been scheming all this while! How come you didn't lay a trap for me a year ago?”
“I tried giving you hints, dumbo, but you just wouldn't pay attention!” She was laughing. “You're the only guy I ever spent any time with. Wasn't that a big enough hint?”
That was true. She would happily join a group of boys to go to a cricket match, but I now realized, only if I was one of them.
“What if I had rejected you?” I was extremely flattered that she'd been crazy about me for a year. My ego was swelling.
“You must be kidding!” she was clearly amused. “I get proposed to every few days. You are the one who's been rejected more times in the last year than I can count on two pairs of hands!”
She really knew how to burst my bubble.
“Hey,” she said softly, “don't look so dejected. I said 'Yes', didn't I?”
I grinned. “Yes, you did. And you've made me a very happy man. But you know what would make me even happier?”
“What?”
“If you learn to cook as good as you bake cakes.”
So she punched me in the arm again.
The End Beginning
PS: This is picked from a blog which doesn't exist anymore, I used to read his posts regularly, Mr.Rajesh J Advani. He also used to run a series of funny conversations between God and him :). I'm sure one of them will pop up as best reads.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Being nice
Lately I have been nice genuinely, don't know why but I have been and no one believes it, infact I didn't believe it myself till a friend mentioned the change.
Is it the chilly winter or am I losing it :(
PS: Its
Is it the chilly winter or am I losing it :(
PS: Its
15oC (60oF) outside during morning walk
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Its not quarter life, its midlife :O :O
During a routine mundane conversation with a friend of mine I realised just today that unlike my earlier perception of life, its not quarter life crisis I'm going through but mid-life crisis :O :O ... The avg life span is almost between 50-60 (unless you are working from home n roaming in a car, even after which the chances of dying obese are pretty high) nowadays, and I'm 25 which means its actually midlife crisis !!!
Lets review my life at this point:
1. I quit my job recently n haven't started anything yet, in other words I'm workless.
2. Still single, n with all girls arnd getting married, the chances of staying single are pretty pretty high, or should I say rocket high.
3. Very soon will empty my cash reserves and probably move in with parents (what a situation that would be, moving in with parents after 9yrs).
4. I haven't been outside the country beyond Nepal yet.
5. Same old hairline story, recedes faster by day.
n yet I feel good about my life, this definitely is the confusion of midlife crisis.
I probably should just while away next 25yrs too, like I did my 1st 25 :D, or how about decrease age and spend my next 25 becoming a child !!! Crazy isn't it, ahhhh I know. Its 2AM in the morning, I just had 2 coffees another one is brewing, been on a long drive and all hyper. I don't know what I'm posting or why, probably this is how a blogs are supposed to be, totally arbit and just an outlet of ones thoughts; no editing, no rephrasing.
On a different note got a new netbook as a gift from a few friends after they saw how I badly need it :) Thanks buddies, will definitely remember.
Lets review my life at this point:
1. I quit my job recently n haven't started anything yet, in other words I'm workless.
2. Still single, n with all girls arnd getting married, the chances of staying single are pretty pretty high, or should I say rocket high.
3. Very soon will empty my cash reserves and probably move in with parents (what a situation that would be, moving in with parents after 9yrs).
4. I haven't been outside the country beyond Nepal yet.
5. Same old hairline story, recedes faster by day.
n yet I feel good about my life, this definitely is the confusion of midlife crisis.
I probably should just while away next 25yrs too, like I did my 1st 25 :D, or how about decrease age and spend my next 25 becoming a child !!! Crazy isn't it, ahhhh I know. Its 2AM in the morning, I just had 2 coffees another one is brewing, been on a long drive and all hyper. I don't know what I'm posting or why, probably this is how a blogs are supposed to be, totally arbit and just an outlet of ones thoughts; no editing, no rephrasing.
On a different note got a new netbook as a gift from a few friends after they saw how I badly need it :) Thanks buddies, will definitely remember.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Did we learn Imperialism from God ?
To begin with I'm agnostic, I believe that we have to do whatever it takes to do and I don't like asking for favors. But for a while let us assume God does exist, let us assume everything is his creation and he made humans in his own image, here are a few facts based on that belief that I know:
1. God created angels, creatures who follow god unquestioningly.
2. God created earth, put water, plants, animals etc etc.
3. God created Humans and asked angels to look after humans and love them more than god himself.
4. One angel refuses and asks god to let humans think on their own, he says he can't love anyone other than god - He is lucifer.
5. God doesn't like questions, so lucifer is thrown out of heaven forever.
6. Humans defy god and eat the apple of wisdom.
7. God is pissed off and decides that whoever follows him blindly, no questions asked would go to heaven, a place where afterlife would be peaceful, rest would regret their decisions.
8. Any angel or humans who question God are sent to hell.
Doesn't this sound imperialistic rule ?? Follow what I say, or go to hell. Period
Some might say we would have lived happily and more peacefully if everyone indeed followed god blindly, but again should deciding 'what is right and what is wrong' be based on one single persons judgement? Afterall God isn't believed to be perfect either.
Different religions have different stories but somehow all of them end up saying the same, Hinduism has lord Yama, god of death. We never read him going to heaven or meeting any other gods like the rest. He is confined to hell. The abridged version of Quran I read few years back says the same, follow Prophet Muhammed's Quran blindly if you are to be chosen by Allah (ofcourse some extremists interpret things in a different way, but thats a whole different story).
If I have to make a choice between the path chosen by god or my own path, I'd take my own anyday, as long as I'm true to my conscience and logic.
1. God created angels, creatures who follow god unquestioningly.
2. God created earth, put water, plants, animals etc etc.
3. God created Humans and asked angels to look after humans and love them more than god himself.
4. One angel refuses and asks god to let humans think on their own, he says he can't love anyone other than god - He is lucifer.
5. God doesn't like questions, so lucifer is thrown out of heaven forever.
6. Humans defy god and eat the apple of wisdom.
7. God is pissed off and decides that whoever follows him blindly, no questions asked would go to heaven, a place where afterlife would be peaceful, rest would regret their decisions.
8. Any angel or humans who question God are sent to hell.
Doesn't this sound imperialistic rule ?? Follow what I say, or go to hell. Period
Some might say we would have lived happily and more peacefully if everyone indeed followed god blindly, but again should deciding 'what is right and what is wrong' be based on one single persons judgement? Afterall God isn't believed to be perfect either.
Different religions have different stories but somehow all of them end up saying the same, Hinduism has lord Yama, god of death. We never read him going to heaven or meeting any other gods like the rest. He is confined to hell. The abridged version of Quran I read few years back says the same, follow Prophet Muhammed's Quran blindly if you are to be chosen by Allah (ofcourse some extremists interpret things in a different way, but thats a whole different story).
If I have to make a choice between the path chosen by god or my own path, I'd take my own anyday, as long as I'm true to my conscience and logic.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Rhetoric
You know you are not doing things in a regular way when all your friends are settled in a safe job, there are only 3/4 girls in your friends who are not married, few guys already have kids too
and you are still chasing your dreams.
-Swami Saakethananda!
Thanks mom n dad for not pressurizing me much :)
and you are still chasing your dreams.
-Swami Saakethananda!
Thanks mom n dad for not pressurizing me much :)
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
One month celebrations ....
One month of doing almost absolutely nothing teaches you one thing if not anything else, that time just flies by ..soo quick that before you get a chance to look back you are way too far to turn around :)
- swami saakethananda
- swami saakethananda
Politics as usual
Major demands by Reddy brothers in Karnataka:
1. Withdrawl of all cases against them !!!!!!!
2. Give them home or industries portfolios in the cabinet !!!
3. Major reshuffle in the cabinet with ministries to their near ones !!
4. Change of CM !
and Yet to be known publicly: where does Ananth Kumar fit in all this ??
Why common cause with Reddys:
Party leaders here admit that the Reddy brothers are not alone in their grievance against Ms. Karandlaje, whose growing clout is believed to be the result of her being “close to” the Chief Minister. That was why a number of MLAs were ready to make common cause with the Reddys, apart from the undisputable fact of their money power.
Source: The Hindu
and I thought blackmail is an offense !! haha
1. Withdrawl of all cases against them !!!!!!!
2. Give them home or industries portfolios in the cabinet !!!
3. Major reshuffle in the cabinet with ministries to their near ones !!
4. Change of CM !
and Yet to be known publicly: where does Ananth Kumar fit in all this ??
Why common cause with Reddys:
Party leaders here admit that the Reddy brothers are not alone in their grievance against Ms. Karandlaje, whose growing clout is believed to be the result of her being “close to” the Chief Minister. That was why a number of MLAs were ready to make common cause with the Reddys, apart from the undisputable fact of their money power.
Source: The Hindu
and I thought blackmail is an offense !! haha
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Amazing ...
Leadership Summit - 2009 http://htsummit.hindustantimes.com/index.php
Lucky that I was jobless enough to follow it closely.
Lucky that I was jobless enough to follow it closely.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
My Dreams
Someone asked me what exactly is my dream, well I wont call becoming so and so as my dream coz it changes based on opportuninty and circumstances,
I'd define my dream to be a sense of achievement and honor in making the right difference in others lives
I'd define my dream to be a sense of achievement and honor in making the right difference in others lives
The baby steps
It's been one week since I quit my job with a plan to start something on my own, I wouldn't say I utilized the week properly, things are going slow, very slow and I have lazed a bit as expected :), but talked to few people, made few decisions, found source for little income etc etc. I'd call these the baby steps. I know the journey wont be easy, it won't happen immediately, will take time, infact more time than I thought it'd.
However there is a bright side to this 'freetime', I'm reading a lot of books again. Its been quite sometime since I did and I got to finish 3more.
Trying to save every penny I can, yet the urge to eat sometimes gets over.
Not much progress on the 'resolutions' taken in April either :D (Courtesy: http://saaketh-preetham.blogspot.com/2009/04/mid-year-quarter-life-resolutions.html)
For those of you who don't know, I tore a ligament while cycling and had to go through a surgery, so cycling is a distant dream for an year. I gained a few pounds but still managed to stay 65, so good with that I couldn't travel or drive for the last 4months, so there was no travelling, but now that I'm doing good have 2 trips planned in next 2months Almost no chance of touching 100 posts before 31st Did save 2months salary before I quit, well had to
Best of all I quit, which was in my mind but never thought it'd happen :D
Will post more details about the trips soon.
However there is a bright side to this 'freetime', I'm reading a lot of books again. Its been quite sometime since I did and I got to finish 3more.
Trying to save every penny I can, yet the urge to eat sometimes gets over.
Not much progress on the 'resolutions' taken in April either :D (Courtesy: http://saaketh-preetham.blogspot.com/2009/04/mid-year-quarter-life-resolutions.html)
Best of all I quit, which was in my mind but never thought it'd happen :D
Will post more details about the trips soon.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
The Journey Begins
Like many others I always had a dream, a dream to own something. Some end the dream by owning a car and few flats, some stretch it further. I have decided to pursue where my dreams take me to. The last two years at Dell have been incredible and its time to move on. I resigned from the routine job, my last day at Dell was 15th Oct and as of 16th Oct (my 25th bday) I officially stand happily unemployed !!
FAQs:
What next: Well I have decided not to stick to one single thing, as of now I'm working with R on few land deals, with few friends on starting up a consultancy, and with SK to start up a full fledged firm. S wanted me to invest some amount of his here in India, will have to look out for that too. SK also wants to start something small first on a piece of land he has, hopefully will get involved in that too.
I won't say all of these will work out, infact none of these might, but I believe something will.
Why now: Well is there ever a better time? and if not now then when ??
What if: I'm a believer and I always believed in my dreams, myself and people around me. More so, no one can ever answer that question unless ofcourse you know how to read fate.
Till when: I give myself 3months i.e. till Jan 16th to see how things are going, and if I find a/any direction I'd continue for min another year.
Money? : I haven't figured out that yet, but with optimal usage I have enough to survive for next 5-10months.
Marriage: Huh!! Like that's going to happen :P Not in this lifetime ;)
Parents: Well I have been preparing them for the last 6months, so no big deal. Infact dad is encouraging! Lucky me.
Afraid? : Hell I'm nervous, but courage is doing things inspite of the fear :), esp when you believe in them.
The saddest summary of life contains three descriptions : could have, might have and should have. I wouldn't want any of them in mine:)
FAQs:
What next: Well I have decided not to stick to one single thing, as of now I'm working with R on few land deals, with few friends on starting up a consultancy, and with SK to start up a full fledged firm. S wanted me to invest some amount of his here in India, will have to look out for that too. SK also wants to start something small first on a piece of land he has, hopefully will get involved in that too.
I won't say all of these will work out, infact none of these might, but I believe something will.
Why now: Well is there ever a better time? and if not now then when ??
What if: I'm a believer and I always believed in my dreams, myself and people around me. More so, no one can ever answer that question unless ofcourse you know how to read fate.
Till when: I give myself 3months i.e. till Jan 16th to see how things are going, and if I find a/any direction I'd continue for min another year.
Money? : I haven't figured out that yet, but with optimal usage I have enough to survive for next 5-10months.
Marriage: Huh!! Like that's going to happen :P Not in this lifetime ;)
Parents: Well I have been preparing them for the last 6months, so no big deal. Infact dad is encouraging! Lucky me.
Afraid? : Hell I'm nervous, but courage is doing things inspite of the fear :), esp when you believe in them.
The saddest summary of life contains three descriptions : could have, might have and should have. I wouldn't want any of them in mine:)
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Being human
I'm not born son of Satan which I claim I'm, I'm adopted :) and the only time I still act human is when I catch cold :(, one of gods ways, I believe, to slow me down but poor guy(does god have a gender?) he never wins.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Love
Love is what happens when you are least aware, love isn't smart love is stupid, love isn't a 30story sky scraper to be built on strong foundation love is passion, love is heat love is like an ice cream in hot summer you either just go for it or keep thinking. I know its strange coming from someone who believes in not having anything which you cant leave behind when the heat is round the corner but hey I do believe in love.
It could be your next door neighbour, it could be your best friend, it could be the colleague you always admired, it could be an acquaintance or it could be someone you just met, All it takes is one moment n one smile.
PS: Haven't slept for the last 30hrs I guess this is what happens n ofcourse inspired by Cupid the new tv show :)
It could be your next door neighbour, it could be your best friend, it could be the colleague you always admired, it could be an acquaintance or it could be someone you just met, All it takes is one moment n one smile.
PS: Haven't slept for the last 30hrs I guess this is what happens n ofcourse inspired by Cupid the new tv show :)
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Mid year - Quarter Life resolutions
Life's been awesome and I felt its time I take some responsibility about myself and make some crazy resolutions to check if I'm mature enough to be 25next year :D Lets see
Learn atleast 10 sentences in 2/3 languages other than English, Hindi, Telugu n French Participate in atleast one cycling event in Hyd Visit atleast 4 new places Expertise in 4-5 new cocktails Stay below 65kgs Attend atleast 1 concert/conf outside Hyd Continue photography and complete 50 best shots Publish atleast 1 article in local news paper Touch 100 posts by Jan Visit all cousins in India Save atleast two months salary (hahahaha!!!) Hit the gym atleast 100days in the year before Jan
n ofcourse stay in touch with everyone :)
I could add 'become a morning person' but whom am I kidding :D
n ofcourse stay in touch with everyone :)
I could add 'become a morning person' but whom am I kidding :D
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Ozma ...
Yet another concert :) Damn I'm loving them, this one was at Excess @Novotel and free drinks n snacks. The music was good but I'm not a great fan for rock (though it was rock-jazz), and I loved the earlier one by Sylvian Luc much much much much better but it's overall a very good concert also considering the company :)
Starting out as a working group as well as one of the musical research and experimentations, OZMA was born in 2001 as a result of the meeting of three young students at the conservatory of Strasbourg. A trio at first, inspired by metric jazz, funk and some musical exoticism, Adrien Deennefeld, Stephane Scharle and Edouard Sero Guillaume lay down the foundations of what was to be the future ozmic music.
In 2004 the group expanded with the arrival of David Florsch and Guillaume Nuss. The quintet then created a new repertoire combining each members energy and experience. In 2005, the group of five release a self produced album called OZMA which was the fruit of severall years of friendship and musical connivance. OZMA gave and captivated by frevidness, dynamism, generosity and childlike mindset, its passion, five friends who like playing together a real talent's fusion, which let nobody indiffernt.
It's just a great group and they played really good numbers mostly self composed, and for a change here is the group in b&w
Starting out as a working group as well as one of the musical research and experimentations, OZMA was born in 2001 as a result of the meeting of three young students at the conservatory of Strasbourg. A trio at first, inspired by metric jazz, funk and some musical exoticism, Adrien Deennefeld, Stephane Scharle and Edouard Sero Guillaume lay down the foundations of what was to be the future ozmic music.
In 2004 the group expanded with the arrival of David Florsch and Guillaume Nuss. The quintet then created a new repertoire combining each members energy and experience. In 2005, the group of five release a self produced album called OZMA which was the fruit of severall years of friendship and musical connivance. OZMA gave and captivated by frevidness, dynamism, generosity and childlike mindset, its passion, five friends who like playing together a real talent's fusion, which let nobody indiffernt.
It's just a great group and they played really good numbers mostly self composed, and for a change here is the group in b&w
Sunday, March 29, 2009
chalna jeevan ki kahani ... rukhna maut ki nishani
How true!! Last 1month has been amazing. 3cousins got married, 2 friends got married, went on 2trips with friends, 1 trip to g.parents place for Ugadi, been to 3 concerts, worked on a major project at work. I couldn't ask more from life, but I'm not planning on stopping it there :D Next few months are going to be even more exciting. 5more weddings starting April 19th, 4more trips starting April 10th but ofcourse still within India :) and 2concerts per month :D
And the best part, all these irrespective of people turning up or not. Its a very old story that I/we plan for trip but people backout slowly and finally I end up pissed off, but these are trips already planned and approved :D some unavoidable hehe. Only downside I'd put on a tummy like everyone else if I don't keep up my cycling or exercise after soo much of free food.
I also learnt that I'm a natural photographer :D I could come up with some excellent shots (of a monkey running away with a coconut and another one giving milk to its kid, few censored pics of couples which I could use to blackmail :P, pics of a guy extracting liquor from tree (thati kallu - desi daaru) n more). The cam is worth more than what I bought it for (4.5k worth 9k at a 50% sale) [:)] its a 7.1MP with 4x optical and 14x digital zoom.
I think I'll start to write about each of my trips and concerts explicitly instead of summarizing them into one cramped up post making no real sense :D I started off this blog to express my opinions and now its becoming more and more personal :). I really wish to blog on the onset political situation in Andhra Pradesh (!!!) which could bounce off even the greatest minds but I'm just lazy hehe.
Oh did I forget to mention they opened a branch of Vacs just beside my house :D Now I have a real good bakery(Vacs), a cool hang out place (beenz), most happening pub (poison), few real good restaurants n pizza places, shopping malls(bf, bb), multiplexes (cinimax n adlabs), most happening gyms (latitudes n helios) all walkable distance from my house :D Am I lucky or what hehe .....
"Staying single is a bliss" - Saaketh
And the best part, all these irrespective of people turning up or not. Its a very old story that I/we plan for trip but people backout slowly and finally I end up pissed off, but these are trips already planned and approved :D some unavoidable hehe. Only downside I'd put on a tummy like everyone else if I don't keep up my cycling or exercise after soo much of free food.
I also learnt that I'm a natural photographer :D I could come up with some excellent shots (of a monkey running away with a coconut and another one giving milk to its kid, few censored pics of couples which I could use to blackmail :P, pics of a guy extracting liquor from tree (thati kallu - desi daaru) n more). The cam is worth more than what I bought it for (4.5k worth 9k at a 50% sale) [:)] its a 7.1MP with 4x optical and 14x digital zoom.
I think I'll start to write about each of my trips and concerts explicitly instead of summarizing them into one cramped up post making no real sense :D I started off this blog to express my opinions and now its becoming more and more personal :). I really wish to blog on the onset political situation in Andhra Pradesh (!!!) which could bounce off even the greatest minds but I'm just lazy hehe.
Oh did I forget to mention they opened a branch of Vacs just beside my house :D Now I have a real good bakery(Vacs), a cool hang out place (beenz), most happening pub (poison), few real good restaurants n pizza places, shopping malls(bf, bb), multiplexes (cinimax n adlabs), most happening gyms (latitudes n helios) all walkable distance from my house :D Am I lucky or what hehe .....
"Staying single is a bliss" - Saaketh
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Marriages, Concerts and life
This was supposed to be posted in mid March :D
Like I previously mentioned, had a very nice time at both the cousins weddings. No more close relatives weddings for the next 6yrs, and by then who knows whos who!!
Been to this concert, "Duo Rosario" on 1st March and one by Sylvain Luc on 18th March.
The 1st one was vocal + instrumental, it included French, spanish and Italian songs along with English. There was also solo instrumental by a 8yr old and another vocal by a local group. But the actual group i.e. the Duo Rosario was excellent. Two music lovers of classical vocal and guitar, Celine Laly and Mickael Noel, set up the Duo Rosario in 2005. It was important for them to add value to the unusual combination of voice and guitar in the world of classical music, which favoured only the more regular forms like guitar-flute, guitar-violin, song-piano, completely negating one side of the repertoire. To highlight their repertoire, the musicians have selected works of each era, particularly representing their style and their form. So they enter into their program works as varies as songs of farmyard, cycles of melodies or popular songs and thus us SIX different languages. But yes the major languages were French and English, and I should say the lady had an incredible voice. Mickael didn't really know English and was on guitar all the time.
This inspired me to buy a cam ;) and this was on 18th March Sylvain Luc Trio -- Only instrumental and I have to tell you, this was/is my all time best concert. "In Esukadi, before the music, there is the transparency of the air, and the wide song, lyrical atfirst. Over there where Sylvain Luc comes from music is in your mind before being in your fingers." - Sylvain Luc, indeed was excellent. An accomplished and talented musician, he begun music early, sharing his love of music with his brothers in Bayonne. Accordion on one side, drums on the other are as many influences he claims as he plays manouche music, valse, or basque folklore. He laso plays bass, violin or cello which he studied at the conservatory. In early 90s and since he played with many great names like Richard Galliano the Argentinean singer Jairo or George Moustaki among many others.
Here he playes with Jean-Marc Jafet on bass guitar and Andre Ceccarelli on drums. Andre also played music with a plain paper, trust me it was just a plain paper. No wonder this group won the best jazz music award in 2003 and also nominated for the best jazz album of the year.
I wish I could write more, infact I could write forever, I recorded a few but I definitely realized how much I missed not having a cam and I bought one finally a 7.1MP Powershot, simple and does the purpose.
More marriages and concerts lined up, I'll be doing a lot of travelling too :D just in India though
Like I previously mentioned, had a very nice time at both the cousins weddings. No more close relatives weddings for the next 6yrs, and by then who knows whos who!!
Been to this concert, "Duo Rosario" on 1st March and one by Sylvain Luc on 18th March.
The 1st one was vocal + instrumental, it included French, spanish and Italian songs along with English. There was also solo instrumental by a 8yr old and another vocal by a local group. But the actual group i.e. the Duo Rosario was excellent. Two music lovers of classical vocal and guitar, Celine Laly and Mickael Noel, set up the Duo Rosario in 2005. It was important for them to add value to the unusual combination of voice and guitar in the world of classical music, which favoured only the more regular forms like guitar-flute, guitar-violin, song-piano, completely negating one side of the repertoire. To highlight their repertoire, the musicians have selected works of each era, particularly representing their style and their form. So they enter into their program works as varies as songs of farmyard, cycles of melodies or popular songs and thus us SIX different languages. But yes the major languages were French and English, and I should say the lady had an incredible voice. Mickael didn't really know English and was on guitar all the time.
This inspired me to buy a cam ;) and this was on 18th March Sylvain Luc Trio -- Only instrumental and I have to tell you, this was/is my all time best concert. "In Esukadi, before the music, there is the transparency of the air, and the wide song, lyrical atfirst. Over there where Sylvain Luc comes from music is in your mind before being in your fingers." - Sylvain Luc, indeed was excellent. An accomplished and talented musician, he begun music early, sharing his love of music with his brothers in Bayonne. Accordion on one side, drums on the other are as many influences he claims as he plays manouche music, valse, or basque folklore. He laso plays bass, violin or cello which he studied at the conservatory. In early 90s and since he played with many great names like Richard Galliano the Argentinean singer Jairo or George Moustaki among many others.
Here he playes with Jean-Marc Jafet on bass guitar and Andre Ceccarelli on drums. Andre also played music with a plain paper, trust me it was just a plain paper. No wonder this group won the best jazz music award in 2003 and also nominated for the best jazz album of the year.
I wish I could write more, infact I could write forever, I recorded a few but I definitely realized how much I missed not having a cam and I bought one finally a 7.1MP Powershot, simple and does the purpose.
More marriages and concerts lined up, I'll be doing a lot of travelling too :D just in India though
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Kala Bandar !!
It's been a busy fortnight and it ends on March 1st. Two of my 1st cousins are getting married (one on 19th and other on 27th). I had a really great time at the 1st wedding, and I believe it's gonna be even better at the 2nd wedding :). I have quite a few cool announcements to make, but I'll do that in another post.
Saw Delhi-6 today, people didn't really like it, some even didn't understand the movie but trust me its a really great n wonderful movie. You GOT to open your mind and put yourself in the shoes of ANY of the characters if you want to appreciate the movie. EACH character had his/her part to play, and each character depicted something about the human nature. One major blunder that the director did was to chose a wrong concept. Religion is and always was a very dangerous topic to choose. Movies might have become hit when they chose to support a religion but fighting against the evilness and blind beliefs in the name of religion is a VERY dangerous topic to pic, esp in India. I REALLY believe that if the same movie was directed by an English director and the climax changed a little bit (Abi dies), the movie would have won as many Oscars as Slumdog if not more.
I liked the concept of "kala bandar", it's more than just a joke, its a reflection of the fears in common man, its a reflection of the blind faith, its a reflection of exploitation, and it's also a reflection of the role of media in modern India. Some of the dialogues are really thought provoking, but invain, I don't think people got the point :(
Sorry Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, the movie is definitely better than RDB or Slumdog conceptually, but its a little beyond its time, trying to deal with the religious beliefs of Indians is not that easy. Atleast there should have been a typical villain who did all the 'bandar' stuff for the masses to like the movie. I loved it anyway. Hats off and as you said RDB is your high school stuff & D6 is coll, just that you chose a difficult thesis topic !!
Saw Delhi-6 today, people didn't really like it, some even didn't understand the movie but trust me its a really great n wonderful movie. You GOT to open your mind and put yourself in the shoes of ANY of the characters if you want to appreciate the movie. EACH character had his/her part to play, and each character depicted something about the human nature. One major blunder that the director did was to chose a wrong concept. Religion is and always was a very dangerous topic to choose. Movies might have become hit when they chose to support a religion but fighting against the evilness and blind beliefs in the name of religion is a VERY dangerous topic to pic, esp in India. I REALLY believe that if the same movie was directed by an English director and the climax changed a little bit (Abi dies), the movie would have won as many Oscars as Slumdog if not more.
I liked the concept of "kala bandar", it's more than just a joke, its a reflection of the fears in common man, its a reflection of the blind faith, its a reflection of exploitation, and it's also a reflection of the role of media in modern India. Some of the dialogues are really thought provoking, but invain, I don't think people got the point :(
Sorry Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, the movie is definitely better than RDB or Slumdog conceptually, but its a little beyond its time, trying to deal with the religious beliefs of Indians is not that easy. Atleast there should have been a typical villain who did all the 'bandar' stuff for the masses to like the movie. I loved it anyway. Hats off and as you said RDB is your high school stuff & D6 is coll, just that you chose a difficult thesis topic !!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
On the eve of V'day
No net @home for the last two weeks and it'd take one more week before I can get a new connection, and thus the disappearance. Lots happened in life in the last two weeks, on personal front and @work too but I'm too lazy to post all that.
Here is Valentines' Day again. Every year I make it a point to freak out on V'day to celebrate the fact that I'm still single (why should couples have all the fun :P), but damn this year I don't see it happening :(. No I'm not afraid of Ram Sena :P, just that most of the friends are now in US, and those in India are either committed or married or too busy working and trying to save their ass from being kicked out of office thanks to recession and layoffs. I guess cupid is just too jealous I'm enjoying my bachelorhood even on V'day :P.
No worries, I'm sure it'll work out just good like every year :-). On a different note I'll be going home for a few days next week and I have my cousins marriage the following week, so there might not be much of an online presence.
PS1: I know eve of V'day is tomorrow :P, but I won't be able to post this tomorrow hehe.
PS2: I got a few mins net access and this is what I do :D
PS3: If someone has any spl plans feel free to invite me along :D
PS4: Got to do a lot of shopping, I'm almost broke and its only 12th :(, lucky this isn't a leap year.
Here is Valentines' Day again. Every year I make it a point to freak out on V'day to celebrate the fact that I'm still single (why should couples have all the fun :P), but damn this year I don't see it happening :(. No I'm not afraid of Ram Sena :P, just that most of the friends are now in US, and those in India are either committed or married or too busy working and trying to save their ass from being kicked out of office thanks to recession and layoffs. I guess cupid is just too jealous I'm enjoying my bachelorhood even on V'day :P.
No worries, I'm sure it'll work out just good like every year :-). On a different note I'll be going home for a few days next week and I have my cousins marriage the following week, so there might not be much of an online presence.
PS1: I know eve of V'day is tomorrow :P, but I won't be able to post this tomorrow hehe.
PS2: I got a few mins net access and this is what I do :D
PS3: If someone has any spl plans feel free to invite me along :D
PS4: Got to do a lot of shopping, I'm almost broke and its only 12th :(, lucky this isn't a leap year.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Once upon a time
Once I went a sailing, a sailing in the sea,
I sailed in a boat, I sailed in a ship,
I sailed to Switzerland ....
la la la la lala ..lala lala laaa ... lalalalaa lalalalaa .. lala lala laaa
A Negro sat beside me,
In a cool and easy way.
And when I passed my love to him,
This is what he had to say:
"Amruta manza kanza,
Namast kaara eegro,
Chiki chiki chelom, chikaku chelom,
hey ya eh ya hoi !!! ..."
PS1: No offense meant
PS2: Switzerland is landlocked, sue me :P
PS3: It actually sounds much much much better in my mind with the tune (lala ...)
PS4: I got no clue what those words mean :P its pure fiction I guess
PS5: The last line is supposed to sound like ayyay ayyayyoooooo....
PS6: No I'm not gay :P it only means I was trying to socialize (perverts ...)
PS7: Blame the weather outside, not me :D
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Jhansi Lakshmi Sena ....
There is MNS, there is Sri Ram Sena, there is Shiv Sena ... so I was thinking how about a women protection cell ? Lets call it Jhansi Lakshmi Sena !! or something better. A group of people who could help fight the atrocities committed against the modern Indian women without being dragged into the limelight by the media or otherwise.
The group could comprise of:
1. Few guys who can handle situations tactically
2. One psychiatrist
3. One lawyer
4. One doctor (optional)
These guys need not leave their jobs or whatever, its just a part time thing. I'd prefer it to be an ngo kinds with just nominal charges to cover operational costs, and because we register it as a ngo it'll be legally acceptable. Because there is no fear of being publicized or no 'defamation of family if you go to police station' and also we can associate with each other from the new generation, people can contact us easily without hesitation or even anonymously before they decide to show up. As this is not an ngo being run by a few aunties who got bored staying @home, we could actually take action rather than stage a dharna or go before the cam and shout at public.
We could start off with a website where people could register themselves in the above 4 categories, that way we have them within our reach whenever necessary. The more(contacts) the merrier.
Not a bad idea, is it ?
The group could comprise of:
1. Few guys who can handle situations tactically
2. One psychiatrist
3. One lawyer
4. One doctor (optional)
These guys need not leave their jobs or whatever, its just a part time thing. I'd prefer it to be an ngo kinds with just nominal charges to cover operational costs, and because we register it as a ngo it'll be legally acceptable. Because there is no fear of being publicized or no 'defamation of family if you go to police station' and also we can associate with each other from the new generation, people can contact us easily without hesitation or even anonymously before they decide to show up. As this is not an ngo being run by a few aunties who got bored staying @home, we could actually take action rather than stage a dharna or go before the cam and shout at public.
We could start off with a website where people could register themselves in the above 4 categories, that way we have them within our reach whenever necessary. The more(contacts) the merrier.
Not a bad idea, is it ?
Incredible
After S and after KR, this is the 1st time I went out to a pub/disco which means I went out after nearly 6months (or more). And I had a real good company, 3 girls all committed so no complications :D The worst part of it though is that all their 3 bfs were working @office while we were partying around :D hehe ....
So we (D,A,V,me) first hit grillroom/fusion9 where there was a band playing, it was awesome music but the girls wanted to dance, so we had a few drinks n drove back to poison @11PM. Luckily withdrew money on the way. It was ladies night @Poison, and trust me the music, the ambience and the food was awesome, but the drinks were. I don't know why but V and I had 2 tequila shots and 1 large whisky raw but didn't get high (and this is after having 3 vodkas @f9 each, Do they mix something ?? or are we too excited to get drunk). D,A,V dance but as usual I just stay back and watch the folks dance on the dance floor (For those of you who haven't been to a pub/disco/dance floor with me, I don't dance. I like watching ppl dance + I can't dance + I have never danced. So I just don't. I just watch ppl dance, and trust me its really great to watch others dance, you learn a lot about ppl, both those whom you are with and those whom you have never met).
So after spending 2 more hours (i.e from 8PM to 10:30PM @fusion9 and 11PM to 12:30PM @Poison) we are back home. A who didn't have any spiked drink drove us back home, and after they dropped me they had to go some 7KMs odd to their place, so I dropped them @their place (I just couldn't let them go alone @1AM, its too risky) and came back home on my bike @ an avg of 80KM/hr speed (key word avg). V asked me to stay back @their place, but I just couldn't. I'm still in my senses, so came back home.
It's one of the best company I had since S i.e. for the last 1yr ... I could use the same company more. Though there was KR, we never went out to a pub or disco and it was more confined to parks or movies. Now that I'm single again, I'm glad I could go out. V was great and A danced good. D was hyper as usual :P.
PS: Slightly drunk, so might not make complete sense, but just wanted to post. Might review and refresh tomorrow morning.
Confession: Liked V, she's committed though :P :( (reiterating to myself, stay single stay single stay single ....)
That was just spurr of the moment, actually A is absolutely gr8 hehe, ofcourse she'z committed too.
So we (D,A,V,me) first hit grillroom/fusion9 where there was a band playing, it was awesome music but the girls wanted to dance, so we had a few drinks n drove back to poison @11PM. Luckily withdrew money on the way. It was ladies night @Poison, and trust me the music, the ambience and the food was awesome, but the drinks were. I don't know why but V and I had 2 tequila shots and 1 large whisky raw but didn't get high (and this is after having 3 vodkas @f9 each, Do they mix something ?? or are we too excited to get drunk). D,A,V dance but as usual I just stay back and watch the folks dance on the dance floor (For those of you who haven't been to a pub/disco/dance floor with me, I don't dance. I like watching ppl dance + I can't dance + I have never danced. So I just don't. I just watch ppl dance, and trust me its really great to watch others dance, you learn a lot about ppl, both those whom you are with and those whom you have never met).
So after spending 2 more hours (i.e from 8PM to 10:30PM @fusion9 and 11PM to 12:30PM @Poison) we are back home. A who didn't have any spiked drink drove us back home, and after they dropped me they had to go some 7KMs odd to their place, so I dropped them @their place (I just couldn't let them go alone @1AM, its too risky) and came back home on my bike @ an avg of 80KM/hr speed (key word avg). V asked me to stay back @their place, but I just couldn't. I'm still in my senses, so came back home.
It's one of the best company I had since S i.e. for the last 1yr ... I could use the same company more. Though there was KR, we never went out to a pub or disco and it was more confined to parks or movies. Now that I'm single again, I'm glad I could go out. V was great and A danced good. D was hyper as usual :P.
PS: Slightly drunk, so might not make complete sense, but just wanted to post. Might review and refresh tomorrow morning.
That was just spurr of the moment, actually A is absolutely gr8 hehe, ofcourse she'z committed too.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Indian of the Year
POLITICAL LEADER OF THE YEAR : Sheila Dikshit
Sheila Dikshit has been elected to serve an unprecedented third consecutive term as Chief Minister of Delhi. She is seen as an agent of positive change who has helped make Delhi a much less polluted and liveable city in the last few years. She has been a leading figure in the movement for granting equal rights to women and represented India on the UN Commission on Status of Women for five years.
SPORTSMAN OF THE YEAR : Abhinav Bindra
The first Indian to win an individual gold medal at the Olympic Games, India's first in 28 years. He has displayed nerves of steel and a dogged determination over the years to attain the highest sporting glory. His gold at the Olympic Games has greatly increased people’s interest in the sport.
BUSINESS LEADER OF THE YEAR : Deepak Parikh
The man behind making HDFC a premier housing finance institution in the country. In 2008, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by FinanceAsia for his contribution towards the banking/financial sector in Asia. Under his chairmanship, HDFC has developed a network of 761 branches and 1,977 automated teller machines in 327 cities in India as of March 31, 2008.
ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR : Aamir Khan
EXTRAORDINARY INDIANS OF THE YEAR : The Moon Team
On November 22nd, 2008, India made history by successfully launching its first mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-1. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), under the tenure of its Chairman, G Madhavan Nair, has placed India on the global map. The satellite carries the largest suite of scientific instruments ever to be carried to the moon, 14 in all. At Rs 386 crore, it is the cheapest moon mission of the 21st century - an Indian mission with 14 countries as international partners
25 YEARS OF PROMOTING INDIAN CULTURE : Kiran Seth of Spic Macay
Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst the Youth (SPICMACAY) established by Kiran Seth, has successfully completed 30 years. He was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at The Keshav Smriti Adhyaya in 2008. Seth's organisation has exposed generations of students to Indian culture.
GENNEXT POLITICIAN OF THE YEAR : Omar Abdullah
The 38-year-old scion of Kashmir's 'first family', the Abdullahs, Omar Abdullah became the youngest Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir on January 5, 2009. In 2000-01, he was nominated as Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum; he led an Indian delegation to World Economic Summit in Rio-de-Janeiro and UN World Conference on Racism in Durban. He was also Prime Minister's Special Envoy to Libya.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD : L K Advani
He is a grassroot leader and is credited with having made the BJP a formidable force in Indian politics, through clarity of vision, precise statements and an astute sense of timing. Always in favour of anti-terrorism laws, he abolished Press Censorship and repealed anti-press legislation during his tenure in 1977-1979 as the I&B Minister. BJP has named him as a Prime Ministerial candidate for the party and the National Democratic Alliance for the 2009 general elections.
BEST SONG LYRICS : Prasoon Joshi
Known as the 'Ad Guru of India' within advertising circles, he has created several award winning advertising campaigns for brands like Coca Cola, Happy Dent, Asian Paints and Cadbury's. Amongst the several films and hit Indipop albums for which he has composed lyrics, he won the Best Lyricist Filmfare Award for the films Fanaa (2007) and Taare Zameen Par (2008), the latter being India's official entry to the Oscars 2009. He also won the Star Screen Award for Best Lyricist for the film Hum Tum in 2005.
GLOBAL EXCELLENCE : The Slumdog Millionaire Team
Courtesy : NDTV
Sheila Dikshit has been elected to serve an unprecedented third consecutive term as Chief Minister of Delhi. She is seen as an agent of positive change who has helped make Delhi a much less polluted and liveable city in the last few years. She has been a leading figure in the movement for granting equal rights to women and represented India on the UN Commission on Status of Women for five years.
SPORTSMAN OF THE YEAR : Abhinav Bindra
The first Indian to win an individual gold medal at the Olympic Games, India's first in 28 years. He has displayed nerves of steel and a dogged determination over the years to attain the highest sporting glory. His gold at the Olympic Games has greatly increased people’s interest in the sport.
BUSINESS LEADER OF THE YEAR : Deepak Parikh
The man behind making HDFC a premier housing finance institution in the country. In 2008, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by FinanceAsia for his contribution towards the banking/financial sector in Asia. Under his chairmanship, HDFC has developed a network of 761 branches and 1,977 automated teller machines in 327 cities in India as of March 31, 2008.
ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR : Aamir Khan
EXTRAORDINARY INDIANS OF THE YEAR : The Moon Team
On November 22nd, 2008, India made history by successfully launching its first mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-1. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), under the tenure of its Chairman, G Madhavan Nair, has placed India on the global map. The satellite carries the largest suite of scientific instruments ever to be carried to the moon, 14 in all. At Rs 386 crore, it is the cheapest moon mission of the 21st century - an Indian mission with 14 countries as international partners
25 YEARS OF PROMOTING INDIAN CULTURE : Kiran Seth of Spic Macay
Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst the Youth (SPICMACAY) established by Kiran Seth, has successfully completed 30 years. He was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at The Keshav Smriti Adhyaya in 2008. Seth's organisation has exposed generations of students to Indian culture.
GENNEXT POLITICIAN OF THE YEAR : Omar Abdullah
The 38-year-old scion of Kashmir's 'first family', the Abdullahs, Omar Abdullah became the youngest Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir on January 5, 2009. In 2000-01, he was nominated as Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum; he led an Indian delegation to World Economic Summit in Rio-de-Janeiro and UN World Conference on Racism in Durban. He was also Prime Minister's Special Envoy to Libya.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD : L K Advani
He is a grassroot leader and is credited with having made the BJP a formidable force in Indian politics, through clarity of vision, precise statements and an astute sense of timing. Always in favour of anti-terrorism laws, he abolished Press Censorship and repealed anti-press legislation during his tenure in 1977-1979 as the I&B Minister. BJP has named him as a Prime Ministerial candidate for the party and the National Democratic Alliance for the 2009 general elections.
BEST SONG LYRICS : Prasoon Joshi
Known as the 'Ad Guru of India' within advertising circles, he has created several award winning advertising campaigns for brands like Coca Cola, Happy Dent, Asian Paints and Cadbury's. Amongst the several films and hit Indipop albums for which he has composed lyrics, he won the Best Lyricist Filmfare Award for the films Fanaa (2007) and Taare Zameen Par (2008), the latter being India's official entry to the Oscars 2009. He also won the Star Screen Award for Best Lyricist for the film Hum Tum in 2005.
GLOBAL EXCELLENCE : The Slumdog Millionaire Team
Courtesy : NDTV
Sri Ram Sena .....
They name themselves Sri Ram Sena, the same Ram who apparently fought a battle with someone across the ocean for his wife, Ram sena is supposed to be a sena of monkeys(vanaras) who helped Ram get to his wife. And what do we have here ?? A bunch of useless jobless freaks who go around bashing girls.
For those of you who don't know the story, around 15-20 guys calling themselves Sri Ram Sena attacked a local pub 'Amnesia' in Mangalore. The activists of Sri Rama Sena entered the Amnesia Bar and Restaurant on Saturday evening and threatened the women sitting inside. The men, who took objection to women drinking alcohol, pushed them outside, many women falling to the ground while they were being driven out.They got into an altercation with the women customers saying they were dressed indecently.
Now what do I say ?? Today hit girls and show dadagiri, tomorrow hit children because they are learning English and day after close down all MNCs and finally we'll have the Rama Rajyam where there is no crime because there is no freedom in the 1st place, great going.
I don't understand something, if a terrorist is a radical who employs terror as a political weapon; usually organizes with other terrorists in small cells; often uses religion as a cover for terrorist activities, then why are these religious groups not called terrorist groups ?? Vote bank politics or just soft corner because they are from within our country ? Maybe they don't carry hi end weapons with them or don't go about shooting people, but don't they have the same ideologies as those of the middle east groups whom we call as terrorist groups ??
There is a saying in Telugu "inta gelichi racha gelava mannaru", it says 1st win at home and then you can think about outside. We want Pakistan to hand over their terrorist groups to India, but don't want to stop the terror spreading within the country. We call ourselves a free and peaceful country while we are just closing our eyes to all the terror around us. What a hypocrisy ...
For those of you who don't know the story, around 15-20 guys calling themselves Sri Ram Sena attacked a local pub 'Amnesia' in Mangalore. The activists of Sri Rama Sena entered the Amnesia Bar and Restaurant on Saturday evening and threatened the women sitting inside. The men, who took objection to women drinking alcohol, pushed them outside, many women falling to the ground while they were being driven out.They got into an altercation with the women customers saying they were dressed indecently.
Now what do I say ?? Today hit girls and show dadagiri, tomorrow hit children because they are learning English and day after close down all MNCs and finally we'll have the Rama Rajyam where there is no crime because there is no freedom in the 1st place, great going.
I don't understand something, if a terrorist is a radical who employs terror as a political weapon; usually organizes with other terrorists in small cells; often uses religion as a cover for terrorist activities, then why are these religious groups not called terrorist groups ?? Vote bank politics or just soft corner because they are from within our country ? Maybe they don't carry hi end weapons with them or don't go about shooting people, but don't they have the same ideologies as those of the middle east groups whom we call as terrorist groups ??
There is a saying in Telugu "inta gelichi racha gelava mannaru", it says 1st win at home and then you can think about outside. We want Pakistan to hand over their terrorist groups to India, but don't want to stop the terror spreading within the country. We call ourselves a free and peaceful country while we are just closing our eyes to all the terror around us. What a hypocrisy ...
Sunday, January 25, 2009
I am ...
I am what I am. I had a lousy argument with a friend on male chauvinism today. I'm a feminist and I'm proud of that. As chauvinism today doesn't apply to guys alone, there is nothing wrong in a guy being a feminist (or atleast that is what I tell myself). Women today (even earlier) deal with more complex situations than men do. Agreed 90% of them are irrational when it comes to taking decisions, but it is only because they think with their hearts or sometimes don't even think but decide with their hearts :P. It's true: While women think with their hearts men think while testosterone is kicking in (I couldn't put it more decently :D).But how do you justify the exploitation ??
Do you see the News channels reporting page3 parties where the camera zooms to body parts of girls who are dancing (ofcourse with out their permission). It is supposed to be a NEWS channel for heavens sake, I understand the commercial aspect but ..!!!
Do you see the daily advertisements, "slim girls-thinly clad" seems to be the only theme
Don't get me started over dowry. WTF !! You are selling yourselves bloody idiots, don't you get that??
Huh!! The lone sharks at office, in college, on the roads and recently even hospitals !!
INTERNET... Yahoo chat, orkut, facebook, fake profiles n teenage girls. You know the stories.
Mobiles n anonymous calls
It isn't about a girl or a guy, but how can someone see so much of exploitation and yet not oppose it ?? Where is the nobility ? Demanding dowry is like claiming to be a Che Guevara fan without knowing who he is or what he fought for. I know its a very bad comparison, but that is the extent to which people are lost, even highly educated and qualified.
PS1: I know I wrote on this earlier (actually that was a better post) but its just frustration after an irrational argument.
PS2: I know there are exceptions to everyone and everything, the above mentioned is only a general scenario.
It isn't about a girl or a guy, but how can someone see so much of exploitation and yet not oppose it ?? Where is the nobility ? Demanding dowry is like claiming to be a Che Guevara fan without knowing who he is or what he fought for. I know its a very bad comparison, but that is the extent to which people are lost, even highly educated and qualified.
PS1: I know I wrote on this earlier (actually that was a better post) but its just frustration after an irrational argument.
PS2: I know there are exceptions to everyone and everything, the above mentioned is only a general scenario.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Tring Tring
There is no point being a grownup if you can't be childish sometimes ... :D
My new cycle, I hope few weeks down the line I'll be able to cycle all the way to office (to and fro).
My new cycle, I hope few weeks down the line I'll be able to cycle all the way to office (to and fro).
Thursday, January 1, 2009
10 random lessons learnt in 2008
1. Capitalism is an addiction not a qualification alone.
2. Modern education develops more slaves than free thinkers (much worse they assume they are liberal)
3. Look beyond the obvious, don't assume all you hear is the truth. Things you believe to be 'right' today were fought for yesterday and were 'wrong' the day before.
4. Profits in balance sheet doesn't necessarily mean you are doing well.
5. There is a thin line between want and need.
6. Liability is always bad, how bad depends on the situation though.
7. It's nice to see young, very well educated leaders with liberal thoughts in politics; sad to see most of them in congress which has most tainted leaders though.
8. He who has the gold, makes the rules, yet he isn't immune from slippers of a common man, if he screws around.
9. Chill out !! You could be shot dead either in the most elite of the places or in a holy place.
10. Love or Money doesn't mean or ensure anything. Happiness means everything. You might find it in the strangest of places once you start looking.
2. Modern education develops more slaves than free thinkers (much worse they assume they are liberal)
3. Look beyond the obvious, don't assume all you hear is the truth. Things you believe to be 'right' today were fought for yesterday and were 'wrong' the day before.
4. Profits in balance sheet doesn't necessarily mean you are doing well.
5. There is a thin line between want and need.
6. Liability is always bad, how bad depends on the situation though.
7. It's nice to see young, very well educated leaders with liberal thoughts in politics; sad to see most of them in congress which has most tainted leaders though.
8. He who has the gold, makes the rules, yet he isn't immune from slippers of a common man, if he screws around.
9. Chill out !! You could be shot dead either in the most elite of the places or in a holy place.
10. Love or Money doesn't mean or ensure anything. Happiness means everything. You might find it in the strangest of places once you start looking.
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