My Lair !!!

Starbucks Jazz

2009-10-11T19:47:00.000-07:00

So today I have this sudden itch of updating the blog.

I am not going to the neighborhood starbucks again, not for reading atleast. I gave them a second chance today. They fucked up ... again. by playing that miserable, pathetic whining they call jazz. Well I am not against jazz specifically, but i guess coffee and jazz do not go along well. coffee keeps you awake and jazz .. face it .. makes you drowsy! not the best of the combinations especially if you're reading something already uninteresting. If it were not for the blueberry scone and the lady in red at 2 o'clock, i'd have left the place soon!

New Look !

2008-06-22T21:39:00.000-07:00

Movable Type is an excellent opensource blogging platform. This weekend I tried to transition from blogger to MT and in the process, screwed up my original blogger template.

Hence the new look :)

Dump and flush

2008-06-19T11:03:00.000-07:00

A couple of comments from work:

Me: Hey could you reproduce the bug ?
Him: Wait, I am taking the dump.

-----------------------------------

Abey, did you flush already ? I asked you specifically NOT to flush ...

Ofcourse, in both of the cases, they were referring to the database ;)

An upper hand

2008-06-19T00:50:00.000-07:00

It has been a couple of weeks now that I moved to a new place and I m already fed up with my neighbor. Well, it isnt really his fault, the building itself is a pretty old structure maintained by an 80 something chinese(the landlord) who wouldnt care to replace/repair the ageing wood in the structure ... Hence, whenever the neighbor walks, the ceiling thuds. Now, thats alright but in a particular corner of the room, the wood squeaks, squeals and screeches.

Something abt my sleeping habits, I sleep at 1 and get up at 9(like you, like everyone else) and a whisper can wake me up, no alarms needed. The neighbor goes to sleep at 10 and gets up at 7. In the process of getting ready for work(probably) he wakes me up at 7. Today, I couldnt take it and half asleep, frustrated, I banged the wall twice.

He retaliated with 2 twice-louder thuds. I went back to sleep thinking ... yeah ... point noted ... you got an "upper" hand ...

So you think you're dumb ?

2008-05-30T12:39:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, you are so into yourself, into your thoughts that you forget things arnd you ! Doesnt happen to me often, but yesterday it did ... I handed over my bus pass to the gym attendant. However, I came back to my senses while I was giving it to her,i promptly took it back, so it wasnt that embarrassing!

However, the other day ... I bought coffee, and to pay for it, I handed my gym card over! Now, as if this wasnt embarrassing enough, that girl started swiping the card! After a couple of retries, she took a close-detailed look over the card and said to me, bringing me back to my senses, that the card was a "club one" card and they only accept "Visa" or "Amex" cards there.
Feels good to know there are dumber ppl arnd in this world ;)

HTC Touch - Phone and beyond!

2008-05-30T12:32:00.000-07:00

Update:
Consider the Iphone 3G too :)
(http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/0806wdt546x/event/index.html)
for the following reasons:

better battery
push email and contacts
flush headphone jack
3G
Appstore
GPS
2.0
Multitouch
Accelerometer
Smart sensors

And the HTC Touch Pro too :)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Long time since I posted!

My last post was about my new phone - the HTC touch, so is this! All I would say is, at this time, if you're thinking of buying a new phone ... forget the much hyped-iphone, a kid's toy-the sidekick, the executive's good for nothing blackberry ... just buy the touch!!! The touch can do everthing the above can and more ! camera, music, email, messaging you name it!

And more recently, GPS and Android !!!

I check all my email on my phone, I use http://www.nextbus.com/wireless/miniPrediction.shtml?a=sf-muni&r=30&d=23104&s=COLMTAY1&ts=4STFOL1
regularly, check news feeds, youtube etc

I got GPS working on this little beast a week before !

The first thing I did after getting GPS to work was hunting a geocache ;) I found this
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=3385d966-130a-4fa4-96ff-e7dd221b51e9

I geotag the images I take from my phone !

Using Reperion, it lets you track yourself ... live !!! check the route i took home yesterday from work here (click on the breadcrumbs checkbox) http://tracker1.reperion.com/GMap.aspx?name=mkharche
Needless to say, no need of buying a GPS for the car(which I dont have anyways ;), the car I mean ;)!

And yeah, its only a matter of time when someone comes up a full android implementation on touch !!! check this
http://it029000.massey.ac.nz/vogue/

Evolution of my phone

2008-03-05T12:13:00.000-08:00

Following is in chronological order !!!! ;)

Sun sues Versata

2007-12-05T10:12:00.001-08:00

This is cool

http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/technology/12/04/1204trilogy.html

especially after

http://buffalo.bizjournals.com/kansascity/othercities/sanjose/stories/2007/10/08/daily30.html?b=1191816000%5E1532522
more specifically ...
http://phoenix.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=96031&p=irol-SECText&TEXT=aHR0cDovL2NjYm4uMTBrd2l6YXJkLmNvbS94bWwvZmlsaW5nLnhtbD9yZXBvPXRlbmsmaXBhZ2U9NTIwODkwNSZhdHRhY2g9T04%3d

Mashups

2007-11-12T23:45:00.000-08:00

ATM characters

2007-08-08T00:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was at an ATM. I was 10 persons away from my turn. Following is a small account of all the people I saw there.

The Robber-Face : Sorry, but your face looks like a robber determined to rob the bank tonight. You especially turn up at the ATM in the night when there is no one around, alight your bike, helmet clad, with your probable-accomplice-in-crime as the pillion rider. You walk right in the ATM, still helmet clad. I understand that it’s a hassle to remove the helmet for a 2 mins, 100 rs withdrawing exercise, but do you even know that there is a small camera-eye looking at you behind the ATM ? Well, forget it, I just pray that even if you are a robber, just rob the bank and spare me !

The Over Cautious : You are so cautious that you ponder on each choice the machine presents you with, for 2 mins just to be right, lest you fuck up and end up withdrawing 200 instead of 100 ! Frankly, how does it even matter especially when there are 10 ppl outside waiting for you to get your butt out ? ! Also, you are the ones who count your money 2 times to be sure of the amount. Please understand that there is one in a million chance that the machine will be wrong. And one in a million chance, the unfortunate will be you ! Lastly, please stop pressing the “Stop” and “Cancel” on the ATM. What are you thinking ? You have the money and you can still cancel the transaction ? You must be a negative IQ !

The Sneaky ones : Please, there are just 10 “desparate” ppl in the line. And you will probably be caught trying to sneak in. And then you make up the sorry excuse – “I am getting late for blah blah”. Dude, who isn’t ? !

The Women : Ladies, trust me, ATMs are not for you. You will probably take the same time to withdraw money from the branch. You have to make sure that the saree/dupatta doesn’t fall off, You have to make sure that you don’t lose the line with whoever it is on the phone, all the time you do the transaction! You have to make sure you do e’thing the “over cautious” one does. You have to put the money in the purse BEFORE you come out of the ATM. You have to … forget it, this place is too small to discuss all that !

The Teachers : I understand that your bittu needs to learn to operate the ATM. But please, he is just 4 years old ! He probably cannot distinguish between a 500 rupee note and a toilet paper!

The Simpletons: You try out all possible ways of inserting the card in and then ask me for help. Then I have to explain to you why a pin-code is something you need to keep a secret and “remember” !

The Guard : Where are you ? Oh there you are … in the AC, sleeping in the night at 2 am ! Dude, even I don’t sleep in an AC !

Heaven and Hell

2007-06-08T01:33:00.000-07:00

There is no such thing as Heaven and Hell. There is India and US. What is what ? depends on your perspective !

Reinventing my blog

2007-05-22T16:30:00.000-07:00

Well, I just realized today after almost an year of hibernation that it was no good to not blog. Lemme try to reinvent my blog today with this excellent, simple, straightforward enough thought to ponder on :

Look out of your office, see thousands of ppl around ? commuting, in restaurants at 4 pm,
watching 1pm movie shows or just lazing around on park benches, timepassing at public places.
Many of them arent beggars or homeless or students or occasional tourists ! Who are they ? !!

Lets assume 80% of them are jobless, it includes retired, between-jobs, just quit or simply jobless. Even then the remaining 20% is a fairly large number !!! What do they do all day long ?

If generally jobs are 9-6 monday to friday/saturday, you would generally expect apart from workers at a theatre ofcourse, pretty much no one ! yet, the shows are housefull. You would expect the parks to be deserted at 2pm in the afernoon. Infact, they arent ! Where do these ppl come from ?? They definitely do not work in the night since otherwise they would be sleeping this time !

What do you think ?

Feels Good - Feels Bad

2006-07-19T01:44:00.000-07:00

Feels good

- feels good to know you are important
- feels good to know the work you did all this time is worthwhile
- feels good to realise to be standing on the edge one side of which is heaven and the other side is not-so-hellish !
- feels good to realise to be in a win-win situation

Feels bad

- feels bad to realise to be late
- feels bad about the unsureity
- feels bad to still wait
- feels bad to be a lazy bum all this while !

Late for the party where the Bears came uninvited.

2006-05-20T13:12:00.000-07:00

In the very month of the bull, it got tamed. It looked like a party where the bulls were having a gala of a time since an year. I joined in too. But, I was late, the bears joined in too, and then they ruined everything.

Lets talk concrete now :) The sanesex turned insane yesterday when, defying all logic, it nosedived 450 points. Thats 1600 in 3 days ! The investors' money got eroded considerably.

Probable reasons :
1. The global markets falling down
2. News of US hiking the interest rates
3. Rumours of imposing additional taxes on the FIIs
4. Fear is a very strong emotion and at times can be very irrational too. For retail investors, the above reasons were enough to spark panic, which obviously led them to sell too.

The only saving grace were the domestic mutual funds, which saw this as a buying opportunity.

Now hear my story. I had to have a hefty balance in my account so as to prevent the lot of 400 Ranbaxy shares which I had bought in futures, to be automatically sold off. Now, some days before, some stupid transferred 17 TCS shares to my account, accidently !!! to the tune of 34k !!! Call it his typing mistake, slip of pen, whatever. So, the value of my portfolio has risen by that very amount !!! which was enough cushion money to act as a protection for my futures, atleast till today. Rest rests with luck ( not even logic nor even God Himself ! ).

Now, as for now, I still have those shares at hand. Assuming, that I lose them (which is an 80-90% chance), I would be poorer by 40k-45k ! This reminds me of 2 statements :

1st by Sujju - If you regret, dont come back to the market.
2nd by Warren Buffet himself - Look at market fluctuations as your friend, rather than your enemy; profit from folly, rather than participate in it.

So, infact, it is the best time to take fresh positions than repenting on whats lost !!

PS: I would shoot off another blog probably on this topic - stock market, which has kept me very engrossed, entertained, shocked and impressed since about a fortnight now, as I feel this blog is too small a place to discuss about such a vast topic !!!

Bloodbath on the street !!!

2006-05-15T07:32:00.000-07:00

How does it feel when in a matter of a couple of hours you lose 10000 rs !!! Ask me. It was bloodbath at the dalal street today. The only stock from my portfolio that could stand against all odds was Adani exports !!! But how much can a puny stock stand against the pull of behemoths like Ranbaxy and Bombay dyeing ! I feel stupid. Check this out - B'bay dyeing was trading close to 780 yesterday. It shot up to 892, well ahead of my purchase price(868). Then it nosedived, before i could decide what to do, it fell to 820 !!! This proves the well known saying - "The market makes the very intelligent, look the dumbest !" :P. This was only one side of the story. Look at the flip side - Ranbaxy, of which I have bought futures, amounting 2L, wouldnt show a movement since 3-4 days now, today it did, and how !! 2% down !!! Boy, I feel stupid, again ! Thanks to Adani(upper circuit), lest I would have taken some drastic measures today :P

Instead, here I am chilling out listening to The Knack - My Sharona (again and again over and over again), after being convinced by sujju and devesh, that losing money on fundamentally strong stocks like ranbaxy and b'bay dyeing, in short term, is nothing to worry about ! I hope and pray so ! Unrelated, however, here goes My Sharona :

Ooh my little pretty one, pretty one.
When you gonna give me some time, Sharona?
Ooh you make my motor run, my motor run.
Gun it comin' off the line Sharona
Never gonna stop, give it up.
Such a dirty mind. Always get it up for the touch
of the younger kind. My my my i yi woo. M M M My Sharona...

Come a little closer huh, ah will ya huh.
Close enough to look in my eyes, Sharona.
Keeping it a mystery gets to me
Running down the length of my thighs, Sharona
Never gonna stop, give it up. Such a dirty mind.
Always get it up for the touch
of the younger kind. My my my i yi woo. M M M My Sharona...

When you gonna give it to me, give it to me.
It is just a matter of time Sharona
Is it just destiny, destiny?
Or is it just a game in my mind, Sharona?
Never gonna stop, give it up.
Such a dirty mind. Always get it up for the touch
of the younger kind. My my my i yi woo. M M M My Sharona...

Slip Disc

2006-05-05T21:49:00.000-07:00

Since childhood i have always dreaded hospitals, patients, doctors, diseases, colds, coughs, fevers etc. Not too long ago, I had an accident which I have already put into words here - An encounter with a scorpion. It was no more than an injury which takes atleast 2-3 days to heal. On the second day after the accident, I was so scared, traumatized actually :) that I had been to a doc to see if I had some serious fracture.

A month back, it was Bird flu, and as irony would have it, got ill during that very time. I was so scared, I had been to the doc to find out if I had a bird-damn-flu.

Some days back, got to know that saubz is suffering from slip disc. Now, thats something to be worried about !!! Just today, when I woke up in the morning, my back was as stiff as a staff ! A little bend to the front, right, left or back was like a 1000 pins pricked at once. This, coupled with the fact that since 3 years I have been plying to and fro between Aundh and Bibewadi e'day for work on a bike, not much exercise lately, birthday-bumps(some, right on the spine) and bad bed led me believe I have a slip disc !!! Just been to a doc(who was no orthopaedic specialist) who suggested, it was not more than a mere spasm. But, is safe not better than sorry ? She gave me a very apt prescription - Tablet-bhujang asan 2 times a day before food. Tonic: Gymming everyday. Tablet: Dont Worry. Even then, till the time I dont show this to an orthopaedic, I know, I wont get out of the scary feeling hoping and praying this not to be a slip disc !!!

Anyways, Lesson learnt: As soon as this spasm $#)+ is over, join a gym, coz ... especially for s/w engineers like us, its A gym a day that keeps the doc away !

A dinner @ Shimla without a cabbage.

2006-04-20T13:21:00.000-07:00

Today, I came home to witness the most horrifying thing that i have seen lately. Patta gobhi. Cabbage. Can you believe it ?? That too, done in the worst possible way !
So, decided to make a delicacy myself. As always short of stuff at home when such times come, opened the fridge to see only some shimla mirchis, and nothing else ! So, it was decided, I would do up the shimla mirchi and Raghu would take care of the salad and the dessert. Then I cooked the shimla mirchi with online-all-the-time expert tips from mom.
Then came the worst part, I gave into patience, and burnt the delicacy !!! Which actually tasted good !!!
2 contradicting points learnt today :
1. Never lose patience while cooking.
2. A little burnt food, infact, tastes splendid ! :)
By this time, Raghu, never losing his patience, slowly and steadily kept on stirring the milk till it became basundi, then, some fruits in it, more wait for it to freeze for 10 mins and then a kicka$$ fruit basundi, as i would call it !!! Not to miss the beet-green mango-onion salad and Real orange juice to accompany !

All in all a sxeed up dinner I must say !

A (Hair) cut above the rest !

2006-04-11T01:51:00.000-07:00

It was 1:30 in the afternoon. Scorching April Sun shining at its peak. 30 mins later it was gonna be a 2 hrs power cut. And I had a haircut pending. What better time than now to get a haircut ! So, off i went to F.C. road to get my hair cut. Dont ask me why F.C. road.

So, it turned out that it was lunch time for all the barbers there. I had to wait for atleast half an hour reading stupid magazines till my turn came. Changed. Got my hair shampooed. And sat for the cut. Now herez what happended next :

The Barber : So, sir, what kind of an hair cut would you like ?

Me : Nothing special, just trim around the edges and dont bother about the other hair, I am growing them.

The Barber : You are growing your hair ?

Me : Yes, Sir. (thinking whats wrong with that !)

The Barber : (After cheking the hair for a minute more) Sir, you dont need no haircut at all. Coz, if I cut around the edges, I will have to cut some more to level it.

Me : (Not bothering about the explanation that he gave abt his suggestion of not cutting my hair) You mean ... right now ... you wount cut my hair ? (now, thats wierd !!!)

The Barber : Yep Sir, If you had asked me before, I would have told you 30 mins before !

Me : Changed back, took my bike, and came back home !

Now, it is not every time your barber tells you thats theres no need for a hair cut ! isnt it !

A weekend well spent !

2006-03-20T03:01:00.000-08:00

Had been to Vayu at NJJBTB this saturday. They dished out some excellent Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Doors, Floyd stuff –
- ted the mechanic
- hush
- black dog
- break on though
- smoke on the water
- comfortably numb
were among the very few which also included some of Vayu’s originals.

Had been to Maalamaal weekly yesterday. Well, if you have already watched, hungama, I can surely say therez no need to watch this kids’ comedy. This movie promises the copyright, patented, very predictable priyadarshan comedy, where, there are cheap bits of laugh-scenes splattered all over the movie, and then a rat race for money in the end. Please Mr. Priyadarshan, no more malamaals, hungamas and hulchuls now. Shallu and Mangal’s company was the only saving grace J.

The move lasted 3-6. We had to kill the time 6-9. After a very rejuvenating FabIndia tulsi tea by Mangal, we started to think of ways to kill the evening. The obvious option which my material minded mind could think was shopping at a mall, check out new clothes-collection, newest gizmos, sales etc J But Mangal wouldn’t join if we weren’t going to Taljai. Shallu was fine with whatever. So, finally, Taljai it was !!! We roped in RJ too who has just become a bachelor after Preeti left for lucknow.

Then came one of the best spent times off late, up on taljai, we sat among a late-ramukaka, a late-heer-ranjha, in front of an abandoned ghostly house, with the lamp dimming at its will, adding more eerie to the environment. There we sat, talking abt companies, ppl, room mates, apples, and what not.

This concluded with a nice dinner at Nandini. A nice way to spend the week end I must say !

Murud and Divegar with the Lazy hardworkers !

2006-02-16T07:33:00.000-08:00

It all started with kaustubh's suggestion - more out of frustration it seemed. "yaar kharche, lets go out somewhere. we never go out anywhere. plan for the weekend. over the weekend, talli will also be here."

cool ! this is what i was waiting for after an already hectic week! So, it was decided, it has to be a weekend on the seashore and the lucky gang would be kaustubh, rishi, talli, mane and me. We all were very much going to miss Raghu for obvious reasons :) Koul had some more important event to take care of. Had he the faintest idea that the event would mess up, he would have come.

Neways, the night before, I hastily left poonam's reception at 10:30 in the night, as i had to book a car for the next day morning 5 o clock. probably, that’s why we call ourselves the “Lazy Hardworkers”.

While leaving, took some travel’s no from dhanno, and fixed a cool 9 seater AC Tavera with LCD screen for the 5 of us !

The night went in boozing, jokes and some kickass pakistani-rock.

Next day got up at 5, and set off at 6:30. It was only after we were in the car that we realised we had taken no music to accompany ! The only stuff that was in the car was some hindi remixes which we all religiously hated, and some "hot" hindi stuff !!! :)) A Salam Namaste vcd is all we could find at Mane's place on the way.

We chose to go by the bad road coz of the scenic beauty around it as opposed to the expressway, only to realise that this might not be the best decision for coming back in the night. Mane felt highly nauseous n Rishi's bones were crushed, talli slept thru the journey and kaustubh n me njoyed the scenic beauty around.

The road to Dighi was a real torture inside the car, but that got compensated by the scenery outside. We were at Dighi at around mid-day.

We were lucky to catch the immediate ferry to the Janjira and unlucky to be with 5000 other school children who, with us, were on the ferry to the island. But as Pratik rightly remarked ... "It was good in an unusual way :) Yeh jo des hai mera ... :))"

At the janjira we hired a guide to show us around. While this guy was busy explaining the historical significance of the structure, our dudes, mane and talli were in the future, thinking of someday converting it to a giant *&gy place where, if ever the police raids, how everyone would escape through the chor darwaza and stuff like that :)

The guides there disagreed among themselves, one thought that the hier to the fort stayed at the "white palace" in the murud village, right across the lake, while the other thought he stayed at Indore.

At one place, the guide brought us to a mazaar of 5 pirs. This mazaar looked exactly like a kirana shop. Before he could even speak up, rishi at his wit's end spoke up - "kya bhaiya .. ye kirana dukaan thi kya ?" !

From there, we left for Diveagar, which was a short trip of 20 mins.

We came to Divegar only to find out that all the khanavals(viallage-restaurants) were already booked. After 30 mins of search spearheaded by mane, we found a very nice exotic village hutment. We ate like never before. The Prawns masala and Surmai fish fry's taste still lingers !

We left for the beach after that. The discussion on how far the horizon actually is, is it 7km or 16 km, between rishi and kaustubh kept us entertained during the 10 mins walk to the beach.

The beach, as always looked ever inviting. Just its sight took away my whole day's fatigue. Talli preferred to sit at the shore having his pint of beer and puff of cigarette, with his guitaar, hoping to strike a nice original chord, while we preferred to conquer the sea and get wet :)

Kaustubh, as always, trying to display "his style" to the maximum had his spects tucked on his chest. A nice big tide, and farewell spects !

Minutes later, it was Rishi. Listen to his quote while we all were still in the sea -"Abey ... ye vibrate hua ... aur fir achanak band ho gaya ... !!!", it was his nice brand new 1 month used nokia cellphone, it had gagged in his jeans under seawater !!!

However, these incidents couldnt deter our joy on the shore. We continued to enjoy :). The best part was talli's original composition that he played there ... which he plans to name - "hope".

The better part was yet to come ! After we came back from the shore, we took shower directly from the water-pump, where kaustubh still claims that he did not bathe full monty !

After this, we took the famous golden-ganapati's darshan. Blessed, we bade good bye to diveagar.

It was 12 in the night then at around panvel when, the driver got a call from his manager that the vehicle needs to be back by an hour. If only the guinness-crew were there, he would have been famous. He broke all records to bring us on our doorstep by exactly 1:30 !!!

This is why I say "The day just got better and better" !

Talk dirty to me ...

2006-01-13T02:38:00.000-08:00

Cause baby we’ll be
At the drive-in
In the old man’s ford
Behind the bushes
Till I’m screamin’ for more
Down the basement
Lock the cellar door
And baby
Talk dirty to me !!!

Beautiful song by Poison - Talk dirty to me !

A rendezvous with nature - Akshi

2006-01-09T00:16:00.000-08:00

How would you define an ideal saturday evening ? lots of work during the week that just ended, a nice light movie/a rock show/dance to the tunes of a DJ, booze, a nice dinner, peaceful sleep till 11 the next day ?

If thats your idea of a saturday evening - picture this - vast blue ocean, surrounded by soft sand, cool breeze blowing, a mix of cold and hot ocean water, next, a vada pav by the beach, hot tea, then alone, secluded between two tall palms, in a swinging chair, listening to the chirping of the rarest birds. Aint that worth living for ?

It was a company sponsored trip to the Akshi beach near Alibaug. We had hardly expected such overwhelming response for the trip ! It was 70 people total for the trip, we all set out at 6 in the morning, only to wait an hour at the office for the driver maharaj to show up. On the way, we had to deal with the rarest of the incidents ! The tyre punctured. Nevertheless, we made nice use of the time at hand by playing petrolpump-volleyball.

After the tyre was fixed, it was the driver, he was so sure about the destination that he just kept ignoring all our directions and brought us right to the alibaug beach. It was after this, that we set out for akshi. This ate up another hour.

Finally, we reached the Akshi beach. The route to this beach was typical kokan, surrounded all around by palm, hutments, "homes" and not "houses" which everyone would like to own someday !

We had another session of volley ball at the beachside. By this time, the rats in our stomachs, had also started to play volley ball. We had no idea that the seafood lunch would be so good that even the Taj couldnt equal it. The fresh surmai's taste still lingers in my mouth.

After this, we all went to the beach for the cricket-baseball tournament. I led my side to a defeat ! Which I am very proud of. I got some more time to spend in the waters ! Nevertheless, the tournament was quite exciting, well organized, nicely umpired, and easily finised. For, I got to know later that Praveen hit 3 sixes in 3 balls to finish off the tournament.

It was after all this that the best time of the trip started. It is not everday that you get to see the shining orange ball dip in the water, by which side you are playing volleyball, frisbee and catch-catch by a tennis ball - all in the sea ! We all even competed on who can hold his breath under water which I gracefully won !

We then bade good bye to the ocean and the beach with a promise to return. When we came back to the so-called-resort, it was the long queue in front of the bathrooms, waiting for us. Some how managed to get some freshwater on us, got fresh, had hot vadapav, hot tea, found the swinging suspension between two nice long palms and dozed off, dozed off listening to the hinning of the mosquitoes and chrirping of the birds. I can bet - no other relaxation is such soul refreshening as this.

After this, we got our bottles filled with sol-kadhi, i had one last gajar-halwa, then we left the serene environment of the beach, back to the buses. While heading back, had makke di roti, sarson da saag, kharvas, iced tea-peach flavour, orange juice as dinner. We celebrated nanhi-aparajita's birthday, after which we headed back to pune.

The driver was a "dude" - took us a ride to the Alibaug beach when we didnt want it, assumed all directions, brushed the bus against the toll post, refused to get the bus from inside the city at 12 in the night, when there was no traffic at all, just because the bus owner wanted the bus to ply on the express road.

Nonetheless, the trip was worth going. As a proof, the day after, I slept the whole day, with a sore throat and the whole body pained wherever touched !

Monitor a Webpage !

2005-12-27T22:03:00.000-08:00

Got to know of a site which looks at a webpage that you want to be monitored, and notifies you when it changes, by sending you a mail !!!

See it in action here :
http://www.changedetection.com/detect.html

After publishing this blog, I should get a mail !!!

Its Such a Brutal Planet !

2005-12-26T05:57:00.000-08:00

Myth:
"This world is such perfection" (What a sight)
"It's just like paradise" (For my eyes)
"A truly grand creation" (What a sight)
"From up here it looks so nice" (For my eyes)

Reality:
It's such a brutal planet
It's such a living hell
It was a holy garden
That's right where Adam fell
It's where the bite was taken
It's where we chose to sin
It's where we first were naked
This is where our death begins

We took advice from that deceiving snake
He said don't worry it's a piece of cake
And sent us swimming in a burning lake
Now we're abandoned here for heaven's sake

Here's where we keep the armies
Here's where we write their names
Here's where the money god is
Here's our famous hall of shame
Here's where we starve the hungry
Here's where we cheat the poor
Here's where we beat the children
Here is where we pay the whore

Right here we stoned the prophets
Built idols out of mud
Right here we fed the lions
Christian flesh and Christian blood
Down here is where we hung ya
Upon an ugly cross
Over there we filled the ovens
Right here the holocaust

An excerpt from Brutal Planet - Alice Cooper !!!

I didnot sleep last night

2005-12-13T20:39:00.000-08:00

I didnot sleep last night.

Not even a 2 minute nap, with just a little bit of exaggeration. I had some very deep thoughts last night. These thoughts, they were so deep that I have no need to mention them here in the blogs. They have been permanently etched on my mind. Whenever I visit this blog, just its title will bring up fresh all the thoughts.

Take it from me, when you are confused about something in your life, divide your mind into two parts - for and against, and debate. You feel good, you find out a solution to your problem, or atleast, you are one step closer to finding a solution. But I havent, probably coz last night wasnt enough for it. I will have to sacrifice another of my nights for it.

I will never ever tell anyone what I thought about last night, something real personal. Infact there were quite a few topics to discuss, and a wishlist too, a very unrealistic wishlist, topics spanning my past, current and future. Such a thought exercise was long pending for me. Now I feel quite a bit relieved. Though, as I said, it needs another good-night sleep's sacrifice.

I am not in the habit of writing such stupid, uninteresting blogs, but, though uninteresting, it sure is important, important for me.

I feel sleepy today ... and quite a bit enlightened !!!

Pune Traffic - Explained

2005-11-14T02:20:00.000-08:00

From my 1 hr everyday drive to and fro the office, I have got quite an experience of the pune roads. I have identified some of the "categories" of this traffic. These categories span all of the people who walk on these roads, drive their 2,3 and 4 wheelers on it.

Cat 1 : The pedestrians

The people in this category can be subdivided into
Cat 1.1 : The Old
This category of ppl, while crossing the road, will always look on the side where the traffic is moving !!! Imagine an "after 75" uncle crossing a both ways road and the traffic is moving from his right to his left. Our uncle will invariably look to his left, keep looking to his left till he comes to the centre of the road, when he starts looking to the right !!! If you anytime come across this type on the road, and honk at them, they will just ignore you probably coz 70% of them just couldnt hear u and for the rest 30% you would be visible only after you are some 10 mtrs away !!!

Cat 1.2 : The Over-Hyper-Enthusiastic Ones
Well, This category is hardly seen. Whenever they come to cross the road, they just run off the road in a sec !!! By the time you have seen them and thought of applying brakes on your bike, they are not there at all !!! These people carry a lot of luck with them coz ... ask me my personal experience, I hardly remember running over this type, whereas infact this type comprises of arnd 70% of the road-crossing pedestrians.

Cat 1.3 : The Dont Mess With Me Type
As the name suggests, these people just wont budge while they are on the road, crossing unless they feel like moving !!! They have "DONT FUCK WITH ME" written on their foreheads, in capitals. No, Seriously. And they can be identified by a very unique gesture that they make on the road. Imagine some DWMT type crossing the road and u are at 40 km/s just 20 mtrs away frm them, they will just raise their hand, 90 degrees to themselves, all five fingers sticking out, not even looking at you !!! You "have to" stop !!!

Cat 1.4 : The Children
These are the most unpredictable ones. Just when you are thinking they wouldnt cross the road, they will do it. Imagine a family waiting to cross the road. The child, he becomes restless and starts running to the other side of the road. After a child has crossed 3/4th of the damn road, a train follows, his elder sister, his mother, his father, all of them pull him back to the safe side, 2 slaps, a cry, then again the wait for the traffic to clear !!!

Cat 2 : The Two Wheelers

This type is the most common. They can be subdivided into the cycle and luna drivers (where it becomes tough to decide whoz riding who :) and the people on bikes. The former ones are not more than a drop in an ocean - the pune traffic !!! The bikers, they eat up the largest share of the traffic. There are all sorts of them, some safe riders who ride as if they are the "iklauta" in their homes, some rash riders who ride with their lifes as their pillon riders. The latter kind is always in a hurry, failing to recognize that the thin line between reaching on time and an accident. Sadly, I belong to this category !!!

Cat 3 : The Three Wheelers

Most of this type is a combination of the "Dont mess with me" and the "children" types, and a deadly combination indeed. But in these 4 years of riding a bike thru' the pune roads, I have mastered the art of exactly predicting where an autorikshawwalla would turn, a difficult feat indeed. This type is notorious for taking the most sharp turns on roads. Imagine a situation on a chowk where there are no signals and the traffic is rapidly approaching the "deadlock" case. There is only 1 small passage through which the traffic is flowing avoiding itself from getting stuck for over an hr !!! Everybody in the traffic except Anees Bhai, the rikshawwalla would understand this situation. Just when you have started to praise everybody's understanding of the situation, the three wheeler would patch that last hole for deadlock. "Bhaiyyaji, aap thoda peeche chale jaaiye, traffic ko jaane dijiye". Dude!!! you are too late for that !!! There are 3 more 3 wheelers behind Anees Bhai !!!

Cat : 4 The 4 wheelers

This kind can be further divided into 2 categories - those who have 3-4 of 4 wheelers, and those who own a single one which they are tremendously proud of. The latter kind is the most safe on the road, they drive in the most responsible and disciplined manner on road. Not because they might run someone over, but because they might scratch their prized posession !!! For the former kind, the car is a means to protect themselves from an accident. Just that.

Cat 5 : The PMT

Who will disagree with the rashness that this type shows on the road while driving. After all, they are the most safe beings on the road, inside the PMTs. Who will disagree with the fact that this type is the most negligent on the road, especially after having read 2-3 incidents of them running down small school-kids. Who will disagree with PMT being a menace on the roads !!! I do. I disagree with all this. Look at the other side of the coin, look at the difficulty and frustration of taking a bus equivalent to 4 4 wheelers/ 16 2 wheelers from Katraj to Sangvi gaon, to and fro, 2-3 times a day !!! Quite a feat indeed !!! But, all we remember is that some 4 months before, a bus had run over a small kid. I am not saying that the driver there wasnt at fault, but this shouldnt be generalised !!!
On a comic note, you should always watch your back while you are trying to overtake this red-monster-on-road from the left, for u never know when a stop will come and it turns left, u might be squeezed to an accident !!!

Lemme end this with the most common note you might have read till now -

"Drive safe, drive responsibly".

But this slogan has something really unusual about it !!! The number of e's in it is not 4 as it appears on reading it the first time !!! It is 5 !!!

Well, atleast made you read the slogan again ! :)

Join the www.savepunetraffic.com movement !!!

Destination Sinhgad.

2005-09-18T21:59:00.000-07:00

For a common someone who has been in pune for atleast 4 years, the topic seems to be very simple. Infact, so simple that he/she would not read any further. But, for the 10 ppl who had been there this sunday, this day is more special than many other special days in their life !

Till the afternoon of the day before - i.e. saturday, I wasnt sure about being on sinhgad the next day. Then a mail by Praveen, which as always attracted scores of many more mails(thanks to that, atleast I have something to do in the office). Finally, it was decided, the following ppl
Mangal
Vidya
Praveen
Sonali
Shallu
SanUk
Ashish
Myself
were to be the lucky ones to be on the Sinhgad the next day.

After the day set, we gathered in khushboo for a nice dinner, oblivous to what was coming next ! My bike's tyre got punctured, at 11 pm in the night. Good, in a sense that this happened 10 hrs earlier :) So, somehow in the drizzle we found a repair-shop, got the tyre fixed and came back to Praveen's place. All this killed our idea of watching a movie in the night. No worry, we made a good use of time at hand, finding out flaws in the system, blaming and praising ppl, nice times we had in the college, investments, interviews and what not ! At 3:30, we had a wicked idea of giving ppl miss-calls, and without a second thought, implemented it ! It was hilarious, so much so that, Mangal, thinking it to be morning 6:30, got up out of his bed !!!

Finally after a meagre 2 hrs sleep, we got up, It was one of the very few mornings when I wake up to see the sun rising ! Then we set out for "Destination Sinhgad". Cool breeze, somewhat drizzling, it was a perfect time for an outing ! We all met at Khadakvasla for a hot T in a cold weather, what could have been more fun ? !!!

On the way to Sinhgad, I discovered that my bike was low on 2T !!! For those who dont understand this jargon, If I had driven my bike for half an hr more, the engine would have bursted, repairing which would have burnt quite some hole in my already torn pocket ! Well, I took the risk and went up the hill ! The weather on the top was enough to make me forget by bike's sorry state.

We had some, guess what - obviously "Kanda Bhaji", with ale-tea. Then we headed for our next destination - the Kalyan Darwaza. On the way, was the Dev-Taki, where we DID NOT take Ashish's objectionable snaps :) After struggling through many bushes and Ashish's PJs :)) , we reached the Darwaza. During all this walk, the hidden photographer in Ashish had risen. After that, the Sinhgad's scenery was trembling with fear, 'twas Ashish shooting them :))

We had quite some snaps at Kalyan darwaza, thanks to SanUK's, I mean, Tinku's, I mean their's cool cybershot camera :) After that, we headed for our major destination - The Wind, I mean Storm point. On the way, we watched a movie, in the midst of fog clad mountains, 2 love birds, forgetting everything around them sat at one of the points doing something ... (I leave it to the readers to imagine the "something" that they were doing :)))

The walk to the Wind point was very good for many people, except Vidya, who struggled to reach there as her chappal broke. (yes you read it right, she was on the sinhgad on a CHAPPAL, a slipper). Who would even in the dreams go to Sinhgad on a chappal ! Never mind, we reached the Storm point, somehow. There was another good ;) group there apart from our grp. Me and Praveen raced against the wind, I won. Then again we raced, again I won, this time by cheating :). Then, the third time, we had company, 5 ppl raced against the wind. We seemd to impress the other group ! soon, they left. :( Nevermind. the storm there, kept us entertained, The Sun had not risen for the whole day !

Then suddenly from behind us, the Sun showed up. I mean, Amruta with a beaming face and sunlight-colored hair joined us :)

Then we tried in vain to play Dumb charades. It was as if the wind felt neglected as we played. It made its presence felt by blowing faster.

After that, we left the Wind point, with a promise to return. We came back for a pithla-bhakri, kanda bhaji, dahi lunch, after which we left the place. I drove down the hill, with my bike switched off. This was praveen's suggestion, and a right one too !!! for, finally, before I quenched my bike's thirst for 2T, I found that it had not even a single drop of oil in it , a narrow escape from a 4K fatkaa :)

During this time Mangal and Vidya were already on their way to Pune, or is it ;) they were found some 5 Kms away on the roadside, TPing near what seemed to be a perfect romantic sopt.

This spot was some just 100 mtrs away from a devastating accident where a BIG, really big truck had overturned !!!

Anyways, we perfectly fine, safely reached Pune. It was one of those days which make their own space in your life. Its memories will be cherished forever !!!

1000000 Ways of communication !!!

2005-09-13T01:40:00.000-07:00

I wanted to send across a song to Pravin, my team-mate, which I thought he might like. So, I could just turn and talk to him. But, I instead thought ... lets tell him this on the messenger ! His status said "I am on SMS". I sent the song through mail, and sent a message "check ur mail" on yahoo, as soon as i sent the message, his ph beeped and he got the msg on the cell, he checked his mail, and started to listen to the song.

I just wondered ... look at the technology - No one uttered a word and both understood everything !

How many ways are there to talk to your team mate, who sits not more than 2 mtrs away from you ?

- send a message on yahoo.
- send a message on msn.
- send a message on Hello IM.
- send a message on google talk.
- send a msg through either of the above, and the receiver receieves the message on his mobile. (if he/she is on "I am on SMS").
- send a message mobile to mobile.
- net send
- mail through any of - google, yahoo, hotmail, outlook.

And if you really want to "talk" to him/her

- talk through any of these - yahoo, msn, google talk, hello, skype, rediff bol, indiatimes msgr ... its a neverending list !
- call him up on his cell, though ur cell/intercom ph.
- ring him/her up on intercom.

Or ... just turn over and talk person to person !!!

A laaazy Thursday Morning !

2005-09-07T23:21:00.000-07:00

Its suuuch a lazy morning today. Yesterday's hangover isnt gone ! Especially, after having seen a very good movie - Ramoji Londonwaley. The name might sound not that exciting, but, take my words, its worth a watch ! So, It was a bright evening with a very faint trace of rains happening. But, it started pouring bad while we were in the movie ... After the movie, had ice-cream. Ice-cream in the rains is an amazing experience !!! keeping the "getting sick" part aside, if u havent had this experience, then have it ... take my words, even if u fall sick, u wont regret it :D. Then, on my way back to home, the 15 mins after-rains-ride on the bike was so cool, literally. Then, back to home for a sweet home-made dinner. A vampire movie and then sleep, a perfect evening !

Now, the bad part, came office early, so that the "feel of makarand not in the morning meetings" doesnt get permanent. Only to find that the intra n the internet down, full halt. no mails, no chatting. This is the worst that can happen to u in the office ! Well, so, utilized the time eating some gr8 Ganeshotsav sweets by Prachi n Sujit. Watched an exciting game of tennis between Blake and Agassi, then then m back doing work ... or is it ? :)

Pink Floyd - Time

2005-08-25T04:12:00.000-07:00

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an off hand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it’s sinking
And racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in the relative way, but you’re older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the english way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought I’d something more to say

Home, home again
I like to be here when I can
And when I come home cold and tired
It’s good to warm my bones beside the fire
Far away across the field
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spells.

- Pink Floyd, Time lyrics.

I dont know why i didnt like PF !!! Such gr8 lyrics, such gr8 music ! simply heavenly !

An encouter with a Scorpio.

2005-08-11T00:54:00.000-07:00

Dinner at Mainland china ! that too ... a treat !!! + getting to meet old best-friends !!!! All these thoughts made me push the accelerator on the bike. It was a pleasant evening. Me clad with my favourite Wills-cargos, 2 days old - brand new Seabiscuit 70.95$ jacket, halki-baarish, 8:30 pm time, cool breeze, and twinkling head n tail lights of vehicles on road, all this visible through my helmet. Since long I ve been wanting to clean or rather get a new plastic for my helmet but as always, laziness prevented me. This made my already less visibility, lesser.

Have you seen the Black Scorpio ? I mean the newly launched Mahindra-Scorpio. It is such a beauty ! really cool looks ! Well, I dont want to get into the details of the cool scorpio neither do I want to discuss about my dreams of owning it one day. All I want to say is that I saw it on the road. Shining body, dimly lit red lights, this beauty was some 20 meters away.

The dimly lit red light turned bright blood red. The Scorpio had stopped where it was. I was on 30. Oh ya ... 1 more thing, I forgot to tell you, I have always wanted to repair these fronk brakes on my bike, but u see ... laziness. :( . So I did all that I could. Put one of my legs on the road, put all the force that I could on the brakes. Now, for the intelligent heads out there who would be thinking why i didnt overtake the scorpio from either of the sides, I couldnt, there was hardly any time to think of all that once I had started applying the brakes + i was damn sure that the bike would stop inches away from the cool-car ! But, the road being oil-spilled / my bike tyres being quite worn out, I dont know, the bike kept its speed at 30 !!!

Then 60 deg to the left 60 deg to the right, 60 deg to the left, 30 degree to the left and baaam - on the road flat still not stopping. I stopped to see that the Scorpio was already on its way - away. Got up. The first thing I could sense was that the fav cargoes will find their way to my fav-not used collection- it was so torn. The jacket which was just 2 days new looked as if it was 20 years old. So much so for saving my dream car which wasnt mine !!!

Got up, took my bike n back to home ! Treat - well ... some other day :)

Have you ever met GOD ?

2005-07-26T04:11:00.000-07:00

It was a nite to remember ... to cherish ...

The GOD himself had come down to the MMRDA grnds Bandra mumbai ... to enthrall His mortal audience with a music which the blind could see ... the deaf could hear ... music which could pump life into a corpse ... The 8000 strong crowd waited patiently for 2 hours b4 the schedule just not to miss a single "see", a single "hear" from the cool goggle clad, shaved head GOD.

The show started with "Up In the Sky". The ticket money that we paid ... got over on this very song ... and O' boy who knew that there were 19 more tracks to come .... Then came the cooolest song .... my favourite ... cool as a breeze, COOL # 9. By the time He played "Flying in a blue dream", we were already out of this world ... in the GOD's durbar ... "the heaven" :)
This is the divine creature who has professionally taught "Metallica", "GnR", Steve Vai ... and the like ... who themselves are considered to be the Gods of music !!!
The other songs that we had the extereme privilege to listen were - "Is there love in space", "Starry night", "The Mountain song".

And last but not the least ... the penultimate one - "morrocan sunset" followed by the laaast "Psycho monkey" !!! What a show it waaaas !!! killing performance ... No wonder they had scores of ambulances lined up outside the stage ... :D

But was that the End ???????????? NOOOOOOOO WAAAY !!!!!!!!!! the worshippers wouldnt just let the GOD leave like that !!! The worshippers kept chanting "more" "more" .... Their penance was answered ... and the GOD reappeard !!!

So, finally ... last but not the least .... the penultimate one ... again my fav - "Surfing with an alien". Phew !!!!!!!!!! what energy ... equivalent to a 1000 atom bombs exploding inside of u !!! And the last song ... "Friends" left us gasping for more !!! That brought to an end, a show which I would rate the best till now ... A show the memoirs of which would last for 7 of my lives ... A show for which I have already sinned by putting it into words ...

Shayaris

2005-07-21T07:21:00.000-07:00

Jinki aankhein aansuon se nam nahi
Kya samajhte ho unhe koi gham nahi?
Tum tadap kar ro diye to kya hua,
Gham chupakar bhi hansne wale kam nahi

tere liye ek payaam laya hoon,
narm naazuk gulaab laya hoon,
kisi darr se jo tune likhe hi nahi,
unn khaton ka jawab laya hoon.

khuda unhe salamat rakhe,
jo nafrat humse karte hai,
pyaar nahi nafrat hi sahi,
kuch toh humse karte hai.

Concerto Knopflero ...

2005-07-20T23:17:00.000-07:00

Lemme start this with a sad comment. Whoever is reading this, might never get a chance to see the Legend himself performing live in concert.

The legend himself is no other than the 60 years old God - Mark Knopfler. Lemme henceforth not call God by his name.

Krishna, Ruz, Rishi n me, we all set out for the concert. First there was this beautiful ride on the bombay poona highway, during which we exhausted almost all of the God's tracks. The day was just getting better. As the day set, we got in line for an appointment with the God Himself alongwith around 15000 more devotees, many of which were from Pune, and bangalore too. My heart sank when the stupid @#$@ tore our cool credit-card like tickets at the entry. Anyways, the torn cards will also be treasured, cherished as a memorabilia ! We got in after about 15 mins. 1 hr wait by which time, it was like a sea of fans waiting for a glimpse of The God himself. So much so, that some of the fans had paid 1000 /- just to hear Him. I bet He wasn’t visible after the last man in the 2500 /- ticket area !

So, 1 hr wait and The God made a modest entry. White loose shirt, blue jeans, blonde sparse hair, a grim face and a guitar that completed the attire ! The show started with some of the best blues music that I have heard. The mood all changed as soon as He played “Walk of life”, which is one of my favourites. The crowd just went wild ! With voice unparalleled and killing guitaaring, He had the crowd at His feet. All that the crowd can shout was “more”.

Then he played “Sultans of Swing”, “Donegons gone”, “Boom like that”, “Telegraph road”, “Romeo and Juliet”. Then, again, the mood changed. The brightly lit stage was transformed into a starry night. He played “Brothers in arms”. A perfect song for that mood. By that song he took us for a tour to heaven with Him, a five minute tour.

Then another favourite – “Money for nothing”, then another “Telegraph road”, then another “So far away”. It was an overdose of good music for us. It all ended with a sweet good-bye song “Going Home”. With a “Good bye all, Good night, Is everybody OK ?”, He made a quiet quite modest exit. Most of the audience (I was one of them) was not content as he couldn’t play some of his best tracks – Calling Elvis, Heavy Fuel. But it was good in a sense, otherwise no one would have left the show alive, such was the killing performance !

This is the man who once was asked why he didn’t press charges against a woman who caused an accident, due to which he had 9 broken bones, to which he replied “Why the hassle !”. This is the kind of a man he is ! most popular yet modest. The memory of the show will linger till the rest of my life …

The Autorikshaw-walla dudes !!!

2005-07-13T00:08:00.000-07:00

Lemme henceforth address the autorikshaw wala as "The dude".

Chapter 1 :

me : Bhaiyya, oxford blues jaana hai.

The dude: ji sahab.

The dude: Harrr ghadiii badal rahi hai dhoop jindagii. chaav hai kahiin kahiin hai dhoooop jindagiiiii.

me: bhaiya, achcha gaa lete ho.

The dude: arey sahab, ye to kuch bhi nahi hai. aapne vo gaana suna hai ? ... "chupke chupke raat diin ...."

This is how it started !!! then, the whole journey till my home was a cakeride as i would call it. When my home was just a minute away,

The dude: sahab, abhi to aapko jaana hai, fir kabhi hamaari sawaari mein baithiye, aapko talat aziz sunaaoonga, mera favourite hai.

me: jaroor bhaiya. (as if my bike would break everyday n as if this coincidence isnt enuff, everyday I wud get this dude for lift till the office !)

me: kitna hua bhaiya ?

The dude: vaise to 35 hue hain, lekin aap ke liye special discount. sirf 30 dijiye !!!

Wow !!! THATS WHY I call these dudes "THE DUDES".

Chapter 2:

This is the day I was supposed to get the offer letter frm Selectica at 11 am. It was already 10:45, and I was an hour away from the office. And I didnt have a bike that time.

The dude: kahan jaana hai bhaiya ?

me: bhaiya, bahut der ho gayi hai ... Sharda arcade (I am 1000% sure I told him this) jaana hai. Bhaut important kaam hai. Jara tej chalaana.

The dude: bhaiya, agar itna important kaam hai to jaraa jaldi nikalna tha ghar se !!!
(words of wisdom, accepted)

me: bhaiya, left turn nahi, seedha chalna hai.

The dude: bhaiya, ye shortcut hai. jaldi pahunchenge.

me: confused. Its 3 months I have been going this route, how the hell did I miss this shortcut !

The dude: lo bhaiya, aa gaya.

me: confused. (Its only 15 mins past dude !!! 15 mins mein Sharda arcade ???? But ... this place doesnt look like sharda arcade.)

me: ye khaaaan aa gaye hum ???

The dude: SHARDA CENTER, yehi to bola tha na aapne ?

me: What the &*#@ !!!

chalo, neways. bhaiyaji, Sharda Aaaarrrccccaaaadde ... Biiiiibbbbbwwweeewwwaaadddiiii.

The dude: Kyo bhaiya ? itni jaldi kya hai ? office hi jaana hai na ... thoda late hi sahi ...

me: bhaiyaji, aaj naukri ka pehela din hai. offer letter milne vaala hai. Bahut dhakke khaane ke baad ye naukri mili hai.

10 mins of silence.

The dude: Bhaiya, niraash mat hona kabhi ... try karte rehna.

me: matlab ?

The dude: Dekhiye, aaj nahi to kal, kabhi na kabhi, "telco", "bajaj" jaisi company mein naukri mil hi jaayegi.

me: again, What the *^#( ????

The earliest snapshot of my life.

2005-07-12T08:04:00.000-07:00

The earliest day that I can remember from my childhood.

The earliest that I can think of myself is the 1st grade. I was a real phattu, shy but equally michievous types. That day I wanted to scare-off this more phattuer friend of mine. I happened to catch him in the loo. I locked him in and started giving "hool" to him. Now I never knew that this dude can cry like crazy. I never knew that if ever there were a "Whoz the loudest" competition in my school, this guy would break all the records !!! So, obviously he cried to the best that he could. This gathered some 3-4 scariest teachers outside the loo. "open the door and get ur @$$ colored red" was the thought that ran thru' my mind ! Now. Thats it, It took just 10 more mins when even the principal was outside. 20 more mins and my mom was outside !!! "dude ! its mummy now ! if you dont open the door now, ur @$$ would be colored first red by the teachers n then black n blue by mummy", as soon as I thought this, clang - the door opened and clap, clap,clap ... no no ... what're you thinking, those were the claps that mummy gave to me :) , on my cheeks :).

That day taught me a lesson - never give "hool" to any person ... especially in the loo :)