2 days in a programmer’s life

During the past 3 months of my stint in a comparatively large IT company, I have realized that an employee’s life can be generally categorized into 2 types. The “BUSY” days and the “LUKKHA” days. Now the experience can be varied depending upon the employee, his boss, his colleagues and of course his company. The description below is particular to me and is an approximation of how it goes.
BUSY
7:30 am : Triinnnnng… Damn it! Gotto wake up…
8:30 am : Run after a bus, get squashed between an old man and an aunty who hasn’t had a good start to the day. Conductor doesn’t have change for the ticket.
9:10 am : Reach office, jog up to the second floor, let the machine boot while freshening up, fill up the water bottle, get tea, biscuits and balance everything, making back to the cubicle.
11:00 am : Compilation Error… Ahhhhhhhh!!!!
12:00 pm : Segmentation Fault… Why you little piece of shit!!?? x-(
12:45 pm : Colleague - “Abey khaane nahi jayega?”
1:15 pm : Food!! Finally!!
1:35 pm : Staring at the screen with no idea what’s happening.
2:35 pm : Still staring at the screen totally clueless.
3:35 pm : Need some tea in the system.
4:30 pm : Colleague - “Chal naashta karne”
5:00 pm : Back from nashta and still compilation error, segmentation fault, tearing hair, cursing and some more staring at the screen with the hope that the code would miraculously start working the way it was intended.
6:30 pm : Need a break… a couple of games of badminton.
7:15 pm : back from the game and suddenly realize that solution is staring right at the face
7:45 pm : problem solved, code working, orgasmic feel.
8:00 pm : out of office.
LUKKHA
7:30 am : Triinnnnng… Damn it! Snooze…
8:30 am : Still snoozing…
9:00 am : Roommate - “Office nahi jaoge?”
9:30 am : Miraculously managed to make it out of the house.
9:35 am : Walking to the stop, empty bus passes by and stops infront at the stop. Decide to skip it and catch the next one. You remember the famous saying, “Kabhi ladki aur bus ke peeche mat bhaagna. Miss hua to dusri aayegi.”
10:20 am : Reach office and wait 3-4 minutes for the lift to come down from the 5th floor so that you can go to the 2nd floor.
10:30 am : Go to freshen up.
10:40 am : Go to get water.
10:50 am : Get tea.
11:00 am : Check mail, indiatimes, rediff, few more news site, latest wikileaks updates
12:00 pm : Call colleague - “Abey khaane nahi jayega?”
12:30 pm : Go for a walk
1:00 pm : Check mail, indiatimes, rediff, few more news site, latest wikileaks updates
2:00 pm : Need some tea in the system to stay awake
2:30 pm : Read forums about topics related to programming (QT, opengl ), read about data structures, algorithms
4:00 pm : Call colleague - “Chal naashta karne”
4:30 pm : Check new possible projects on the internet
5:30 pm : Colleague - “Chal badminton khelne”
6:30 pm : To colleague - “Tu badminton continue kar, main gym jaa raha hoon.”
7:45 pm : Back to cubicle, check mail…
8:00 pm : out of office
…while all the time continuously thinking of a new idea to make a new proof of concept that would make the day a little more interesting, a little more meaningful, a little more sense of achievement, a little more fulfilling.

My first Puneri Sunday

After last night’s extremely action packed movie experience, I was wondering whether the Sunday would be able to match up to it’s predecessor. I had decided to meet up with a friend for lunch. It was long overdue and this seemed to be a good opportunity. He stays in an area which is diametrically opposite to where I stay and hence decided to meet up at a central area so as to minimise the travelling. We met at Swargate and then moved on to M. G. Road. (I think every city has a Mahatma Gandhi Road and usually it is one of those which are bang in the middle of the city. So was this.)

The first thing that we noticed was that most of the shops were shut. The thought that Sunday was the weekly off wasn’t inspiring at all. We later found out that all shops in that area close down at around 1:00 and open again around 3:00. Apparently that’s their lunch break! Go figure! And we had reached there just after one and hence found everything closed. Sundays are supposedly worse as a few (eg Kayani Bakery) remain closed throughout. After loitering around for a while, we felt we ought to get some grub in our system. Spotted a restaurant called “George Restaurant”. It had a subtle character about itself which led me to suggest we go in. My friend suggested we try the chicken steak. I had never eaten steak before and I must say I liked what I ate :) Had some Biryani too. But the steak was definitely the highlight.

We then spent the rest of the afternoon at Landmark (I picked up a book called “May I hebb your attention pliss”) and Staples (my friend got himself a mobile). We then went back to Swargate and and went our way. I was to meet my roomie at F.C. Road. He had promised to help me get some shoes (Someone stole my worn out gym shoes from the locker room. Seriously pathetic!).

I ended up buying 3 pairs of shoes! And I don’t think I have ever had more than 2 pairs at a time (One for the formal attire while the other would go with my casual look) One of them is dedicated to the gym but I am kinda happy with the other two :) They are very unlike the ones I usually get.

F.C. Road is the hottest place in town, both in terms of the crowd and the food. Mostly college crowd doing what college kids do best. While pre-historic creatures like me see them, laugh a little, drool a little, feel a little guilty and then concentrate on the food :) Pune has a fascination for chocolate! Chocolate milk shake, CAD-B (Another name for something similar to chocolate shake but way better) chocolate pan, chocolate fountain and chocolate toast ( found this out today ). It was interesting and I would like to keep it that way. We then went on to Venky’s outlet where we had some more chicken. Good stuff :)

By the time we got done it was almost 9:30, so we decided to get back home. Now that I look back at my decision to stay back in Pune, it was a real good one. Saw a lot of new stuff, had a lot of fun and I think I know Pune a little better. Definitely better than sitting all day long infront of the PC watching downloaded movies :)

The weekend rocked!

My first Puneri Saturday

I stayed back! Hahaha!! I can’t believe I did it but I did. My first Saturday in Pune :) And to tell you the truth, I am liking it. What prompted me to do it? Folks are in Calcutta and I hate staying alone at home in Bombay. I don’t mind it here in Pune. I am used to it. But not so, as far as home is concerned. Even if I don’t interact with them much when I am home, their presence matters. And its just not home without them. So I decided to stay back instead and enjoy my weekend.

A lot happened :) I wanted to go and check out Koregaon Park where the fabled Osho Ashram exists. Took a bus to Pune Station from Kothrud. Saw Shaniwar Wada enroute. which I need to check out later on. Its basically a fort. Koregaon Park was a 20 – 30 minute walk from the station. I wanted to walk it out, so that I could figure out the place better. I had an approximate map of the place. Really helped me a lot. The place is rectangular in shape, with the north main road and the south main road as the 2 longer sides of the rectangle. There are numerous lanes connecting these 2 roads. I managed to walk up to lane 7. Didn’t have the energy to walk any further. I actually wanted to reach the East Main road, just cause I wanted to see the HardRock Cafe. Just in case I decide to go there someday :) I have walked so much today that my legs are literally killing me!

What really fascinated me about KP, is the greenery. I could easily make out that there were filthy rich people living there. I fell in love with the old bungalows with sprawling gardens. But a lot of these have been now sold to builders who will obviously maximize construction and turn the green Pune into a gray concrete Pune. There were a few plots which had old houses but were obviously not maintained, the lawns were overgrown, shabby gates, eroding nameplates, witness to changing fortunes and would soon be concretized. Lot of Parsi nameplates :) It reminded me of the places I lived as a child, the greenery and the open spaces. I was actually happy that thanks to these rich guys we have some greenery left. If I think about it, we are really not leaving much for our kids, except a few concrete blocks to call home.

The Osho ashram is on Lane 1. One needs to register to get in and see. The tour is no longer offered due to security reasons. Registration will cost Indians 1300 bucks. There is a garden which is open to public from 6-9 am and 3-6pm. That’s on Lane 2. The garden is beautifully landscaped with streams, bridges, rock sculptures, benches, bamboo groves and a lot of trees and shrubs. Lots of flowers too. A good place to take your girl to. :)

Came back home around 5 and decided to go and watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It was funny how many problems we faced to get to the theatre. First we ran out of petrol. Had to walk a kilometre to reach the petrol pump. We were then caught by cops for apparently jumping signal. That was so not true! But Apoorv very skilfully got us out of it. :) He made up a story based on a true story and the cop bought it. The movie was good. People might call it a bit slow but that is how the book was. And I really liked it the way they have adapted it. Finally! After the catastrophe that the Half Blood Prince was, this was a pleasant change. I think Potter fans will be happy with this one. Lets see how the second part turns out to be. Hermoine has grown up so bloody beautifully :D

Got back home at 11:00. A very successful day, I must say! Looking forward to tomorrow.

The Bou Bhaat

I returned home yesterday after a very successful “Baashor Raat”. Meanwhile my cousin had spent the day at his in-law’s place. I had asked him about how he planned on surviving the first day at his in-law’s and he promptly answered, “Main to safed jhanda dikha dunga. Chup chaap baitha rahunga. Jo karna hai kar le bhai!” Apparently that’s what he did :) The “Vidaai” happened in the evening and they returned to my cousin’s place. Yesterday was the “Kaal Ratri” where the bride and the groom are not supposed to see each other. Damn! Where the fuck is the “Suhaag Raat”? This is not done, specially when you get married after waiting for twenty-freaking-nine years! Lol! But that’s what happened. He was thrown out of the house and he stayed at the other place that had been hired for guests.

Me on the other hand, had an extremely interesting evening. I met up with a friend I had made online many years ago. I never thought that we would meet but then again one should never say “never”. :) right? Anyways we spent a very nice evening, did a mini-dinner and called it a night.

The “Bou Bhaat” was today. It basically consists of a few rituals, few extremely stupid games and a lot of opportunities for all the aunties to have a gala time at the newly wed’s cost :P It is then followed by the groom’s grand announcement that he takes the responsibility of the girl’s “Roti aur Kapda” and a quiet announcement to himself that he would also be responsible for all the mistakes he would and would not be committing for the rest of his life. :P The main “Bou Bhaat” is basically the point where the new bride serves food to all the member’s of the house. It is sort of a symbolic event where the bride takes the responsibility of the house.

Spent the whole afternoon lazing around, chit-chatting. We were to have the reception in the evening. Now my cousin was to have 2 receptions, one on the day of “Bou Bhaat” for people in the neighbourhood and people from the girl’s side. The second was to be on the next day at a hotel. I would be obviously missing it as I had to fly back on Sunday, i.e. tomorrow. The reception went on pretty well but we had to leave early as it’s almost an hour and a half drive to our home. So we left midway :(

The Shaadi

So my cousin’s hitched! :) We were to reach Konnogor by 6:00pm. Went and got myself a new sherwani. Pretty nice looking red sherwani :)

Well as per updates from my cousin, he was woken up at 4:30 – 5:00 in the morning and force fed a lot of curd and whey. Since he wouldn’t be getting anything else to eat the whole day, he stuffed himself as much as he could. I had initially decided to dress in formals at the wedding and wear the sherwani on the day of “Bou Bhaat”. After talking to my other cousin, I realized that the marriage would be a better occasion to show it off than Bou Bhaat. As a result, when I landed at the the marriage hall, I was dressed in a red sherwani, getting roasted and my internal temperature about 10 degrees higher than outside, all thanks to my zazzy sherwani.

Entered to find my cousin sitting almost alone except for a few of his friends. He was obviously of least interest to us and everyone else. We were more interested in meeting his better half. And that’s what we did!

The great Indian marriage is obviously a torture ritual for the bride and the groom. They have deviced it in such a way that anyone who has been through it once, will promise never to go through it again ( except for those few individuals who like to inflict torture upon themselves by going through it again and again! ). The marriage begins with a small puja which sort of represents that we are notifying our ancestors about it and asking them for their blessings. My cousin was then taken to the main area where everything was supposed to happen while we were trying to finish the snacks that we were given. Me and the rest of the guys were pretty hungry and so instead of accompanying my cousin, we stayed back and ate :P

This turned out to be a pretty good opportunity for the “Ladki-party” to steal my cousin’s shoes. For those who are not aware (eg my uncle aka my cousin’s dad), its a silly ritual where the bride’s sisters/cousins steal the groom’s slipper and then demand money in return. A case of slipper-nap.

The shaadi went on for quite sometime but not as long as the standards suggest. The pandit apparently was on a fast-forward mode and he wrapped things up pretty early. But my cousin had to go through everything and the smoke.

The marriage got done around 11:00 pm and mostly everyone had completed dinner by then. The bride-groom then had an extended dinner for an hour and a half while we waited for them to return. We have a ritual called “Baashor Raat” where all the young folks from both the bride and the groom’s side stay awake all night, along with the newly wedded couple and generally entertain. Usual games, antakshaari, dumb-charades, etc. So that’s what we did and it was super fun, especially dumb-charades :D

I got back home today. Though I have attended quite a few marriages, I never participated in a successful “Baashor Raat”. This was the first one. Pretty happy about it.

The Arrival

Landed in Calcutta yesterday evening. My trip from Bombay was good, though a little long because of the stopover at Nagpur. Personally speaking I hate the airplane seats. They are extremely uncomfortable. At least Indigo makes sure that they reach on-time. And they got pretty airhostesses :) Unfortunately watching pretty airhostesses get boring after the initial half hour. The first half of the flight was pretty quiet and peaceful. There was an elderly lady and a young guy in the seats before me. The lady could be his mother or an aunt. The guy was probably in the airline business. He kept explaining various things. The lady was one of those typical sophisticated Bengali ladies, the ones who have an accent even when they speak Bengali. I don’t know if others can make out the difference but these are the ladies who usually are educated, are over exposed to Rabindra Sangeet and a lot of art and literature. They love to enunciate, speak softly and yet firmly, mostly wear spectacles, speak of foreign countries as if they are just across the street, usually hold the reigns of household and also have the liberty of talking on behalf of their husbands in family/friend gatherings.

The second part of the trip was a headache. A man probably in mid-fifties and a lady probably in thirties installed just behind me. I heard the lady say that it was an extremely pleasant surprise that they bumped into each other. I soon realized that it was an extremely unfortunate incident for me. Both were part of the same extended Marwari family and they yapped continuously for the next 1 hour 15 minutes of flight time. I forced myself to sleep in the middle but not for long. They spoke of schools in Doon/Nainital and their quality of education, Marwari food, multiple sclerosis and how the guy booked a full 5 star hotel for 12 days for his brother’s marriage. I must have died at least twice during the whole conversation out of sheer frustration. I need to get myself one of those IPods to save myself from such misery.

Oh I forgot to mention that I think I saw Minisha Lamba at the Bombay airport. She was standing alone in a book store. I looked at her and she looked back and probably noticed my confused expression of wondering whether it was really her. Well I could have easily asked since no one was around but me being me opted to get back to the books :P

I turned into “Chakroborty” from “Chakraborty” as soon as I landed at the Cal airport and got myself a pre-paid taxi. It felt good to sit in the huge yellow ambassador once in Cal. These things are really comfortable. I remember one of their advertisements long ago. “Mercedes – 200 km/hr, Ambassador – 200 potholes/hr “. It was probably one of the most honest ads :). As I zoomed off home, hundreds of hoardings greeted me and told me about the new and developing Calcutta. The number of hoardings were really astounding, I don’t think Bombay can beat Cal in this department! The driving sense is still pathetic. I am a little used to it now thanks to my experience in Pune. Reached Ballygunge station and got off. And I suddenly found myself surrounded by Bongs. I always find it a little unnerving to see so many Bongs for the first couple of days during my Cal trips. In fact I go to shops and continue my standard modus operandi and converse in Hindi and then realize that I can actually talk in Bengali. It takes me a little time to get used to.

My cousin’s shaadi will be at a place called Konnogor. We have decided to stay in our house at Ballygunge and attend the marriage from here. All my cousins have reached and are at the central venue. I am contemplating staying back tonight so that I don’t miss out on the fun. Well my cousin’s have decided that they are no longer interested in batting and are literally throwing off their wickets. Another cousin of mine, he’s a little older than us, who was my last glimmer of hope has also just lost his wicket. He’s getting hitched on 26th of January 2011. So that’s another trip in the making. This time to Bilaspur :) That has made my parents a little more edgy :P Peer pressure apparently.

Lol!! I never knew that finding a partner is such a big deal! My Dad has started using his social networking skills to find me a mate while I am using all my skills to avoid such confrontations :P

Heart Status - To be allocated... all 4 compartments!

Writing on weekends is really getting on my nerves! Why? Because there is a lot to write and if I end up writing everything, people would sleep off midway. Just writing what happened all week takes so much energy that I really can't write abstract stuff. Sheesh!

Well here's a quick wrap up. After completing what I was asked to do, I am currently on a free roll with no targets on sight. I am now working on a sort of Proof Of Concept (POC) of things I sorta like working on. I am actually happy that I have no targets in sight cause I wanted to go to Calcutta next week to attend my cousin's wedding and had absolutely no problem in convincing them. A few days back I had thought I wouldn't be able to make it. Also gave me an opportunity to attend a 3 day course on Advanced C++. It was decent. I think I would give it a 3/5. They could have made it a hell lot more advanced though :(

I think I'll finally get a location next week. Things happened miraculously today. I just hope it works out and I won't have to sit in the project lab all day.

Last weekend's Diwali turned out pretty good. Had 4 days leave and I spent most of the days lazing around with the occasional errands and a trip to Bandra. Didn't really do much on Diwali, ie Friday, but met up with some school friends on Saturday. One of them had come down from Singapore and we ended up meeting over dinner. Here are a few highlights of the evening,

1. When 2 girls who can really take any guy's case meet up, make sure you are not at their point of focus. Try and divert their attention to another, even if it means sacrificing your closest friends :P

2. If you are a guy, do not drink and have no idea about mocktails, then stick to Fresh Lime Soda. Shirley Temple is not a good alternate and stay away from any drink that might be colored pink or may have a cherry on top. Not a good idea, trust me.

3. Bursting someone else's funded crackers at midnight at someone else's society can be fun. Specially when you are chased away by cops.

4. It is more interesting when the first someone else is hell bent upon finishing the cracker's on that particular night itself.

5. So in such situations, while the lesser adventure guys ( c'est moi ) stand on guard, the nuttier ones drive around the society, halting midway, lighting crackers and then driving off.

So ya, we had good fun :) Happy Diwali it was :P

*Our group at office has turned out to be a pretty interesting one. We are the most active girl gazers in our cafeteria (ok so there maybe more, but we are not afraid to own up and what can I say? we have pretty girls in our office :D ) and yet I think we are the most harmless of the lot. We are all more of the Howard Hollowitz type :P if you know what I mean. Ok more like the BBT gang minus all the fancy degrees :P. So one of the guy explains today, "You know we have four compartments in our heart. All of mine are to be allocated." I was extremely amused by it. :D

Vertical Limit

It's Diwali today. Does it make much of a difference to me? No, not really. Do I like this fact? Nope. But that's how it is. I like it at home. I don't like all the noise. I like the lights. I don't like the smoke. I like the sweets. I don't like all the calories in them. Crazy huh? Well before I spiral into one of my weird moods (and I think I'll get into one of those moods very soon), I rather change my topic to something more relevant or rather trivially relevant.

Last week I had gone to get my Mom a new pair of specs and that's where I saw this ultra-tall guy. He must have been at least 6'3". Though he seemed like he was a foot taller than me. Well I think 80% of the population is taller than me but then there is this certain percentage of people who are a little too taller than me! Most of my family friends in Bombay are taller than me. The only one who is short, is so because she is a kid and I am positive that a couple more years and she will overshoot me.

There was a time during my teenage years when I actually felt a little sad and left out, when I saw my friends on an unstoppable growth spree while I had run out of steam. My general growth had always been a little weird. As a kid, I had an unusually large head with ears sticking out which I am sure caused a drag while I ran. I don't think my ears helped me balance either because I spent most of my childhood falling down, crashing into doors/walls and getting hurt in the most innovative ways. I think over the years my body grew till it fit my head.

My parents were a little worried about me being vertically challenged. Complan obviously did no good (I ought to sue them for it :P). All those hours hanging on the branches were wasted too. Someone suggested my Mom that homeopathy might do the trick. I agreed just because I liked eating those tiny pills. Obviously it was utter nonsense too. The only thing that my parents did not try, for which I am glad, is that, "Aamake jutiye lamba korar cheshta kore ni :P" Anyways they gave up after I was 21 and had reached my vertical limit. They settled for a son who was 5'5". I once tried cheating a couple of inches by getting myself those extra large woodland shoes. Man! They are heavy! Extremely uncomfortable and slippery. An absolute waste of money.

By that time, I had started considering myself pretty lucky that though I was in the category of the hobbits, I was decently intelligent, physically healthy and fit without any handicaps. So what if I wasted my time ogling at the female kind and failed to join the line while God was distributing the stimulus to the height package? A shorter height really didn't stop me from doing anything. I did get to ride all the rides in the amusement park. I have danced with taller girls and I think they had a pretty good time. The only problem I used to have was during shows when taller guys stood in front of me and have a difficult time riding taller bikes. As far as girls were concerned, fortunately there were enough shorter than me (though a large population of the female species automatically gets filtered from the universal set :( )

There are certain benefits to being short though. I always get to stand in the front row. I never liked playing at the net in volley-ball, thanks to my height I always got to stand at the back. I never bang my head entering low doors. Leg-space is never an issue for me in cars. I could always hide behind the taller guys when I wanted to remain invisible in school/coolege. I can always fit in beautifully in the couch and sleep soundly (this makes me future proof in case I have to spend nights on the sofa). 4.5 feet pools are enough for me to have a great time while my taller friends usually crib about how shallow the pool is.

So all in all, I guess I wasn't really short-changed :)

The 3-day week

That was fast! I left day before yesterday and am back today :P I have started enjoying this dual life of mine :) So here's a wrap up of what happened in the past couple of days.

Office is weird. I am almost done with the work that I was given. Need to figure out what to do next. The Diwali fever was on since Monday. Empty cubicles, more people loitering around, the games room more packed than usual, work was apparently the last priority :P

Pizza, once a week, has become sort of a ritual now. A small introduction to my roomies has been in the waiting. Apoorv and Siddharth are the dynamic duo and we end up having quite a good time out there :) Last night Apoorv managed to get hold of another bike and that meant all three of us could go out for a movie and dinner. We decided that it would be a good way to celebrate the last day before leaving. So we decided to watch "Jhoota Hi Sahi". Sid wanted to watch "Rakht Charitra" but I had no intention of watching politics and blood/gore ( can be interpreted as Dmaag ko Shot! ). I was fortunate that Apoorv wanted to watch JHS too.

We have this portal called KLISMA which is basically a site that provides good offers on a lot of stuff like electronics, clothes, furniture, etc. Earlier it was an internal thingy but now they have opened it up for everyone. So KLISMA had an offer on movie tickets, where we could get tickets for 100 bucks. So we went and got ourselves tickets though Sid kept cribbing till the end. We entered the hall, settled down and waited for the movie to begin. It finally did and guess what it was? Rakht-Charitra! Well we laughed our asses off for a couple of minutes and then decided that we needed to get into the right hall. I had apparently read the wrong screen number in the ticket and entered Screen 3 instead of 4. So we ran to 4 and were lucky that it hadn't begun yet.

I liked the movie. There were some genuinely witty dialogues and scenes. John Abraham did a good job and so did the whole cast. Sid cribbed throughout the movie and also for a while threatened to go and watch the other movie after the interval. He didn't go. All in all, the evening was fun :) Got back home at 1:30am.

Remember the Bazinga that happened last Friday? Well somewhere deep inside I was really hoping that I would see her again. In fact I had decided that if I see her again I'll muster up the courage to go and say a "hi" to her. I have by default started taking the 5:45 bus now and had booked tickets for the same bus. I reached there and who do I see sitting at the same place? Her! The following things happened serially in the 25 seconds that took me to cross her - my heart skipped a beat, I smiled to myself, looked at her for a while, noticed a couple of guys with her, said, "Crap!" to myself, heard another "BAZINGA!" Well out of the 2, one left when the Pune-Thane bus came but the other remained. I did what I do best, remained invisible. My bus came pretty early today. Unfortunately we weren't in the same bus today. So boarded the bus and left her sitting there.

Sometimes when you wish something you end up getting it. Unfortunately, when you are not absolutely specific and clear about what you want, life can throw some serious shitty situations at you. I had wished that I see her again but I never wished seeing her alone. And that's what I got! Crazy shit! Huh?

Zip Trip... Flip Fantasia!

We men usually don't bother much about wardrobe malfunction, partly cause there's not much that could malfunction and mostly cause we don't give a fuck. It is more of a lucky incident that we look forward to while watching FTV. (oh come on! don't judge! you girls know we watch it and guys you bloody not disagree to that fact!) There's though one malfunction that creeps me out and that's when my zip betrays me or I forget to zip up. You'd think 29 years of zipping up and down would take care of such incidents. Bull!

The other day I was sitting in a car which had a seat-belt alarm and that's when it struck me. Pants should come with these alarms. If your waist hook/button is done and you are not zipped up, there's a small beep to give you a friendly reminder that, "Dude! Izzat khatre mein hai!" I think it'll save many an embarrassing moment for many men.

It actually is embarrassing not only for the poor victim but also the first one who notices it and doesn't know how to inform the poor bloke. He then informs his neighbor about the latest calamity and hopes that somehow he would step up and inform. Soon everyone except the poor dude knows about it :P

A couple of incidents that happened to me which I still remember are once in school and once in my last office. I remember it was sometime during my 9th grade. I think it was Himika and myself who had gone to CBD Belapur to collect some award for some art competition we had participated in. There must have been a couple of more people with us. I loved winning competitions but hated going up to the stage. I was panicking as usual when I suddenly realized that my zip had zapped :P My panic level just climbed a couple of notches. I really wasn't sure what to do. Hoping that Himika would have a safety pin (I had a presumption back then that all girls carried safety pins with them. I know its stupid). Well told her my precarious situation but unfortunately she had none. Luckily it was the day we wore our House T-Shirts. And luckier was the fact that my T-shirt was a lot longer than usual. So with my T-Shirt out and the zip undone, I went and collected my award. I think that was the most nervous I had ever been onstage and Himika was very amused all throughout :P

The second was in my last company. I think it was probably sometime in the first week. I was supposed to meet the Chairman of the company. I was a little preoccupied since I had just joined and there were a lot of stuff running through my head. I had just visited the washroom and had come back and entered to see the Chairman. I am introduced to him and we talk for a while. Everyone was basically standing while he went around talking to everyone. One of my colleagues, slid beside me and said, "Ahem! Your zips open!" I think I must have bent some Time-Space continuum that day, cause my reaction time was phenomenal :P The thought that crossed my mind was, "Shit! I just introduced myself to the Chairman with my zip down. That must have made an impression he'll remember for sometime to come." Fortunately I never came to know whether he had noticed and its a mystery I am glad I do not know.

Its embarrassing. Really embarrassing and men really ought to do something about it. I do not recommend an auto-zipper cause men know how disastrous it can be. Every boy during his childhood have atleast once faced the zip-monster, where the zip-monster zipped more than it ought to leading to a lot of pain and tears :P
It would turn out to be more of an auto-circumsizer. So a friendly beep would be more advisable.

Bijoya Dashami Sammelani

I know its a little early to say but I think I am free now. I feel at peace. That miserable feeling that had been haunting me last weekend is gone now and I feel a lot lighter now. :)

Had a good time today at the dance class. Though I am not too happy with the number of steps that we have done so far. He is concentrating on the form now but there should have been more steps. Samba is killing me and so is Jive. Rhumba and Cha-Cha-Cha, I can handle. I am just waiting for Paso Doble but from what I have seen in Youtube videos, its not going to be something easy. I probably just need to practice more.

We had our ritual Bijoya Dashami Sammelani today. I went there with the notion that I would be getting bored but I actually ended up having a lot of fun. Played a lot of Truth and Dare and apart from some of the stupid questions that the IPad game was throwing at us, it was quite a interesting time. I had a lot of water poured on me, Tooth-paste rubbed all over my face, had to wear a hair-band and do the Macarena :P After food, we went out on a hunt for ice-cream and ended up filling the Seawoods' Swirl shop at around 12:30 pm.

I just downloaded Linkin Park's latest album "A Thousand Suns". A lot of people tell me that all their albums sound same but I don't think that's true. They have grown with each album of theirs. Their music has a lot of anger in it, a lot of heart. The earlier albums - Hybrid Theory and Meteora was mostly related to personal problems and feelings. Anyone who has heard LP and loves their songs how Meteora can zap you out of your misery. That album has this super power to energize you. At the end of it, no matter how down you are, you tend to get into that "Fuck You! Bhaad mein jao! It's my life and I am living it!" mood. Its an awesome mood :) Meteora has helped me a lot through alot of times.

Minutes to Midnight changed and I think they realized that personal problems are trivial compared to all the shit that's going around in the world. So they focused their anger towards the world's trouble. A Thousand Suns follows that and goes full on! I still need to hear it a few more times before forming an opinion but I like what I have heard so far.

I think they have figured out how our personal problems seem so petty when looked from the bigger perspective. With the kind of misery that's going on, where people don't have the right to live/exist, right to food and clean water, I guess a little misunderstanding, a failed exam, a heartbreak seem nothing more than a little sorrow talk. But for everyone of us, these seem the most painful, the most pressing matters and the bigger problems don't seem to bother us, bother me, simply because I cannot empathize with the people who go through such difficult lives. For me the reason for existence is a question, while for some the reason for existence is a privilege.

BaZINGA!!

I have always believed that there is a higher power, someone who is watching over us, witnessing everything that we do, hearing everything that we think, the good thoughts, the bad ones and at times the gross ones. And whatever little doubt I have had about the existence of a HP ( not to be confused with Harry Potter ) has washed away thanks to the various experiences in my life. And I say so because no way can a person's life be an unending series of Punk'd episodes (The one that they show on VH1 hosted by Ashton Kutcher). It is as if HP is seriously pissed off with me and he mysteriously guides me or presents me with lucrative ways to innocently walk into one of his practical jokes. I must have done something seriously bad to him during my tenure upstairs. Here's an excerpt of a conversation I had recently with him,

Me: U r kidding me right?

God: No! This is all happening. You can finally have your way.

... Long Pause...

Me: God damn it! Why u....!

God: (smirk) BAZINGA!

A similar incident happened to me today while returning from Pune. I always take the evening bus from Pune on Fridays such that I reach home by 9:30 pm - 10:00 pm. Now today, being a Friday just before Diwali, there was a lot of rush with a lot of people going home for the Diwali break. As usual the bus was late (it always is, except for the one time that it reached on time and I missed it) and I was wondering what to do while I waited. I needed to pee too. Now unfortunately like most Indian guys I cannot just stand at street corners and go about doing my job. So after looking around I finally found a loo. It cost me 56 bucks to pee. Went into a CCD and got myself a cappuccino ( the main motive was obviously something else :P ). I got back and was generally checking out the crowd when I realized that a super cute girl was checking me out. I immediately puffed my chest, pulled my stomach in and stood at an optimum angle (I call it the angle of fat reduction). Its mostly an optical illusion :P Anyways just to make sure that she indeed was checking me out, I returned the favour and checked her out. Yup, she was! Our eyes met a couple of times but as I am an extremely "chooza" type of a guy, I quickly made sure that I didn't look at her again. While all the while, I was calculating the probability of her sitting beside me in the bus. To tell you the truth, the odds were against me. The chance that she was in the same bus as me was by itself very slim.

Anyways the bus came and I was about to board, when the conductor announced that the 5:45 pm and 6:00 pm buses had been combined. I didn't really bother about it and I got in. Went and sat in my place ( I have started taking aisle seats, a friend explained that girls always go for window seats, so the chances of a girl sitting at an aisle seat while I sat at the window was next to impossible). I was amused to see that the seat beside me was empty. The thought struck me once but a quick refresh of my past lucky incidents returned a NULL pointer and I realized that she was no way coming and sitting beside me.

I had just settled in when I suddenly see her enter the bus and looking through the seat numbers. She came and stood next to me. I think I had turned a slight shade of purple as a result of holding my breath for so long. She checked the numbers on the luggage compartment and turned around. Down went my hopes her sitting beside me. Well due to strange events it turned out that she had bought herself a window seat but she was in the 6:00 pm bus while some other girl had already bought the same seat for the 5:45 pm bus and had boarded at the starting point. So her seat was occupied and she had to take the aisle seat. Which basically meant that the aisle was the only thing separating us (the next best thing to her sitting beside me). I said a tiny "Thank You" to HP, smiled to myself and started listening to John Mayer.

I had a very happy trip till the Lonavla Food Plaza. Checked her out some more ( maybe I should have notched up the staring a bit more, to make it obvious to her that she was being watched ). But before I go ahead, here's a little side story. During my last trip back, I saw a girl from school in the bus. I don't think I ever spoke to her inspite of the fact that she was in the same class as me. Just knew her by face. She hasn't changed much since then. I wasn't really too interested in striking up a conversation firstly because I didn't think she would recognize me and mostly because I didn't want to. Well I saw her again today at the food plaza. It obviously means that she too, like me, comes back every weekend. Anyways, I decided that I had loitered enough and now needed to get back and enjoy the last hour of seeing the cute girl before she was lost forever. I got in and looked towards her seat to spot her and got a tiny heart attack. She wasn't there and instead sat the girl from my class. I don't know which hit me first, me saying "What the Fuck!?" or a resonating "BAZINGA!" Apparently the girl who had previously occupied CG's (Cute Girl) seat was her! During the break, they had decided to switch!

I went to my seat, sat down and just couldn't stop laughing at myself. HP had played a cruel, cruel joke on me! If Higher Powers use messengers among themselves, his message to all would have been "rotflmao" It just reconfirmed my faith that HP exists and he is out to screw my case. HP is a sadist and he better watch out cause he is going to be in some serious shit once I go back.

Lucky Charm

** Beware! A really Long post!**

Back home for the weekend. I am usually back before I know I am gone. If I look at it, I spend 3 nights in Bombay, while 4 in Pune. Not a bad ratio at all but the problem is that as a result of this I am not really able to settle in one place. Its like I am always on the move, half my stuff in one place while the rest in the other. I need to fix it but maybe after sometime. Once my folks get a little used to not living with me around.

Have finally started playing badminton regularly at work. Dunno how long it will work out. I guess I am happy as long as I am not shifted to some other office. The current group has become pretty comfortable. All the guys are fun and peaceful.

My folks are suddenly shaken and stirred about getting me hitched. With my cousin's marriage coming up next month, I think they are suddenly under pressure. And the fact that my cousin's a couple of days younger than me doesn't really support my cause. :( I never knew my marriage would become such an issue. A few of my aunties feel that my marriage is partially responsible for my Mom's high sugar levels. Go figure! I remember about a couple of years back, they suddenly got all excited about my marriage. The endless ritual of them looking up photos, me rejecting, they screaming, me screaming, they promising never to look for another girl, they forgetting the promise the very next day and the whole cycle repeating again.

I was pretty surprised at their intensity of wanting to get me married. I know them and it was not just the standard concern about their son's marriage, their was something more to it. I figured the mystery out as an accidental side-effect of my visit to an astrologer. Why I went to see one is a totally different story for another occasion. I found out that according to my charts, my luck is supposed to brighten after marriage. Ya I know! I, too, had a smile on my face, not one of "what-the-fuck?" look but "I-have-always-known-that" look. I shall explain myself later. My mother knew about this little trivia cause she believes in astrologers and she had consulted a few and I think all of them pointed this thing out to her. All this got her all hyperactive about my marriage.

Once I found out the problem, I was able to explain things a little more logically to her. Something that calmed her and also brought a miniscule amount of peace in my life. The problem with astrologers is that at times they just say things that they interpret. They really don't try and explain it. I have for quite sometime realized and believed that I am at my best when I am in love. It gets me high, excited and active about life. I am a pretty creative guy and do what I love doing. Inspiration drives me and fortunately or unfortunately love inspires me. I am by myself pretty satisfied with life as it is but they say satisfied people never grow. But when in love, my partner (and in some cases potential partner) inspires me to do things that I would not do for myself but for her. And the best part is, so far none of them have had to do much to inspire me. Their mere existence did the trick for me. I realized long back that a stable relationship is my lucky charm, a horse shoe, a four leaved clover or whatever it is that you may want to call it. So when I heard about my luck changing after marriage, I wasn't surprised at all. I always knew that I would do a lot of stuff to make my partner happy and make our lives better. I don't know if its called change of luck but it definitely means growth. But all this depends on the fact that I need to be in love. Its not about marriage but its about love. And that's what I explained to my mom. I told her that the marriage will not change my luck, its the girl who will. So its necessary that I marry the girl I love (or love the girl I marry, though I don't know if I should risk 2 lives for that scenario to work out).

It wasn't an easy conclusion to come to but I have analysed it and I know it works. At a point, I felt that this would mean that my life would depend a lot on how my partner turns out to be. I know I would be handing out a lot of control but then thats me. I know it. I could either deal with it or live in a state of denial. I chose the former.

I was very small when I had my first crush and she helped me learn the most important lesson in life. She was the reason that I got through my "I-Hate-Girls!" phase and also realized that girls did not exist only to harass guys and were not icky. :P

I was in school when I first fell in love. She taught me what it felt to be in love and how good it was to have someone around. My attendance in school improved thanks to her existence and so did my grades.

The next girl I fell in love taught me a lot of things. Taught me that its very difficult for a guy/gal to be best friends when hints of attraction creep in. I learnt from my relationship with her that at times even though everything you imagine seems perfect and they seem meant to be, they don't. And at times, no matter how much you try to fix things, some problems are not yours to fix. And that no matter how long you wait for things to change, somethings will never change when they need to.

The next relationship was a rocky one. She taught me some of the not so rosy things in life. Never really got into the love phase with her but I learnt never to go against my gut feelings. I also learnt that relationships cannot work without communication and the more you suppress the worse is the explosion at the end. Also learnt that a little positive change in people's lives can change them a lot. Most important thing I figured was that its the only life you have. Do not take shit from no one.

I think I really understood what it means to be in love with the last girl. She changed my life and sort of launched it to a different orbit. Ironically she had no clue about it or failed to understand. I learnt to control my anger, appreciated the power of open communication and the need to be more responsible. Her existence inspired me to do a lot of creative stuff and for a while I understood what it meant to love unconditionally. She made me want to challenge myself. Really was a phenomenal period.

All my relationships taught me various things about life and myself and each one of them gave me a nudge into becoming who I am today. And by what I hear, they have done a decent job on me :)

Durga Puja

My blogging has really taken a hit since my move to Pune. I have realized blogging is more of a habit rather than the will to write. In fact, as far as I am concerned, even the matter doesn't matter. (Lol that's a funny way to put it) I mean there have been days when I had diddly squat to write about but I still forced myself to write. That sort of kept me in the habit. But now that I have a lot more to write about I just am not getting the push to put it all down. Anyways, here's an attempt to sum things up so far.

The 3 phases of Durga Puja: anticipated arrival,a rocking celebration and the inevitable sad ending all happened but with slight toned down enthusiasm. A myriad of reasons such as being away from home, mom's health not totally fine, the lack of my usual durga puja junta and a  few more which I would not like to get in right now. But I did try and enjoy it as much as I could. I tried my best not to picket against the idea of going to the pandal for bhog in the heat and more or less went around with my folks without any crib or tantrum.

Food and sight were as usual awesome, though I tried to keep my tongue in control (all puns intended :P). Did eat a lot, viz. Chicken Moghlai, Fish Fry, Fish/Mutton/Egg/Veg/Prawn Chop, Chinese, Biryani, Egg-Chicken Roll etc. Seriously, nothing beats Kala-khata gola at 12 in the night.

In brief here are the things that I enjoyed this Puja, being able to spend it with my folks, food, catching up with a lot of people, Monali and her junta's awesome dance drama, Soumita and her husband Soumit's company, many sights of beautiful bong girls :) and for a change a very well managed parking system at the Pandal!

The things that I really missed are spending time with a few of my regular junta, Mazumdar family,  few of my bong friends whom I meet every Puja, watching my Mom eat a lot of sweets, jhelofying my dad's crib about how unfair it is that he should be dragged to eat bhog in the hot afternoon (this time we let him stay back home and watch TV), Andy, Sandy and myself being mesmerized by the "Dhunuchi naach".

Last Durga Puja brought with it a new beginning for me, a naive hope that something different would happen. Something that hadn't before. It had a very promising start and that hope has changed me a lot in the past one year, changing and reforming me in ways that have surprised me and a few of my friends. But though I wish, by this Durga Puja I would have achieved what I had envisioned last year, things have turned out different. I could call it the end but then every end brings with it a new beginning. Some circle of life funda I guess. I would like to believe that there is still hope for me based on the assumption that I have been true to myself and followed my heart. And though at times I look back and a feeling of breathlessness grips me, the memories bring a smile. And though it is difficult not to miss what you dreamt of, I guess its better to be happy that one has had the opportunity to live those moments rather than be sad about the fact that one lacks them. Chaos is apparently the central theme of life, order being just an illusion. And though you try to zoom out and get a bigger picture of what's happening, you soon realize that the puzzle that you thought you were about to solve because you had found all the pieces, is actually just a piece of a bigger puzzle. And then you also have to take care of those pieces which just refuse to fit in no matter how hard you try and finally realize that you were actually trying to fit a wrong piece into a wrong slot. That I think is enlightenment. C'est La Vie!

Ctrl+Alt+Del

I finally started gymming at work. In fact played badminton too. I really had an awesome time :) Gotto get myself a racquet and do it regularly. I need a vehicle too. Its getting more and more frustrating trying to arrange my life around office shuttles and Pune's public transport.

Work is good. Learning a lot of things, concentrating on the things that I had planned. Life is generally good :) No complaints whatsoever. One aspect sucks obviously but now I am used to it.

I have been following the "All is well" funda for almost a year now but realized that its not a good idea at times. So finally laid the facts out on the table and broke my illusion. The year has changed me, for the better I hope, at least that's what I think it has done to me. Was so sure about it this time, but God just did a Bazinga! with me. Lol!

I could always convince myself saying that I never knew what was good for me and all this was the only way for my guardian angel to protect me but I would be bullshitting myself. Wouldn't I?

The 2 week hiatus

And I am back after a 2 week hiatus! 2 packed weeks. Owing to the fact that varied stuff have happened in these 2 weeks, which are not really related to each other, this post will be more like a news bulletin, without a proper flow and pattern. Here goes.

MSRTC is weird and its functioning is at times a little difficult to understand. If you book your ticket and mention your pick-up point at say Point A, and then later decide to get up at Point X, there are a few things that could happen. If you are lucky and there is someone else getting up at Point X, then the bus will stop there. Or if there are empty seats in the bus, then it will stop too. But if neither of the above 2 cases hold, then you are screwed. It'll not stop and just zip by you (if your point A is Nerul and point X is Vashi Highway, then it will just take the flyover and screw you). That is exactly what happened to me on 12th October. If you look at it in a positive way, then it also pushed me to return to Pune on Monday morning, which I had been hesitating to to do so far. I can now actually enjoy my sundays and not worry about returning :)

Mom fell sick last weekend and she got really weak. She had the viral but the way it was going it was necessary that she saw a doctor. Dad was obviously against it. So had a mini-fight with him and finally took her to one. Lucky that she didn't have any malaria. I was a little scared that if it was then Dad would have had a terrible time managing everything alone. But the blood reports showed that Mom has very high sugar levels, possibly diabetes. So now that is one more thing to be careful about.

Dad has really impressed me with his skills. If you look at the way a Hindu man's life has been divided into 4 ashrams, my dad after being married to mom for 30 years has finally entered the Grihasta Ashram. :) He is actually doing a wonderful job of taking care of my Mom and the house. He has managed to empty the fridge by throwing out most of the things. The kitchen is so well organized now that it is pretty difficult for me to find anything there. I was more accustomed to my Mom's not so organized and yet a brilliantly successful kitchen. Its funny what love makes you do. I see my folks and it amazes me. I really do not understand their chemistry. Specially the way Dad feels about Mom. They are quarreling 24/7 over trivial things and yet he cannot stay away from her for more than 6 hours. I think I'll never understand these scorpions. Confuses me every bloody time.

Finally had my official induction at work. It was 2 days of presentations. Towards the end I just wanted to run away and get some work done. Got an overall view of what all is happening in the company. Has got a pretty impressive clientele and are involved in some good work.

Ganpati Visarjan is a huge thing in Pune. Traffic gets diverted, roads get blocked and the place is in total chaos! My roomies and I decided to do a little exploring and what we ended up doing was mostly eat :P and planned to buy a lot of things (didn't really buy anything :P). Went to Deccan, only to discover that the whole place was completely blocked and there were a million people there. We didn't even think about walking towards old pune, the Peth area. This is the place where all the action was but we decided to let it pass.

Well Life has been pretty action packed or I should rather say that, it has been trying to treat me good. I have realized that most things happen for a reason, decisions happen at the right moment, at times the granularity of our understanding is really coarse but the best part is you gain. Either what you want or a lesson. What you do with it is of course totally up to you. And then there are times when you have absolutely no idea about whats happening. Its not a good feeling when you have no control over your life's own script. Makes you feel vulnerable. You could fight against it and tire yourself out to slowly drown. Or flow along with it, learning to stay afloat, keep your eyes open and grab the first branch that comes along. Life has sort of become like that for me. Every time I fight to go against the flow, the current just sweeps me with it.

There isn't really much to complain about. In fact I really don't want to but there is one aspect which just refuses to sort itself out. I have tried and tried everything. Its like I am in a place which is positioned between a rock and a hard place. Things are getting so complicated that I can no longer see a solution to it. The truth is, I have no solution. I have thought of all the possibilities and every week seems to make the situation that more crazy. And I am still not strong enough to just shut it down.

Ganpati Bappa Mourya!

The day was a little tiring but good. Ganeshotsav began today. This is the third year that we did Ganesh Puja at home and it turned out decent. The work was cut out from the beginning. My mom would do the maximum, including the management part, I would be the cheap labour while Dad would be useless. All of us did our part well. Dad did take care of the decorations, albeit a little late :P which pissed my Mom off so!

Things went off smoothly. The only crazy part was when my Mom wanted to burn cow dung cakes with "Dhuno" ( I don't know what it is called in English. That's what it is called in Bengali ) Now a lot of times it can also be done using coconut fibre. But this time Mom thought of doing something different. Question was, in what do we burn it? After a lot of serious discussion, it was upon me to find an aluminium vessel from the kitchen. (I cannot find anything in the kitchen, actually I cannot find anything when told to do so). So after a lot of searching I found the vessel in which Mom used to make cakes. I reasoned, what better vessel than this. Cow dung cakes burnt in a baking vessel :P (Anyways the way it looked, I didn't think she was ever going to use it again, given the fact that I do not remember the last time she made cake at home :P) You should have seen the look she gave me when I showed it to her! I almost burnt down to ashes right there. "Waapas rakh ke aa!" Main izzat se waapas rakh aaya :D

Had a lot of guests over in the evening. Its fun when our gang gets together :) Went to a few houses and by the time I got done, I could have killed someone if someone suggested, "Have a modak". As a result no result.

Another thing I discovered today is that there are some Shivneri buses going to Pune which has Nerul as a pick up point and goes via Kothrud. If this works out then it'll be perfect for me :D I just pray it is! Got late tickets for tomorrow so that I have the full day. The bus starts from Borivali at 7:00 pm, so should be here by 8:30.

I have also realized that my Ma can get really crazy at times. She just called me on my cell from the next room to get some chore done! I am happy to know that my mom is also partly responsible for my craziness apart from my dad :P

The week that was

Another week in Pune... a good week actually :) I moved into the new house last sunday after getting back to pune in the evening. Did a very good job by getting off at Pune University rather than at Pune Railway station. Saved me money and trouble :) Picked up my stuff from the hotel and went over to Kothrud. My room was all clean and sparkling. Didn't have a lot of stuff with me, so settled in quickly. Got myself a double-bed there. I just feel so happy saying that, no idea why :P My 2 flat mates are fun. Which is a major bonus to the house deal. :)

Traveling is a bloody pain! There is no direct bus from Kothrud to Senapati Bapat Marg (where my office is) and as a result I have to change bus at S.N.D.T. The mornings are fine, not that big a deal. But evenings are terrible. Fortunately I take a shuttle from my S B Road office to the one at Erandwane (its near SNDT) and that saves me part of the trouble But its impossible to get into a bus from there. They are all bloody packed. Once I had to walk a kilometre in the reverse direction to get an opportunity to get into a bus. From the next day onwards I decided to walk towards my house rather than the opposite. Had to walk almost 1.5 - 2.0 kms before I could see buses that had the possibility of getting in :( It is truly my only problem in Pune right now.

I have got into the Embedded and Mobility Business Unit in Persistent. Which basically means I will now start coding for mobiles, netpads and some super awesome stuff that will be coming out in the near future :) Skill set required is the same - C/C++ with QT and openGL on Linux platform. So life is chilled. I have realized that QT has become a mammoth monster. Its powerful and pretty magical :) I have been fortunate enough to get a nice Team Lead and a great project team. :)

Persistent as a big company has really provided some good stuff for employees. I have started playing TT there and intend to start badminton and gym soon. Food is really awesome. We actually look forward to lunch :) which also equates to the fact that I have once again crossed the 70 kg mark :(

A few interesting facts about Pune:

1. Parking is funny. They have boards marking on which days you can park on that particular side. So if you see a board on one side of the street with numbers 10/15/20/30, it means you can park there on those particular days. Other days, you'll be towed :P

2. There are cycle tracks on the foot path in certain places. Haven't seen too many cycles though

3. The place is teeming with girls. But all of them are dressed as terrorists, with their faces completely covered. So you see a really hot girl, you can't really rate the complete hotness because you can't see the face. Just my luck. Its Baroda all over again :( I always knew that God is a sadist. I think He's trying just too hard to prove it to me.

So that's how my second week at Pune has been. Back home for the weekend/Ganpati. :)

Thus ends the first weekend

I am unable to think of a way by which I could continue blogging everyday till I get my laptop to Pune and due to certain cicumstances I am unable to do so for a while. Blogging from work is not a good idea because I prefer writing in the night, sort of a final wrap up for the day. So it boils down to the point that I could either blog on weekends when I am in Bombay (if I am in Bombay) and wait till I take my laptop there. Hmmmm! Well internet is not an issue cause the guys in my flat have already got a broadband connection and have set up a WiFi. :) Smart fellas!

So how was the weekend at home? Quiet... very quiet. I just didn't feel like talking. Mostly listened. I have got this restless feeling here. I can't really put my finger on it. Dance was decent. Atleast got some exercise for a change.

Anyways... got my tickets for tomorrow. Will be moving into the new place tomorrow. I hope to get things in order in a couple of weeks. Want to really get into work and forget everything else. A very happy teacher's day to life cause it really teaches some awesome stuff and at times shitty! ;)

Feels like a month!

Its been a week since I last wrote, 5 days to be precise :P And such a lot has changed within these few days. Work, location, life, everything! After the experience in Zeus, the one in Persistent is extremely different. Its not like I have not worked in a big company but its just that its been sometime. The scale and dynamics are extremely different. Here's what I have been experiencing in the past one week.

As my previous post suggests, I was a little anxious and sad leaving bombay and my family. I caught the MSRTC Ac-Volvo bus from Vashi. I think it is the best way to go to Pune compared to the other private buses. Its the fastest and there is a bus every 15 minutes. Since I had no idea about Pune, I had decided to get off at the last stop which was Pune Raliway station. It was raining continuously. I was extremely fortunate to get a good rickshaw, who knew exactly where I wanted to go.

Reached the hotel, checked in and thought I should explore Pune a bit. I had to check out the office or else would have been anxious and tensed all night. So I thought of doing a little recce. My hotel was situated very close to F. C. Road. One of the most happening places in town and I soon discovered why :) Anyways, the office is situated in a place called Erandwane and its about 30 minutes walk from where I stayed. Went, saw the office, felt comfortable and thought of returning via a different route (through gallis :P). Big mistake! If one is used to parallel roads in Bombay, parallel roads in Pune aren't really parallel. They can go anywhere. I roamed through various roads and finally after about 45 minutes reached back.

F. C. Road is teeming with restaurants with price ranging from very cheap to exhorbitant. I tried out various places throughout the week :) Had a great time eating! First day at work was weird. There were quite a few new joinees. The whole day went filling forms. But I was impressed with the way everything was happening like clockwork. By the end of the Resource Allocation manager gave us the names of our reporting managers. Spoke to my manager the next day and she gave me leads to whom I should talk about projects. Apparently there were numerous projects which required my expertise (always good to know that).

I was to meet a guy who sat at another office in Pune, located at S. B. Road. Went there and met him. Told me what the work was. Though the platform was different, the work involved all the technologies I knew. So he was happy, I was happy, a very happy environment. :)

Getting a work station is apparently not a quick job in Persistent. I am still waiting for mine. Meanwhile I sit in the Test Lab. Awaiting access to it though :P I currently require others to let me in. But the project is interesting. Will learn some new stuff.

Persistent has some really good facilities. Its got a good gym, a badminton court, table tennis and other stuff I still need to discover. Its got a library containing a lot of technical books. Very good free food at lunch and evening snacks. Once I settle in a bit, I plan to utilize these to the fullest :)

The thing I was worried about is residence. I wanted to stay independently but the cost of a 1 bhk was turning out pretty expensive. Though, it is the ideal situation and I would like to eventually get myself one of those, for the time being I have decided to go into a sharing mode. Decided to stay with a couple of guys ina 3 BHK flat. Got my own bedroom and bathroom and it is also partially furnished. So ya it looks pretty decent. the locality also looks nice and clean. Its in a place called Kothrud. A little far according to Pune standards but will figure out something. Need to get myself a bike eventually.

Well, with my work and stay fixed, I decided that it was time I came back to Bombay and so here I am :) Its just been a week and it already feels a little different. It actually feels like I have come back after a month.

... see you on the other side

And thus I have run out of time :) Praying will not help anymore, unfortunately. Its not the first time, nor the first night before I left home. And yet it feels the same. A little blank, a little nauseous, a few fluttering butterflies and a little sad. But there's a difference this time. I chose this day. It wasn't decided for me by others or circumstances. It was a conscious, thought out decision. And yet it feels the same. Doesn't matter whether it was the kid in class 4 who didn't want to leave his parents but circumstances gave him no option, or the young man who was told that Reliance provided a better prospect for his career even if it meant that he had to move to Gujarat or the not-so-young man who wanted to prove that he could do what he wanted to do, when he wanted to do, just to prove himself.

Funny thing is, its not really that bad. Its not like I am moving far away to a place from where I could not come back home. For all I know, this could be exactly what I needed. The perfect balance of independence/responsibility and the comfort of home. In fact, a lot of you reading this might be far away from home (or the place that used to be home once). But then over time, you tend to get used to the new place and that becomes home. Change and movement is continuous and such is life.

I look forward to Pune, the new job, the new people. At the current juncture, this is exactly what I needed. Will it help me achieve what I wanted and what all this was about? To tell you the truth, I do not know. It doesn't seem to be. Maybe if I concentrate on the path rather than the destination, the journey would be a lot easier and interesting. Who knows maybe I'll get adventurous and find a better destination to travel too. :) That's the thing about it. The possibilities are endless.

So with the hope of a better and more interesting life, I put my current life on hold. I do not know when I'll get to write again, but I'll be back soon. Until then, goodbye and goodnight. I hope to be back asap. :)

Stuffed and Praying for Time

I think most of my past one month has gone in eating. Good food, good places and most of all good company. :) Well today was good too, I bow before the Bengali women for their awesome ability to cook good food! And heading my list of super cooks is my mom. I ought to tell her once in a while how good she cooks :)

Well I feel extremely slow and lethargic. Most of my blood is definitely concentrated in and around the stomach muscles trying to digest the food that I have stuffed in. Well as Po would say, "My Kung-Fu is not that good while I am digesting", I follow, "my writing may not be that good while i am digesting :P".

Here's a song for tonight... since I don't think I'll do justice writing anything. A song called "Praying for Time" by George Michael. A good song with good matter, says how things are. Me on the other hand am for praying for time too. A little different though.

These are the days of the open hand
They will not be the last
Look around now
These are the days of the beggars and the choosers

This is the year of the hungry man
Whose place is in the past
Hand in hand with ignorance
And legitimate excuses

The rich declare themselves poor
And most of us are not sure
If we have too much
But we’ll take our chances
Because God’s stopped keeping score
I guess somewhere along the way
He must have let us all out to play
Turned his back and all Gods children
Crept out the back door

And its hard to love, there’s so much to hate
Hanging on to hope
When there is no hope to speak of
And the wounded skies above say it’s much, much too late
Well maybe we should all be praying for time

These are the days of the empty hand
Oh you hold on to what you can
And charity is a coat you wear twice a year

This is the year of the guilty man
Your television takes a stand
And you find that what was over there is over here

So you scream from behind your door
Say what’s mine is mine and not yours
I may have too much but I’ll take my chances
Because God’s stopped keeping score
And you cling to the things they sold you
Did you cover your eyes when they told you
That he can’t come back
Because he has no children to come back for

Its hard to love there’s so much to hate
Hanging on to hope when there is no hope to speak of
And the wounded skies above say its much too late
So maybe we should all be praying for time

Toxic thoughts, truth torn, tattered

Have you ever wished you could read other's thoughts? Wouldn't that be similar to posessing the ultimate weapon? Or should I say that would be the greatest power one could own? You would always be able to act the right way (when I say right I mean the way that would let you achieve what you want), find out people's weaknesses, their secrets, their plan of action.

You would notice that every one of the possibilities above ultimately leads to the owner's benefit. Such is the way, the brain works. Think of how it would be beneficial to you and then the rest of the world. It would really make that person a very powerful and yet lonely person :) Thing is you really don't want to know what's going on in the other person's head. Nothing good ever comes of it. How do I claim to know this? I have obviously never had the power to do so. There have been situations where I have been able to predict what the person would do based on the fact that I knew these people very well. But then everyone can do that right? I came to the conclusion that its good to let thoughts be personal and no good would come if every this privacy is breached, by just studying my own thoughts.

The brain is a bad bad place. You can create and destroy lives, relationships, objects, careers, course of the future. Anything you want. I have looked in to my thoughts, some of them are good, some genuine, some nothing more than pretentious goodness, some ugly and some pure evil. Ever heard the term, "feeling naked"? Well thats how you would feel. If your thoughts were breached upon. I have actually loathed myself at some of my thoughts. Asked myself how I could think of such things. Didn't really have a very high opinion about myself during those moments of self analysis.

Now imagine how the people, about whom I have had these thoughts, would feel? The thoughts never meant anything, atleast most of them. They were just random, fleeting thoughts. But what were to happen if the person I was thinking about read my thoughts at that very instant? What would happen if the person was my loved one? Life would have been so much more complicated and pathetic for him. What if we reversed the roles. The person was my loved one and I read those awful thoughts about me. I would be devastated. Maybe I would end up doing something that would totally destroy the whole situation and the future involving the two of us. All because I happened to catch a random thought.

Not a pretty scene. Remember the dialogue from Spiderman, with great power comes great responsibilities. Its absolutely true. Unfortunately, great powers always come to those who deserves them the least. TAKE THEM AWAY!

Sherlock

I just love it when people take their jobs seriously and find innovative ideas to make it better :) You would wonder what made me say this but it just occurred to me after I finished watching the new series "SHERLOCK". Its a television series made for BBC (BBC really knows good entertainment :) ). They have totally revamped it and set it in the current settings of London.

All I can say is that its a brilliant adaptation, the stories are new with characters same as the original sherlock stories. And this Sherlock is modern and hip. He uses his mobile to look up information on the internet, take photos of crime scenes, keep in touch with Dr. Watson and the police. Dr. Watson on the other hand has just returned from Afghanistan and comes in contact with Sherlock because of an accomodation issue. He maintains his blog www.johnwatsonblog.co.uk where he discusses the cases (yes! no more journals :) blogging is the way to go). Sherlock on the other hand has also got his own website which he maintains www.thescienceofdeduction.co.uk. Infact there are a few other characters as well who have their own blogs and their blogs actually builds the stories a bit :D. This is what I mean when I say taking the job seriously. The creators of this series have made these characters very real. The other series in which one of the characters maintains a blog is How-I-Met-Your-Mother's Barney Stinson. Will write about that another day.

They have currently come up with 3 episodes of 90 minutes each. I was extremely impressed with the pace of the stories, the way it was shot, the acting and the whole packaging. This is one series I will keep a look out for :) I am not sure many of you have seen it yet but if you can get the series, do it! Its easily available on the net. Suman owes a big "Thank You" for pointing me to interesting new stuff :)

As far as I am concerned, I vegetated all day long. Played more of Crysis, watched Sherlock and generally faffed around :P There were times in my life where there were shades of gray, most of it still is. But I think there is a part of it which I have in a strange sort of way directed into a world of 2 solid colours. No shades in it. I do not know how it happened. But it has finally come to the point where its either of the 2. No more confusion, no more shades. It was inevitable I guess, better now than 6 months down the line where things got more shitty. I try not to repeat the same mistake twice, I think I was about to. Corrective measures were required and that is what is in process. Corrective measures... Detoxification... or maybe just survival instincts.

Rakhi - Fortunately not Sawant :P

Another rakhi and my ophthalmologist friend/sister religiously tied rakhi like every year :) In my life, I have made sure that I made the least number of rakhi sisters possible. Why? Simply because I lack brotherly feelings. I do not understand it and now I have just stopped trying to figure it out. Rakhi was always a fun-filled day for me during school. That was the time when the girls used to torment the guys with rakhis. In Kalimpong, we didn't have this funda of girls tying rakhi to every guy in the class. I was pretty shocked to see it in Bombay.

The first year was shocking. On Rakhi every girl came armed with rakhis and some super cheap sweet. By the end of the day, both my hands used to be filled with itchy rakhis, decently large ones. Pathetic as it sounds, didn't give too much importance to it. Funnily enough as we moved on to higher standards (Standard 10), the number of rakhis dramatically decreased. Sanity dawned onto the girls and they realized that what they were doing was absolute A-grade tom-foolery. Though fear did creep into guys. For now, a rakhi meant, that the girl is off-limits!

It was a hilarious time during those days. A majority of guys spent their time hiding from girls they had a crush on, just to avoid the unfortunate incident of being caught by surprise and converted into a brother. The toilet used to be the most popular spot, with the number of guys in there reaching improbable numbers. A lot of guys usually "fell-sick" and didn't make it to school :P Me, on the other hand had a girl friend and was extremely happy and chilled. Girls knew that I was no more a threat to them, atleast those who considered me a threat, and I obviously didn't care who did and didn't tie rakhi. Though I had officially recognized three sisterly candidates. One was my ophthalmologist friend, two, my psycho friend (I don't recall if she actually tied me rakhi) and third, my phd friend. I became her official brother during her wedding in Jaipur. She needed a brother and I stepped up :)

Monali gave me a farewell dinner tonight. The restaurant we went to played a lot of saas-bahu serials followed by Aahat for entertainment :P She gave me The Messiah's Handbook, a very apt book at a very apt time :)

District 9

Watched a movie called "District 9". An interesting movie. Its about a group of aliens who have come and settled in South Africa in a camp which gets named as District 9. The movie has been shot in the form of a documentary. Interesting piece of work. The special effects have been done well, in the sense that the movie itself feels crude due to the documentary look but the aliens and weapons, etc have been matched to make pretty realistic. Damn ugly aliens though :(

Met up with Sameer and had a good time. Had 2 versions of KFC today. Kentucky Fried Chicken followed by Kalpana's Fatafati Chicken :D, ie, my mom's awesome home-made chicken. The KFC guys have got a new version of burger called KFC Smackers Snackers. They are smaller than the Zinger Burger but comes cheaper at 30 bucks plus taxes and tastes same as Zinger.

Was watching Batman Begins today and noted an interesting dialogue, it says, "And one day, you catch yourself wishing the person you loved had never existed, so you'd be spared your pain."

Crysis

Well yesterday and today have been weird days. My body and mind seem to be 2 separate things doing their own thing. While I am doing my regular activites pretty normally, the mind seems to be pre-occupied with a million things, while my body functions in a pre-programmed manner.

This is probably not the best time to be in such a state but then again who's to say what the best time to be in such a state is? Its ironical but in my time of crysis, it is CRYSIS that has come to my aid. I am talking about the game CRYSIS. I used to be an avid gamer. But its been quite sometime since I last played one. I recently got hold of CRYSIS and have been totally hooked on to it. Really helping me keep my mind off of things.

Its an interesting game, specially the interactivity with the environment and the AI. The physics is really advanced and I know that it was released quite sometime back and there are probably better game-engines by now but this is really good :). Atleast for me, cause I had stopped my gaming activities beyond its release and to me its just like a continuation to where I left things. Maybe I need to accelerate a bit and catch up to the current stuff. Maybe Pune is the solution to that, provided I get enough time to do so.

Anyways, having a blast playing it, I think I should get back to it and if anyone hasn't played it, I think its a shame. I say it now cause, I have now experienced it.

blyaaahhhh again...

The day was pretty boring. Was home all day for a change. The get-together was successful, so successful that it is still going on :P My junta has left but my mom and dad's junta are going strong :D Its good that they are having fun. The party was over due. Should have happened on the 15th itself but better late than never.

Don't really feel like writing much. Watched some more BBT-3 and generally lazed around. Finally, the concrete work of our floor is done. This rain has completely screwed our FSI work :( Fortunately Dad has stopped freaking out as much as he used to. He has finally realized that getting tensed will not really help in expediting the work in anyway. So he has now decreased his screaming frequency from daily to weekly.

Pot Pourri Live in Peepli

My food adventure continues! The plan was made last night itself over coffee. We were to go back to Pot Pourri for lunch, followed by Peepli Live. The rains are back since the past 2 days. They had subsided for a couple of days but are now back with a vengeance! I am extremely sick of it now. Another month of the damned thing :( and we have already had 107% of the normal rainfall. Why doesn't it rain in areas where its required?

I have written about Pot Pourri previously too but I need to give it a proper review, based upon the experience and what I have eaten. Its situated in Inorbit, vashi. Serves a whole array of cuisine, right from continental, italian to thai stuff. They have both buffet and "A La Carte". I have tried the buffet, both the times I visited the place. The buffet spread is larger on weekends. The menu is not the same and one could call and enquire about the spread before going. The buffet includes unlimited Ice Tea (Lemon, Peach, Kiwi and some more), pizza on a weekend and some other stuff on weekdays (had some weird bun today), soup, salad, some more starters such as satay or pasta and then the main course consisting of quite a few different dishes. There's good dessert too after that. Food is brilliant, atleast during the 2 occasions I have been there. The ambiance is good and pretty comfortable.

Its a good idea to book before going on weekends because the waiting period can be pretty irritating. Service is good ( inspite of the buffet, the waiters do serve the starters and ice tea ). The price is not exhorbitant and the buffet is "paisa wasool". It comes to around Rs. 330 on weekdays and more on the weekends (Don't remember how much it was the last time we went there).

Final Verdict:
Ambiance : 3.5/5
Service : 3.5/5
Food : 4.25/5
Value for Money : 4.5/5

After a overdose of awesome food we moved on to watch Peepli at Fame (I think they have the worst seats ever! The Gold class is obviously super comfortable). But the normal seats are like those semi-luxury non sliding seats. Extremely uncomfrtable! But before that we made a quick trip of Landmark (this place makes me feel so happy :) surrounded by books, music and movies)

Peepli Live was really good. Based on the farmer suicides, it touches upon a lot of things, about the media's TRP ratings, there sensationalizing of things and the governments apathy towards the misery of the farmers. Its a superbly shot movie, captured the village life very authentically. The actors were brilliant. Each and everyone did justice to their character. The casting director should be really applauded. There was not much of a story actually, it was just a situation shown. It doesn't try to preach or give any social message (atleast I didn't feel as if the makers were trying to force there idea on to the viewers). They just presented the situation in a satirical manner and left the viewers to form their own opinions. I have really liked Amir Khan for his work and his choice of films, whether he is infront of the camera or behind, he knows what good cinema is and to an enthusiast such as myself, thats all that matters :) I think everyone should see it once, either in the theatre or on TV, but watch it. Its a good film.

Oriental Palette, Bandra (W)

*Edit : The name of the place is Oriental Palette and not Golden Palette. This is what happens when you write food reviews at 2 in the nite :P 

I had a very very interesting and fun day :) Woke up as usual with my Dad fiddling with the laptop and trying to get the internet working. I do not know how he manages to screw it everytime. Its amazing. I am obviously responsible for it :P So set up the mtnl connection, cause You Telecom wasn't working. I have realized that my Dad has completely run out of patience. I wonder if its due to age. He gets irritated very fast nowadays.

Raghu, Sameer and myself had planned to meet up today. It was a confirmed plan and could be cancelled only on the occurance of either a life threatening situation or a situation involving saving the world. Well, I had a life threatening situation. Dad would have killed me if something was not done to the desktop. That was the reason why the plan almost got jeopardised. But fortunately the comp guy came and that got sorted out. No my PC is not fixed! He just took my MoBo away :P

I was free to go and I set off on my epic journey to Bandra. Inspite of numerous traffic jams, foreign exchange issues, always-reach-late syndrome, the 3 of us met almost simultaneously at the Bandra station, each arriving from 3 different directions. Raghu came by train, sameer from Bandra(E) while I reached Bandra(W). Monali was as usual kind enough to help me out with a good food place. After the post on Chinese food yesterday, I had a strong craving for it (inspite of forcing my mom to cook chinese last night). So we decided to try out Oriental Palette at Hill Road, Bandra (W). Its opposite Globus.

We reached there around 3:00 pm and were among the last 2 parties to enter. The waiter didn't seem too happy with us and promptly pointed out that we would get just one opportunity to order :P A big thumbs down for that. The ambience was decent, except for the sidey door setup, the door didn't have a door handle while one of the glass wall had a door handle :P. Anyways, the place serves, Chinese, Thai and Japanese. I wish I could write what we ate there, but except for Tum Yum soup I don't remember anything. Freaking tongue-twister names. We basically asked the waiter to suggest and then we pointed them out on the menu without attempting to pronounce them. But I think none of them were Thai or Japanese.

The soup came and though it looked like "Haldi-paani" initially, it was awesome! Hi5 for that one! They then served Chinese Tea (free! on the house! another thumbs up) Raghu enlightened me that it was used to wash away all the previous food taste, leaving your mouth fresh and ready for the next. We ordered noodles and chicken. Both the dishes were very good (a little bland though, cons of authentic chinese food)

By the time we were done, I got a happy feeling inside (exactly like the way I felt after eating at Pot-Pourri). Basically meant that it was a good experience. And for that kind of food, super value for money! The price was extremely welcoming. Not like how you tend to hyperventilate when you see the bill in some places. Also got my first fortune cookie (pretty useless fortune though, except for Raghu's).

Here's the final verdict
Ambience : 3.5/5
Service : 3/5 (got 3 because of all the hurrying because we went in late)
Food : 3.5/5
Value for Money : 4.25/5
Stomach is still fine. So I guess that needs a mention :)

My evening was super cool too. Met up with a couple of friends for coffee and we stayed till they started folding the chairs :P It was a good day :) I feel happy!

Oi Chilli Chicken!

I love Chinese food. I do not know how the addiction began but Chinese food makes me salivate almost similar in the way I salivate when I see... ummm forget it. Lets just keep it to "it makes me salivate". I love all types of Chinese food, right from food prepared in posh, swanky over-priced restaurants to the roadside "laal-dabbas" run mostly always by Nepali guys (I don't know if it increases the authenticity of the claim that the food is Chinese). There have been times when I have been told that a particular restaurant serves authentic Chinese food but I have no way of verifying that. The only way I could do that is either

• Visit China and eat Chinese food there (ofcourse there it would be just food :P )
• Tag along with a group of Chinese who certifies that the food served is authentic Chinese

Unfortunately none of the above 2 has happened yet. It has obviously been told repeatedly that the version we get here is heavily Indianized to suit our taste but seriously speaking, I have no complaints.

It is a funny coincidence that most of my Bong friends love Chinese food. It is a possibility that its an anamoly in my group of friends but if you are reading this, then just think about it. Does your Bong friend's eyes light up everytime you say Chilli Chicken? Does his words come with a "slurrrp" sound when you tell him that you plan to go for a Triple Schezwan? Have you noticed his involuntary smile when you decide to order Chinese? I think its a fact that a majority of Bongs love Chinese food except maybe 8 or 9 guys who became a PETA member and turned vegetarian and then realized Chinese food no longer tastes that great.

I am not sure why this liking for Chinese food has developed among Bongs. Maybe its the proximity, maybe its the Chinese influx or maybe its the deep connection we have with the Reds. It was a great idea to be inspired by the Chinese and import their food and communism (ok ok I agree there were various other sources of influence for communism to enter the hearts and minds of Bongs). Now I personally do not have anything against communism, but then again we Indians like to Indianize any sort of import. I think we should have kept the Indianization limited to the food and left the Communism alone. Take a look at West Bengal and you'll know what it has done to the state. (Supporters of Communism can take my case, I have no objection whatsoever) The food though has definitely been a hit!

I remember, during our college days, I used to indulge a lot in the "Laal-Dabba" Chinese. And I used to make Nicholas and Sameer accompany me. Fortunately for them, these dabbas opened up only in the evenings. There was a high probability that I would have made them eat the same thing for lunch too. Later on after careful discussions, we assigned a particular day in the week for Chinese food. I think it was saturdays. And of course, celebrations naturally meant more of it :D

If the Bongs ever decided to attack the Chinese I am sure that the only thing they would bring back from there would be more recipes. Spoils of war, you may say. Anything else would be morally just wrong! But then such is the initmate relation of a Bong and his food, specially Chinese.

Lukkhagiri zindabaad!!

The day of "Lukkha-giri" went awesome. Spent most of the day lying all over the house, my room, drawing room, back to my room, parent's room... etc. Got the general idea right? But I did not completely vegetate. Went out for a while. Couldn't convince myself to go the gym but did do my patent walk all over the sector. I plan to go to the gym tomorrow, in the morning. Lets see if that works out :P

What's my plan tomorrow? No idea whatsoever! how cool is that :D I am enjoying it as long as it lasts. I have a feeling by next week I'll start tearing my hair out. But till then I shall do exactly what I am doing! Nothing!

I really feel bad about a certain person (I can't really say where this person belongs from coz it might give it away) :D Now this certain person knows exactly who I am talking about and I am sure a few others do too ;) This certain person will need some serious will power to stay sane for some time to come. Lets say the cause of this certain person's (CP's) insanity is another person BUG. Now BUG's IQ (irritation quotient) is so high that it makes you want to find something really heavy and hit yourself (yes! this person makes you suicidal rather than homicidal) on the head.

I have had the misfortune of spending sometime with BUG but I have, during this time, made it absolutely clear that unless me speaking to BUG would ensure world peace, I would not talk. Simple because I could and I did! Yes, I can be extremely cold and rude at times. I can also be extremely friendly and rude. The former gives me a lot of sadistic pleasure while the latter is a skill I am proud of.

The point is what will CP do now? CP is stuck with BUG and BUG will bug CP till the end of time. BUG will be there in the morning, afternoon and evening. BUG will follow CP everywhere CP goes. Unfortunately (both for CP and the rest of the world) BUG is oblivious to this fact. Truly speaking its BUG's attitude which anyone in BUG's viscinity finds unbearable. And even if told about it, BUG has no inclination towards doing anything about it. CP is stuck, and stuck bad. I wish I could do something about it but unfortunately I can't. Its just BUG Vs CP this time. Though I could blog about it and extract some fun (sadistic) out of it. And provide CP with a lot of mental support. Hahahahahah!!!! CP is going to so kill me!

Trip to Shirdi

Back from Shirdi. We left yesterday morning, ie the 14th of August. Reached Shirdi around 3:00 pm. Nowadays, we generally follow the protocol of finishing the Darshan in the evening itself. Its a lot emptier and and more peaceful. The mornings feel more like goat-herding.... hat...hat... phurrrr... !! Thats what the guards keep doing. Pushing and pulling you like one of the coconuts you offer.

My first trip to Shirdi was pathetic. Someone had given us a brilliant idea that we should just take the bus in the night, reach there early morning, do the puja, eat something there and take the same bus back. I will kill the bastard who suggested that! If only I could remember who it was. All my "bhakti", spiritualism, faith, belief, whatever you prefer to call it, went down the drains. Unfortunately it was also some special day because of which it seemed as if the whole of India had descended there. By the time I got done, I just wanted to get out of there. Seriously speaking I was so unsatisfied that I actually felt tortured and irritated.

Since then, this is my 3rd or 4th trip (don't recall actually). And all of them have gone well. Yesterday's trip was similar as far as the crowd was concerned. Crowded as hell! But this time we were smart. We didn't even attempt to get in to the line. We preferred to do the "Mukh-Darshan". The three of us spent some quiet time there, immersed in our own thoughts. And then we spent some more time inside the complex, relaxed and happy.

My last trip was on New Years. Now as I already said before, I have my doubts about the existence of God, though I believe that there is a powerful energy which can be tapped into. I feel as if Shirdi is a portal to access this energy. It could be an hypothesis which I have developed to satisfy my lack of faith in the concept of God. But I still do it. It just gives me hope to carry on, as some would put it, fooling my brain to accomplish my goals. :P

Well as human nature goes, I presented my long list of things that I need to accomplish, specially the ones which I didn't have complete control over. But then again, everytime I go there, I see all the people there, those who have come from far away, extremely poor and somehow managing to spend the night there, so that they could see Saibaba. Seeing them, makes me realize that I already have so much! What else could one ask for? I have enough money to spend a decent life style, I am able bodied and have an above average head on my shoulders (even if it isn't too far up above average), I have my parents who love me, a work that I like doing (no matter where I do it) and life is generally peaceful. Really can't think of anything else to ask for. There is only one thing I need right now and that is what I ask for. The rest I know I can manage.

I feel humbled seeing all the misery there and yet I feel and respect the faith they have, faith that Saibaba can help them out of it. Maybe that is the hope they require, to make there lives better or give them the power to fight on. Everytime I go there, the place just reminds me how happy and fortunate I am. So now I just ask for non-materialistic things and a little spiritual guidance.

15th Aug is my parents marriage anniversary and this time they spent it in a quieter and more spiritual way. I liked it, though I would have preferred had we left today, instead of yesterday. Would have been less crowded. My dad tells me this, every 15th Aug. "India got her independence and I lost mine!" This time he didn't say it.