A colourful journey...called Life

The TOI Pune Festival

2012-01-17T16:09:00.001+05:30

This year, I happened to attend a few events lined up as part of the Times Of India Pune Festival.
Most, rather all of which I attended, were musical events. There were a couple of plays and cookery events which I didn't attend.

Anyhow, so the ones I attended were :

First one, Shaan's musical concert at Amanora Park Town
This one seemed to be promising, at the newly built Amanora Park Town. The name sounds grand and the mall looks grand, but the approach road to the ground? Doesn't that need to be grand too? Or even a normal tar road? Maybe that is not really important then. Second thing was the parking. There was no parking arrangement at the ground. Park your vehicle as and where you wish on the rocky road!
Worse, Times distributed passes, but Amanora distributed VIP passes. All those who were not VIP were supposed to stand! That was also not so bad, but then you should start the program on time. They started at 8:30! Ohh and did I tell you about the entry lines?
Yes, there were three entry lines. One VIP and the other two for "others". But no pandal mentioned which line is for VIPs, so much for VIP treatment.
And even after the hour and half long wait we were greeted by June Banerjee, yea we hadn't heard her name before. No, she did sing well, only that her voice had no throw and no one wanted to hear her singing for more than 5 minutes. Shaan did come, and he did sing, some marathi ones, some hindi and then he started singing duet with June. I was out then. No more patience.
Moral : Big names don't guarantee good organisation. Artistes do not value time!

Second, the Laxminarayana Global Music Festival at Poona Club
I hadn't heard about this musical fest before, but I must tell you this is one thing I will look out for next year too. International artistes and new musical instruments. We heard the Kora from Senegal. A difficult instrument to play, but what sweet music it produces! Worth all the effort you put into playing it. Do listen to a clipping if available, its so simple and sweet and refreshing. (I'll try to share the recording of the the festival)
Second was the koto from Japan. Its music is nice, but a bit too slow for my liking, and the instrument looked too difficult to play.
Then the violins, what melody! They played solos and all the instruments together.
I went into a trance. Magnificent is not the word!
It was an open air event, organised at Poona Club. Everything else was well organised, except that the number of chairs placed were not in proportion to the number of passes distributed. Also since all the seating was at the same level, they could have elevated the stage, would have made the experience much better.
Also, people who were not interested in experiencing some new music had also walked in. That's fine, but then you can at least keep shut. I'm sure they were engineers cracking PJs because they were so bored. No I don't mind the jokes, but not at the cost of the lovely ambiance the music created. (Of course we asked them to keep shut and then they told us you can access the recording of the songs at the TOI website..so they had to be engineers!)
Yes, Nana Patekar graced the event and meeting him was more weird than I ever imagined. It was WEIRD!
Moral : There are a few artistes who are big, creativity is huge and they do value time!

Third, Jasbir Jassi's musical concert at Shaniwarwada
No I hadn't heard about this singer, but I had heard his famous song Kudi Kudi. This was also an open air concert at Shaniwarwada, the ambiance was beautiful! I had never been to any concert here before, I had visited Shaniwarwada once as part of my school picnic, I think in 5th standard.
The artiste here was late by an hour, but there were chairs (lots actually, there weren't many people to fill them up). Once the show started it was rocking. But then I don't follow punjabi and then the beats got too repetitive and the crowd a bit too lively and rowdy and I didn't feel like staying long. But Jasbir, hats off to him. He sang for 2 hours, non-stop! Energy! Ohh and I loved his voice, what throw what texture, lovely. And his sense of humor was brilliant, he made all the people laugh and sway to his songs. All in all a lively end to the TOI pune festival.
Moral : Artistes do not value time!

P.S. And finally I write a blogpost that is soooo long! I hope I can continue doing so. Ohh and yes, I haven't used smileys! Yaay! But yes, I've used too many exclamation marks, yes?

I'm just beautiful me!

2012-01-13T18:49:00.002+05:30

These verses are from the song "Who says" by Selena Gomez. I just can't get over the lyrics. They are so real, so true, so perfect!

I'm no beauty queen, I'm just beautiful me

You got every right to a beautiful life, come on

Who says, who says you're not perfect

Who says you're not worth it

Who says you're the only one that's hurting

Trust me that's the price of beauty

Who says you're not pretty

Who says you're not beautiful, who says?

I'm no beauty queen, I'm just beautiful me

You got every right to a beautiful life, come on

Who says you're not star potential
Who says you're not presidential
Who says you can't be in movies
Listen to me, listen to me

Who says you don't pass the test
Who says you can't be the best
Who said, who said?
Would you tell me who said that, yeah
Who said

I'm no beauty queen, I'm just beautiful me

You got every right to a beautiful life, come on

A New Year!

2012-01-03T15:52:00.001+05:30

Another year gone by, time to reflect and make a rough plan of what I want to achieve this year. I started this last year and hope to continue this tradition.

The year that was, 2011
* Professional life, a little dip I would say. Friends gone, group gone and a lot of new people. Atmosphere has changed and hoping it will be positive this year.
* Meagre blogging! Really, look at the posts I published this year, and its only 12! Yes, I have two more blogs, the movie and the books and the reason I separated them is so that I could keep this one focused on me! But it seems I have lost focus about the most important person, myself :|
* My new Activa and my Droid :) (Yes, I didn't write about my bike :| There are so many of my posts lying in the drafts folder :| )
* My first flight was in 2011. A company trip to Hyderabad to attend the Java One Technical Fest. (Yes, this post is still in drafts :| )
* I did read quite a few books this year. Not as many as I would have liked, but I am progressing. One site coaxing, or rather pushing me to do so is goodreads.

Now moving on to the resolutions for this year, 2012!
* I want to read more
* I should blog more
* I want to concentrate a bit more on drawing/painting. Recently trying my hand at drawing on the NOTE, I realized how completely absorbed I get while doing so, and the feeling after completing your painting is indescribable!
* I want to write atleast one post without smileys! Words should be enough to express your feelings, if they are rightly put ofcourse.
* I have decided to wake early and ofcourse sleep early too.
* I want to give "fitness" a fair chance this year.
* Facebook games has been eating into a lot of my free time, last year atleast. I plan to not kill time this year. Yes those games are fun, sometimes, but not worth getting addicted to.
* I have decided to get less attracted to gossip. Talking about other people is foolish and is a waste of time. You can't change things by cribbing, you have to change your ways to stay happy always!

And to end, here's a yummy new year cake my sis made, the snap is without the icing, but it looks yummy anyhow :)

An eventful last week of the year!

2012-01-02T18:54:00.000+05:30

Yes, I wrote a similar post last year too. And luckily we kept this tradition intact. Last week of the year..with family :)

Here are the highlights:

- Its great to know people who explore new places/fun stuff/food and are not mean enough to hide details from you. They wish for you to go and experience the fun as they did. There are some people, rare to find though, who are still kind enough.

- Spending time with family is awesome! Specially when you get to plan the trips and get your parents to enjoy the stuff you experienced :)

- Airtel network is bad..real bad! It leaves you when you need it the most! And I hate Airtel!

- If the food being served/made is good, it doesn't mean that your appetite has increased three-fold :p
Learn to limit the intake, especially of "non-diet-friendly" food :D

- Sometimes, your priorities will conflict. And you have to make a choice. You can't keep everyone happy, but one person you should keep happy, is, yourself!

- James Bond movies have a lot of flaws in them. Wonder how people really admire these movies. Critique apart :p, movies are fun to watch with family when you can comment on almost every scene and no one minds.

- Pune is not as open minded as I thought it was. I thought it was my city, but today it feels as if I'm an outsider. Infact, I'm not sure there's any place in the world where I won't feel like an outsider!

- Pune is not all nice and posh and its not one bit like the image I had, from childhood. Ofcourse I had heard things, but as the saying goes Seeing is believeing, so after I saw the areas one should avoid, I sure don't feel the same about this city anymore.

- I realised that I have been living in a dream world and that I still haven't seen the world as is. I still have glasses of kindness on my eyes. The world out there is not kind. Its ruthless, illogical, insensitive and corrupt. There are few who also admit to robbing you of your hard earned money by saying Tumhi hishob kela na, mhanun tumhala kalla ki 92 zhale. Nahitar mi roundoff karun 100 mhannar hoto. Ka mhanje, aamhi kiti sutte paise thevayche, ithe 1-2 nahi, 1000 grahak yetat! Seriously, this is called rounding off with someone else's money!

Its me, I've changed

2011-12-14T11:28:00.002+05:30

Ohh yes, this blog has been ignored for quite some time now. Why?
I do not have an answer. There have been things worth writing, not that there were too many fun things I did and did not write about, but there were things I decided, infact I could see the blogpost in my mind, but I did not pen it down. Why? Laziness? Inertia? What? I don't have an answer.

Yes, I have changed. For better or worse, I'm not sure.
I don't like being around people (people..as in crowd..as in acquaintances..) right now. Is it me or the people around me, I'm not sure (again, yes I'm not sure about things these days). But yes, I can't take attitude. Not even if they're worth it. Keep that away from me, or eat it yourself.

Then today, I started thinking. I travel 14 kms to work every day (yes it was 13 earlier, but then they constructed a new bridge which basically makes a 200 meter stretch a km long .. so 1 more km added to the activa's kitty..happy!). 14kms, of which 90% of the time I am applying brakes, the remaining 10% of the time my back and muscles and bones are shuddering and aching due to the wonderful roads and speedbreakers we have here in Pune (Its the second best city to live in? who says that?) So, the question is, why do I travel so much for work? Yes, the company. That matters. That's the thing that wakes me up everyday and tells me to drive off. Evening is simple, getting home. Its like a jaan pe khelke, pahunche hai task. Yes, I used to do the dare devil acts and jaha jagah dikhe waha ghusao driving, but I'm tired. I've switched back to, let those in a hurry (everyone else is in a hurry, always!) reach their destinations a few seconds earlier. It doesn't matter. I'll take care of my muscles, I'll need them when I'm old.

And then, this phase suddenly ended when Pree said "tu bore ban rahi hai" which zapped me back to reality. So hopefully I'll be back to normal pretty soon.

Chutti

2011-12-06T11:28:00.001+05:30

Diwali vacation, Christmas vacation, Eid vacation ?

Gandhi Jayanti holiday, Shiv Jayanti holiday, Muharram holiday?

That feeling..

2011-10-24T12:28:00.000+05:30

..when you can't express your feelings..
..when you are lost in a crowd..
..when you want time to fly faster..
..when you wish you could be there too..
..when you hope it would not be so hard..
..when you want to feel that feeling again..
..when those words can never get out of your head..
..when those memories are what you cling on to..
..when the world is too unknown..
..when you wish it weren't that far..
..when you hope for that one glance..
..when you know it hasn't been so long..
..when you crave for something that seems too far..
..when you want to shout out loud..
..when you wish it would have been easier..

..when you wish you hadn't rambled so much!

My new cell!

2011-08-29T19:13:00.000+05:30

Yes, finally! My last cellphone was a disaster (the worst model Nokia has ever made. The 7610 Supernova Series)

What problems did it have? The battery backup is bad (too bad given its a Nokia handset), frequent heating of the keypad and slider panel, frequent short circuiting on the charging/power/headphone pin, display suddenly starts showing strange lines and blinks unnecessarily suddenly. Maybe I had a faulty piece!

Anyway, so now to the new cellphone. I did a lot of research this time (last time I bought one on impulse and looks..no background checking :P) So here are a few tips before you decide a smartphone for yourself.
1. Do not go for a slider phone with a keypad. It certainly gives problems sooner or later. I have seen cases where the slider gets jammed and the heating problem is frequent.
2. Earlier I wanted a touch + type phone. But this limits the touch screen and makes it really small. If you need a type phone just because messaging is easier, let me tell you that typing on the virtual qwerty is simple and not tedious at all. Give it a try and you will fall in love with messaging :)
3. I had a look at Samsung, HTC, Sony Ericcson. The models I am talking about here are entry level or mid-range models. (I don't think I can/want to spend 15K or above on a cellphone!) Samsung phone looks classy but I preferred the touch experience provided by HTC to be way better. Sony, I won't comment much. It felt like a resistive touch screen. yes their new models boast of faster clock speeds and higher RAM, but the touch experience does not go well with that.
4. The Samsung galaxy range models are either an entry level phone or a higher end model. Yes, the galaxy ace is one model which won't burn your pocket and will also give you a good android experience. But as its been almost 6 months after this model was launched, you never know when it will be stopped. And anyway that can't be upgraded to 3.0. So HTC..wildfire S. This awesome awesome phone.

The camera picture quality is awesome! (Yes I don't need one that's too professional)

Typing is made super easy with the predictions, which keeps learning while you type. Use it in the landscape mode and you are bowled over by the ease and simplicity!

And the touch screen is super sensitive (My mom gets scared to even put her finger close to anything on the screen :P) And it boasts of HTC sense. I have to experience that yet, but the weather widget they have looks pretty awesome.

The review I read, spoke about low screen resolution and bad call quality. But I haven't experienced anything of that sort yet. Its all makkhan :D

Will keep this space updated with any further findings/drawbacks etc.
Till then..app recommendations are welcome :)

Information Hiding

2011-08-21T14:20:00.000+05:30

What is information hiding?

In programming, the process of hiding details of an object or function. Information hiding is a powerful programming technique because it reduces complexity. One of the chief mechanisms for hiding information is encapsulation -- combining elements to create a larger entity. The programmer can then focus on the new object without worrying about the hidden details.

But I don't intend to talk about it from the programming point of view. I'm going to get into the human psyche, the human urge to hide information.

Consider:

Case1: Two house-wives talking about their lives

Lady 1 : So how is everything at your end? Your daughter got admission to junior college?

Lady 2 : Yes, everything is fine. Yes she got admission.

Lady 1 : (Couldn't she have said which college?!?) Which college?

Lady 2 : College X

Lady 1 : Nice. But that is really far from your place right. How does she travel?

Lady 2 : Yes it is far. I don't know, she manages.

Lady 1 : (How can you not know how your daughter travels to college?!?) Hmm..when I was studying my timings were 9-5. Are they the same now?

Lady 2 : I don't know.

Lady 1 : (Ok..is she a mother or no?)

My thoughts on this conversation. What does lady 1 get by hiding how her daughter travels to college? or the timings of the college? Is it some kind of proprietary information that no one should know?

Case 2: Two guys chatting

Guy 1 : Do you know, I went to this amazing place to have dish X

Guy 2 : Wow. where is it?

Guy 1 : Its at Road Y.

Guy 2 : Where is road Y?

Guy 1 : Come on, you don't know road Y. How is it possible?

Guy 2 : (Is road Y some kind of basic information that I need to live?!?) I don't. Tell me how do I get there.

Guy 1 : I don't know.

Guy 2 : (Seriously! how can you not know how to get to a place you just said you went to?!?)

My thoughts on this conversation. The way to get to road Y is supposedly some secret information. If yes, whty did Guy 1 in the first place talk about it. If some information is a secret (according to you) and you don't want to share anything about it, then don't. Don't brag about your excess knowledge of some God forsaken road which is really not going to help me or you live a better life!

Case 3 : Two firnds chatting up

Friend 1 : You know I bought this amazing thingX. And I bought it so cheap too you know!

Firend 2 : Really? How much did you buy it for?

Friend 1 : I don't know.

Friend 2 : (Ok, you just told me you bought it cheap!) Ok, tell me from where did you buy it?

Friend 1 : I don't remember the name of the store. Its somewhere in Area X.

Friend 2 : (Really!!) Ok, but Area X is too huge, tell me some thing around there, some landmark I can look for?

Friend 1 : Hmm..but I really don't remember.

Friend 2 : (Did you seriously buy something or were you just lying?!?)

My thoughts on this conversation. The same as above. If you don't want to share information, don't start the conversation. Keep your secret findings to yourself.

Now, about the human psyche. Maybe it is sadist pleasure that they get from hiding information. Maybe the thought process is I found this stuff out after so many trials and after so many efforts. How can I tell someone about it for free. Maybe it is one way of pleasing yourself by saying to yourself I know something that someone else doesn't. Maybe it is your inferiority complex and insecurity that makes you feel If I give up this information, I will not have an upperhand anymore .

But seriously, telling someone about the college timings, or the way to some road, or the address of some nice store that you liked, is it really worth keeping to yourself?

Maybe this is normal human behavior. But as I see it, if I find some nice place, some cheap accomodation, some cheap but worthwhile stuff to buy, I would go out of my way to make this information available to people I know. What's the use of witholding information that is not going to add to your well being anyway?

Think about it.

Keep in touch

2011-07-20T12:25:00.000+05:30

Back then in school...I didn't have a cell phone. A landline (without a caller ID) sufficed. We left school and moved on, we said "keep in touch"

Junior college beckoned and so did new friends. Some had cell phones then. Landlines were left out. We left junior college and moved on, we said "keep in touch"

Engineering college was the next stop, new friends, new dreams, new future plans. First year was a blast.
Landlines with caller IDs were common. Missed calls even then, told us we are in touch.

Next year, we left each other to join our respective departments, we said "keep in touch"

Three more years in the same college, cell phones were common now. We had each other's contact numbers, we said "we will keep in touch"
The social networking craze caught up, every friend was on your profile. We said "we will keep in touch"

College years passed by, jobs started pouring in money. New friends at work, new trips, new definitions of a fun time. We made more contacts, but did we keep in touch?

Keeping in touch was now so easy. Just an sms away, just a buzz away, just an IM away. But did we keep in touch?

How many contacts in your phonebook, or how many friends on your facebook friends list have you spoken to recently?

Calling all pedestrians

2011-06-22T11:36:00.000+05:30

Please pay attention. Your life is precious.
Please use footpaths to walk (well, where they are available and are not broken or filled with construction material).
Please look where you tread. While walking on the road, please don't sway your hands so that you hit a motorist. We know you can't stop talking to someone somewhere via your cellphone, but please ask the person at the other end if he/she values your life.
While crossing the road, use the zebra crossing, else how would someone know that you have decided to stand right in the middle of thick traffic?

If you don't value your life enough, atleast value the life of the people who are drving and will be held responsible for the loss of your life.

Yours sincerely,
A motorist.

What happens when..

2011-06-08T21:40:00.000+05:30

..you don't know what you want out of life? Everyone seems to know what keeps them ticking.
It has to be something immaterial right? Something that you control?

***Disclaimer...if you decide to go ahead of this point, please do not..DO NOT come back to me with more questions..or any answers!****

What if you can't see anything that keeps you going? I mean is it that your inhuman then?
Is it that you would do anything that came your way? You have your preferences right? So that means you know what you don't want to do? When will you find out what you want to do?

Will you die being a worthless piece of the jigsaw called life? Will you contribute without ever knowing? Is it really important that people recognize and appreciate your work?

If self-confidence is what can get you out of tricky situations, what is that will keep your self-confidence intact? Will you ever be happy and satisfied? Will you ever find your true worth?

Why do I need to find the answers to these questions for myself? Why is it that we cannot read our own mind, but are able to understand someone else better? Why is it that we lie so much to ourselves?

This is probably why...

2011-02-08T23:45:00.000+05:30

...I stopped reading newspapers!

The newspapers are usually filled with accidents, murders, scams, politician's karname, or film/sports stars and their controversies.
But today, it was amazing!

At one end, we have a situation where someone was in dire need of money...so much so, that they stole the cellphone of someone, badly injured in an accident, who was offering the cellphone to call someone for help.
At the other end, we have someone who does so much to save a crow that was entangled in the manja

Human life is no more of value I guess...
Yes, we heard of kalyug but never thought we'd be living in that forbidden age.

A tryst with male ego

2011-01-25T09:43:00.000+05:30

Two vehicles are driving peacefully. Each not bothered by the other's presence. One a goods truck (no goods loaded then) and another a small petite activa. The truck was driven by a male (obv..I haven't seen females driving trucks..wonder why?) and the activa by a female.

Its 9:30 at night. Only chowks which usually have traffic jam problems have their traffic signals working.
At one particular chowk where the signals were red, the activa stands beside the truck (lets call activa the A and truck the T from now onwards). So, as the signal lights turn green, T makes delay in starting and A sees a gap through which she can drive. This hurts T's overblown ego and decides to almost crush A. A reasons with herself and applies the brakes. T moves ahead happily. But T is huge, so he gets stuck ahead and A unknowingly overtakes T. This has bruised T enough. So he comes speeding after A, not seeing that the signal ahead is red. Lucky for T and the other vehicles around, the signal turns green in time. T rushes ahead but has to stop at another signal ahead. A is really not interested in these silly things, so waits patiently behind T. Now the next signal that comes up, is at a turn. A is behind T again, this time in view of T's drivers sight. T looks at A challengingly and A has a look full of disgust for T. When the signal turns green, the sharp turn does not let T go ahead. Seeing that A is crossing him, he yells something (A not bothered) A being small can turn quick and is out of sight. A breathes a sigh of relief, and decides to speed home. But then at the next crossing (there's no signal here) a car ahead has to stop, to let a drunkard cross (I wonder why drunkards are given V.I.P treatment when other pedestrian's are not). Anyway, so T hurries up behind A and keeps honking, as if..as if...the world is going to end. Okay, enough is enough says A. She moves ahead not looking at T and keeping her calm. But T gets stuck again and feels he is going to lose. So he speeds up like an angry bull (shameless, gutless, egositic). At the long stretch of road ahead, A is at the extreme left, she has no intention of satisfying T's ego any further. She drives at her pace in peace. T races towards her like a maniac, crossing her and honking his victory away. A is unperturbed and all she does is pray. Pray for T. He has no spine, he has no life. Please help him oh Lord!

Another year..another decade...has gone by...

2011-01-05T19:12:00.000+05:30

Its high time, I thought about the mistakes I made, my achievements and plans for the future.

Ten years ago...I was in school. I lived in a world view of my own. Everyone was nice, everyone was helpful, everyone was a friend. After passing out from school, like a very innocent kid, I entered junior college. A place I like to remember as one which prepared me and shaped my personality as it is today. Engineering was just the tadka I needed in my life. It brought me out of my shell completely. While I still do call myself shy and reticent, I don't know what I would have called myself back in school. Shy and reticent raised to infinity? Perhaps!
I then entered corporate life. A world that was luckily not much different from engineering college and even better we get paid :) I made good impressions, ones that I never believed and don't believe even today are of me! I made good friends too and we had a lot of fun trips, while the group was intact. As I see it now, its dispersed and two of them are not in the country and another not in the city. The group reduces and the frequency of the trips reduces automatically. The fun though, remains the same..PJs :D

Let me now get down to the last year

- I have been growing mature, looking back at topics that I have written about. Consider this or this or even this I'm not a kid anymore :P
- I also stopped cribbing a lot about traffic, as compared to the previous year and I wish to take this further. No use wasting energy.
- I've started reading books. After purchasing a lot of books I felt it necessary to give them a fair chance. What helped me do this, is the all new books blog.
- Personal life has an all new dimension and I'm loving the way it's going. I have also decided to prioritize my time to give enough to people in my life. Machines do not deserve all of your precious time.
- I started pursuing my hobby, but haven't really made much progress on that front. I must give it a try this year.
- Professional life has been great so far (this was the year of my first ever..appraisal) and I see it getting brighter by the day. Touch wood!
- People change..relationships change..life changes. You cannot expect anyone to be as they were a few years ago. Accept the fact and move on.
- Lesson learnt : People always said "First impression is the last impression". I always believed people change their impression of you, as time progresses. But I was wrong. Make the best first impression!

An eventful week

2011-01-03T19:21:00.000+05:30

Vacations are always welcome, specially in between a schedule of hardwork :P

My learnings/hot happenings last week

1. People always want to party, by eating all the stuff you have been avoiding, only when you are on a diet.
2. Ginger lime juice is awesome. Have to try making it myself.
3. Someone tried to steal my kinetic! Yes! You read right..my kinetic!
4. I got killed (obv almost) by a BEST bus. Uptil now I believed that only the PMPML buses have conspired against me, but I was wrong.
5. Driving in the mist is enjoyable only when you are not in the driver's seat :P
6. How do people breathe in Mumbai? Don't the teeny weeny streets and unmanageable crowd suffocate them?
7. Everyone is not bad. Those who seem to be good people, may not be so. (My fav petrol pump cheats :( )
8. Driving is fun when you don't drive rash to teach others a lesson (basically no one wants to improve)
9. Its so scary to hear crackers bursting in a city like Mumbai.
10. The maximum shopping we do these days is for edible items, i.e. to hog!
11. Watching all the items that someone has brought back from a trip (for you ofcourse :P) is so much fun!
12. Imagining what fun it would have been to be on that trip yourself, makes you feel "I should have gone!"

Judging

2010-12-23T19:10:00.000+05:30

What does it take to judge a mocktail contest? Simple, don't participate in the competition and call yourself a foodie and you are the judge of a mocktail contest :)

So, I had the honor of being one of the judges in a mocktail contest in my office. It is a great responsibility (not the mocktail contest thingy, but being a judge in general). You judge a group (of people). No, you're supposed to judge the product i.e. the mocktail prepared. But how easy is it, to be misled by your own impressions of the people in the group? I'd say its an Herculean task. You may tell yourself you are being fair, but it is the subconscious that is making all the decisions for you (subconsciously :) )

Anyway, getting back to my experience as a judge. It was a new experience. Not judging, you see we are judging people every moment. So that part was not new. What was new was the experience of interacting with people I don't usually interact with so often on office. Some judges judge, keeping really great mocktails as a base. Some judge purely on the taste, color, presentation,creativity of the currently prepared mocktail. What is debatable here of course is whether keeping a very high standard as your base comparison is valid.

The easy part was judging. What is difficult is, answering the participant's questions later :)
We were put through umpteen drinks, so many colors, so many tastes, so many different presentations. I don't think you could expect someone to remember exactly what team x's plus points were. I agree, all the participants had made efforts, but efforts don't always pay off right? It is a part of human nature, I agree. If I were a participant and a judge of the competition is someone I know, I would be sure to question him/her as to why we lost. Part of the game :) So you see, all humans need someone to place the blame on.

You ask me, how did you like drink x. I say, I didn't think it was any different from drink y. You retaliate saying "WHAT! If you don't know the difference between these two are, how can you judge?" Blame 1. I'd say "You think you mixed ingredient 1 and ingredient 2, but what you don't know is that the proportion of ingredient 1 was way too much and hence ingredient 2 was invisible" Blame 2. You retaliate again saying something which places the blame on me. I reply again. And the blame game continues.

I don't regret the experience a bit :) What I regret is, being a human. Being a human, even I am part of the blame game syndrome. How I wish, we were mature enough/sporting enough to accept whatever results we get :) A wish, that is way too ambitious for a worldly human being :)

Moonlit thoughts

2010-12-22T12:45:00.002+05:30

The moon lightens the path....heart beats are fast...soul is at peace...soothing music sets the mind free...and words remain etched in memory...

"You only see what your eyes want to see
How can life be what you want it to be
You're frozen when your heart's not open
You're so consumed with how much you get
You waste your time with hate and regret
You're frozen when your heart's not open..."
--lyrics from the song Frozen by Madonna

A changed "about me"

2010-12-10T16:49:00.000+05:30

The very tolerant "me" suddenly realised that she isn't really that tolerant.
What irritates me?

1. Bad grammar. Atleast know basic grammar. Even worse, someone who doesn't want to know that one is wrong.
2. You say "hairs" and "sheeps" and "deers" and I say, "चलो हिंदी में बातें करते है. "
3. I do not consider jokes based on religion "grown up humor"
4. Do not brag. If you are what you think you are, we will find that out.
5. Extra high processed english sentences. Seriously, we aren't writing essays.
6. When I don't laugh on a joke (a sentence you thought was a joke) I don't find it funny. Please don't tell me to laugh.
7. I don't like waiting. So, if you state a time, be there within 5 minutes. Else, schedule the next meeting and bear the brunt.
8. When I come in with a new haircut and you can see that it has to have been cut, else they would have been longer, don't ask "You cut your hair?" Seriously, hair cannot "grow" "short" right?
9. Do NOT misspell my name.

That's all I can think of right now. Feel free to update if you wish. I won't lash out at you for doing so :P

Snapper Hunt

2010-11-11T15:51:00.003+05:30

You remember those times when you are out with friends and a nice cam in hand...taken plenty of snaps...but all you now need is a group snap! So what do you do? look for someone..someone who seems bored..or not busy with anything...and ask him/her to click a snap for you..right?

Most of the people never say no, unless ofcourse if their bus arrives (assuming you were so dumb as to ask someone at the bus stop, waiting for their bus :P)

Infact I never knew anyone would just say no for the heck of it, until I met this weird family..in Mysore. We were at the Mysore palace and wanted a group snap. We saw this family passing by, brother sister mom and dad. We thought they were a safe bet. So we asked the dad, he said sure...and we posed..but he never did get the camera lens to focus on us...after a while we asked if he took the snap and he says yes...and what do we see..he took a snap of the floor! His wife was somehow furious at him for agreeing to take a snap for us..
So now we look for someone else, we spot a girl..approach her and she says "NO"! okay..but she wasn't really doing anything, she was just strolling around..ok..whatever!

Then we are at Goa..on a cruise...and want a snap of the whole family. So we ask a fellow there. He more than willingly agrees to take a snap. So we all pose, he clicks. We check the snap, its super. But he says, naah its not nice..stand together again. So we do this around 3-4 times..but HE isn't satisfied! So we finally tell him..how helpful he's been and the snap is really REALLY nice! (enough..get lost now..is what we meant :P)

Then we are at Ooty..(some point don't remember the name) we had just climbed this hill..and wanted a snap of the group. We see a family coming up...husband wife and a brother (gals or guy's bro no clue) and he was looking bored anyway, so we thought we'd help employ him. He was happy to help but somehow the lady was not. Jealousy? but why? she is just newly married! maybe we picked the husband by mistake :P but then why was he bored..and walking miles away from his bride? :P

The other day we were in camp, SGS mall. There is a katta there, where many vellas usually lurk around. So we spot this one fellow sitting alone trying to act lost in his cellphone. We request him, please can you click a snap of ours. Okay he grins (rather mumbles). We hand him the cam and tell him "you have to click this button here". We find a nice place and pose. He doesn't want to get up! This doesn't work. Ok, pree goes and explains this here..this way. (He hasn't got up yet). Pree comes back and we pose again. He mumbles, how do we zoom this? Why don't you come and stand here? We ignore the second question (obviously we decide what we want in the background) and explain the zoom thingy. Pree comes back and we pose again. He (quite irritated now)..WHY DON'T YOU STAND HERE? and he gets up FINALLY! Takes a snap...and we're like..whoa! we have a snap finally. And guess what, all the efforts to get the background are waste..why? Because he had zoomed in so much!!

So..anyone out there with weird experiences...when all you want is a decent group memory?

Diwali at ATN

2010-10-28T13:58:00.002+05:30

How does it start? Vijay and Nishant start planning diwali celebrations before everyone leaves for their respective hometowns to celebrate the festival of lights and/or vacations with their family members. The day decided is Wednesday i.e. the 27th of October, 2010. Activities incharge were unanimously chosen (no one else was even considered actually :P) as Vinaya and me.

So, then after a lot of contemplation whether the event should be done etc, should it be TTMM etc it was only when Vinay showed a lot of enthusiasm for the event, did all the fun start. Finally we decided on Monday afternoon that we will go ahead with the celebration.
We started planning the games. Tuesday evening was when we really started getting things done. First we got gifts from BB, fun gifts all nicely gift wrapped. Clues for treasure hunt were finalised, chits ready and hidden :) Kumar is a great help while hiding clues. So next time you know there is a treasure hunt, follow Kumar the previous evening :D
Now, last time we made a mistake in the treasure hunt. We left a huge backdoor (it wasn't even a backdoor. It was pretty straight forward silly on our part :)) So this time we made sure we had all our tracks covered. We iterated-re-iterated all the clues as if we were playing and saw that nothing was wrong.
But then, we have to make some mistake right. We'll come to that part later though. The next game we designed was Dumb C++, where the team enacts and one guesses. We jotted down movies that hopefully all would have watched atleast once, leaving aside ones that are too great but not that famous. Movies chits were also done. two games ready. We were to get the third one ready too, but we thought otherwise. We assumed that the two games would take up all the time that we had (6-8).
Vijay and Nishant recruited a force to get the decorations in place on Tuesday night. They were here till 11, but no one spotted the clues we had hidden :) (rather the next day even Vinaya could not find the clues we had hidden :P)

Now on the "D" day, we arrive in office normal time. The whole office is decorated wonderfully. Diyas, lanterns colour all around. Got us in the festive mood instantly :)

Vinaya and me decide that we should atleast get the third game ready just in case we have time and energy for more games. We decide on the link game, where you try to find a relation and form a group. The biggest group wins. We had colleagues names wriiten for round one and cards for second round. This we completed by 4pm (on the day !)

It was 5pm, everyone excited and up for snacks. I guess the real suspense was in finding out what all the names meant, Treasure Hunt, Linked in, Dumb C++ (not to forget also what was inside the gift they won after so much hard work and toil :P). But snacks were not there. So we started games instead by 5:30. Treasure hunt took less time than expected. And the worse clue was Denmark! There were atleast 3 teams stuck at the same clue at the same time! And then as usual Vinaya was doing her rounds of helping people move on :) I remember people's interpretations of बेहरा...and explaining it to the person, the clue leads to..nice :)

This is the team that won!

After treasure hunt, everyone was tired and hungry :) They were refreshed with hot hot "madan" bhaiyya made bhajjis :) I hope they were yummy.

We were not sure how willing people would be for the next game, but there was even more fervour for the next game. We distributed chits and asked them to form links. The chits had names of employees. There were only sixteen in one round but the terrace was a bhaji market...or maybe a stock market. Everyone was trying their best to get people into one group, with some valid relation. What if we had 40 names?

We also let the runners-up choose their gift. Why? Since we didn't want to be blamed for them making the choice :P

And the winners, proud of their victory. This is the chashma group :D

This is the married group :)

Since, this was a hit we played the same game with the same set of chits with the next sixteen people. We never got out the card-chits. After this we moved on to dumb C++.
This game was a fun ride. Teams enacting, people around creating confusion, the atmosphere was electric! The competing teams had another competition going around "humne haraya" competition. This was, who creates more chaos and helps the other teams lose :D
Some nice acting moments are here

Transformers

Slumdog Millionaire

Ice Age

Home Alone

Terminator

Tere Bin Laden

And here is the winning team

Thus ended the games. After which was nice yummy food, thanks to VijayG and Nishant.
Cheers, to many more such fun-enthusiasm-filled days :)

P.S. I forgot to mention the mistake we made this time. Remeber me mentioning that we jotted down the movie names for DumbC++? We jotted them down on the board in Nasdaq. We forgot to erase them once we were done. And next day, Lalit had a meeting there for which he cleared the board, before which he noted all of them down :D Smart fella I say! So, we had to think of other movies to give his team who had already formulated plans for each and every movie on the list! Hopefully we don't make a mistake the next time!

For a one sided affair on dumbC++ check Mohsin's post here. For more inside news, on the treasure hunt, check Vinaya's post here.

FAIL

2010-10-04T12:22:00.000+05:30

PMC is constructing roads. Why? Pune is a metro in the making, so the roads should be of good quality. Which roads? The highways. Okay. That's a great thing. Go on, do it.

Now as the PMC has its budget drawn out, funds allocated, what do they do? They take years and years to complete a small stretch of the road. In doing so, they dig up the road and then, do not build approach roads for the bylanes. Result? I don't see any resultant progress in the current state of transport by roads. All I see is a deterioration.

Now what? The residents somehow manage to find a way to get to the main road, troubling their vehicles, tyres too the hilt everyday, while leaving home and also while returning. Then one fine day, PMC feels they should be an approach road, no matter how stony, however large the difference between the levels of the main road and the approach road. Okay, so residents now go over the stony, unlevelled path. No complaints still.

Now, as the rains approach PMC gets into the groove and wants to complete the job, sorry the job? No the patch of road they were constructing since ages.

Then one fine sunday, when everyone is at home and looks forward to a nice relaxed day at home, to shake off the stress and gear up for a whole week of work. And then, that day PMC wants to work. On a Sunday! Yaay, we're so privileged to live in an era when the government works on a sunday too.

So, what do they do? They dig up the road (yea, the road that was still being constructed) and then...they cut off the power. At what time? 11:00 am on a sunday, when people are just waking up..lazying around at home. Ok, we think the lights will be back in a while.

Its 2pm and no power yet. We call MSEB and they say

Resident : "Ithe light naiye saheb. 3 taas zhale atta"

MSEB fella : "madam, te kaam chalu ahe na rastyacha, tya mule band ahe power. To cable disconnect karawa lagto na, underground cable ahe"

Resident : "Te sagla jaudya, light kadhi yenare?"

MSEB fella : "madam yeil light 5 kinva 6 vaje paryant"

Resident : "evha vel?"

MSEB fella : "ho na madam. kaamch tasa ahe na. Hoil"

Resident : "thike"

ok, so now I can take a nap till 5pm. Cool.

its 7pm now, no power yet.

Resident : "Ajun light ali naiye. Ajun tumcha cable juravla naiye ka?"

MSEB fella : "Ho na madam, hoil. ajun ek taas lagel. AAj yeil light"

Resident : "Aaj yeil mhanje? divas samplach na ho."

MSEB fella : "Ho na madam, andhar honya aadhi yeil light"

Resident : "Baher bagha saheb, andhar zhalay. Aaj light yeil mhantay, ithe pani cha problem zhalay light nai akkha divas mhanun. Theva atta phone, aaj yeil mhanta.."

8pm, another call

Resident : "Saheb, ek taas zhala na."
MSEB fella : "Ho saheb, kay zhala na, cable jodla, pan mag dusra fault nighala. Tyachya sathi rasta peth la java lagte"

Resident : "Ho na mag, rasta peth kuthe America la ahe ka? Tyala akkha divas lagto ka?"

MSEB fella : "hehe..nai nai saheb. Hoil 11:30 paryant yete light"

Resident : bangs the phone.

When is the power restored? sometime after 2am. So that makes it 15 hours without power?

What did the PMC actually do? they constructed a road? sorry a small patch of the road and in doing so, break a cable. And to fix that cable, they take close to 10 hours?

I say, what efficiency! If we have such efficiency, I'd say we don't want new cement roads. We are happy with the potholes we drive through. Thanks PMC!

And it has been a year...

2010-09-27T06:55:00.000+05:30

...a year now...
What's your raashee...at Rahul...
an evening well spent at the Pune University campus...
getting lost there..unable to find our vehicle...tensed moments interspersed with concern...first impressions..
getting late..to meet frnds...
forgetting the dandiya passes at home..
awesome fun at dandiya...
a wild drive back home...
an awesome night with frnds..
an awesome day..well spent..
an awesome day..tat will remain etched in my memory forever...
Love you.....blogger :)

Life is no bed of roses...its a life full of work!

2010-09-22T16:06:00.002+05:30

Very often these days I come across thoughts like these in the IT industry,
"I'm bored of this ***** job!"
"I'm bored of my life. Its not what I dreamt of"
"Is it the work or the nature of the job itself?This isn't a life I wanted"

Caught in these thoughts and wandering through the streets, I came across a couple of people and it felt as if they read my thoughts and hence had decided to show me the reality of life.
A bus conductor. What is his job? Collect fares in a moving bus, full of people with no place to stand or move. plus minus multiply in your head continuously while making sure you do not make a mistake. At the same time you are expected to make sure people get down at their respective destinations, make sure everyone has bought a ticket. Does this sound boring? Ever thought about why conductors are invariantly irritable. The people travelling are their means of getting off their frustration, at least that's what I have come to believe.
A person at a paper stall. What is his job? He sits at his stall throughout and dreads strolling around lest he should lose any customer. How much does he earn per paper, per magazine? Ever wondered? Is his job interesting?
A rickshaw driver. What is his job? He drives people to and fro, throughout the day. He his always amidst maddening traffic, maddening driving styles these days. Is his job less frustrating? Wonder why they squabble over even a few paisa?
Why do they do what they do? Why have they chosen these jobs? Why as a matter of fact did we chose the IT industry?
We made a conscious decision. You either accept the fact that you are doing something terribly wrong and have to change profession OR you to stay in this industry forever, cribbing over every single thing you are made to do OR you pave a new path for yourself. There is no use cribbing or getting depressed. Do not question your abilities, do not lose confidence. It is but natural to get bored of doing something over and over again. But, we are lucky that we have the resources, the strength, the education, the support we need to start our life anew.

Take 2

2010-09-08T11:30:00.000+05:30

Me : Mom, I won't be late.
Mom : (thinks to herself) How many times has she said she won't be late. Has she ever turned up on time?
Me : And its at E2...its not that far from home. I'll leave at 9 (I mean 9:30 here)
Mom : (thinks to herself) Yes...not far at all..just say 10kms? its at a stone's throw right? She is going to go anyhow. (says to me) Okay, go ahead. Come home on time. Don't be late.
Me : Thanks mom :) You're the best! :)

Now i'm at this awesome place called "not just jazz by the bay". It is awesome because of its ambience and more so because of the people there. (Yea I'm counting myself as one of those who are the "special" people :P)
I'm enjoying, laughing, smiling, eating (yea and not hogging for a change :P), thinking, laughing and so on. Suddenly, as if some angel tells me to check the time right away, I just get my cell out, glance a casual look at the time.
Me : OMG! its 10!! I was to reach home by this time. Ohh ****! Ok guys..bye...blah blah (that's all the nicest things I can say...) And to Amit, the one who's flying to better opportunities...we'll miss you!
(In the parking)
Me : (to myself) I better call home, else they keep complaining what are cell phones for if you cannot call up and inform us that you are going to be late)
(On the phone)
Me : Tell mom I'll be a little late, leaving right now.
Sis : Yes, I'll tell her that you are late. You are always late.
Me : (and I thought you will convince mom that it was not my fault..me getting late) sigh. Now I need to reach fast!
(To myself)
petrol : check
oil : check
start in one shot : check
lets vrooooom
(On the road)
roads clear : check
lets VROOOOOOOMMM
(although I do remember someone told me, drive SLOW)

Distance : e2 to kalyaninagar
Location : Le Meridien
Luckily I'm on the left side of the road, after impressing all the vehicles I left behind with the speed and agility of my vehicle (ignore the noise it makes).My vehicle gives up! Shut..shut...shut!
Me : Ohh ****! is e2 closer or my place. No i'm midway. There's no mechanic at this hour! What do I do! There's scream here, full of drunkards (though maybe this hour is too early for them) Okay, when this happened at take1 what did dad do? Kick and kick as if your life depended on it. So that's what I did. Kick..kick..kick...(I had anyway eaten lots of cheese so I had to burn it somehow)....it starts showing signs of life. Yaay, lets go..and slow this time.
So, finale is happy. I reach home. Before mom could start yelling about me being late, I start cribbing
Me : You know what?? The bike stopped midway. It was so scary you know. I was so scared. I kicked and kicked and my leg hurts.
Mom : Ohh. (to Dad) you need to do something about the bike.
Okay, so..the bike saved me today :) Cheers to my kine!

My first marathi post!

2010-09-04T10:48:00.000+05:30

Yes..first ever!
After having a gruelling argument on how English is better than devanagari and then losing by falling flat on my face...(not that I wasn't going to write the post in marathi before) but then I though, what better way of losing graciously than writing a post in devanagari itself ;)
Okay, so here is the post. Feel free to point out mistakes in spellings and grammar as well as sentence formations. I'm sure there are plenty of them.

In search of a purpose

2010-08-27T18:37:00.000+05:30

Have you ever wondered about the purpose of your life?
Have you then felt that there must be something much better and greater than the current state of your daily affairs?
I'm not sure I've ever thought about these things before. Is it age? Is it work? Is it the pace at which people around are moving? Or is it just some passing thought?
When something stings you, and stings you real hard you tend to look for solutions. In this case I was clueless about any direction to look for to locate even a clue to the clue to the solution.
As always, mood swings lead to irritability lead to fits of temper lead to instability of emotions which ultimately lead to depression which lead to a breakdown which gave a clue to the clue of my solution via an advisor.

So, the answer is look carefully. There is always something you like to do more than what you are currently doing. While a job is necessary for all your material comforts and even maybe to fulfill your interests, it will sometime or the other become mundane and monotonous. The only thing that will keep you going always and with full energy and enthusiasm is your interests.

So, instead of brooding over spilt milk I've decided to make things right. Its never too late to start.

Rejuvenated

2010-07-12T11:09:00.000+05:30

...yup..this weekend seemed to have really rejuvenated me..and why?
Earlier...on Monday I always remembered what I had to finish this week..before the build..what I had to investigate..etc etc...But today,
- I also forgot the way to office..that route that I have been taking for more than 18 months now :P
- I reached the office gate and went ahead before I realised I've missed the gate :P
- I don't remember the password to my machine :P
- I remember to start eclipse after almost 30 minutes
- I still haven't started MS Outlook :P
- I have to check my TODO list (thankfully I had made this last Friday) to even start thinking about work!

Is it the weekend..or is it the two years..I can't say :)

Signs of ageing

2010-07-09T10:04:00.000+05:30

It starts with....stopping anywhere..even while its working..running...
Then you know, its time...this one was a huge sign..but it isn't dead yet...
Smaller signs follow....like what happened today.

I was standing peacefully at a signal, and someone starts blowing the horn. I'm wondering why someone is so impatient..coz the signal was just turning green. A policeman was glaring at me...and I'm telling myself..its not me..its someone behind me..look at him..give him the stares....but then he finally yells at me "ka vajav taye horn?" and I tell him "mi vajvat naiye baba". But he insists so I listen to the horn more carefully through the loud blaring music in my ears and voila...its my vehicle...yaay...
If your vehicle's horn stops functioning...you can live with it right. But if it keeps blaring..and does not want to stop...yea yea..it felt as if I was riding in an ambulance..only difference being people don't make way for you, they keep shouting names...
So yea..finally...the best I could do..was try and fix what went wrong by pulling the horn here there (as if it was elastic :P) and yes..it worked..it reduced a little..and then..stopped..I was wondering whether it has stopped working at all. But all is well :)

The ugly truth

2010-07-06T12:13:00.000+05:30

I write here because...
1. I know nowhere else where I could post these ramblings
2. I know nobody who could answer these rhetorics
3. I know nobody who does not already see the ugly truth behind these

So, here are my few subtle questions...

1. Does destroying public property prove the public's point of view?
2. Does a strike mean you have to resort to vandalism for people to follow it?
3. Since streets are battlefields for public rights, what use are parliaments?

Go Goa

2010-06-20T13:13:00.000+05:30

Sis's exams get over on 7th June, and long before that we were planning a vacation for a family trip. We had one last year (aurangabad) after ages and so decided to keep doing it every year.
This time we wanted to go to Goa....but we knew like last year...rains will play spoil sport. Till the last minute we were undecided but then thought of giving it a shot. And it was a wonderful shot...we didnt feel the summer heat...nor did we face heavy rains!

10th June was a day full of packing and booking travel...getting extra battery for the cam...and other stuff required...that ended with a nice meal at Kalyani Veg. That restaurant's food has become too good. I remember eating it once before and not liking it...but now..its food is awesome!
11th June we planned to leave at 5:30 am for a 12 hour long drive. Our driver being a duffer that he was, got us an hour and a half late, but anyway our spirits were not dampened. As soon as we started we were alive singing and rocking with the songs (after all that cd was my compilation..thanku thanku :) Can you believe that it was 6:30 and we were so alive, wonder if we could get up that early when we had to go to work/college :D
It was drizzling and the atmosphere was fresh and cool. Mist covered mountains like a necklace. Everything was so beautiful with the rain that we kept wide awake till atleast 8am. After that we started taking naps only to wake up for a slight snack at Kolhapur, before the ghat. Our driver, though not rash was rather dumb most of the times and spent a long time even in kolhapur finding the way to the ghat. Then after crossing the border to find the RTO. crap..I wonder how they become drivers if they lack basic skills of knowing or atleast finding roads! But we had another 4 days to spend with him..God save us!
We reached our place of stay called Gabriels Guest House, at Calangute, by 4pm I think.Gabriel is supposedly an angel, but this ange's house was crappy man! At first we didnt see much as we were tired and wanted to have something and rush to the beach, just 2 minutes walk from the house. We ordered simple omelette bread and guess what..we were surprised that someone can make food without salt! I mean not even a pinch of salt! We knew we are going to have to hunt for food outside, all the days!
We gobbled the food and made our way to the beach. All the beaches had been closed for swimming, understood as the sea is rough in the monsoons. I was glad to see lifeguards on the beach. When we went to the beach it was low tide, but yes we could wet our feet. We 3 sisters and mom were holding hands and luring the waves towards us and yelling when a strong one washed us off our feet. It felt so nice to see mom enjoy like a kid all over again :) Was the best feeling of the trip :)

It feels so peaceful when you look at godzilla like waves coming to gulp you down. Anyone knows why is it so?

After the beach we washed up and were ready with a giant appetite for goan food. We went to a nearby restaurant called Tulip. It had a TV showing the football game and some foreigners sitting there drinking and smoking while enjoying the match. I wonder how people can smoke while others are eating! Anyway, we just realised that since rains are setting in we won't get fish that much. But nevertheless we had nice chicken and prawns made goan style. It was yummy! We slept peacefully that night with dreams of South Goa the next day!
12th June, we had a tour booked for South Goa. We were to report at 8:30 sharp at the pick up point. We selected a nearby restaurant that was open for breakfast. The food there was good, and the manager there was a former manager at Banjara Hills at Pune. We made his acquaintance which was helpful later on :). We had our breakfast fatafat and reached our pickup point only to be waiting for 30 minutes for the bus to arrive. Anyhow, the tour did not disappoint us and so the 30 minutes wait was not a problem. During the tour we made another acquaintance, foreigners they were from USofA. The couple stayed in Pune now, and the guys mother had come down to visit them. It was nice listening to them and observing the way they carry themselves and comparing that with the behavior of other typical Indians who think making their way by pushing others is the best. I was wondering why we only pick up bad customs and fail to pick up other good things like sophistication when we ape the west! Anyway, let philosophy take another post :) The trip included the whole of South Goa. We started with Miramar, then a fish aquarium which was nicely maintained. Mom even held a giant crab! Creepy!

next we went to a house made in Portuguese times. Most of the stuff they used then are the things we use even now. The way everything was maintained was rather impressive. We wouldn't have found out about these places hadn't we taken a tour. We then went to Colva, which is the second longest beach in Asia.

After lunch, we then moved on to two temples and then Se cathedral which is very huge and peaceful church. The basilica of Bom Jesus, famous for the non-decomposing body of Father St. Xavier was closed for some renovation so we couldn't go there. We then proceeded to a cruise, over the river Mandovi! My first ever cruise! It was an awesome experience. We went as close to 500-700 metres from the point where Mandovi meets the Arabian Sea. It was evening, the wind was blowing hard, the waves were strong and the feeling of being in the middle of it all was even greater :)
After that awesome tour, we proceeded home after dinner at a not so good place called 'The taste of India". I'd say the food was pathetic!
13th June, was a sunday and we had planned it to be our rest and shopping day ;) We had a nice time exploring the places. We started at Mapusa then Panjim also stopped at Dona Paula. It was raining a little, not very heavy not too light and not continuous which was rather nice. We then went to Margao and we were continuosuly shopping this or that :) We even luckily found a nice bakery in a small stinking market, which had yummy stuff and also some Goan sweetdishes. After exploring south side, we came back with heavy bags wondering where to pack them now :P We had food at a veg restaurant nearby. The food there is good (remember the one where we had breakfast the day before) but the service that day was pathetic. And as the manager knew us, when we raised our voice a little he came to our rescue and taught the staff a lesson. That day he held open the door of the restaurant to lead us, felt nice!
14th June, we were to explore North Goa. We first headed to fort Aguada where it started raining rather heavily. But it was enjoyable at a height. Next we went to beach Candolim, then Baga which has a gentle slope after all the beaches we saw elsewhere. Then Anjuna, Vagator which is only rocks and no beach as such. We then proceeded to Chapora fort. The fort is not maintained, its just the fort boundary that is there. I have a hunch that is where DCH was shot. The view from the fort there is awesome. One side is land and all the other sides show you the sea and its vast and never ending expanse. We then proceeded to Calangute market had lunch and then came back home. We came home early to go to Calangute and get wet for the last time before we head back to Pune. Today, the rough and the lifegurad came to call us back outside the water :) We said our goodbyes to Goa and then headed back to the guest house to complete our packing before we went out for dinner and then slept peacefully for an early start the next day.
15th June, we started for Pune at around 5:30 am with a slight drizzle. one road was blocked due to a tree that had fallen but rest of the journey was smooth. We reached home by 6pm after taking home some food and milk.
One observation about the city we visited. There are no traffic signals there, but the traffis is smooth. We didnt encounter a single traffic jam there. There were however, 2 chowks where traffic policemen were directing traffic with their colourful sticks (red and green lights). Wonder why we can't have that discipline here in Pune.

Anyhow, so here's to another wondeful family trip. Hope we have many more of such wonderful ones :)

Books and life...

2010-06-01T00:35:00.000+05:30

Guys,
I know this will be my 3rd blog, but I'm so keen on writing and writing and writing...that I started a new blog on the books I read :D
Yea, I've been reading quite a few books lately and so I have decided to share my views on the good ones as well as the not so good ones, as well as the really bad ones...so in short..about most of the books I read...
So, enjoy..

Oops..sorry forgot to publicize my blog..and increase the page rank :P
Here goes the link.

P.S. All the posts that appeared here under the tag 'nice read' have been moved to the books blog.

Its raining...its pouring...

2010-05-31T18:16:00.000+05:30

...the old man is snoring...
It was getting hotter by the day..summer heat was on...and then almost out of nowhere...we are blessed with showers...showers of cool breeze...showers of..green leaves all bathed clean...showers...of the lovely smell of wet mud...
You watch the lightening...and wait for the sound of thunder...watch the beauty of the colors displayed in the sky....
You watch the water pouring..and turning every small thing it touches into a new..fresh..being...It almost feels like a new fresh start...
The wind blows in your face..and your strive to keep your hair tied...through the gaps you admire the beauty that the showers leave behind...through the gaps you are transported to a time before this moment...
And in that very nostalgic weather...you discuss what rain reminds you and your colleagues...
Someone remembers himself reading comics...another is reminded of the summer vacations getting over...another remembers covering new school textbooks and notebooks with brown covers...and a label..giving them a neat clean new look. All this reminds me of the innocent beings we were back then. School...no tensions in life...no worries about the big bad world outside...no worries about earning and supporting your family...no worries about driving to and fro office...no worries about meeting tight deadlines...

As the rain now recedes...so does the no-worry fame of my mind...and so..let me get back to work now..:)

Peace...and inner happiness

2010-05-02T18:25:00.001+05:30

Everyone wants to make money as soon as he/she first realizes that money buys us material happiness. When we were kids we needed money to buy chocolates and candies. After we grew up a little we started demanding toys..then vehicles, cellphones..the list is never ending. After we graduate our only aim, most often sub-consciously is to make money so that we can live a comfortable life later on.
After we start our job..we often realize that they do get monotonous and repetitive however cutting edge be the technology we work on (here I'm talking about the IT industry because I could confidently talk about it from an insider's view point).

And so..to keep yourself sane you often fall back on your hobby..the one (or more) things that keep you happy..and happy from within.
For me..painting has been one such happiness that never disappoints me. Even if I paint a disaster, it keeps me happy. And so..here is..one more painting which I think is brilliant..obviously not comparable to trained artists..but it is brilliant as per my standards :)

Back to school

2010-03-01T19:24:00.000+05:30

Yea, literally..I went back to school yesterday. No I didn't have to attend classes this time round, but the feeling of being in your school premises after 8 whole years...is indescribable!

It all started with an update on facebook, St.Felix has an alumni meet on 28th February 2010. And my reaction was 'finally'!! I mean I hadn't been to school, hadn't met teachers, hadn't been in school for almost 8 years now (yea, I did attend the fete some years ago, but that wasn't really quality time). So, started asking batchmates if they're attending and then thinking what its going to be like going to school again.
However, close school friends couldn't make it, but I certainly wanted to attend and this time too, we went as we used to go always, all three sisters together :) Felt so nice and mom kept saying you'll are going to school :) Obviously we weren't in uniforms this time, we had let our hair loose, like we did on the farewell (wonder how can you feel free in sarees :P).
So, step one inside school and all the memories come floating into your mind. Everything was just the same, the entrance, the basketball court. We used to have lunch here, with our dabbas and napkins to sit on and groups we had lunch with. The entrance used to be covered with those wild white flowers which we had fun collecting and making bouquets of. The field, now more levelled reminded us of the sports day and its preparations and the marchpast. All our PT classes were on that field. The throwball court, those slides and swings and the jungle gym for kids!
We also had a gym in school, not a gymnasium but it was called a gym. It was just a kind of a platform adjacen to the building, where we had our assembly every morning. Reminded me of those few days when I had to lead the prayer and the national anthem/pledge. It is still there, untouched and looking younger by the day.

The classrooms...God! Those small chairs we sat on, those desks.

Those millions of charts we made. And if your chart was put up on the landing, it was a big achievement back then.

The classrooms are improving now with nice blackboards and there are going to be OHPs and a computer and internet facility for the teachers to use the new technology and teach. Sure seems fun for the new batches there!
The school hall, the new one, we had our farewell there and also our teacher's day and children's day. The stage, the lights, the microphones.
And the teachers, they were more than excited to see us. And talking to them, and they in turn recognising or even calling out to you by your first name! The feeling is unbelievably the best ever! The teachers even remembered the greeting cards we used to give them on teacher's day and mentioned that they were just reading throught hem the other day. The best thing I've ever heard! We made such a difference in their lives, those small greeting cards did, how I wish I had given them more of them!
How can I forget the chapel in school. We used to go there everday, it was so peaceful inside. And the holywater made us feel so pure somehow. We went there yesterday too and as soon as you step inside it just cuts out all the noise and hulla gulla outside. That's our school chapel!
The small program they had prepared was lots of fun, wherein they made us do the boogie dance and also the birdy dance. Made us feel like kids all over again :) And the happiness around was contagious. There were a few people from the 70's batch who had turned up!

Some moments...

My marathi teacher, Mrs Kathale. I spoke to her in correct marathi for the first time yesterday :)

Mrs. Lakhamsey, my Science2 teacher. I was the most attentive student in her class :)

Mrs.Jane Anthony, my Science1 teacher. I was the most attentive student in her class too :)

Mrs.Moniz, my english, geography, economics teacher who made these subjects very easy for me. She was the one who taught me that it is 'pronUnciation'!

Mrs.Mahajan, always jovial always excited. She taught all of three of us sisters :)

The staircase, where I was supposed to ask people to maintain silence!

So many moments, so many years we spent there....
Felixians rock!

Blabbering..is anyone listening?

2010-02-26T18:17:00.000+05:30

"I haven't been blogging these days"
"Does that mean I have done nothing 'post' worthy or is that 'm just plain lazy to see through the beauty of every moment?"
"Beauty of every moment? hello...give me a break. That's just a very subtle way of saying that you have nothing worth talking about."
"I see, that means I need to introspect"
"Aaah, that's how it goes eh? Ok go on, I'm sure the best you can babble about is Pune's traffic"
"Man, you know me inside out. Its the Pune traffic. Its the squabbles and arguments with siblings and parents. Its basically everything getting on my nerves. Is it me or is it my nerves?"
"Lets go hit the couch"
"No but wait, I guess I've been bunking gym too"
"So, how does that get on your nerves?"
"No, that's something good I've done in the whole week maybe :P"
"Sad joke..so there you're back..with a bang..err..joke"
"Ya whateva..so where were we? Yea a post. This is good post material right, its abstract and that will make people think I write so well and all that stuff na."
"Yea...please yourself. So couch now?"
"Yea..tada..sleep time..cya"

Lazy bones need some exercise...

2010-02-02T16:17:00.000+05:30

Yea, that's what the human body needs. And being in the IT industry its a must.
Its been almost two years since I started working and I tried lots of diets (which were specially designed by me..and included pastries and cadB and chaat and lots of other calorie-full and yummy food :D). So anyway none of these diets worked anyway. I tried starving myself and slimmed down a little but then that's against my spirit 'I live to eat'. I kept thinking I'll go for walks...I'll get up and exercise..I'll go swimming...I'll go and play tennis...but I always found some very convincing reason (convincing reason for myself :P) to avoid physical exercise. After the marathon debacle I even started my stairs exercise which went on for hardly a week and a half.
So after all free means of exercise failed, I switched over to the gym. This gym is very close to home, so that saves me some more sleep time and gives me more reason to not bunk the gym.

Today was my first day. I moved my lazy ass because I was spanked by my sis and could see no convincing reason that convinced her (and not me for a change :P) Thus began my first gym day. We reached half an hour late :P and then quickly changed and got into the groove for warm up exercises. I enjoyed myself a lot and also found out that my muscles are not used to so much movement :P. I gave my best shot today and my muscles aren't hurting yet (so then that takes away my reason for bunking gym tomorrow :P).

Before going to gym in the morning, I told myself that I'll come back and sleep...but after all the exercises I was so fresh that I wished I could keep exercising all day. And my favorite exercise - the treadmill - I loved it....don't mind going to gym just for the treadmill :)

A weekend that was longer than itself...

2010-01-28T19:59:00.000+05:30

No no, I'm not hinting that I was so bored that the weekend seemed to never end.
I have done so much in these two days, roamed and seen and traveled and hogged so much, that the weekend seemed longer than just two days!

Khyati had invited all of us over to her house in Vapi over the weekend. Since vapi is a six hour drive from Pune, we decided to start at 4am. The usual latecomer Lalit surprised all of us by turning up even before the car arrived :P. We started on time, but only to find a new late comer, Amit :P.
We left for Vapi, after picking up everyone by 5:45. Everyone was drowsy and fell asleep after a few minutes only to be woken up by hunger. Had some breakfast at kamat (which wasn't half as tasty as the king's meal we had later on).

We reached Khyati's place by noon and then freshened up and were ready for lunch. A very good hostess that Khyati was, she had asked her mom to make all kinds of gujarati dishes for us. We had 5 no 6 no I guess 8 or was it 9..I'm not sure..but it was a huge huge huge meal. Never ending dishes, that made it difficult to choose what to eat. There was undhiu, dhokla, paneer sabji, rotis, patra, achcar (lovely homemade mirchi and tondli pickles) and green chutney and loads of shrikhand and dal and rice and I'm sorry I can't remember anymore, my stomach aches :P
And Khyati was an awesome host, she kept feeding all of us till we complained of appetite overflow :D But the food...was yummy...damn tasty!

This is after we were too tired of feeling overfull...and I could barely sit :P

We were supposed to leave for Daman in half an hour, but no one was in a state to do so. All of us slept for an hour and then left for Daman. It took us half an hour to reach the beach. The beach is very peaceful, though it has been commercialised. It is a bit dirty but feels peaceful. All of us (except me) got into the water. For me, I just felt like admiring the way the waves come and go without ever complaining of doing the same thing over and over again. Somehow that gave me even more pleasure than getting wet and salty.

We saw the sunset and then after some snacks and corn we moved towards the jetty. (Note: A walk on the beach while the sun is setting..feels awesome...even better if you are with someone special..) The jetty was nice. The boats there reminded me of pirates :P

After this we moved towards Mira Soul (not sure if it is spelt as sole or sol or soul..Gujarat after all :P). This place is a resort which has an artificial lake, and hence boats. A restaurant with a nice lake view. Small huts with a view facing the lake again. A mini train and a nice ambience!

We retraced our steps towards the jetty, why? for dinner :P
The jetty was nice and the rolls and sandwiches and faluda was too good. (Ya ya I know, all this just after we kept complaining of overfeeding ourselves at lunch :P). With an over-overfull stomach we went home while making plans of an early morning walk the next day to explore GIDC.
Next morning, everyone went for a walk, just that no one saw the other :P. Possibly everyone walked in their dreams :P. After we all woke up and were ready we had yummy gujju breakfast awaiting us. Fafda and jalebi and khari and lots of other lip smacking khana. This time we hogged less and Khyati didn't force (Thank God!) and we left for Silvassa.

We wen t to doodhani which is the backwaters of the Madhuban dam. The boats were very tempting and we didnt need to paddle too. We split into two groups and oared our way for atleast an hour or so. And my boat, we enjoyed screaming when Amit and then Mohsin volunteered to row the boat :D. And then as if these boats weren't enough we made some more and then left them to find their fate in the water. Most of the time in the boat was spent screaming and laughing and giggling.
We then left for the highway towards Pune while making plans of visiting Amit's place in Thane on the way. The next stop was a restaurant on the way for chai and then Amit's place we where hogged again :P. We also stopped at the food mall after khopoli but no, we didn't hog there :P We reached Pune by 11pm reminiscing all the food we had had over the weekend :D

All in all a food filled and a fun filled weekend!

Paint the world..in water..:)

2010-01-12T23:57:00.000+05:30

Yea, I started again...
Water colors is an art. Why? Just because you have to get out the creativity and reality in colors and as fast as you can. That's precisely why I'd left them way back after school. I then started using oils and found they were so convenient, you could install reality at a later phase of the painting too.

This time, somehow that craving for water and color and art..got me!
My long lost craving for art..creating art...was re-instilled in me. So I started afresh, new book, new pack of pencils, a sharpener,eraser, brushes, colors and water!

And believe me it feels heavenly to be doing something you really love. You won't believe I even forgot that I was raving for food after I picked up the brush. Only after it was done (actually only after I received at least one compliment) did I grab some food.
Here's my painting..(I shouldn't complain, but I forgot to buy white color and it does not come in the pack. So I tried my best without the peaceful color).

And here's the original...

I know, I know it isn't half as good..but I'll keep trying..and keep you guys posted!

Friends..bangalore...and a memorable trip!

2010-01-06T12:03:00.009+05:30

This time pree’s tweets are going to show me the way J

22^nd December : 9:29 AM Aah.. Njoying.. Nw wating frnds to come to ma home!!

We were on the way to banaglore, boarded a 9pm bus from pune. The bookings were done in advance but last minute hiccups are always there. The travel decided to change their pick up point without informing the boarders. Luckily dad was home early and ash and my baggage got a ride through the traffic jam at yerwada. We were panicking about the bus leaving but then were waiting for almost half an hour after the scheduld hour, for the bus to start. Anyhow we thus started our 14 hour journey to the city of gardens!

Pree had prepared methichi bhaji (my request) and masale bhaat (my request again) for us. The bus reached majestic at around 12:30 or so, and we were to look for platform 17 on the local bus stand. Yeah, there platforms are not only for trains but also for buses. The bus service is pretty organized there. We were hunting our platform 17. We spotted 15,16,18 but no 17. Wonder where Rowling got her idea of platform 93/4 th :P We were looking on the inter city bus stand :P

The people there were pretty helpful, they not only helped us locate the intra city bus stand but also mentioned the bus number we had to board. Our bus number was 333, but what do we see. We have a 333W, 333P, 333A etc etc.. J Good thing we could remember the name of the flyover there, something like mar thali :P

The buses are A/C and posh and comfortable. They have a separate space for people to keep their luggage, pity that we did not notice that before we were nearing our stop J There are female conductors there and the bus drivers don’t force you to run a marathon to board the bus. Even when you have to alight, the bus drivers consider it their responsibility to help you alight safely and in peace. There is no bell in the bus there, conductors whistle ;) Infact some of the buses don’t even have conductors. Buses which have only one door have only a driver who also acts as a conductor, weird isn’t it :P

So, we reached the marthalli flyover after almost an hour and pree came to receive us. Her place was not more than five minutes from there. They have a nice flat there, which feels like a home. Her roommates were working in office and we, were enjoying the garma garam polis and bhaji and bhaat J after a nice warm water bath.

Plans for the evening were a girls night at a disc. So we decided to take a three hour nap to be fresh later in the evening. But who wants to sleep, we fell on the bed giggling and chit chatting and after an hour or so, surprisingly, everyone fell asleep J

We woke up around five or so and put on our party wear. After Rashmi arrived we started our journey to explore bangalore’s night life. We went to Fuga and the entrance was amazing. Red lights on the floor and dark inside. But it being a weekday, there was no DJ and since we were too disappointed, the owner there redirected us to Banagalore central where they have a rooftop disc and the 22^nd was a girl’s night supposedly and they were offering free entry and complimentary drinks ;) What more could we ask for. We rushed to central. The place looked fine, but it was a bit deserted at 9pm. Crowd slowly started pouring in, while we made ourselves comfortable on the sofa chairs in open air. We ordered just two plates of starters that cost us 500 bucks :-O and the waiter there comes up and asks you to shell out 500 even before the order is placed, weird! We took our complimentary drinks (3 each :D) and were waiting for someone, somebody to rock the dance floor. It was 9:30 still no one. Finally one gutsy female inaugurated the floor around 9:45 and we rushed in. Danced to the foot tapping numbers and then moved out before it started getting stuffy with smoke and scantily clad gals unable to carry off their dresses and guys ogling!

We left central around 10:15 or so and the rickshaw drivers outside thought we were drunk and offered to show us that there was a pothole outside :P. But we are always giggling even when we are normal :P We giggled and laughed all the way back and am sure people around thought we are high :P

We slept off that night with dreams of shopping for the new day :D

23^rd December : 11:28 AM ZAAP on the way to Iskcon temple

We were supposed to leave home by 9 but we lazed around and ended up leaving by 10:30 or so. The temple is open only till 1 in the afternoon and we made it in time J The temple is nice, the management for footwear and cameras and other belongings is good.

On the floor below the temple there is a shopping fest. Books on spirituality in different languages, murtis, calendars, frames etc etc. This was okish. The lower floor had food :D

23^rd December : 1:38 PM yaay!! Food feast at Iskon temple..!

Different types of rice, sweets, some wadi that we had and badam milk. And since pree was paying all the way, we felt like small kids making demands on their parents. We always saw something or the other and yelled “pree te havay”, “pree badam milk” “pree jalebi” and the list was almost never ending :D

On the way out we had Prasad and then were in no mood of lunch.

23^rd December : 2:16 PM amruta's life is "paripurna" says popatwala.. ;D

On the way out amz wanted a parrot to read her future and we picked a very young jyotishi. The most ridiculous thing he could have ever said was “Aap apna haath kisi ko bhi mat dikhana, aapke liye achcha nahi hai”. Rest was as expected, everything he said was so generic that it could fit anyone’s life.

23^rd December : 4:48 PM shopping shopping at commercial...

Next we headed towards Commercial, which is analogous to laxmi road, tulsi baug here. Our shopping lists were singleton sets but when we entered, it felt as if everything we saw we needed :P I first bought a nice big purse and then stuff to fill it :D Was fun and by the time we were done, we almost kept telling ourselves “We have 5 more days to go, we need cash” :D

23^rd December : 7:03 PM nw on brigade road in cauvery emporium..

We were supposedly heading for dinner somewhere on brigade road, when we again enter a Cauvery emporium where we spot some nice wooden and jute work :D Shopping again, and pree’s tweet says it all J

By the time we could explore all the restaurants in the place, we were exhausted and wanted only two things “Fish and “neer dosa”. And since we didn’t know the place we actually asked the usherer at the entrance itself if we will get these two things. If he said no, we asked him for some other place which served them :D. We found our eatery at Coast 2 coast. Food was good and the tweet, here goes - trying new southy dish Neer dosa in coast II coast

24^th December : 6:48 AM : sakali sakali.. Gulabi thandi.. Mysore sathi nighaloy..

Bags packed, we were ready to leave for banagalore. And yes, it was cold and fun J

The journey to mysore was three hours. We mostly slept through it. And when we reached Mysore, we were too certain that we would find accommodation where we wanted. But yes we were not so lucky this time. We then had to hunt a place and ended up paying four times the cost we were ready to pay. Anyhow, we then left to enjoy places in mysore.

24^th December : 12:43 PM : munching in Gufha...

Our first stop was Gufha for lunch. Its ambience was based on the theme of a cave. It was made very well, was dark cozy and comfy and made me miss my lover ;). Food was good too and I’ll definitely recommend this place to anyone going to mysore. It’s a must must must!

24^th December : 2:24 PM : sandalwood...

Did you think that our shopping streak was over, considering that we overspent in Bangalore and then overpaid at the hotel? No, we shopped like crazy again and were all smelling of sandalwood by the time we left the ‘authentic cauvery emporium’ thanks to the very enthusiastic saleswoman, who thought sprinkling all kinds of scents on us would lure us even more :D. How right she was ;) It was just the start of the day and we were already lighter on funds and heavier on weight :P

24^th December : 3:50 PM : awed by the artistic creativity at mysore palace..

Finally we started sight seeing and were inside this huge palace, the Mysore palace. It belonged to the wodeyar dynasty. The interiors are very artistic and the painted glasses with the sunlight on them are a sight for sore eyes. Ironically, the small temple in the palace premises is not at all artistic, there’s not even a single carving not even a small piece of art. It was out of place, I felt.

Next plan was the zoo, but since we overdrew time in the palace, we had to skip it. Next stop was the vrindavan garden and the musical show at night.

24^th December : 6:02 PM : uff.. Finally got bus fr vrindavan garden..

The vrindavan garden looked amazing at night. The fountains looked fabulous in the dim lights. The garden is so huge, that we did not realize that all the crowd at the entrance had entered the garden. The musical show was nice too. All our efforts had paid off, the garden is a must watch only at night in the lights J

24^th December : 8:46 PM : way back to room... Fountain fountain all over.. Juss wonderful..

Tired we made our way back to our ‘Prestigious’ hotel ‘The President’. Had a warm water bath and were ready to face the next day J

25^th December : 7:01 AM : waiting fr a bus to Ooty to start.. #ooty

Yes, we were leaving for ooty. My dad had kept arguing with me to carry my winter wear as it was going to be cold. And I had kept fussing about carrying all the heavy wear boasting about how I don’t feel cold. So I was all the more excited to go there and find out who wins J

The drive to ooty was five hours. On the way we passed a tiger reserve where all we could spot was a few deer and monkeys and elephants. Nevertheless the scenery around was serene. We reached ooty by noon and then looked around for accommodation. This time we were lucky to find the expected place at the expected rates. And boy, was it cold! It was fantastic, I love winters!

25^th December : 1:27 PM : In Ooty.. Having south indian meal..

We freshened up and then moved to our lunch place where we all ordered the south Indian meal and were excited about having it too. But you know, all you get is loads of rice. No chapatti at all. Of course I could not finish all the rice, but here’s a glimpse of how the empty plate looks J

We then boarded our jeep that would take us sight seeing in ooty. Due to time constraints and the fog reducing visibility considerably we decided to skip pykara.

25^th December : 3:18 PM : at Dodabetta peak in queen of hills...

Our first stop was Doddabeta, the highest peak in South India. It was misty and chilly. And I loved roaming in the midst of people clad with sweaters and mufflers, showing off my designer casual wear :D I didn’t need a sweater and thus I was nicknamed ‘vampire’ :P

25^th December : 4:42 PM : inside tea factory..!!

25^th December : 4:52 P : Home made chocolates!! Yaay...!! :D

Yes, we were inside the tea factory and I think the snap says it all. Shop-a-holics strike again :P. We also bought loads of home made chocolate. Next we visited the rose garden. It was fun, looking at never ending rows of roses. All labeled, different names (didn’t understand the nomenclature scheme though). We spent around an hour among the roses and thus missed the botanical garden and boat house. We then had dinner and moved to our warm place, as me the vampire had also started feeling the chills. The house was cold, the floor ice. The water ice too. We all crumpled into the blanket and watched a movie before we slept off. Next day we were to travel in the mini train to Coonoor.

26^th December : 9:42 AM : no toy train to coonoor this time :(

The trains were cancelled as the rains collapsed a bridge in between. We hired a cab to go there instead.

26^th December : 9:43 AM : on the way to Coonoor.. Valley view...

The valley view on the way was breathtaking. We could see tea gardens, that never ended. There also were tiny toy houses scrawled all over. We were just 10kms away when

26^th December : 10:19 AM : bridge collapsed in between due to rain.. Road blocked.. :( so small change in plan. Going Pykara!

Okay, so plans changed we were back in ooty. We saw a couple of places like the pykara lake, waterfalls, the shooting point, pine forest etc. But what we will never forget in pykara is – the cab driver. He was the best nuisance we ever saw! We have never bargained or argued with someone at this level! All I can say now is “May God help his future customers J “

We left the cab somewhere around 2pm and then started exploring other parts of ooty we had missed the day before. First stop was the ooty boat house. After waiting in a long line for almost 30 minutes, it started raining and they declared that rowing boats will be stopped. But since we showed enthusiasm of boating in the rain we were taken :D. It was fun rowing in the rain and I had a shot with the oars. It was only fair that we moved in circles for some time, given that it was my first shot with them oars ;) The tweet 26^th December : 4:12 PM : at boathouse.. Boating.. Raining... :)

After that we had a ride in the mini train there 26^th December : 4:43 PM mini train.. Remembrd "fulrani" in peshwe udyan :D and the weather in ooty could best be described as

26^th December: 4:29 PM : sun in d mornin, mist in d aftrnun n rain in evenin.. Thats d climate in ooty...

26^th December : 5:43 PM : in botanical garden, ooty..

Our next stop was the botanical garden we had missed the previous day. And boy, thank God we didn’t miss seeing it today! Its huge, its pretty, its well maintained and even if you spend a whole day inside, you will still have plenty to explore! I loved the small small things they had created using flowers, for example the map of India and states marked out so well all with flowers. It was a pity that we just spent an hour inside..

After this, we had dinner in the next restaurant we spotted. All of us called for rice and had it (later realizing that it was so tasteless). Why the hurry? We had to pick up our luggage from the cloak room at the station and then wait another two hours for our bus back to Bangalore. We then rushed to the station and collected our stuff. Original plan was to enjoy ice cream while waiting for our bus, but that changed to two three rounds of coffee since it was so so so unbearably cold out there.

Our bus arrived and we knew we had the last seats but little did w know how uncomfortable they were going to be. Anyhow, we managed to reach Bangalore in one piece reminiscing al the fun time we had had J 27^th December : 6:08 AM : back in bengaluru...

After we were back at pree’s place we all freshened up, packed our bags for pune, had some little breakfast and then headed out for lal baug in Bangalore. Lal baug is good, but if you visit it after the botanical garden in ooty, you will think its no comparison. We spent some nice time chit chatting there 27^th December : 12:01 PM : spent some peaceful time at Lalbaug botanical garden, bangalore.. and then had to reach Forum value mall in time for a movie 3Idiots. And as pree said she has always gone to any movie sprinting to reach in time, we helped her never change that routine :P We were literally sprinting and hence missed only the first five-six minutes. The movie was good but we were hungry! After the movie we were supposed to have lunch but instead settled on pastries :D We did have an early dinner though (as early as 6 :P) and then moved back to pree’s place. Met an old college friend, chit chatted for some time and then…the most difficult moment! We were goin back to pune L We had to leave pree there and head out. All the way in the bus, I felt pree was there and just now she’s going to yell ‘aapla stop aalay’ J

Miss you pree and I’ll always cherish every moment we spent laughing for no reason at all, discussing budgets, discussing jokes and PJs :P

Love ya J

Get set go!

2009-12-20T23:11:00.000+05:30

This plan was not even on the PRD a year ago..and look at it now! Its on the brink of its GA :D
Yaaay, we are finally going to pree's new place! We are going to bangalore to make it a noisy noisy place, filled with chatter and gossip and laughter and giggles! Its just another..how many? what?? less than 24 hours? wow! it still hasn't sunk in :)

Okay, i'll start describing the planning phase and then maybe i'll come to believe i'm really going.
When pree went to bangalore we had always thought that we will go visit her one day, and these plans always remained only plans until the 2nd of October when pree was here and we went to Lohgad. I still remember it was then when we got serious and discussed our leaves. Everyone had leave for Christmas and Ash, had very less leaves and so we all took leaves when she had a week long off (week long..even i want a week long off for chrsitmas :(
So, anyway..amz and me were discussing how many days leave we need and then we settled on 22nd to 23rd..that leaves us six full days with pree. Then started the phase of confirmations of dates, application of leaves. A few arguments, a trifle disappointments, lots of discussions and then the final 'concrete planning' :D
Bookings were done, (pree was rather quick with these now that she's been there more than once. She's going to become a good tourist guide :P) and plans were final! We were happily shocked that we are really really going!
Now am here having packed too early (I am used to last minute running around in search of clothes and stuff and cribbing for them not being where I left them :P) so, I decided to write about all our fun experience planning. Ohh yes, how can i forget all the very very long mail threads that gmail itself cut short sometimes :P I'm gonna treasure all those moments of planning :)

So, guys wait for my next post on all the fun we have in banaglore!

Learnings...

2009-12-12T18:14:00.000+05:30

- You are responsible for your actions. Don't think anyone else is supposed to take the blame.

- When you are vulnerable it is your responsibility to avoid putting yourself in a vulnerable state.

- When you want to rebel, it is always better you don't.

- In India power is vested with uniformed gundas . If you try to fight them you end up as shown in
   movies - insulted and looked down upon by other onlookers who know not how to help.

- If you expect others to help you for the sake of humanity, you are not fit to live.

- When you don't want to be frustrated (since you have all the reason to rejoice) you will always find plenty of
   reasons to be frustrated.

- When you are not wrong, you have to gulp down words of disgust. If you cannot do so, you are not fit to
   live.

- You would like to believe 'honesty is the best policy' but you should probably know that the ability to lie
   perfectly is inbuilt in humans these days. If you don't have it in you, that means your software is not up to
   date.

- You would like to keep things simple, but even your best efforts complicate matters.

- Last learning. They say learn from another's mistakes. But the worst mistakes in your life are made by
   learning from another's mistakes.

Run...run...run...

2009-12-08T11:29:00.001+05:30

6th December, 2009

Welcome to the 24th International Pune marathon, AIDs charity run. I heard about it but was not very sure I was going to run. I sort of organised the whole 'going together' in the company. And now since I got people to get ready early in the morning and run, I had to be there on time and so I went :)
Driving early morning in the fog was fun. Traffic lights said 'make your way' and my rear view mirror liked the misty cover. I loved the speed my kine loves and we made it to office by 7:15am, bang on time.
Out of the 24 participants that registered only 11 showed up and I was happy I hadn't ditched the group :P

Anyway, the run started at 8:20 (can you believe it started before time :P). We were to run from Alka chowk towards Nehru Stadium a mere 3.5 kms. But was it a mere 3.5 kms? No. I barely ran 500 meters and I was tired. Almost at every look at vehicles stalled due to the run I felt like hitchhiking :P. But thanks to my friend and motivator who was always by my side, I couldn't give up. I ran some small patches in between and walked most of the patch. But I made it to the end. Thanks buddy!
Lesson learnt? Never inform people about something you don't think you are going to participate in :P Okay, that was one but the other was I have to work on my stamina. Its bad, very bad.
Okay, personal cribbing stalled (for the time being :P)

People use this run as a platform for propaganda. They run in groups with banners of their company. Very few people wore slogans educating people about AIDS. Anyway, the energy around was great with teams charging up the atmosphere with their slogans once in a while.

For some this might have been a fun run, but for me it was tiring. Sigh I need to exercise :)

P.S. Why does this post have a 'milestone' label? Because after this I have started exercising and am making an effort to take in proper meals at the right time. Thanks diet baba :P

A heavenly night-out

2009-11-22T17:44:00.000+05:30

An unexpected plan..formed at the spur of the moment..because of something someone blurted out very innocently....turned to be one hell of a night!
We were out celebrating "International" Men's Day, this 19th of November, when we stumbled upon a possibility of catching a glimpse of the leonids meteor showers at lonavala. The plan was sudden...permissions...asking other people not present there..how to go..where to go..what time to go...all of this was decided in less than half an hour. We all decided to leave that night around 10 from office and reach office on friday around 5am. Sounds pretty good right..and we are used to not sleeping all night and still being fresh (Remember our engineering papers ;) ). Anyway, it was a little difficult to explain that to my parents and their concern was more than valid. The only question they asked "How can someone, who has been working the whole day, drive without sleeping even a wink". Anyhow, that part was cleared and we were all set. The lack of time didn't allow me to run back home and get something warm to wear but I usually don't feel the cold shivers...usually.
So we were all set, left office a little close to 10:30 in two cars. First stop was a nice coffee at Soul Curry. Next stop was Duke's nose. Going for a drive at night is always fun. It was quiet, only stray dogs running around (and of course us ;)). We reached our destination at 12:30. There are small tapris there who prepare tea and bhajjis. A kaka came there and brought us tea and bhajjis.
We found some flat poles that were laid out just for us (maybe). We made that our bed for the day and stared into the sky full of stars. It felt heavenly. There were so many stars, I could hardly take in all of them in one go. It was cold and it was too windy. Bless those poor souls who had carried extra sweaters and shawls for us poor little beings. Also bless Lalit who shed his jacket because he was enjoying the cold.
We saw quite a few meteors, some that started and ended almost then and there. Some that covered almost whole of the sky. Some we missed. Some we thought was a meteor because of a silly plane that was moving around in circles right there.
The night outside on the poles with chips and pepsi and thumsup and the singing and the chitchat..it was all so unforgettable. We stayed out till around 3:30 while a few took a quick nap in the car. We started moving towards Pune by 3:40am and I reached office by 5. It was a bit too early and dark to start a 15km journey home and so I waited up with another friend up in office. That was a nice time, both of us yakking over a coffee. The office was so empty. The same chairs and cubicles that are so alive during the day were now lifeless. It felt weirdly nice.
The drive back home was also so peaceful with all the signals saying "make your own way" and everyone driving without a worry of who is in the right lane or wrong. Reached home by 7 and took a nap before reaching office just in time for lunch ;)

A tangled mess

2009-11-17T16:55:00.001+05:30

The sky is blue
I want it to be mauve
Thoughts are in a mess
But I think they can be sorted

The coffee is hot
I want it to be cold
The wind is cool
I want it to be warm

The sky is clear
But I want it to be cloudy

I know its not that difficult

But I choose to complicate it

Cattle can't fly
But I want them to
I can see the reason
But I want to ignore it

The heart aches
I'm trying to mend it
Questions are simple
But I'm trying to gauge the answers

My mind thinks logically
But I can't see through it
Has logic ever helped
I know the answer isn't trivial

All these parallel running threads seem so independent
Why can't they all work in different contexts
I know I was difficult on you
But I'm sure you can see
The mess I am in, leaves me no option.

I wish feelings were binary
and answers were public
If emotions weren't private
life could have been simpler!

Realisation parineeta!

2009-10-31T23:02:00.000+05:30

All of us have seen the movie 'Parineeta' right?
Majority of us liked the movie for the sheer brilliance in the simplicity of the story telling and the brilliant performances.
I happened to read the novel, the english translation by Malobika Chaudhuri. And I was overwhelmed by the simplicity, not only of the lives of people then but also of the language used. Nowadays we don't come across novels written in such simple language. There wasn't a single word that I had to lookup and then move ahead.
The plot as we have all seen in the movie, is of a family with a greedy rich businessman, eyeing another poor friend's house and bossing over him for a loan given. The rich man's son falls in love with the poor man's niece. Its a simple plot and the ending is happy. But, why I chose to mention the novel here is just how much difference it makes while watching simplicity and in imagining simplicity when someone describes it. This novel felt very fresh. The life way back in the 20th century, child marriages, the pitiful life of women..the story just made all of this flash right in front of my eyes, only to make me realise...life for women isn't all that good even today. Why? yes, we have independence, freedom, rights to equality but are they without a price? Don't we hear so many cases of atrocities inflicted on women? Why then do we claim that we have given women equality?

Jaago re!

2009-10-16T19:44:00.000+05:30

I was of 'vote'able age a couple of years ago, but I somehow could not get myself registered.
I submitted the form twice, but to no avail. Not that I do not value my power to vote, but I was too lazy to move some muscles and go and do my work myself. I always gave this one and that one forms, and it was 4 years before I realised that I have to start moving myself if I plan to contribute a drop to the ocean.
Then when the 'jaago re' campaign started, I registered myself there and they're constant reminders maybe, somehow, subconsciously made me do the needful.
So, here I am, my first invaluable vote cast on the 13th of October 2009.
Mixed feelings ensue...
Did I use this right of mine, correctly? The answer to this is, you can never say so. You have to pick from a bunch of rotten tomatoes and you have to pick the 'best' 'rotten' one. So I don't ever see a foolproof solution to this problem.
I was never so much into politics. I never really bothered keeping a track of what someone is doing and how and where does his/her name show up in the news. This time I just made a last minute pick, based on what limited information I could gather in the last one day. Maybe next time onwards I should keep a vigilant watch on all the ongoing news on any political matter.
I don't know how far a single vote counts (of course they keep saying it does), but considering all the bogus voting and votes that have been bought etc. But I guess if everyone just starts voting honestly, this problem should be solved. So, I feel happy to be one of those who do vote honestly.
So, now I guess I'm responsible for who leads us. I've truly woken up and I hope I make the right choice always!

Sweet labour

2009-10-05T16:03:00.002+05:30

The last weekend, was a long weekend and pree was here. Whenever pree is here, we have a closed circuit and memorable fun is guaranteed :)
The planning part as always so full of confusion, not here there..how when etc etc..but I won't get there as that's part and parcel of any planning process :)
So, the plan was set. 2nd October, we were going to Lohgad and Visapur.
Ash n me were to catch the local at 6:30 from pune station and pree and amz were to board the same train from shivajinagar at 6:36 :D. I was already tensed, as boarding the same train from different stations etc, I never agree to. But according to our very own amz, it is the tension that makes trips fun :P.
So, ash & me somehow managed to catch the said train but the remaining people were late..so we got off at shivajinagar. Decided to board another Kolhapur-Mumbai express. This train was crowded, so even though we had tickets we travelled in the luggage compartment.

Was fun only till the sabjiwalas climbed in at the next station. This train we had boarded did not stop at malavli, the station we needed to get out to go to Lohgad. At talegaon where this train must have stopped for an eternity or so we felt, we had to make a decision whether we should go till lonavala and then come back towards malavli or leave this train here itself and board the next local that comes our way. People who knew more than us suggested the second option and I guess we were just in time in making our choice. We left this train and took the next one. So the train adventure ended and we reached malavli. There were many groups who we assumed were moving towards Lohgad, though luckily we didn't see any of the groups on our way up.
It was cloudy, not sunny and sweat was trickling down but our enthusiasm was always high. We took as many shortcuts as possible which made it feel like a real trek :). Thanks to the first tapri where we had nimbu pani, it helped in keeping our spirits high. After that we took a path, where a waterfall must have flown in the rains. It felt like walking through a jungle. (on a much smaller scale ofcourse :P)

There was a small family also moving up, but no matter how slow they thought we were moving we always reached higher than them :)

Tired and thirsty we made our way up. And was it worth! The ground was covered with flowers. It was a lovely flower bed and we felt like bollywood heroines who run and sing songs rolling in such flower beds. While moing towards 'vinchu kata' we felt as if we were floating in the flowers. It was absolutely lovely..breathtaking!

At a point, we could see the point we wanted to reach, but we could not see a feasible path towards it. We sat there just trying to figure out how we can go and then we spotted another person who found a different way. Now thanks to Pree, we went to vinchu kata. That point was nice. It felt so peaceful there, that we actually took a short afternoon nap there :D
We started moving down at around 3:15 or so. On the way we saw some college students who had come there to collect the plastic waste that people had thrown around there. It only made us realise, that where there is a will there is a way. It is up to each one of us to do our bit, however unimportant our contribution might seem. From now on I have decided to carry a small bag to pick up such waste and dispose it off at the nearest dustbin.
While descending the climate was pleasant and it was probably raining over the fort. We satisfied ourselves in a small waterfall that had managed to remain alive inspite of no rains.

At around 6:45 we started our journey back towards the railway station. We boarded the 7:45 train home and tire gave way to uncontrollable laughter on jokes, rather something that no one would ever find funny :).
Kudos to our group...may we go on more such memorable and fun trips :)

Books

2009-09-19T20:41:00.000+05:30

Yes, I loved reading books. I have read quite a few..but I had stopped buying them a long time ago, just because I never really read them. But staying in between people who never stop buying one pile of books after another, I am getting into my old forgotten groove yet again.
I just purchased 'Three cups of Tea" and "Parineeta". I hope to finish them and only then buy my next lot :)

P.S. That reminds me I have still not complated books I purchased last time which includes 'Twilight', 'Angels and Demons' and 'A brief History of time'.

Surrounded by greenery...

2009-09-17T23:06:00.001+05:30

This weekend (12th and 13th of September '09)...we visited Satara, Mahabaleshwar. Plans were in place atleast 4 days before the weekend. Work delegated appropriately and everyone was looking forward to the weekend.
Our carrier reached my place at 5:30am. I was ready in time (even though excitement didn't let me sleep the previous night). Next stop was Charuta's place and my road skills came into play when I couldn't reach the place even though I have been there a couple of times now. Anyhow, Lalit also reached there early (earlier than the last trip :P). We then proceeded towards office to pick up the remaining gang. As Amit was accompanied by his fianceé, our agenda for the day was troubling the couple ;). Journey started at around 6:30am.
Our firsts top was at Shirwal, Sriram vada pav center. Nice food and decent surroundings.

We moved towards Satara now. The road that leads to Thoseghar is surrounded by greenery and valleys. Its so beautiful that few people took turns to occupy the car top...it was nice fun...for them..and comfort for us :P. It was fun getting clicked (from top) by peeping outside the window..:)
I had never seen windmills from this close. We could actually here the rambling sound when the blades moved due to the wind. The ground was covered with a lot of flowers..just like we see in the movies..flower beds...it was lovely!

Next we moved to the thoseghar waterfall. It felt scary..imagine being at the receiving end of the waterfall! It was huge...n we also defined it as 'the' niagara falls ;)

The whole journey through satara gave the feel of a village...and felt so peaceful. The kids returning from school, racing on their cycles, playing with wheels...innocence at its best!
We then moved on to sajjangadh. Boy, was it a climb. Around 200 odd steps made me realise how my stamina has reduced. Anyway, we had nice, simple, tasty maha prasad and then explored some areas around the temple too. We then found a spot which opened the view to the entire valley below. Felt on top of the world ;) Then we moved towards Kaas valley and the lake.
At kaas valley we missed the flowers by around two weeks or so. There were a few flowers but I guess we missed the major lot. While moving towards the lake, we encountered a once in a lifetime view. That of rain clouds emptying their bounty over a small portion of a lake we could see from a distance. We could actually see the shadow moving on the water below and the rain looked like some heavenly spotlight! It was unbelievably beautiful!

We reached the lake in another fifteen minutes. The water was clean and cold. Some people swam through, while some others roamed around and slipped ;)
The so called (open) changing room was a disaster and people really need to understand that 'cleanliness is next to Godliness'.
Anyway, then we moved towards Mahabaleshwar, our palace resthouse, thanks to Charuta. And did we enjoy the undue attention ;) We had nice dinner at some restaurant which had two names. One of the names was swad. Had icecream at 10:30 in the misty cold weather and then gathered together to try and while away night time. But people slept in less than 20 minutes. Some of us had a small walk outside..and it wasn't as cold as Mahabaleshwar is expected to be. However, it was cooler than Pune.
Next day, after a heavy breakfast we moved towards Pratapgadh. The road is good, steep and winding curves, well known to upset stomachs very easily. It was accompanied by mist and umpteen waterfalls. After climbing pratapgadh halfway we reached a 'hastkala' exhibition which hogged around an hour of our time and we discovered that all of us are shop'a'holics ;) All plans of climbing the remaining half of the fort were cancelled as it started pouring heavily. I was smart enough to carry my jacket but leave it in the car below :P
To avoid getting ourselves drenched we took shelter in a small hut like structure and whiled away our time, fighting with swords and acting like the dead, and some people talking to the dead ;) After the rain became a meagre little we moved downwards. From there we were to go to Arthur's seat, famous for its scenic view. But unfortunately due to mist and rain the point was closed. So we decided to move on to Venna lake and try our luck at boating. Luckily boats were functional. So armed with nice juicy 'butta' we made our way to the boat. It was raining heavily and though we had a roof over the boat, all of us were drenched. The one time experience of boating in heavy rain and mist was more than enjoyable!
We then proceeded towards our resthouse, got into fresh clothes and started our return journey towards Pune. No, wait how can we leave out Bagicha 'strawberry cream' and Mapro 'sandwiches'. Of course we hogged on to all of these and then made a peaceful journey to Pune. This time some people slept, while some others did nothing more but comment on the dumb songs that were being played and the even dumber RJ who tried to act cool ;)
Reached home by 10pm and then felt a sense of satisfaction. And I thought to myself, so this is what it feels like to be surrounded with greenery...mist...jokes...laughter..and awesome company.

Guys..lets keep planning such fun trips. (Are MD and Charuta listening? ;) )

P.S. For a recital of the trip by another buddy who was part of the trip, go here.

Can I be proud of my writing skills

2009-09-05T00:36:00.001+05:30

Recently, I was introduced to ficly by Mohsin. I found the idea a brilliant one, and was forever thinking of writing atleast one ficlet.
Little did I know that I would churn out so many (ok the many is only 5 for now, but I think its an awesome number to start with).
I started with a nice idea, but not so well written one based on teleporting.
Next came another nice idea but I personally didn't like the way it turned out. Story revolved around blogger and the sequel.
Another common idea but well written with werewolves etc.

Then today, I read this awesome awesome poem and wanted to write a sequel. But since the poem was so brilliant, I was unsure if I would be able to do justice in the sequel. But turns out I cannot believe that I wrote this wonder. Its just frigging awesome! I am on top of the world and you don't want to miss it. So I'll put it in here, and save you having to open another link. So here it goes

I forgot how to worry,
and never ran out of happiness.
I forgot how to argue,
and everything around was quiet.

I forgot life is unfair,
and made every moment worth living.
I forgot the word revenge,
and enemies ceased to exist.

I forgot dreams are’nt real,
and lived in blissful fiction.
I forgot how to complain,
and dissatisfaction vanished.

I forgot that I’m human,
and work finished in a jiffy.
I forgot that I’m a slave,
and masters never lasted.

I forgot to have expectations,
and life became numb.
I forgot feelings are real,
and oceans never flowed.

I forgot how to breathe,
and life became heavenly.

and if you want to rate it, you can do it here.

When exams were a blessing in disguise...

2009-08-30T11:46:00.001+05:30

It so happened yesterday, that I could not decide whether I should read a book or watch some movie. Since I could not choose between any of these, I decided to do some vella online. But bsnl loves playing spoil sport and made me choose between my two previous options. Since I had a good Agatha Christie book titled 'The Big Four' and it seemed interesting, I made my choice.

Everyone had slept off and so I had to choose the hall to read. And then I felt the same as I used to during my PLs. I used to sit with a book in my hand, on my very comfy couch, and my cell close to me...txting away to glory. During exams I used the landline too a lot to chat away with anyone who was only willing to have some fun. I used to talk and laugh and giigle in whispers, lest anyone should wake up and find out about my late night activities :P. As for the telephone bill, don't ask :P. The landline is at a very convenient location if you are on the couch, thats the primary reason for choosing the said location :D. We used to discuss entire units and papers over the phone, what a phone addict I was then. I remember we used to fix up times to call and never miss any appointment...never :).
Those days, how sweet the tension of the exams. How we were never really worried even if we hadn't read through an entire unit. Compare this to school days or junior college days and we were so heavily loaded with the responsibility of finishing all the portion 2-3 months before the exam and then keep revising the syllabus. The PLs was the one time, every engineer really looks forward to. Its that time when you are supposed to be studying but you never feel like doing so. You want to have fun, but that fun is kept under control by parents or self aware students since they keep yelling at you to study.

Yes, exams were an evil but it brought with it so much fun that I wish I could have my PLs again :)

Movies..you can never have enough of them...

2009-08-27T19:02:00.002+05:30

I like to share my choice of movies with everyone. Let them hear what I thought about the movie. Let them know (if ofcourse they value my suggestion) whether the movie is watchable or ignorable. So I decided to dedicate a separate blog for the purpose. So here it is, the movie blog.

Happy reading!

Réflexion à haute voix

2009-08-25T10:11:00.003+05:30

I couldn't find a better place to put it...no not even twitter. So here it goes...

Life is a game...
Play it safe and you feel you've won, but in reality you've become numb.
Play it rough...and you've won, but ofcourse that's an illusion,coz when the long
lost skeletons come haunting, you only realise how wrong your approach was...
In short, you never win this game of life, coz the rules of the game aren't static n yes, they aren't real...

What does it take...to create a race of silent morons?

2009-08-23T00:41:00.003+05:30

Human mind is impressionable. That is what makes a human so gullible.
I happened to read a very well written crime fiction titled "The return of the dancing master" by 'Henning Mankell'. The story starts with all the usual murder,investigation etc., but what impressed me the most was the way the plot was woven into people believing and following Nazi ideals. Anyone, who has the courage to stand up and impress upon others his ideas, thoughts, beliefs can create a whole race of dumb followers. They follow,execute unquestioningly. How easy it is to convince a soldier that he will do good by murdering an individual just because he belongs to a different race. No wonder the seeds sown 62 years earlier still result in riots in India. If you are successful in creating a single offspring of your beliefs, it will propagate through generations. Is it always that the wrong ideas manifest themselves firmly and those that should remain strong for ages to come, fade away much before their time? Are people so blind that they cannot distinguish the obviously wrong ideas, that are being stained into their sparkling white minds?
There is always a stress on education. What do we achieve by education? Falling into traps laid down by the media, doing what education obviously teaches us is wrong. When we study and believe in science, why do we still follow superstitions? We still have leaders who make allegations stating that "This minister is responsible for the drought conditions in the state. He did so by eating biscuits at the time of the solar eclipse". No, there is no one who stands up and fights against such statements. Forget fighting against, we have people who believe and help spreading such nonsense.

I guess its high time, people start putting their brain to the right use, and free themselves from this whole world of darkness!

Simplicity vs Complexity

2009-08-18T23:50:00.003+05:30

Yeah, the title reveals it all...that was simple. Some would expect the title to 'not' reveal the subject so easily, while others would say simple should be the way of life. We are always cribbing about life being too complex. Forget the world, I myself usually complain about everything being so hard to decipher. So, lets take it step by step. We'll list down the pros and cons, and of course these are pros or cons from my perspective. Each his own.

What if everyone started talking directly, as in, everything I say has only one meaning and its said directly. Now this sounds like a good solution right? Now talk about telling someone his weaknesses. If you say it directly, is the person at the receiving end going to take it in the right spirit? One may say, that's not my lookout...but everything should be clear. Another may believe that we can add an exception in such cases so that criticism doesn't have unwanted effects on the person concerned. Adding an exception will increase complexity? Lets take sarcasm. Will sarcasm come to your rescue? But then again sarcasm is just providing a hint, because its very difficult for a person to understand whether the remark was sarcastic unless its reflected in your tone,which defeats the purpose of being indirect. One way is beating round the bush to drive home the point, but then its no use beating round the bush especially when there is no bush..right? Indirection and hints will only increase complexity, as then everything depends on the way the message is interpreted at the receiving end.

So, are hints an easier way out?
Consider a typical teenage issue. Girl likes boy. Girl does not know if boy likes her. She wants to be sure before taking the plunge.
Solution 1 : Girl gives boy umpteen hints. But boy does not respond as expected. Interpretation1 : Boy is not at all interested. Interpretation2:Boy gets the hints, but doesn't know how to respond to them.
Now obviously interpretation2 is wrong, but since human mind is subconsciously optimistic, this interpretation comes into play.
Solution 2 : Girl talks to boy directly. Boy is not at all interested and so a budding friendship also comes to an end.

I haven't reached a conclusion. I've just poured out thoughts. I don't think there is a solution. This is an never ending debate. As for my belief, you cannot generalise, but I believe some situations demand indirection which brings with it complexity. If everything was so simple, we would all be robots :)
A supporting para from a song I just stumbled upon here supports what I believe
I don't have to tell you
What this is all about
Cause baby half the fun
Is in us figuring it all out

A nice office trip..to MavalShrushti

2009-08-10T21:42:00.003+05:30

We at office, had not gone for a trip since long (there hasn't been a single outing after I joined, owing to recession,layoffs etc etc)
The trip was planned for the 10th of August '09, a Monday. Usually monday is accompanied with mooonday blues, and getting up late..procrastination, finding reasons of going late to work and so on. But this monday, I woke up much before 6am. Had to reach office by 7:30 and so had decided to leave home by 7. Roads were very clear and though I didn't really drive fast (Ok, my kine can't really move very fast..but still :)) , I reached office in 20 minutes and didn't find anyone, not even the bus. People started trickling in and in some time all of us were ready to leave. Everyone settled in the bus and the journey started towards MavalShrushti.
We played dumb charades...even our VP Engineering, joined in very enthusiastically. While playing the game I only just realised just how much I needed a break from code, as I tried explaining the word 'if' by trying to go through 'code that I write and etc etc..:P'. All the way with jokes and guessing and movies we reached our destination by around 9:15 or so.
The place looked decent. All of us were hungry like bhooke bangals. We hogged our way into garma garam upma, poha and tea (with lemon grass). After this pet pooja, we moved towards the waterfalls. It was an awesome experience under the gushing water... Chillaowing for snaps...and a small watery trek.

After lots of 'please chalo' 'now lets move' 'lets head back' we started moving out of the waterfalls. We headed up towards a pool. It wasn't clean (you couldn't even see the floor of the pool). Most of the people got in and started their usual water masti. When lalit was gheraoed and thrown into the water (thank God his cell and shoes didnt bear the brunt of him shying away from the pool :P), we realised that its better we get in ourselves. We tried to pacify guys by wetting our legs in the water, but finally we had to get in. And smartly we made our way through the water to the steps in the opposite corner :P. What followed was a throwball and frisbee game in the water. Many people slipped getting toys that fell out of the play area (that includes me too), some got hurt too but it was fun. After getting out of the water, we were cold and needed some, sorry lots of tea. After having 2-3 cups we finally made our way to dry clothes and lunch. The food may have been good, but I really wasn't feeling like eating. But yeah, I didn't miss the gulab jamuns.

After this senior members shared their personal experiences for sometime. Some of us then moved on to explore the area. All of us, with plenty of snaps and PJs and yelling and singing, took a round trip till the jevan hall. After another round of tea we all started back. The bus departed by around 4:45pm. This time too we ended up playing dumb charades, but this time with a completely different set of people. I learnt a very nice way of enacting movies too (thanks Pratik).

We reached office by 6:15 or so, and all of us departed. I hope the trip was a teeny weeny bit longer. With all these memories I drove home, hoping, just wishing that tomorrow was not a working day...

P.S. Snaps are on their way...

Swine Flu

2009-08-10T21:40:00.001+05:30

Clearing some myths about swine flu here.

퍼즐

2009-08-03T16:07:00.005+05:30

Ok, I know you have guessed till now that the title is in korean. If you don't want to go and translate let me tell you, the title is "Jigsaw". And as for why Korean of all the languages, let me tell you...Korean has given me sleepless nights and 'loggy' dreams..so I more than love the language :P

I was always fond of solving jigsaw puzzles. I remember putting together the innumerable cardboard pieces together as a kid. It was fun solving puzzles I had done before too, each time solving it faster. I've still preserved many of these, and believe me its still fun playing with the cardboard pieces.
Recently I heard of jigzone (thanks Khyati) and I'm a fan already. It has daily puzzles. It has a huge archive. You can upload any pics from your system too. The best part is the variety in the shapes of the cuts. Ever imagined pieces in the shapes of lizards? :).

The crazy cut

and the triangular cut

are awesome. Use these cuts when the number of pieces are more than 100 and you rack your brains for an hour.

Putting your brains to work is such a refreshing exercise...after all the monotonous code we keep churning out day in and day out. Another perspective to the jigsaws (which I didn't relate to earlier) is that of life. Life is a jigsaw. You have to put the pieces together. Only difference, here if you put the wrong pieces together, you have a different picture altogether :). No, there's not ctrl+z here, not even a reset canvas. Only option you have here is to ... no I don't know any option..else I would never have asked questions like these.

Anyway, if you enjoy jigsaw puzzles, log in to jigzone and keep jigging :P

Happy to help!

2009-07-24T15:13:00.000+05:30

Yeah, this is what they keep saying. And I believed them as I never really had a problem with them before. Infact I always fought people’s criticism about VF’s customer care. They were prompt, precise, helpful and rather amiable.
But, thanks..thanks for enlightening me with the truth.
Call 111, and a voice answers how may I help you? At once you know that this guy is going to have trouble talking in English. So you change the language to Hindi..but the guy doesn’t budge. You ask him the set of documents required for verification..he states very clearly “An id proof and an address proof.” I ask “Will a licence and a PAN card do?” HE says “Yes, madam. It will do.” He has my number, he can see my current verification status and documents required. Then why can’t he open his mouth and speak you need a photo id proof too? If you can’t follow English, or you cannot speak in English…its ok buddy! Just give me correct and complete information. Speaking in English is mandatory when the only common language between you and the customer is English, right?
Ok, since I have to submit the documents and the happy to help store opens at 10, I happily leave home at 10 make copies of documents and travel 5 minutes to reach my closest VF store only to find its merrily shut! Never mind I think, there is one more just a little out of the way. Maybe I can go there. The second one is shut too. Its 10:20 now. I call help and ask them for a centre in Kothrud. This guy gives me some confused address (again in English, which he couldn’t understand!) and then I ask him till when can I submit these documents and he says, ma’m why don’t you ask the VF store! I mean wth, why are you there, if I had to go to the store to find out everything. You have my number, the screen shows you all the information you need. And if you cannot talk in English, please don’t try it on the customers.
Anyway, this second store opens up till then, and I think ok, I won’t reach office that late after all, but then I am supposed to refill an application form applying for a sim and that requires a snap. Now I have lost it totally. When I specifically call and ask you about the docs you require why don’t you mention it, you are supposed to be happy to help right? And if you don’t submit within 24 hours your sim will be deactivated. I don’t know what they get by disappointing customers. Customers cannot run around whole day to produce this and that document. So, now I have to run back home, get snaps, submit them and reach office. Now the rains suddenly decide to pour..pour as they have never before.
Its windy and it rains hard. Am drenched and I’m here in office…venting my anger through this little blogpost!

memorável travel

2009-07-11T23:22:00.005+05:30

Saturday morning....thats spent in sleeping right..but not today!
Two early risers..and gym goers...plan a trip..to sinhagad..at the gym!
Calls follow...and am woken up from my sleep at 10am...unable to register the fact that the cell number was C, but the voice was V :P
Anyway what followed was a rush..at getting dressed..convincing parents...didnt have a bike..(bechara serviceing mein pada tha..) Anyway managed to get hold of another bike, petrol..rain..brakes failed me...and I reached damn damn late, thanks guys for waiting up for moi!

The trip started at 12pm...but it wasn't sunny. It was pleasant for noon time. Started with a chai. Next stop was at Sinhagad. We hadn't reached the top. It was somewhere in between. We stopped for some snaps..and decided to climb till a hill...we could see some distance away. The path was carved out but was very narrow. Wind that blew was very very strong, so much so that you could actually try jumping into the valley but you won't fall. Now this is only possible when the wind is blowing in the right direction.. ;)
Anyway, we reached our rock. The view from there was awesome! Fog, light-dark, clearing in the clouds, dark clouds, greenery... all visible at the same time. No words can describe how awesome it felt!

We climbed down by around 2 or 2:30 pm. Proceeded towards the top. Obviously it beeing a weekend and the monsoons it was all crowded. The weather was good..the company was good...the chit chat was as usual amusing..the little baccha fights (I like calling it bachcha fights...coz that makes me feel happy that theres someone younger to me..:P)..the snap taking pains..the fight with my cell battery..priceless. We had some nice jhunka bhakar and dahi and bharit (I didnt have this) and bhajji (I didnt have this too). We also devised a foolproof plan of strangling M, here we all know which M we are talking about ;)

We came down by around 5 or 5:30pm and I was back home by 7:30. An awesome short trip. Unforgettable memories...:)

Parle..pense..mais rien changeth!

2009-07-10T23:58:00.006+05:30

Person X : No, false impressions are not your fault
Person Y : But isn't it I, who can reduce errors
Person X : Why do you wanna help everyone around, when you really can't change the way thoughts proceed.
Person Y : hmm, maybe there is no hope.

Person X : Its sad not being able to do, what you want to.
Person Y : The world works that way, face it.
Person X : How easy it is to say I wanna be a rebel, I guess I need to start implementing some of it.

Person X : Calling oneself silly, is silly?
Person Y : Don't ask a person as silly as me.
Person X : Yeah, but if you were as silly as I thought, I wouldn't have asked ya right?
Person Y : Hmm, right. Maybe calling oneself silly is being humble.
Person X : Yeah, absolutely right. Just the answer I was looking for. Thanks.

Person X : Is there a limit for stupidity?
Person Y : I don't know my limits yet.
Person X : Ohh, how would I know if I broke the records then. Sigh..a loser there too!

Person X : Can we go back to the time, humans were first born?
Person Y : Wow!! an extraordinary idea. Cool. Sure I can take you there. What do ya wanna accomplish?
Person X : I wanna set straight some inherent faults in the way gender bias functions. I guess people might thank me sometime, if ofcourse I make it happen.

Person X : Don't you ever get bored complaining?
Person Y : Well, yeah you're right. Maybe I should just start talking in a language no one understands. That way, I'll be able to let out all the suppressed feelings and no one would ever know. You're a genius ya. Thanks.

Person X : Don't you feel, all the world around you is plotting against you.
Person Y : Ohh, well why..am I supposed to feel that way. Ohh wait, maybe I do. But how do you know?

Person X : Is there anything like a feelings remover cream?
Person Y : Yeah, heard of something called 'numb' ?

Person X : Man! You were awesome! How did you manage that?
Person Y : Err, what?? Did I do something wrong? Ohh, wait your actually praising me?Am I dreaming? Come on, I can't do anything worth mentioning..
Person X : Am serious dude! It was too good!
Person Y : Ok ok..I get the hint. Am shooing away. I can take it no more.

Person X : Have you heard of the dumbness quotient? I bet you have, else you would have had the highest score. But you know what, I topped it. I am the dumbest!
Person Y : That can't be. I thought I was at the apex. Damn! I need to work harder.

Person X : I guess am going mad!
Person Y : Well, I never disagree with you right?
Person X : Yeah, thanks. merci pour portant avec moi!

1 year and still moving on...

2009-07-05T19:09:00.006+05:30

I complete my first year with the IT industry...I complete 1 year of corporate life today on the 6th of July 2009.

Last year, the 7th July..was a day full of apprehensions, expectations, adjustment, anxiety. My first day at work...just fresh out of college. I didnt't even have my BE results then, not that I was doubtful of the results..:P For my experience on the first day, read this.

My first year has been so enjoyable, and I'm sure it wouldnt have been as much fun, had I not been at AirTight. People here are fun, and give you the freedom to work as per your convenience as long as your convenient schedules do no outstretch the company deadlines, which is more than fair. Thats precisely why I never missed important events like, results (even though they were on a Saturday),my convocation ceremony. I havent missed other fun too like meeting friends for a movie, or a coffee or for shopping...all at my convenience.

The environment is conducive too. And my idea of working is work combined with fun. If its only work maybe I wouldnt have been here for more than a month. And after making lovely friends here, you always find someone who's equally bored as you..sometimes in the sleepy afternoon hours, sometimes in the mooonday blues, sometimes during snack hours. Thanks for keeping me company during all my hours of boredom :)

I have in this one year worked on many aspects of the product called SGE. When you work on something, you have to handle everything from the start till the end, which is what gives you the exposure you need. One particular feature which I will always remember was working on the IPv6 protocol, right in the beginning. It was one hell of a experience. Had to put together a lot of reading combined with trial an error. Another experience I will always treasure is working to find a LDAP library, v6 compliant. Downloading open source code, finding the modification needed within it...and later contributing to open source. My first ever contribution, and if I have heard correctly, my company's first ever contribution to the open source community.
Another experience worth mentioning is the multi-byte support. I can never forget my first bug, which kept reopening for some or the other reason since some component did not support encoding and then listeners and etcetera..etcetera. The "Korean ssid" bug haunts me till date..:) This support and its bugs...are not over and am sure they are going to give me many more loggy dreams...:P
The people around are more than helpful, so working with them keeps you learning. Every assignment be it big or small always ends up teaching me something or the other. That's what really keeps me going. Not to mention all my silly mistakes I end up discovering..:) There have been several occasions when my senior team mates(everyone is a senior actually..but anyway) have faced the music because of my silly..silliest mistakes, but never have they let me face the consequences directly. I appreciate it and that's what reminds me each time, to check, double check for any dumb mistakes...:) I know that they are not going to reduce instantly, but an effort to do so is necessary.

As I mentioned, I have made some very nice friends at work here. Usually I take a long time to gel with people, but this time it was different. Within months we had been to places together, which strengthened our bonds. From some trip once in a while it moved on to friday bashes, and then to mid-week i.e. wednesday bashes. All the time we spend during lunch and snack hours...and sometimes beyound snack hours..is so much fun. All the time pass jokes..makes me feel that I'm still at college...:) Ok, I know that a year is over and I'm no more a collegian, but the feeling makes you feel good...:)

Anyway, am looking to an equally rewarding time at my second home, my office..in the coming year!

The city of caves

2009-06-09T23:35:00.006+05:30

It had been long since we had a family trip..it always being difficult to find a suitable time..since my younger sis is still in college. So, after we had her exam timetable all our leaves were planned and we were going on a family trip..:)

First plan was Goa. Everything was planned out, but just before the bookings were made a friend of Dad's called up and incidentally he was in Goa and informed us that it has started raining in Goa. This made us cancel plans for Goa, since we didnt want to stay in the resort but have fun outside..and on the beach. So Goa cancelled, everyones upbeat enthusiasm was out..everyone was ragged. Just then Dad suggested Aurangabad, and we were like..okay we have our leaves..we dont want to cancel them... lets go...and we certainly did enjoy our stay at the city of caves!

We started on 5th at around 6am. The roads were clear, but we passed quite a few villages on the way and villagers dont really give a damn to vehicles even if they are yelling their lungs out. Then again some roads under construction posed as speedbreakers. We reached our place at around 10am. Asked for our rooms and the brilliant receptionist had made some error noting down details and hence he had to pay for it by letting us stay in the Deluxe rooms for half the price..:D The rooms were clean comfortable and the service good. We kept our stuff in our rooms had breakfast and started out. Our first day at Aurangabad had begun. We firsts topped at Daulatabad. Its a huge fort built by Bhilama, the king of the Yadav Dynasty. It was named Daulatabad by Mohammed Bin Tughlaq. It has a couple of inbuilt traps to defeat the opponents, one being the very famous 'bhul bhulaiiya' a dark passage which misleads the enemy to an opening that falls into a moat below with crocodiles. The moat is so steep that even the reptiles cannot climb out. If the enemy crossed this andheri gufa he could then move to the kings quarters, which was highly unlikely. What architecture and planning..kudos! We were climbing and exploring this fort all in the 12pm heat! We were almost dead by the time we walked back to the vehicle. We could hardly feel our legs. We then moved to ellora and the liitle memories I had about ellora told me that the caves were mostly incomplete and I assured everyone that we could easily see those caves.
Thus we started for Ellora. Started with cave16 called the kailasha, and it was a huge one. Huge stone carvings. The one that impressed me was the one with the entire mahabharata.

This cave was double storeyed and when we tried climbing the steep steps we suddenly felt we cannot carry our own weight. All the caves are really far from each other. All of them had a couple of steep steps leading to it..and we kept moving on..telling each other..that its going to be worth it. But most of the caves are unfinished and not even well kept. Most of them had similar carvings and sculptures and after some time we decided to skip them and check out only the ones mentioned as 'worth a look'. We did move on from cave 16 to cave 1 though..looking at each of them :). After that was over we walked back and had some coolers. We were more than happy to know that caves 17 to 34 were a long distance away, but we could take our vehicle till there. Man it was a relief! We saw all the caves and it was around 4pm. We had skipped lunch but none of us were hungry. We were just plain thirsty. We had consumed all the water we had carried but were still thirsty. There was a mandir almost half a kilometer from ellora. We drove till there, but on seeing that there steps to reach there we quit the idea..:) We then went o Panchakki which is an ingenious watermill that uses water generated enrgy to grind the grains. The place is not at all well maintained and definitely not worth the entry ticket! We inquired and found out that Bibi ka Muqbara was a place to be visited in the evening, and since it was very close from Panchakki and it was close to 6L30pm we decided to go there. Again not maintained and not worth the entry ticket. There are no lights and I couldnt find any reason to be there specifically in the evening. It is suuposed to be exactly like the Taj Mahal but it lacks the lustre.
We left for our hotel at around 8pm. We were so sure we knew the way back since it was just a couple of lefts and rights and the rest of the way we had moved straight..:P We got lost..we were moving around in circles much like the bhul bhullaiya at Daulatabad only that there was no one throwing hot oil or sulphurous gas at us..:P We only knew a petrol pump that was close to the place we had to reach. We asked around only to discover that there are a couple of branches of that petrol pump..:) We took one direction...moved a liitle ahead and asked someone else. We finally did reach our place and the first thing we did was..note down the street name and the complete address..:D But the people were rather helpful in giving directions unlike punekars. But only regrets all MH-20s drive rash...even rasher than puneites! All MH-20s are rude and dont have manners and etiquettes are difficult to find..forget sophistication!
Anyway, after a tiring day we were back at the hotel. Freshened up but had no energy to even go to the resto and have dinner. We ordered stuff in the room itself and enjoyed an okish meal. We decided to postpone plans for Ajanta to Sunday since we were dead and our legs could not carry us..they were aching! We played a game of UNO and relived the old days. It had been ages since we played UNO together..:) We slept off by 1am.

Plans for Saturday were shopping..something I love..:D We started at around 11am and roamed around (this time making a note about where we turned etc etc..just so that we dont get lost..:) We could not really find much but a big bazaar and decided to stop by. Bought a couple of things and moved on. We decided to go the famous silk and himroo centres where we actually shopped till we dropped..(remember our legs were broken..:) We then went to the Pariyon ka talaab..which is nowhere close to being a place for fairies..! Dirty, no access and covered in moss..is the lake which is supposed to cleanse you of sins if you bathe in it! We started back and had lunch on the way at around 5pm. Had sugarcane juice where a bull did the 'pressing the canes'. Moved on and this time we didnt get lost. Reached our rooms at 8pm and moved out for dinner. The food was okish but was too spicy for moderate spice...! Reached our rooms at 11pm and were told that rooms according to our specifications had been arranged and that we were to shift. Well we didnt really mind shifting as most of our things were always well packed. We shifted and were almost settled...till we found that our room door could not be opened from outside once its locked! This really got us irritated and we made a hell lot of noise as the receptionist in this shift was not at all amiable. He showed us much more attitude than we could take. We took his case and felt satisfied. Didnt i tell you MH-20s are crazy and rude! Anyway the matter was settled next day and our anger too..:)

Sunday we left early at 8am for Ajanta. It had rained the previous day and we were a liitle worried if we could visit ajanta if it rained heavily. But thankfully it rained only light enough to make the weather pleasant. It is quite a distance away. We stopped for breakfast at a place on the way. It was the best meal I had had in aurangabad. Sophisticated, yummy..and service good too. We then moved on and reached Ajanta by 10:45am. Ajanta I must say is well maintained. The approach roads are also well kept. Ajanta unlike Ellora doesnt have much climbing, but this time we were all prepared with Glucon-D for energy..:D

Caves here at more paintings than carvings. Most of the caves were complete. The paintings were well conserved with dim light. Also there was enough security and guides to explain stuff. There were arrangements for restrooms and drinking water too. Cave 10 here is considered as the first cave as it was firsts spotted by a Nizam, from view point, who initiated the excavation. This cave was two storeyed, the first floor being filled with water and the second with mud. Hence the paintings and colors on the second floor are visible. The pillars were carved such that on hitting them with your fist they produced sounds of musical instruments. Impressive!
Walls of some caves had lava material which is an attractive observation for geological students. There were students in plenty taking notes and measurements and observations. The 19th cave had very pretty paintings one of which gave the ceiling a shamiana effect even though it was painted on a plain surface. Since the paintings were made in water colors I cannot fathom how a painting of a necklace can shine like diamonds when light falls on it. All the fashion fundae we use now were well imagined even in 17A.D. All the caves here had a huge sculpture of Buddha in meditation, seated on a lion throne and with heavenly angels hovering round him.

We started walking back at around 3pm. It was cloudy and it drizzled a little making it quite easy and less strenuous for us. We reached aurangabad by 6:30pm and since we had time we decided to catch a movie in the only multiplex we spotted. It was fame. We saw 'Mi Shivaji raje Bhosle boltoy'. We decided to catch a meal before the movie. Again we were disappointed with the food, but the only consoling factor was that the chapatis were soft and hot..:) A good movie with impressive acting and dialogue delivery. We reached our rooms that day by 11pm. Freshened up had a cool glass of frooti and played cards again..:) Slept off by 12am.

The 8th of June we left early by 8am. We checked out of the hotel..pushed in our luggage and started back. On the way we were to go to Paithan which has the famous Dnyaneshwar Vatika made on the lines of the Vrindavan gardens in Mysore. There is a way to reach Paithan from within Aurangabad but we thought it would be better to take the one from the highway. The approach road from the highway was completely spoilt. The bad strecth was only a little 3kms! It was unbearable and we were sure our car cannot take it. We decided to take a u-turn and use the road from with =in Aurangabad. On the way we made inquiries only yo learn that the garden is worth a look in the evening after 7pm with all the lighings. Since Dad wouldnt drive in the night we decided of staying over for a day in paithan. Wow...last minute plans..:) We reached Paithan and on the way decided to visit the Jayakwadi dam. It was huge..build on the river Godavari. The dam is 11kms long. You stand there and you cannot see land for as far as your eyes go. It felt nice...and scary at the same time! The Dnyaneshwar vatika was very close from the dam, so we decided to take a look. Luckily it was open and we thought lets have a look. The light show is only for 15 minutes in the evenings and certainly it didnt feel like..we should wait for it. The garden is not at all well maintained. Forget the plants that are dry...it is a stinking area. The water is green and filled with plastic bags and empty cans and what not. It is definitely huge but not worth it. If only they could use the income from the entry tickets to keep the garden clean! It was a huge disappointment and we were happy we didnt stay back for this waste of a garden..to be called the replica of the Vrindavan Gardens! We started back for Pune by 2pm. We were not hungry but weary..and just wanted to get home. We stopped on the way for a little khana around 5pm. Ordered some noodles..but it was a disater! When can we have good food Ohh Great Lord!!
We drove on and after entering wagholi..felt we're back..to MH-12..:D

Reached home by 8pm...and was fresh as ever...An amazing vacation...each and every moment of which was memorable! We should plan more such outings..:)

Magical...Sunday...

2009-06-01T10:45:00.006+05:30

The 31st Of May '09..was a magical sunday...

What was magical? Two primary reasons...Pree was here , all four of us (the Zaapies as we call ourselves) were going to meet, and ofcourse..the magical Rahman show..:)

It all started with pree announcing (broadcasting rather..:P) that she'scoming to Pune on the 30th.
After comparing all our (very busy :P) schedules...and since we wanted to spend some quality time with each other, and all four of us wanted to be present, the best day was Sunday, the 31st. All plans were set..we were to go Durga tekdi..and then Ghorawadeshwar..and then Rahman concert.

But as luck would have it, our amzee goes and falls off (sashtang namaskar karne ko..:P) from the local train and injures herself. So now changes in plan..after all of us are up early on a sunday. Plans changed at 8am...instead of going trekking we settle for a lunch and usual restaurant hopping before going for the Rahman concert. We were to meet at 11am at Papa John's Ghole Road.
With all the excitement..about all of us being together after so long..I sleep off...:D Amz forgets to inform pree about the new plans. At 10:45 am, Ash wakes me up..and while Im still hurrying up to be on time...amz calls and realises that she hasnt informed pree.... what confusion...not that we aren't used to it..with amz around..:P

Ash & I reached our destination by 11:40 and we aren't late (we follow AST..i.e. Amz Standard Time..when amz is around..:P), while pree has just left her place. After reaching the venue we play a welcome prank on amz...and then settle down for our usual..chatty chats..:D. We have a pre pree meal..then a post pree meal...:D
We had a lot of fun at Papa Johns...the cheese was yummy...:)
We laughed louder..and became noisier as and when the people around us gave us stares for being noisy..:D

After a lot of noise and confusion and snaps...amz..left to meet her relatives, while the three of us decided to go to Mocha and gorge on chocolate avalanche before leaving for 'The' Rahman concert.

It was pretty well managed, I would say. Lines were well maintained and the entry procedure went off pretty smoothly. Being the "poor" junta we found a soft patch and made ourselves comforatble. The show started by 7:15 and had some pathetic speeches and even more pathetic RJs...acting as hosts... Rahman finally emerged at 7:30 and then on...we were mesmerized for a good three hours.

When Rahman played the piano with Hariharan and Roop Kumar Rathod sang slow melodies like Tu Hi Re...Khamosh Raat...it felt like magic. The moonlight added to the effect.

The best part was the mixing of almost all of Rahman's melodies. It was the best best mix ever. We had a huge dance floor(the lawn and the race tracks..:) Then Rahman played the harmonium while singing Khwaja...which was heavenly! After that came the finale...'Jai Ho'...which ended with a smart mix of Vande mataram...! An awesome show...of talent..! The so humble Rahman even said...while being showered with accolades and blessings..that "Here we are so scared, when we go off tune...we wonder...what to do now..." :)

After that the crowd dispersed and we started running around in the hope of finding public transport. PMT buses had been arranged at that late hour till Corporation. However, buses from there were not available..:) We managed to reach home safely..(felt like an adventure..:P) Pree was at ash's place for the night and came to my place next day in the morning...where we had yummy aamras..:)

An awesome day...it was magical...it was one..that I will never ever forget..:)

For a nice description of the Rahman concert...Pree's blog...

When my daily horoscope said...

2009-05-19T22:58:00.005+05:30

My horoscope for 19th May '09 said...

'You will be faced with a problem today. A Gemini will come to your aid'

Instantly I knew..today is the day when I will find a .. Gemini friend...something like..'a friend in need is a friend indeed'....(whatever that meant..:)

Anyway, first thing was me falling in trouble, which is a rare case (considering spending majority of my time in office vellegiri). But I just found the whole proposition so tempting that I put up a status message that read 'A Gemini is supposed to help me today!'

What enused was a series of discussions and discoveries.

For starters, I was offered help by many Geminis I knew (rather I discovered that they were Geminis..)

Then came the many specualtions as to why geminis have been given the special privilege. Of course the college crowd could go no further than who is 'the' gemini you are looking for. Then came a very funny conclusion that maybe the Gemini (the privileged Gemini) will actually help me create a problem...:D

Anyway, one discussion reached a point, which made me think

How true is astrology and its predictions.

Is astrology meant to predict you?

After browsing through the entire listing of encyclopedia entries on astrology I could not conclude, whether defining a person's characteristics based on the position of the stars on his/her birth is valid. This debate can continue for ever.

So i decided to look up astrology types, terms etc.

These terms were interesting. Not sure if they exist or are practiced.

And, yes the predicted event about a gemini coming to my rescue did not occur...tried to find some explanations...found one argument that said, astrology cannot predict events in their entireity. So astrological predictions cannot be definite. So my daily horoscope was not true? (another debate..here..)

"Astrology does not tie you to being a certain way, and it doesn't predict everything about you. Astrology explains the energy in your life and its potential challenges and possibilities. You can evolve from your chart. Astrology is about you. What you can learn from it can help you make a choice between free will and destiny."

Read and reread a lot about birth charts, natal charts etc.

Finally i concluded that "These issues are too complex for an ordinary person to understand and they are rendered more complicated when an effort is made to substantiate or illustrate them with the help of drawings, graphs or charts using strange astrological mumbo jumbo, which incidentally is essential to state the position accurately."

So...here, I rest my case..:)

Reunion...of sorts

2009-05-10T23:38:00.003+05:30

Long weekend...got over...and come monday, I was still in the 'ftp' (i.e. full time pass...coined by Mohsin) mood. Was discussing some arbitrary...stuff wid a buddy (Hemant) and we stumbled upon the idea of a reunion of PICT (comp ppl who are in town). Initially just floated messages and tried to find out if people are actually interested. After we received affirmatives and saw that people were enthusiastic about meeting up, we started getting plans into place.

First of all a day...time..and place.

Most of the people suggested Sunday is a good day, and a place in the center of the city would be better, we decided on Sunday Mocha (Law college road). This plan was almost final (we finalised it ourselves actually, since people couldn't really suggest a place for 15-20 people). So then there was another round of messages...and poor Hemant, no one replied to his message(but they did reply to mine..:P)

Then, another twist in the tale...sunday got sort of booked for some reasons and had to shift the reunion to saturday. Another round of messaging and confusion..(all this happening on friday..:D) Finally saturday 4pm Mocha was decided (This was the perfect time that was preferable to all)

Come saturday morning, I am receiving calls and messages as to "Are we actually meeting?'. Come on guys...how many confirmations do you need...:)

(The planning part was fun...and I remember the discussions we had while planning it..they were hialrious..!)

Come 4pm Saturday we are at Mocha. Nice place. Nice ambience. The couch is very comfortable(would have fallen asleep had I not slept sufficiently the previous night..:D) Seeing familiar faces after almost 10 months..felt really nice. Everyone was excited. Exchanged greetings then the usual..where are you..hows life..future plans...and all the formal enquiry stuff. Then started the real fun, pulling this one's and that one's leg. Making fun of the popular 'tease groups' in front of them. Boy, it felt I was back to college...we had our PLs and were discussing how many units we've managed to touch yet..:D

The milkshakes were also nice there. Had heard a lot about lindt chocolate shake and decided to try it out. Tasted heavenly..and the company just added to the taste good feel good factor.

We dispersed at around 7:15pm. Said our byes and felt that the 3 hours just passed by so soon. We didnt really realise that it was time to part ways again..so soon..!

I then carried on with two of my closest friends Amruta and Ashwini. We decided to go to Mainland China and gorge on some desserts and talk about life and etc etc..(in short all the gossip..:D). Yeah I was the driving force on the decision to go to Mainland, I wanted to have those chocolate rolls...:D

We sat there in the nice soothing ambience of Mainland while munching on a delicious mushroom starter and ofcourse my chocolate rolls...! We discussed our life (yeah we get to every minute detail no one can really ever think of..:) Yakked on till around 9pm and then decided to leave. We do meet often like once in two weeks..and talk online almost every other day..but it still felt 'hope we could stay together just for a litle while longer..'

Supercharged and refreshed I came back home...with memories that will remain with me forever....

dessert'a'holic

2009-05-02T16:22:00.003+05:30

Its not that all those around haven't found out till now, that I could gobble up innumerable pastries...one after another. CadB, shrikhand..almost anything sweet goes down in a jiffy.

After having an incomparable sizzling brownie at Mainland, I didn't want to go for anything else. But thankfully, after reading the description in the menu, we just called for it to give it a try.

Chocolate rolls with ice cream. Sounds usual. When it appeared, our reaction was 'ok we'll have it'

But when I took it close...its nothing like the usual...a roll... overflowing with thick...yummy chocolate sauce. Add to it a little vanilla icecream and put it in. It felt out of this world. Rather i was transported to another world...a world in which the rivers flow with chocolate and the rocks are brownies...The leaves are pastries and everything around me is chocable....:)

It was one hell of a dessert. Not sure if it contained something that made me feel drowsy..and dizzy.

Next time I go to Mainland, thats the only dish I'm having...and not only one but maybe even three of them..:D

yaadein...reh jaati hai...

2009-04-21T00:42:00.001+05:30

bas yaadein...yaadein...yaadein reh jaati hai...

cold coffee at lalit...thick shake...fruit plate...bhel...choc truffle at ccd...

club sandwich...tiffinis...nutty yums...

ganne ka juice...faltu canteen...

pree ka terrace...cnl lab...

submission time...trouble...

discussing..units over the phone...

PL time dhamaal...

issuing books for the heck of it....

InC...project reports...presentations...last day...of concepts...

addiction....sleeping over in college...

theory papers...celebrating...new years...

photoshoot...dressing up...at amz place...

coming in almost when the trad day is over...

chidana...chidna...

endless list of crushes....

tension free life...till the competition sets in...

exams...over...

frnds..depart...

true frnds....find a way to keep in touch...others...keep getting busy with their lives....

priorities change...life changes...

friends change....everything changes...

'yaad karte hai jab yaaron ko...yado se dil bhar jata aata hai...

kabhi saath raha karte the...

aaj milne ko dil taras jata hai...! '

"Every person finds a best friend in different phases oh his life,

The lucky ones are those...who have the same best friend in every phase of their life..."

Some random thoughts...poured out...the only option I had...when they kept getting clearer and clearer...

Before they choke me into tears...here they are..spread out...in as random an order...as I could...randomise...

Miss you college life...miss you friends...as pree rightly says..."I miss our happy days"...

A long weekend...and back to back trips

2009-04-13T11:08:00.002+05:30

April 10th to 12th...a long weekend..

April 10th 2009 : Amit's engagement

Trip was planned...at the last minute...(this fact is but implicit)....

Vehicle was to reach my place by 5:30. From my experience the last time, I assumed the driver won't make it before 6..so was a little relaxed but was surprised when he reached even before 5:30. Hurried up...left for the next pickup. Well, Mr. Lalit....the extra hardworking dude...didnt show up..till 6...! He woke up at 6 and till he made it...I had awesome cake with coffee and took a nap too at Charuta's place. Next stop Aundh..some confusions there too...but finally started off for Mumbai at 7am.

Journey was filled with lots of tp chit chat, songs..discussions...arguments...usual kheecha tani...

We reached the venue well before time...and thanks to Lalit, we reached only 45 minutes early..:)

Infact we reached the place before Amit too...:)

The engagement went off pretty well. The photographer was a little weird..and the poses he insisted the couple take pics in were weirder. Wonder how they subjects of photography managed to keep their cool.

Food was awesome..and happiest part was that I got my fair share of cake..:D...there were plenty of sweets to keep me occupied.

After the engagement decided to spend some time malling and catching a movie. City center in Vashi is a wonderful mall. Globus...I love the clothes...luckily I didnt have my card, else would have spent it all..:D

Watched fast and furious in cinemax. The only thing I remember is the comfortable seats. The movie is an absolute disaster. But my achievement is that I didnt sleep through it (even though the seats were too comfortable and people around weren't talking!)

Left mumbai for Pune, as I had to leave for another fun trip immediately. Hadn't slept my sleep quita the previous day, so decided to sleep through the long night drive to diveagar. But couldn't do so. This second trip was with my sister and her friends. I though I knew one of them, but I was mistaken. On being introduced to 8 strangers all at once, took me some time to remember names and mapping between faces and names too...:)

Anyway, throughout the journey people really didnt let me take a wink too. Driving at night through tahmini was a worry enough and people took advantage of this to scare me enough. The fear coupled with anxiety and nonsense talk didnt let me sleep. Reached diveagar and the place we had booked (supposedly) at 5am, and were all tired and sleepy, but due to some miscommunication the place had been already occupied by some other group for another 3 days. God, the spirits went down right there. Made do with another place, which gave us the feel of living in a village. Compromise at every step to stay in there. But it didnt matter as most of the time we spent at the beach or at the khanawals....:)

Though everyone was sleepy, early morning was the best time to be at the beach, so I dragged everyone to the beach. Enjoyed the wave effect and the atmosphere and the scenery...

Back home, everyone slept off 'ghode bech ke'

Had nice lunch and back to the beach. This time I decided to take snaps, instead of getting into the water.

After dinner, we decided to get to the beach. As our place was quite far from the beach, these enthusiastic and lazy guys found out a shortcut, which went through a rainforest like region filled with anacondas and where coconuts kept falling from the trees. We went through this path at 12 at night! Mukesh, the mischievous of them all tried his best to scare me...but he didnt really know even the worst genre of horror fails to scare me..:D

Spent an hour or so at the beach at night. The waves looked deadly as well as divine. The voice of the waves felt peaceful. Back to pavillion by 1:30 and all plans of visiting the beach at 6am the next day were implicitly cancelled. Next day at around 10am went to the ganpati mandir...had breakfast...spent some time..with all the strangers and their PJs. They actually said they are sorry I have to make do with their PJs and I happily tried to put them at ease by saying 'Don't worry I am used to worser PJs'...and immediately was put through another round of worst ever PJs. Left for pune at around 2pm and didnt feel like lunch till 5pm. At 5 gorged on some yummy prawns somewhere in mangaon...and moved on towards Pune.

This trip was different in many ways. It wasnt an all in all fun trip. Since I didnt know anyone, and didn't get many of their office time jokes, the only part I could play was of an observer.

All the people were very warm, friendly very decent...but there were few things that really irked me..

1. everyone used a 'gunda' type accent. I wasnt sure if it was a hyderabadi accent. But they did it on purpose. Maybe they thought it portrays one as a cool dude...or maybe it was part of some of their joke. But I couldnt stand it.

2. People younger than me...smoking every 2 hours...and one cigarette after another. What the hell does a cigarette really give you! Man it was shocking...I never saw anyone ever so controlled by the cig!!! I pity them...

Anyway, spending time with a bunch of strangers and emerging through it as atleast acquaintances if not friends is an accomplishment I think, when your lifestyles and interests dont intersect anywhere...

This weekend was an experience worth having. Im looking forward to more long weekends...:)

A not so usual...day...a bad day...!

2009-04-01T22:24:00.003+05:30

You had a bad day

You're taking one down

You sing a sad song just to turn it around

You say you don't know

You tell me don't lie

You work at a smile and you go for a ride

You had a bad day

The camera don't lie

You're coming back down and you really don't mind

You had a bad day...

The day starts well...nothing out of the ordinary...wake up...pick up a colleague...and leave for work..

A small...pseudo accident...wherein this dumb female...smashes my brake lights...

I am...so taken aback by ... dunno what...I don't even bother arguing...and asking her to pay up for damages...Im just happy Im safe...and so is she...

Nothings going right...can't complete even a trivial piece of code...in the whole day...

Try squeezing in...in a wide lane.....call it luck...one of the barricade is not in line...and my foot is aa scramble...ouch...ouch...but I still move on...

Evening is not productive enough...and bugs keep coming my way...

end with a cadB...and hope...now the bad day is over...

But, I feel Im crazy to drive in a single lane...or I am crazy that I don't pat the fellow drivers on the shoulder while cutting their lane......

Somehow or the other..I seem to be obstructing everyone's path...today...why is everyone honking...why can't they just let me drive in the left lane...in peace...

To top it all...the headlights are screwed...they just won't shut up...brake lights are smashed anyway...

The usual mechanic...decides to close down early...I have to get it repaired...have to find an alternative travel plan tomorrow...

Please...please...I don't want anymore bad days...:((

You stand in the line just to hit a new low
You're faking a smile with the coffee you go
You tell me your life's been way off line
You're falling to pieces every time
And I don't need no carryin' on

You had a bad day

You're taking one down

You sing a sad song just to turn it around

You say you don't know

You tell me don't lie

You work at a smile and you go for a ride

You had a bad day

The camera don't lie

You're coming back down and you really don't mind

You had a bad day...

Friday baaassshhh...

2009-03-21T18:54:00.002+05:30

The title...doesnt have a spelling mistake...its not just a bash..its a "baaasssshhhh"...

Earlier...our friday bash...was just a nice lunch somewhere..anywhere...but now....its a whole funfilled evening...(which stretches into the night obviously)...!

This week, we were still undecided about friday's plans...but then...quick as a wink...all the plans were in place -

We were to have a dinner party at Amit's place...(though he was supposedly gonna leave fri evening for home..:)

Picked some essential stuff like chips...softdrinks..etc etc...and left. Reached his place by around 8:30. His place is on the 5th floor...and the lift was eerie...(reminds me of 13B and the aatma in the resistor...:P) It was a nice place...with a nice view. You could see the highway from the window. Now the window was a really nice place to sit (I agree was not all that safe...coz there was nothing to save you from falling, if you did by any chance lose your balance). But it was so addictive that I just had to sit there. But ya...people around..made a lot of fuss...and finally I had to get off...sob sob...:(

Then we ordered pizzas...and with nice music rolling out...and the lights (rather no lights) creating the perfect ambience...danced away for quite some time. This time...though the beats got to me..and the atmosphere wanted me to dance...I just felt like...looking at people dancing...and feel happy...:)

Anyway, it was almost 10 and we decided to start munching on our pizzas. The choice of pizzas were good. I don't really know who did choose them...and I don't even know what was it that they had ordered. How does it matter though..it was yummy...:)

All the food done..and dessert done too...I was way over the deadline I was given at home. Had to miss the coffee plan at aurora's and reached home by 11:40.

Another fun filled....awesome start to the weekend...:)

Good work guys...lets start planning the next friday...:D

Weekend stories...

2009-03-16T11:24:00.005+05:30

The weekend started with a bang...am going to get into details...coz..as Mohsin rightly mentioned...all the details he missed in his post will come here...:)

The plan was in place...were to go to the Scream...clubbing...

We were supposed to meet at Charuta's place by around 8:30pm...but as usual...we are always late...we left office at 8:45pm in the daemon's car. Now I know why people fear his driving...seriously...all he does is try and test his brakes...I mean if you can see a vehicle in front of you slowing down...you would also slow down right...but the daemon...will go as close as 100m zoom...and then apply brakes...

Ok, whatever...we reached safely at our first destination....and no wonder i changed my vehicle...its much safer with Khyati driving..:)

We went to the East Street Cafe..(well known as the bus wala resto..;). The place is nice...has a lovely ambience...

We were looking for a place for the seven of us...and the answer we got is..but that place is a little private...hehe...why would seven of us need a private place...and do we care that people around need privacy...? ;)

The service was a little slow there...but the ambience more than compensates for that. We learnt a novel story about Lalooji there...:P

Left our dinner katta by 10:30 and reached Scream by 11pm. As soon as we stepped in...we were just wanting to get in...lets get in ... lets dance...!!

There was a party for the Symbi people...we got in anyway.

We immediately took to the floor...and started dancing as if we were all professionals...;)

The music..was good...the volume was just right...the place was just rightly lit...and the company .... was awesome...:)

It was an amazing stress buster...and we didnt stop till around 1:30am when the music stopped.

After that awesome dance party...we had to have the well known pastries at the LeMeridein cafe. We stopped by there. Had nonsense fun while in the cafe...and gorged on some amazing pastry and coffee...

Left the place at 2:30am and I reached home by 2:45am...

Yes, I knew my parent's reactions were coming...but I would have done anything for the awesome fun...and the quality time we spent together...:)

Needless to say, next day I was lectured on timings...what I think is right....what am I doing with my life etc etc....but whatever...!

The weekend otherwise was pretty hectic..as mom wasn't here and so, had too many household chores to tend to.

Another happenning event was...that I started painting again. Whatever inspired me...I think it was much needed. I wanted to try water colors, took out my colors...and I shouldn't have been surprised but the colors were almost dry. Tried using some lucky, still wet colors. It had been ages I had painted using water colors...and needless to say...the first painting was a disaster. I mean even a small child could do better! I didnt give up at the first, I made another two..which were not that bad...but didnt get me a nod...from my worst critic..my Dad. But yeah, I plan to work on the paintings...say every weekend...I should get back my purane skills. And yes...there is another canvas...all drawn and ready to be painted. Maybe I should start that as well.

I had to wake up early on Monday, to make khana....but I just couldn't sleep at night. Stayed awake till 3am...and woke up at 5:30 without any complaints...made food...slept for an hour...woke up...dressed up and left for office..while leaving the milk to boil..and spill...But im not at all tired...:)

Anyway, thats all for the weekend story...:)

Revelation...

2009-03-04T21:29:00.002+05:30

"What is interesting about self-analysis is that it leads nowhere"...so says a philosopher...

Nevertheless...questions...rhetorics...that build up...have to be shared...

what better place than a blog, where people read and forget and you and your heart...are relieved of the burden...

How easy is it...to let go something you were serious about...for the very first time in your entire life...

The easier path, is extreme...the mature path goes through self control...

Does your reaction to a situation like this...display your maturity...

Is this life's fair way of injecting you with maturity...

What should be your stance....

What reaction is the best...so as to keep everyone around happy...

Why is life so complicated....why are emotions so abundant....

...

yeh zindagi bhi

kya kya humko dikhlati hai

sapnon ki dhundli raah mein

kyon itne khwaab sajati hai

har sooni sooni raat mein

yeh zindagi bhi...

I've still got sand in my shoes...

2009-03-01T00:37:00.003+05:30

quoting dido....

Two weeks away it feels like the whole world should've changed

But I'm home now

And things still look the same

I think I'll leave it till tomorrow to unpack

Try to forget for one more night

That I'm back in my flat

on the road where the cars never stop going through the night

To a life where I can't watch the sunset

I don't have time

I don't have time...

I wanna see you again...

Two weeks away...

An awesome place....with awesome people....an awesome weekend...!

2009-02-26T01:05:00.011+05:30

We started off on Friday, the 20th of February. We had planned to leave in lunch hours, so as not to miss our Friday bash, but as always...unexpected webex sessions, review sessions etc delayed it to a little past 1:30pm. Nevertheless we were all excited and armed with toys and snacks to have on the way, we left office. Our first stop, the petrol pump became a very long stop. Manish’s car had a flat tyre. We moved on (in Vijay’s gaddi) and decided to meet at Soul Curry. We slurped up yummy ginger-pepper(or was it garlic...not sure) rice. Had amazing coffee, but the other car didn’t park itself at the resto till close to 3:15pm. The other bhooke log had their share of rice and coffee, and just as we the bill was being paid, we noticed the tyre was flat again...!!

After much ado, we finally started for diveagar at around 5pm.
The traffic was stepping up, especially in the village what with their markets and people walking on the streets as if the roads were footpaths. But the journey was fun. We were finally heading towards a nice weekend. For me, it was a chance to get to know my, then just, colleagues.
The journey was filled with songs, discussions, rummy(yeah I learnt rummy on the fly...;) and Vijay was driving well, but was lost. He didn’t know what to do with three girls...all yakking away, it was as if we were training his expectations from his one year old daughter...:D
We borrowed an indipop CD from Manish, only to find that he didn’t know the meaning of Indipop, and we did find out about his amazingly weird taste of songs. But we later found out it was Mohsin’s trick and he just did what he was good at ‘kasa gandavla’. We were also entertained by the daemon’s exceptional driving skills, wherein he drives the vehicle with his parking lights on and we have to overtake him just to inform him that his car is not stationary anymore. MD also, keeps giving indications of turning left and right, when there is no turn on a lonely road with a single lane.
We finally reached our place at divegar at 10:30pm. The rooms were nice, and the place was awesome. It was very closr to the beach, and very close to nature. The hammock, the swing, the katta were an instant hit. The delicious chicken and fish kept us munching for quite some time.

Then came the campfire. We went out onto the beach around 12am. Set up a campfire and Mohsin took it upon himself to keep the light burning. He just didn’t let the fire die down, and completely overcame his temptation to indulge in futile discussions of logic (which he usually aces ;)

The campfire also helped us discover ‘Mohini’, a laughing, intelligent, perky ‘pret aatma’ who resides in some ‘dongaravarcha mandir’. The sea looked pretty scary to me at night, but could not resist a dip. Everyone decided to go to bed and wake up around 7am, so that we could take a nice peaceful morning walk on the beach. We slept at around 3am.
Next day we were at the beach by 8am. It wasn’t crowded. Most of us got into water while Manish, Mohsin and Vijay preferred to take a walk on the beach.

The wave effect was overwhelming. We had to be forced to come out, to have our breakfast. Unwillingly we did come out to have poha. While some went off to place our lunch order, some preferred reading, some sleeping on the ever so inviting hammock, Manish decided to give his camera a trial run. He clicked snaps, of people who were posing, didn’t want to pose for his camera. But ya, I’ll give him credit for some of his snaps, that were really nice.

Sometime later Charuta and I decided to go to the beach to dry up and also click some snaps. We spotted some rocks on the farther left side and decided to perch ourselves on the rocks. There was no plain path leading to the rocks, so we decided to wade through water to reach the rocks. As luck would have it, a slipper slipped off and floated into the sea. We tried sending a hurried SOS to the guys who were far away, but they only interpreted it as ‘get the ball and come into the water.’ The slipper showed us the way and we followed it till we reached some rocks. The rocks edges were made of shells, and we did get cut, but we didn’t feel the bruises in water. We clicked snaps on the rocks and were happy we had an adventure of sorts reaching the rocks. Later we played ‘wave frisbee’ for a long time. Only while cleaning up, to go for lunch did we actually find the umpteen cuts and scratches we had had. We were bruised really bad on our feet and found it difficult to walk. But we still didn’t regret our adventure..:D. We had lunch at Thosar’s which was okayish types. Later in the afternoon we decided to take some rest. Some took naps. Manish, Khyati and I were awake and tried to keep each other awake by yakking. But with the daemon’s efforts at ‘batofying gyaan’ we almost fell asleep. We girls did overpower him for sometime but gave up on the impossible case we were faced with.
In the evening we decided to visit another beach on the way to Shriwardhan. It was a lovely beach with its sand being a silvery white color. The patterns on the sand were remarkable. Guys played catch catch and relived their younger days.

We reached the beach near our place at around 7pm. We played ‘sand frisbee’ this time till the lights diminished slowly.
Back at the pavilion we were thinking of some game to play. After much persuasion we decided to start dumb charades, but considering the torcher we went through when we tried playing this game with the guys, we finally decided its not worth the effort. So, this time we played a game of truth and dare. Some took dares, like climbing the ‘nariyal ka ped’ and yelling at some group nearby who were playing their songs very loud. Most of the people chose truth and it got serious by the minute. If not thoroughly enlightening, it sure did help me know my colleagues better and make them friends. The mood continued till dinner and while slurping some delicious fish and modak we also played a round-robin fashion truth round. This game did earn me a lot. I opened up a teeny meeny bit and my colleagues became friends...! I love this game..:)
Later we played a game of cards, wherein Amit learnt how to hold a whole pack in his hands in the ‘fan pattern’ :P We slept off that day by 1:30am as we had to wake up by 6am next day. We left diveagar next day by 9am. This time we took a CD from the daemon, we made sure it was a good one. We had an inter-car dance competition and danced away to really loud music. Reached Pune by 2pm and we said our good byes and departed.

Monday morning we are still in the weekend mood, discussing snaps...discussing comments on snaps and reliving our amazing weekend. Guys, we should plan another fun filled trip...!!

Planning phase...

2009-02-19T01:18:00.000+05:30

I know...the weekend has not yet started...
No i don't have a description about an amazing trip we had to some place..(thats probably the next post though..:)

The planning phase...of our early weekend trip..is worth mentioning...there's so much fun planning it itself...im sure the trip is going to be extremely memorable..!

The plan-weekend trip to diveagar
Planned-During the Friday bash 13Feb
Unluckily I missed this bash, but when I heard about the trip I was excited. But as always there's a question lingering in everyone's mind...'are we really going to execute this plan?'
So to begin with, everyone was persistent that we do reach the execution stage. Bookings were almost done. Plans were in place.
Everyone has a different reason for going for the trip. Someone wants a break, someone wants to go anywhere on the weekend..so diveagar is fine, someone wants to hog just because he's just completed a GM diet..(maybe not for all the seven days..but I guess the first two days were enough for him to start realising how important eating food that you like is..;)
We need to decide what 'namkeen' and juices etc we need to carry for the journey, and someone shouts...fruits are a must, and not just any fruit..bananas...one dozen will be over in an hour...:-o
We need to carry a frizbee and a ball to play on the beach, this work is handed over to our ohh so ever ready to work guy, and he keeps saying he's going to get it...I'm sure, we're going to have to buy it ourselves though..:)
Then again we are going to be travelling by cars, there are two cars...there have already been so many discussions on who is going by whose car..that I'm sure no one really remembers their decisions..;)
And as everyone in this newfound 'mast maula' group of mine at office...is a foodie...(I'm glad...i found people of my kin)...we will make sure we don't miss out on this week's Friday bash...before we start our enjoyable weekend trip..!!

1x1

2009-02-17T15:25:00.012+05:30

Yeah, its called 1x1...a one on one...a meeting with your manager...one on one.

Well, for starters it wasn't literally a 1x1 it was a 2x1, an informal meeting with my manager and director of engineering. Everyone is very informal here and I like it that way, so to make it easier I had a meeting with Sonal and Vinay.

I was a little apprehensive as to the contents of the discussion, but as I said everyone here is so informal that it was just like any other meeting.
We settled in one of the conference rooms, and I was sure this meeting is not going to last for more than 15-20 minutes, coz I didnt have any complicated management level questions...all the questions I had were very technology related, and by the time we started the chat...my set of a 'few' questions reduced to a singleton set :)

Anyway, the talk started, and there were some advises for a fresher...coz the environment changes from college to office...people change from classmates friends to colleagues...that was one intelligent piece of advise, coz it is but natural to form impressions...and as it is every person...is always forming an impression on me...good bad...thats relative...and has dependencies... anyway, before i drift to another discussion..lets get back to the 1x1.

What better compliment could I have asked for...to quote Sonal "Working with you, I felt that I'm working with a developer with atleast 2 years of experience". I was spellbound, and to add to the spell...Vinay adds..."We were just comtemplating whether to hire you, but Sonal insisted. And I'm happy and glad that we did hire you". Man that was some compliment...when people were being laid off, companies were being shutdown, I only proved their decision of hiring me then right! I'm on top of the world...I just cannot explain how much those words meant to me...:)

And as I mentioned before, the meeting didn't last long....it got over in some 25 odd minutes...geez..it was close to half an hour..:D

This is the day, the words...the air...just everything..Im gonna savour for ever and ever...:)

Unlucky by chance...

2009-02-10T10:54:00.003+05:30

How difficult can it get...

The radiator fan of the vehicle doesnt shut down with the engine. We connect and disconnect the fan...
Everyone is a little hard on cash after shopping their heart out...
The 'mama' at the corner takes what little we save to eat something...coz we havent worn seatbelts and are on the wrong side of a one-way...
Cannot find a specific ATM we're looking for, so that we can hog..
Luckily one of us finds an ATM, but there isnt enough cash in the account...
Want to go a specific place, coz everyone wants to have a roll, the place says...there is another half an hour to open...
Manage to have something else and move on..
After we avoid entering many no-entries we finally reach some place, park the vehicle...and icing on the cake..leave the car keys inside...!!
As one of us rightly said...people please dont trouble us..we are troubled enough...!

Daily horoscope - 6/2/2009

2009-02-06T10:57:00.003+05:30

Today my horoscope says...

"You will be irritated by someone's behavior. Try to be diplomatic or leave the place"

someone's gonna irritate me...so much so that I hafta leave the place..man..im eagerly waiting for this one...
Anyone..wanna give it a shot...? :P

and surprisingly...my word of the day today happens to be
'propitiatory' - (adj) intended to calm or appease someone who is angry with you

Old memories...Goa

2009-02-03T01:36:00.017+05:30

Im getting nostalgic by the day. In college we thought, how much is life going to change outside? And here I am...everythings changed. We cannot have last minute plans so often, as everyone's schedules don't match. Earlier schedules consisted of meeting this friend and that, but now it has meetings and builds and releases and deadlines and stuff, we cannot easily say..'arey build kal karte hai..I have to meet a friend'...its not professional...!

Anyway, recently the four of us..(Za²p we're called) were just remembering old days..and planning another trip. The discussion of our Goa trip is still so vivid in everyone's mind, that it compelled me to pen it down...so that anytime in the future...we can easily relive all those moments...

It all started with a registration for a project competition at BITS Pilani (Goa campus). We had submitted the abstract, just because it happened to be ready. Though we were a day late in submitting the abstract, we were selected. We were so happy and excited and were yelling around that we're selected and stuff, but little did we realize that you need a demonstration of the project at the project competition. Our project being concept intensive, and we being behind schedule..did not have a working demo ready. But we took up the challenge and decided to prepare a prototype in a weeks time that we had. It wasn't that difficult a task but the approach to take, the attacks to handle etc etc..and lots of other hindrances...not to forget our favourite routers..:)...delayed the task. The competition was supposed to be on 9^th Feb 2008, Saturday. That meant we would have to leave on Friday evening.

7^th Feb 2008, Thursday :

All four of us are in our lab (The netwk lab ... lab VI...our second home...:) . We are not really sure if we want to participate in the competition. We try and consider our preparation level. Considering the proximity of the competition and the amount we need to complete etc etc. But we found it almost impossible to come to any conclusion. Finally we decided to turn to our (ohh so good at talking) guide. We spoke to him for almost 10 minutes and when we out of his cabin, we were back to square one-should we take a chance? Till 6pm we were unsure, then finally we called up our parents and asked, what we should do, and if we decide to go...how should we go..bus/train/car etc etc. Finally we concluded that bus is the best option. But we were not sure that we want to go..:). Finally around 7:30 or 8pm we decided, that instead of thinking and then later regretting lets just go. We'll enjoy Goa if nothing else..:) So at 8pm we went hunting for reservations and got it done. Even there there was a hitch, where 2 other people wanted to join us, and since we didn't have so much cash on us at that time, we had to wait for them to come and pay us their part of the fare. So we waited till 9pm when we finally got our reservations done. So we were going to Goa. We had to leave next day, but still had our packing to be done. Considering that I stay almost 18kms from college, and travelled by bus then we were almost unsure about how and when we're gonna pack. But thankfully Dad was close by then and we reached home by 10. On the way ash & I were discussing what all we need to carry, because next day we had to meet in college by 9am to prepare the presentation, documents, project demo :D As soon as we reached home, I started packing and thankfully parents did not start yelling about this last minute decision..:)

8^th Feb 2008, Friday :

We assemble in the lab at 10am (We are always late J ). Amz & I loaded with our laptops and other belongings. We were already complaining about the load. We had a lot to do. We split up. One was to prepare flowcharts, gather pictures for the presentation. One was to prepare the demo setup. Test the little code that we had. As amz laptop was only just ready, we had to install snort on her lappy. That took a long time again, as her h/w did not support FC6 and so she was using FC7 and snort was a little difficult to install on FC7 and...anyway, that was done. By that time ash was ready with the pictures, and we copied all the required stuff on our USBs. It was almost 3pm. Pree had left early as she could not pack last night, due to her commitments with the art circle. Armed with our stuff, we haeded out to grab some quick lunch. We also had to get printouts of our proj doc, to be explained. All that done we assembsled at amz's place at around 5pm. Freshened up and left by 5:30 to catch the 6pm bus. Met pree at the stop and then carried so much luggage through that dumb bus and finally reached our travels. We were almost certain we were late until they told us that the bus is at 6:30 J. Anyway, once the bus was there, we climbed in happily and made ourselves comfortable. Pree and me together and amz & ash together. (We did have our usual fight for the window & stuff..) There was this weird fellow sitting right behind us, completely drunk due to which amz & ash had to change their place. However it was good they changed their place, now they were right in front of us and it was easier to talk to them. We had enough food on us. Pree got methi bhaji and roti (I love that methi ur mom makes ya) and masala bhat. Amz got us methi paratha and sauce. It was quite a lot. My parents brought me samose (from my fav samosewala) and happily surprised me, when they came to meet us at the stop. The bus started moving at around 6:20 itself, and we were worried about those who thought it was at 6:30 would miss it. But the bus driver was only too smart. For 10 minutes he kept circling round swargate and coming back to the same spot. Don't know how that helped him. Anyway, finally at around 6:45 pm we started...we were going to Goa...!!! We tried discussing our presentation etc on the way, and did nothing more but attract the attention of a fellow traveler who called himself a professor. Anyway, after that we gave up technical discussions and started playing antakshari. Though this was antakshari in whispers...because everyone else was happily sleeping. We played for sometime, and then ash & pree slept off. Amz & I were only too excited to sleep. We somehow managed to listen to music...one cord with amz & the other..making its way through the seat and length just enough to reach my ear. At 2:30 am we decided that that the masala bhaat (a little bit was left) would spoil till tomorrow...(our assumption...:D ) So we ate it up...and obviously we didn't wake up ash & pree (else they would have asked for their share...:P ). I don't really remember when we slept after that.

9^th February, 2008 Saturday :

At around 6:30 or 7 am our eyes opened to a lot of commotion and people yelling 'madgaon madgaon'. We happily believed (as we were informed it would) that the bus will go to Vasco. But fortunately we asked and were told that we would have to get down at madgaon itself and make our way to vasco. We left the bus and walked towards a bus depot. Here, at 7 am we tried inquiring about buses going to vasco. We spoke in hindi, but no one really appreciated our effort and didn't respond. Thankfully ash known Konkani...and she was our saving soul. We finally boarded a bus that would leave us somewhere, from where we would need to take a bus to BITS. No one really knew where BITS was but they sure knew zuarinagar(the area the BITS campus was in). The bus was sooo small, and all cramped up. But the system was good in that the driver was patient and waited till people climbed in, unlike here in Pune. Also considering that the bus was damn narrow, the conductor made it a point to wait till the people who wanted to get out, made their way to the door...through the crowd. We were told to follow a lady(carrying some stuff on her head) and her child till a bus stop where we would get a bus to BITS. We followed the lady through some sort of a shortcut, where amz almost fell in that trek..:P We reached the bus stop and ash thanked the lady. While waiting there we clicked some snaps:D and there was a ferry stop close by. We just stood there and admired it. We waited quite some time, but didn't really know in which direction zuarinagar was. We tried stopping a few buses and asking for BITS, but they didn't seem to know. Then finally we asked for zuarinagar and realized we were standing on the opposite side. So we then waited at the opposite bus stop and fortunately a bus came fast enough. We boarded that bus and asked for BITS, again the conductor did not know. But thank God ash found a local and spoke to him in Konkani and he was happy to help us. He told us that we had come in the wrong direction and that we would need to board a bus (from where he will tell us to get down) to zuarinagar and from there we would get buses till BITS. We were not bugged that we were moving in circles. Rather we were happy that someone knew how to get to BITS. We boarded the bus to BITS (atleast that's what the board said). It dropped us at some point and the conductor told us to walk that small lane and then take a right, we would be able to see BITS. Ok we walked that lane, ignoring the dirt and stench. When the lane got over, we landed on a highway. We took a right and kept walking. We could see a campus finally, and started walking towards it. We finally reached the campus. We were in BITS. It was a huge campus.

We were asked to fill in our details at the entrance and since we had already registered with the hospitality we were shown our way to the girls hostel by a handsome dude(don't remember his name now though). We were happy looking at the huge, well kept clean campus and in return obviously expected a nice room too. We were only but shocked to see that our accommodation was in the living room, where they had laid out mattresses. No not one mattress for one person, but one mattress for two people. No pillows, nothing. And to top that we had to pay around 250 per head and some deposit too. We had to struggle getting that female there to spell our names correctly and then struggle to get our mattresses. We then settled in the room, found the only vacant spot, right in the middle of the room...just dumped our stuff and started with the presentation.

The competition starts at 12pm and its already 10am. When we start making the presentation we realize that the pictures we had collected and the flowcharts etc we had made were not there on any of the many USBs we had. Man, we were already late and now this. But we kept our cool, made the necessary flowcharts etc again and voila...somehow the presentation was ready. Then we started freshening up and amz & I got the project demo ready. At around 12 we started moving towards the exhibition hall, our hearts beating very fast. We reached the hall and saw that there are quite a few other projects too. Some juniors had also participated. One such participant Deepak was from the second year and an inquisitive fellow he was. We were judged by some three judges (one of whom had flown form the USofA with his girl...don't really know why she was wearing those huge sunglasses inside the room...:P ). Since we didn't have time to have lunch we got some bhel. Ok, we are still not sure if that was bhel, or rather was that edible? The competition being over and we had made a new acquaintance-Deepak. He was only too happy that we were staying in the hostel. He wanted to show us around.

He took us to a cafeteria where we got some bearable stuff. He was a bit too chivalrous..I mean why would you offer to pay for food for four girls, that too when you have met them for the first time in your life, and moreover when they are going to be here for a day at the most. Anyway, he showed us around the campus, the classrooms, the lovers lane and in short every small place in the campus. In between he even started some romantic song and all of us thank the professor who just happened to pass from there. Atleast that made him shut up. And he was our junior ya...!!There was a show in the evening that day and he insisted that we watch it. We managed to secure a seat there and enjoyed thoroughly the juggling performance, the magic show and ya ofcourse Deeapk's continuous comments amz was subjected to :P After the event, we thought he would say good night, but he was still hovering around us. We then decided to hav some food, it was almost 9:30 or 10 pm. We got some pav bhaji and were not really sure what the bhaji was. Thankfully, the bread was edible. We were very tempted to have a pastry from monginis right there, but we needed some privacy. So we bid Deepak goodbye, and he insisted he leave us till the hostel. Gosh...chivalry...when uneeded ya..! Anyway, he left us till the hostel and we said our thank yous and told him that we would be leaving next day and we took his contact number and promised to keep in touch. We ran up to our rooms, freshened up and decided that we'll go and have our pastries. While leaving we inquired about the closing time..and they said it was 11pm. We hurried off with my laptop, because we wanted to listen to a new song ash had brought..(never found a love like this – Natasha bedingfield). We hurried up to monginis, got our pastries and sat on mildly wet grass and enjoyed our pastry looking up at the sky. It was almost 2-3 minutes to 11 and we decided that we better start moving towards the hostel. On the way we were listening to the song. It was a jolly song and we were skipping and walking and we just reached the hostel gate in time...it was almost shut. We ran and pleaded please open up..and thankfully they did. People are punctual ya.. :P We went up, and didn't really like..the room, it was filled with soo many people and there was a weird smell. We decided we would watch a movie but then everyone slept off..amz first then ash...then I did..n then pree did. So I finally shut the machine and we slept off with plans for tomorrow.

10^th February, 2008 Sunday :

Pree woke up at around 6 or 6:30 am and we took turns cleaning up. We had planned to leave the campus by 8 am. We also had to collect our certificated on the way. Since, the certificates were not ready we had some breakfast till then. The best part were the gulab jamuns there. We got our certificates and left the campus by around 10 am. There were some cabs waiting outside the campus, but were charging a hefty sum till vasco. So we chucked them and took the route we had found out..through that smelly patch. On the way we sang happily...'never found a love like this'...

We took a bus till vasco and then back to madgaon where we had to book our tickets to pune the same evening. In the bus to madgaon, pree was sitting next to some old fellow on one side, and a girl of our age on another. She was subjected to a lecture session. That gist of what that uncle told her was "I saw all 4 of you girls getting in. You people have come here all alone? (Hello we are 4 of us..who is alone here..? I bet he meant there are no guys..!! everyone still thinks the same..no matter where the world is going..!!) You people should not come so far....all alone." Ok that was surely enlightening. We alighted at madgaon and went to the first tours and travels we spotted. Booked our tickets home. And then inquired about the various places we could see. Obviously we had only half a day in hand, so we wanted to visit the prominent places first. He suggested we either visit north goa, or south goa considering the time frame. We chose south goa, coz it had more churches and a beach too. It's the older part of Goa. We took a cab and told him the places we wanted to see..and according to the feasibility started off. First we went to Se cathedral. It is a very nice huge church. The place was very serene. After entering the church, we didn't feel like leaving. It felt so peaceful inside.

Then we went to the Basilica of Bom Jesus, famous for the shrinking remains of St. Francis Xavier. This place was not as peaceful as Se cathedral, but nevertheless worth watching. After having explored the church, we proceeded towards a museum closeby. It had antiques and paintings and was a nice experience. Basically, it being cold in Pune when we left, we were made to carry woolen clothes but it was hot in Goa and we were already feeling the heat, all of us just stood in front of the fan in the museum :D. After that we got to some shopping. Pree and ash liked some hats there and got one each.

Amz her colorful earrings. And we spotted a restaurant closeby and decided we had lunch. We informed driver uncle, and proceeded to have lunch. There amz & me went crazy and decided we could taste some gin. Pree was totally against it, and started teasing us saying that she would have to handle all three of us. We ordered 15ml and it tasted yucckkkyy...like some chemical in the chemistry lab (tats wat ash used to rightly describe the smell and taste). Anyway, that didn't really have any effect on us, except that ash suddenly decided that she wanted to change her hat. Pree found that the hat she had purchased was a little broken, so both of them went to get them changed. Ash returned with her new hat, and pree another one of the same design. Some time later, ash started wondering if her previous hat was better...:) theres our always confused ash for you..:) After our lunch and failed attempt at drinking ;) we proceeded towards Dona Paula. The view from up there was beautiful, cannot imagine why someone decided to end their life there.

There was provision for water sports there and amz wanted to ride a motorcycle there..:P (a speed boat..or water scooter..she meant..).

On the way to dona paula, amz & I managed to get ourselves a cap and obviously took plenty of snaps to see if we looked good in them..;) We then proceeded to Miramar beach. It was soo clean, so beautiful...so worth a walk on the clean sand without shoes. We took of our shoes and started running towards the water as if it was a race, only to be faced by hurdles of guys calling out names. I don't really know what they said, but we ran faster and kicked a lot of sand towards them :D.

We also had a 'whose feet are buried deeper in sand' competition. Ash came pretty close..but I won..:D.

We had been given a time limit by driver uncle, since we had to reach the bus stand on time, but as usual we wanted to stay some more. We finally walked back and saw a gaadi of gola. Everyone wanted one, me too coz it was hot. But after I'd taken mine, I only just discovered that Im not made to eat stuff like gola..and was then nicknamed a 'sophisticated gola eater'. I really don't know how people manage to slurp their way till the end of the gola without dropping it..:)

We then walked back towards our car, with dirty pants and shoes full of sand....sand of memories. We then bought kaju and some food to have on the way back. This time again we sat in the same order...pree & I together...and amz & ash together. Since, we had made a mess while paying and stuff, we did our calculations and concluded who has to pay whom how much. There was a lot of confusion there too..and it only increased later. Anyway, we handled that chapter pretty nicely I think ... hai na pree...? J On the way back, pree & I went to sleep pretty early this time. Ash & amz had their share of fun, trying to sleep, but couldn't manage...as they could not incline their chairs...(thanks to us) and then they tried to see a movie, but even that attempt failed..:D. Our eyes then opened a little before Katraj, where ash & I got down...said our goodbyes...and obviously met up the very next day in college....to gather all our snaps...and discuss our memories...:)

This was one hell of a trip ya...each and every small moment is like the sand we filled in our shoes on the beach. Even though the sand has gone...the memories have made an imprint on our minds..forever...and ever...:)

Guys please please please.....lets plan another fun filled trip...:)

Simple questions..obvious but wrong answers

2009-01-28T11:08:00.004+05:30

Okay, I know this is another post on traffic...but...I just cannot help it!

Squabbles on the road..are like a daily occurrence. We witness it everyday and have obviously got used to them. But this one I witnessed, though being nothing out of the ordinary...certainly made me think...

Simple question : When someone in front of us stops, sudden or not so sudden..what do u do? Apply brakes..or move into another lane?

Answer : We change our lane. We could do so, but after looking through our rear view mirror and confirming that theres no one approaching that same spot from behind. But we don't do that, coz wer r the mirrors..? and brakes..we dont use them here right..?

Willpower...;)

2009-01-19T10:18:00.005+05:30

I had stopped wearing/flaunting a wrist watch//like almost immediately after college. I convinced myself that the cellphone displays the much needed time anyways, so why bother using a wrist watch. This argument kept me from using a watch for almost 6 months now. I only realised its importance now when I started forgetting my cell, or places where you cannot keep removing your cell and looking at the time, or when you need the time while driving.
So, all this lead to me deciding on wearing a watch now onwards. Today being a good day, decided to start from today. Opened my drawer and started hunting for my ohhh so precious watches. Since i'd worn a blue tee today, was looking for my favourite blue one. o my surprise I did find it but sadly the batteries were out. I said never mind, Im gonna wear a watch no matter so I found a black one, since that would go with ant top. But then again batteries...!!! Ohh...am I gonna make sure one decision of mine is carried towards completion...!
I wanted to...wear one today..kuch bhi karke..:) (since I've been deciding for a month now, that should go for morning walks...but that day hasnt come till now!)
So I picked up a shabby blue watch..(its not that bad actually..but not one I like) and obviously its battery was functional. So here I am...for once did something I've decided..:D

Moral of the story : Before you start wanting to do something, make sure you have the resources :)

Dubs...:)

2009-01-14T22:58:00.002+05:30

I've always...avoided driving double seat...I never say no...if the other person is ready to drive my vehicle..and take me double seat..:)

Not that i just cannot manage the vehicle with an added person...im not totally confident of doing so, and if Im not..obviously the person behind is not gonna be either..:) and what when he/she asks you.."can you drive me home today"..for whatever reason...and u say "sure..but you will have to drive"...snap...he/she is worried now...am I gonna reach safely...!

It so happenned today, that this colleague's bike..just wasnt starting..and it being late...and I was available there...that was the best possible option he had. Right from the beginning I was tensed...he was tensed..:)
So much so, that usually hes quite talkative...when he drives me..hes always yakking..but today he sits so quietly, I almost forget someones there..except for the weight...and old vehicle...and pickup issues..:) I actually tell him...chill ya, you can talk...(I mean...talk bindaas...ur gonna reach home safely..today...:)
But..the funniest part....he talks only when we stop at a signal. He doesnt talk when im driving, which is in a way good...but he doesnt talk because he's scared..he'll fall...and I can make that out, coz he cuts short...discussions or arguments..:)
then when theres a small u-turn, no traffic really coz its late, hes worried if I can take that turn..lol...this was the best ride I've ever had...coz I was so amused at anothers fear...!!

102nd Convocation ceremony

2009-01-08T10:57:00.018+05:30

Yesterday I witnessed a convocation ceremony, which did not resemble one in the least. And to add to the misery, I was a part of the batch who had just passed out of PU after 4 years of toil to get an engineers degree. The least I expected was a decent convocation ceremony.
For starters, what does convocation mean (obviously in the context of graduation) - In many universities throughout the world convocation is the university graduation ceremony to award degrees to students and honorary graduands.
Does awarding degrees mean people sit at a counter, you stand in a line, await ur turn, when its ur turn show them ur number and they give you your certificate? In my opinion awarding a degree would be when your awarded your degree in front of quite a few people. Isn't it?
Anyway, as usual we always have fun...meeting old friends..just seeing familiar faces...seeing faces we dont really want to see at all...:)
We went to the univ at 10am...got our certificates, waited up for people we had planned to meet...and then since all of us had taken half day off at work..we planned to make full use of it..:) None of us wanted to go back before time...:D
So, had fun in the univ...roaming here and there...and all the usual stuff. Bumped into our principal. And the best part, he recognised me..?? why..?? Was it coz I was always in the forefront when he lectured us on bunking pracs and lecs :)
Then to get our pic...in the graduation gear...while waiting in a long line, we actually came up with a nice business plan. Next year we plan to provide that gear to people and we'll take nice pics of theirs in them. Facilities we wud provide, tats our business secret so not posting it here..;)

Some pics...

yaaaaayyy...!! :)

Introspection...out of the blue...?

2009-01-05T23:24:00.002+05:30

Can u imagine...a final year student...confesses to the following...to the whole batch...

1. Breaks up sa lovey dovey relationship...even though the guy was supposedly his best friend...??? (does he kno d meaning of frndship?)
2. tries breaking up a proj grp..for personal gain...maturity??
3. Bitching abt ur proj partner...so that u get more marks as compared to him...??? r we still in school...?? hacking his social netwking profiles...?? wtf!!!
4. Hacking passwds using keyloggers...
5. Hacking someone's proj code and making it available for free...just coz tat fella used to argue wid u...?? God help me!

and the best part...write a mail and send it to the whole f**** batch...!!! y y y....??? was it like...sudden realisation..? or u thot u cud play the part of a clown well? or u thot ppl r gonna feel sorry for u? or u thot after confessing to hacking n stuff ppl wud come to kno abt ur hacking skills...?? or u thot this is the best way of hogging the limelight...?? please please explain...how cud someone be sooo...damn disgusting!!! soo damn sick!!!

An awesome end...to an awesome year!

2009-01-03T14:20:00.004+05:30

Well, 2008 was gr8...it sure had its ups and downs...( I realise that after looking at my blog posts...)
I sure had my depressions...moments of extreme joys...introspections etc etc...coupled with a great job at a great place with great people around..!
All in all...was a year i will never forget...the last year at college...!! (sigh..!)

Anyway, before i lose direction...this post was meant to describe the 31st of dec '08!
Plans were, as always in a mess...changing at the last moment..no well chalked out plan, inviting friends at the last moment...whew..! but ya...finally we made it..:)
Was a little skeptic in the beginning as there more unknowns than knowns in the group, but after much coaxing....I agreed.
We all gathered at a flat..(I still dont know whom it belonged to..coz it was my friends..friends...friends...etc etc flat) so whateva..
Those guys had made an effort to clean up that place as far as possible...so much so that we didnt realise its a flat in which bachelors reside..:D
The lighting, the music..ohh tat was enuf to create the much required ambience...!
Met a senior...and it felt so nice...I mean, just recollecting memories of college...do u kno this one n tat one...and on and on...felt great. And it felt even greater coz he knew me...it seems i was quite well known in college..;)

Anyway, so we had a nice time...played some fun games..with funny punishments...and danced away 20008!
Yeah, but how much ever I would like to pen down details of what we did the whole night, I wont publish them here for reasons I better not disclose here..:)

Was an awesome customized new year bash I had...!!
Cheers..to 2008...!
Looking forward to a fun filled year 2009!

My last post of this year..!

2008-12-31T10:45:00.003+05:30

The last episode of the 3rd season...Heroes...30 minutes of the episode left... want to complete it...but distractions...confusion around...my cell keeps ringing...plans in the making for an adieu to 2008....man..i cannot concentrate...but i want to finish the episode this year..!

enough is enough...bang...switch off the lappy...i cannot multitask anymore...so..plans be it...will complete that episode next year..!!

Happy new year guys..:)

One snap...says it all...!

2008-12-27T21:05:00.002+05:30

I went for this awesome...photography exhibition today, organized by a group called Photograhers@Pune. It was organized on a small scale, but anything is worth encouraging new talent. And what more, the best 5 photographs would be purchased by a magazine called FlopMag...!

The venue was New Art Gallery, Ghole Road. Now this much info didn't help us find the gallery, even after asking almost a dozen people. No one seemed to know about an exhibition too. We walked that damn Ghole road twice...yeah it helped in a way that we did explore that otherwise so crowded road. We discovered that there was a museum there, called Mahatma Phule Museum. So, we took not less than two hours to reach our destination.

There weren't many people there, but expected as the marketing was done on a small scale. We were given a card, on which we had to pen down our top five photographs. I thought I'll take a look at all of em once, and then pen down the best five...but five was too less....I wished and hoped there were atleast ten best..:)

The theme being 'India explored'...a palette full of variety was displayed. The colors of holi, Ramadan, diwali, navratri...or the innocence of a little child on the street, or the spirit of India...being cricket...or the flight of a birs, or an insect trapped in a web, or the patience of a person waiting for a train, or the lights on a suburban street, or the misty and blurred road showing a clear path, or the steam when a lady prepares the meal...!

Simple and simply outstanding! One snap..thats all it takes to convey anything. It is the best way to express anything. And as I am very fond of taking snaps...(I know I take more snaps of myself sometimes...but that's only sometimes...) this exhibition truly inspired me. There need not be a background never seen before...it is just the moment you capture that's important...!

P.S. After I walked out of the gallery, completely in awe...and inspired to the fullest...and still in the theme..."India explored..." I saw this Indica parked on the street...and it was so dusty...looked filthy and as if it was put there ages ago. It should be easy to guess ... that I actually went there and took a pic of that awful looking car...capture everything...funny, memorable, seemingly interesting, may not be important, may not be worth it...:)

sigh...sigh...(This is the happier version of sigh)

2008-12-24T17:20:00.006+05:30

I guess my last post...triggered this....untimely but preplanned meet...(was tat an antithesis..? :P)

Meeting friends...whether its for an hour or two..or a minute or two...its always so ... so...sorry cant think of any words...(any suggestions for words are welcome ... :)
We may not have much to talk about, may not have much to share...but its the sheer joy of seeing each other that always makes meeting friends so special. You relive all the moments you've spent together...and it feels as if you've travelled back in time..(effect of too much of Heroes...:P )

The planning part for the meet..is soo much fun. First match schedules..not today tomorrow..not this time..that time..ohh no..some urgent work cropped up..lets postpone it to tomorrow..not this place...that place...!! hehe..but yeah we do meet...:D..n when pree is back for just a few days..after a long time...meeting her..is the most urgent task we have on our committment list..:)
So..what is it that we usually do when we meet...talk..and talk..about everything that happens..(need to ask nits..the extent of the details that we can get to..:P)..in office...some unique..( by that I meant...people who stand out among the rest...in anyway...good...bad..:P)...any expriences...etc etc...but mostly its the activity we enjoy the most..."hogging" and "pulling each others legs"...

Today's meet..or reunion....whateva u wanna call it..was special in many ways...
First being my current mental state..getting rather nostalgic.....(wat did u think..mental state meant..? :P)
Second being...pree was here...
Third being...we met for a hour and a half ... due to time constraints and stuff..but felt like the best thing we did in the entire day...
Fourth...this one's really special..after khana..we were just standing..standing in the way..and yakking..(yeah tats our speciality..we stand in the way..until people come and push us off..:D)...and there was this female standing there...and listening to the crap we were talking...and she was smiling looking at us..and our kiddishness..and our dumb jokes...and the extent to which we were enjoying...and she asked us.."should I take a pic of the three of u...? "...it made us feel so nice...it felt as if we reminded her of her very own friends group..way back when she was in college...:)

hmmm...i miss college ...:)

Sigh

2008-12-22T11:05:00.002+05:30

Friends change...I know they do...
but, what if...they make you feel...like ur not wanted anymore..?? is this change..to be accepted..?shud i question..?shud i demand an explanation..? am i supposed to understand..? or am I supposed to change myself..?

clearing up stuff by talking seems to be the best solution..but what if u know..that the person in concern..is not gonna ever accept their mistake...then maybe its ur fault right..!! maybe u expected a bit too much...so like everytime we come to expectation management..hehe..I guess am gonna hav to lower that threshold...!!

P.S. Am gonna start managing my expectations..right away..!!

Life on weekends...

2008-12-21T21:25:00.002+05:30

Weekends...everyone loves weekends right...

Here's my experience about 'life on weekends'

After I started working, I thought the only thing thing to be done on weekends is .... party..meet friends...outings with friends...discuss all that happened in the week, plan for the next weekend..have a gala time..n blah blah...

But then, somewhere...deep down inside, there was this small little...teeny weeny guilty feeling..that kept getting bigger and bigger as weekends passed by. This feeling was.."I am spending 5 days a week in office, with colleagues, weekends with friends..when do I actually spend time with my family...WHEN?? " and so...one weekend decided, no outing just stay at home with family viz., parents and sisters.

At first it was pretty difficult...but then, it just felt so nice..just staying at home...lazying around...troubling my sisters..(ohh how I love that..:D )...arguing with mom on silly subjects, just listening to some "her time" experiences...irritating dad...stating dumb hypothesis..and then argue..:D (I thing I could use arguing as my full time profession haan..)...just the whole thing...felt like being home...how I love that very experience...

So after that I decided...squeeze in meeting friends...on weekdays itself, some evening, some afternoon...whatever..and weekends...for family meets, family outings..or just plain lazying around at home...!

So...the first timepass..on the weekends was shopping. We (read my sisters n me) went shopping every weekend...but then...since we were continuously rebuked by our parents..(owing to the already countless number of clothes and accessories and footwear we already have...)..but didn't really pay much attention...we were kinda grounded...so...we now shop...shop for food..:D

And ... this new decision of ours...actually made my sister and me...jump into the kitchen..hehe ya..we did...finally..!!

Every Sunday meal..is our responsibility..!

So what do we do...just google in some thing we wanna make..shortlist a recipe...jot down a list of ingredients we need...go shopping with that list..(its so much fun going shopping...be it clothes or food..:D )

So far we've made...a small...but I would say commendable list...

Parathas...aloo gobi etc etc
Kathi with stir fry vegetables
Aloo tikki
Creamy fruit salad
Fruit salad with chocolate cream
Pav bhaji
Chocolate barfi
Veg burger
We tried besan ke laddoo once..but that was a disaster

Ya so now lets get down to the recipes...no I aint jotting them down...you could easily google...(even I got them from there...:P )

But I wanna put down one of em...why..u will see why

The easiest one..aloo tikki..

First boil the potatoes...(how much time etc etc..ask mom)

Then peel them, after they are a little cool, mash them

Then add the required masalas..(how much and what...call mom..)

Mix the masalas well, make small tikkis of the mixture..(shape..whatever it comes out to be..)

Shallow fry..and voila...delicious aloo tikkis are ready...:D:D

When my horoscope said...

2008-12-09T10:58:00.005+05:30

When my daily horoscope said that I am accident prone...(accident doesnt only mean road accident..but we'll take the most obvious...literal meaning..:D )...I drove faster that day...!
Ask why...?
Not coz i wanted to prove the prophecy right...but i wanted to cover all my destined roads before someone destined to ram into me reached there .. :D

Gratitude eh..?

2008-12-05T23:50:00.003+05:30

Im driving...not at the speed of 80..should be close to 50 tho...
suddenly i apply brakes...not for the thrill..but to save a dogs life...
i almost skid...yeah i skid...almost...:p

n this dog...growls at me...barks angrily...as if i was in the way..n not him..! n walks away..rather strolls away...!!

i mean...some gratitude...i saved his life by risking mine...shudnt i expect some lil gratitude...:(

We lead from the front..!

2008-11-25T21:11:00.010+05:30

My team...the UI team...a.k.a the Front-end team...designed a tee...our team tee..

Finally our efforts paid off...and our tee is ready..:)

dnt hav much to write abt..have a look at the pics..:)

the crossword at the back..its nt difficult to locate ur names there..:)

our logo...

n im nt putting up a snap of the company logo...tat u cud get anywhere...:)

we lead..in creativity...in design...in innovation...in team-spirit...
n..people who plan to copy our idea of a designer tee...see..we lead...people follow our ideas...:D

P.S. for more snaps...(for amzee :P) here

A walk down memory lane...

2008-11-24T15:13:00.007+05:30

This Saturday....was one Im never...gonna forget..
I had to collect my LC from college..and Saturday being the only day I can make it...chose this Saturday to be the one..!
Its not that I would neva wanna go back to college...its just that my college is in an area...I neva cross...even in the worst situation..:)

So, the plan was made...called up some friends..asked them to come down too...our college being the best place to hangout..:)
I decided to use the PMT for transport, just to actually re-live those college days. Believe me, a bus ride, all the way from Nagar road to Katraj has never ever been so peaceful. It actually felt nice seeing those faces...I saw everyday while travelling. All those small gallis the bus goes through, the daily squabbles about change, the bus didn’t stop at the bus stop, excuse me this is a ladies seat etc etc....hehe..it actually felt nice...felt that Im back....back to college...:)
Whenever I had to reach college, I had to walk through the bharti campus to reach my college. Then, that stretch was a pain. It felt as if I was dragging my feet...but today...it felt so nice. Never felt the place was so serene....I couldn’t help but smile while I remembered all the old days, the kattas there, the hours we’ve spent there...:)...felt like Im back...back to college...:)

The backmarket area, our regular hangouts, Lalit’s cold coffee...bhel center, fruit plate etc etc...as I passed all these...I couldn’t help but look for those familiar faces and feel that Im back...back to college...:)
Finally reached the entrance, I’ve never ever felt so eager to get in...but this time...it was like I really wanted to get there...get in...go back to college...:)

Couldn’t help but look at all our favourite ‘kattas’ in college...
The first...the steps at the entrance...:)

Second...the usually unusual spot....the terrace. This place holds memories...that are most treasured. All the weird practices during addiction. Dance rehearsals, tp rehearsals, tp talks, faltu gossip, arguments, tantrums, nightouts...this place holds it all...:)

Every step I took towards the most visited areas....felt as if Im reliving those moments...all the memorable time we spent...just flashed across. Made me feel that Im back...back to college...:)
Met some old friends....met some of the faculty...met the professors in the workshop..they were the happiest to see us...:) Saw the new library the college has...I bet you its hardly gonna be used for study...as if the library was ever used to study...:P
Every place....every place in the college has its own memories...be it the library, the lawn...(the photoshoot)...the sac...the labs(our project days...:D)....the corridors...the classrooms...(always empty tho..:D )...the multipurpose ground...the canteen(sirf naam ka canteen...khane ko kuch nahi milta...) .. the hostel..(ohh how we’ve always tricked the guard..:D)...even the eateries outside the college...:)
I loved every moment...I loved reliving every moment...I loved the feeling...that Im back to college...:) I loved this walk down memory lane...!

Why...

2008-11-17T03:09:00.002+05:30

Why is life what it is?

Why is making a decision so tough?

Why do we always realize that we made a wrong decision after the decision has been implemented?

Why do we always realize that we made a mistake after the erroneous action has caused the damage?

Why do we make the wrong choices?

Why do we meet the wrong people?

Why can't we forget our fallacious actions easily?

Why does life have moments...moments that we fall weak in?

Why do some actions...lead us to a deep thought process?

Why does introspection show us faults...but no way to undo them?

Why is wrong and right.....defined differently for different people?

Why do people change?

Why do we change?

Why can't we have a ctrl+z for the pages of life?

Why do we have a conscience that keeps pricking?

Why is life what it is?

Water water everywhere....

2008-10-20T22:02:00.003+05:30

This weekend was a watery one...a wavy one....and a hell lotta fun..:)

Had been to water kingdom with my new friends...my office buddies...:)

I never thought I could have fun with a varied age group...but I was proved wrong...and was obviously happy I was ...:)

So, we started early...(I was the first pickup..and so had to get up early...yeah yeah I got up really early..have never woken up so early even to study for exams...:P)....

We made so much noise all the way...played dumb charades like I'd never played before...coz people here...made such wild guesses...silly guesses...but they were so well-timed that one couldn't help but laugh...!So in short I was laughing all the time...(waise bhi I laugh a lot...:D)

We reached water kingdom at 10:30 and I thought we won't stay in longer than 3-4, but to my amazement....the place was so nice...so well maintained...so clean...so much fun..that we stayed in the water till around 6-6:30...

It wasn't only the place, but the group I was with ... they made me feel so comfortable...that I felt I knew them since ages...:)

The fun part was...most of them had to keep away their spectacles...as its difficult to look after them in the water and the slides and stuff...so they were like...people with blurred visions...and once they even cheered someone thinking it was one of our colleagues....:D

Another debacle with the blurred vision was when one of them wanted to overturn my float...but actually overturned a stranger's float...:D:D:P

It was a memorable trip...and a nicely spent weekend....I not only enjoyed the place, but also enjoyed discovering my newfound friends...:)

As for the after effects of the trip...

am still swaying to and fro...like I was in a wavy pool...:P
Owing to exercise after ages...all my muscles are hurting..and so Im laughing a lil less..(...coz the stomach muscles hurt while laughing..:D )
Im eagerly looking forward to another fun filled trip...some other place...:)
Even though I had a sore throat, I gulped down ice-cream and a gola..(cudnt help it...aadat se majboor)...so now I have a really bad sore throat...:P