My friend Anuj always says when reminded about his ‘sava paanch se paune chhe’ (5.15 PM to 5.45 PM challenge) – “I don’t believe in LSR (Long distance relationships)”. And we always refuted his saying as an excuse not to pursue ahead in relationships and lack of seriousness about it. Now with distances increased, I can feel what he meant. Thankfully Google Video & Skype have been to my rescue at times, but things generally do get out of hand. A 5 min video chat works far better than a half an hour conversation (which is really difficult for me). I always keep wondering, from where do the SRK-movies-inspired boyfriends get the content to talk to their girlfriends for hours at stretch. I look at barfi, I look at quite a few frds at WIMWI, I looked at Asad and many more…. Latest Mr. Ayush Jain uses the pretext of mother’s call at office to talk to his girlfriend. Considering these instances, Anshu actually has got one of the most unromantic and confused boyfriend ever. She has been really nice to still be able to pull it off & keep things floating.

Job front has started off well with able guidance and responsibilities shared with me. Work is good (although a lot) and I am finding my Saturdays too getting sucked in the work, but the overall feeling is good. Esp. when you are working directly under a person with over 11 years of work experience in the field. However, what to do and what not – have always kept me on the toes in most of the situations. Hence it has always been like doing biceps while on the treadmill – not sure what to focus on and balancing all aspects.

The other positives have been the presence of Kharore and Barfi…. Weekends are enlightened with Kharore around and new vigor awakens you on saturdays to try something different – Let it be H2O on inner ring road, A Nandi hill trip, Jalebi at Cosmos, A wonderful evening with Roorkee friends or Biography on Bhagat Singh in Hypercity (with me fully engrossed in the Inquilab developments and suddenly Kharore pips in with some weird photo in a Kamasutra book). Barfi and Boda’s presence too has made life easy on weekdays. Boda’s truly unique answers always keeps you laughing – There can be multiple Sandeeps but there is only one Boda – Sandeep Boda . The two bachchas in the flat bring in desi spice to life. Dabangg was also a great experience with them.

But in all the buzz, there is one mute compromiser – my sweetheart. She is accepting all my nakhras (although with a bit fuss). She has been calm and accommodating to my scattered schedule. With 14th October coming soon, I am really excited to be joined with my family & Anshu. Let the party begin….

On a regular day one finds the place totally deserted. A few people seen around – enjoying the morning are either the staff of IIMA or the poor souls residing in dorms who have their classes at 8.45AM running around to reach in time. But today it was all very different, very unrealistic, very virtual. I loved it. Although i had to take the pains to wake up early after the detailed ‘placement preparations’ last night & get into a decent dress (difficult to find in my wardrobe) suitable for the occasion, the pains were worthed to be taken.

Infact, the sole thing driving me to attend the occasion was the patriotic soul in me eager to get out of the student facade. The busy schedule and material aspirations has barricaded the path of simple social deeds i loved or rather love doing. During childhood, after 14th January Makarsankranti celebrations, the only thing to look-out for a kid was the republic day parade. The streamlined flow of parade and the synchronization of the army officers was treat to watch. Also the colours coming out of the various parades by the states is a pleasing sight. Every year i saw it (although there wasn’t any significant change to the structure YoY), I cried inside – ‘I love my India & I am ready to do anything for the nation’. Sadly I am not doing it and each one among us knows why.

Today 26th January, 15th August & 2nd October have only one relevance for a desi Indian: A national holiday. Little do these days ring a bell in the hearts that it is something great about our wonderful country that happened on these days. We have the baton in our hands to be carried forward – fast – and hand it over in the right manner to the generations to come. Little do we have the zeal in ourselves to work for something that doesn’t bring material profits for us. Living for society and the nation is a bigtime NS. And I too am a victim of this ‘selfishomania’ egoist culture coming up. The fact that we don’t respect the day, the fact that we are not considering ourselves responsible for the society, the fact that we shrug ourselves off the problems of the society – are the symtoms that our nation sadly is going to witness just facades of patriotism hiding the inherent virus of greed inside.

Anyways the good part is, although people are not helping around with tangible deeds their sheer presence on the day for celebration shows the fire (although subsiding fast) to work for the nation. Just a vent to converge the sparks and flush the issues out. and

By the time I was done thinking about the strategy of how to collate these spirits and frame the solution, I was pretty well VitaminDized in the sun and sweets were in front of me. I walked away with the hollow thought & sweets in my hand. Happy Republic Day !!!!

We all had to regroup with following new group conditions:

1) New group should be of 4/5 members and should preferably have a FPM or non-engineer.

2) Atleast one change should be there in the group to accomodate a new coming member.

My group – Group12 comprized of Chinmay (Chinchau the Juicer), Pradeep (the SWOTer), Robin (Koshu, the Kaul boy), myself (Champu, the giveup), Vatan (Cupid the stupid) and Jaya…. We all loved the names we all got. Jaya was the only FPM in our group and hence initially for a change it didn’t make sense to have her out of the group, although she was a free flyer. Pradeep is one of the contributers to the group but couldn’t gel well with the group dynamics. He contributes and shys away. Vatan is an active member of the group who keeps people involved. Robin & Chinmay are the chief contributors to the project, hard to choose between the two.

12AM: We looked at the options that we have of dividing ourselves and we decided that we’ll have one person thrown out. The options we had for doing this were

1) Randomization

2) Do a feedback session for each individual

3) Do a closed voting

Being future managers people (including myself) decided that we are not going to leave everything on fate and will decide ourselves. Hence randomization was eliminated. So was Closed voting as it is an act of cowardice. So the option left was to go for feedback session for each individual to be followed by voting. Each member had to rank other 5 members on basis of motivation, creativity, team-player, quality of work done and (one more that i forgot as usual). I knew i’ll be 3rd after Chinchau and Kaulboy and so were the results. As expected Jaya was last by a huge margin. she too accepted the fact that she is the least contributor to the team. And then was the biggest reality show, the one thing i dreaded about closed poling. We had to choose the name of two members whom we considered

It started with Nidhesh informing me about some trekking trip to some place being planned by his company…. “Full Moon Trek”…. Sounded great…. We don’t have anything more important than sleeping to be done on weekends so going for a nite trekking trip sounded fun and adventure…. We had to report at 4.30PM on saturday (20April) to Mr Saurabh Soni of his company (Ansys Fluent) who lived nearby…. They were expecting 20/25 people to participate in the trek…. Pretty fine figure…. My friend forwarded me the email about the event…. We were expected to get some goodies with us… The important ones of the list were
1) Dinner for himself/herself
2) 2 Liter of water per person
3) Torch
4) Bedsheets etc. (Tents were supposed to be brought by the regular trekkers )
hmmm
me and Nidhesh sat down thinking about what all we have…. i guess torch in my phone was pretty ok so that covers up the torch part…. bedsheets we had…. clothes too…. now 2 liter of water per person was something of exorbitant price…. 20 Rs. to be precise… as we guys are a little too casual to fill water ourselves…. We had gone to Pizza Hut that day for lunch so that atleast if we don’t have a good evening we have a good lunch to bank on …. After lunch we went to More Super Mkt. but unfortunately couldn’t find something that we could take there or rather we were looking upto the senior members to organize dinner for us all we took after 30 minutes of surfing the store was a packet of Haldiram’s Khatta Meetha snacks

We reached Mr. Soni’s place at 4.30…. He had a red Swift which was probably of the highest version… nice leather seats… good stereo… the guy it seemed was a little frugal with petrol so he had the AC off… but nevertheless the climate outside too was pretty pleasant…. our car was the pick-up car for Aundh guys – Soni, Amit, Nidhesh and me we reached the Hinjewadi flyover which was decided earlier as the meeting point for all the cars…. there Mr. Kishore too joined us…. Mr. Kishore was 5’6″ tall i guess….. looked proper tamil…. and had all the elements to be the different one…. he came in and sat in the back seat with Nidhesh sliding in between….

We started from there around 5PM…. and Picked up the normal highway (not the expressway) towards Mumbai…. to my amazement that highway too has been very well kept and we were driving at an average speed of maybe 80kmph with Mr. Soni experimenting all the stunts of Rally racing done my Peter Solberg It was a zig zag zig drive by him but was fun…. it was after a long time that i was breathing the highway air in daylight…. We reached Malegaon (some 60km from Pune) in one hour and having crossed a desi railway crossing we came to a village which had everything to be qualified as the Indian Village of Imagination…. we guys parked our cars where the pakka road ended and waited for others to come…. not all zoom past bullockcarts at 100kmph there was a grocery store and we took a bottle of water with ur…. we thought lets have atleast one requirement completed…. did’t want to be totally parasitic although we completed the bottle in 5 minutes…. but we got assurance that others were not like us as we had quite a few who had come with loads of stuffs….

We started trekking by 6.30 or so i guess…. by that time it was already sunset and we were walking in twilight along a kachcha road which kept on inclining as we moved ahead…. it was maybe me Nidhesh and Kishore…. i cracked some mundane and tapori jokes along the way as usual taking fun in seeing people getting bored and irritated by the pathetic level of my sense of humour…. along the way i found that Kishore was interested in photography and i was obliging him with some of his snaps…. i also wanted some for me to be put on orkut…. don’t know when i’ll go for Trekking, forget Midnite trek …. it started to get quite dark and we would c Moonlight being shed on the adjoining hill…. actually we were trekking in the valley and the moon was rising behind the hill so from 7.30 onwards it was really dark but we kept on going clinging to our instincts….

We kept on going and going…. Along the way we kept on munching what others had got…. Juice from Amit, Some mouthfreshners from others, water from kishore, etc. etc. it felt good till it kept coming We reached some village by 9 PM where my one of the worst enemies were in big number – dogs…. i tried to be away from them as much as possible…. once the village was crossed it was stairs that we had to climb…. by that time we were really tired…. i was thinking that its a better idea to stay in the village and enjoy the desi khana…. mast khatiya and aish we kept on the stairs’ riser’s height got on increasing and it was becoming quite a bit task in the end…. we kept on and on…. thinking about the target… the goal…. the fort that we had to conquer…. on and on and on…. finally we reached the top to find ________________________________________ (nothing but flat barren land)

The top was completely flat with no structure other than a big mausoleum there…. first reaction – was it a shivaji fort or??? who knew…. chalta hai…. it was really nice place (as u can c in the picture) windy as i like it…. and nicely moonlit… we could c the Pune highway in distance…. the cars running on the zig zag roads as a small point of light trying to make some random figures…. We sat down trying to rest our ___ which had taken a beating…. The guys who brought something to eat got together and started to arrange for dinner…. Kishore i guess brought curd rice or something…. Nag made good corn chat…. and someone else too brought a tiffin full of biryani…. me and the other bhukkads finished all biryani in no time and i was thinking like the person who brought biryani needs special thanks…. he cooked it so well…. brought disposable bowls….. brought it all the way to top…. man nice commitment….

After dinner it was turn for some Dumsharad (or whatever it is called) i was feeling quite tired but with nothing 2 do and tents not prepared i had no choice…. surprisingly there was CellPhone coverage at that height too…. pretty impressive… it doesn’t come in all corners of office but surely does in ‘viraniya’ and ‘khandars’ (reminds of the airtel advertisement where the plane crashes in dense forest and the girl still manages to call her family) So we played it and it was fun as it started…. I did it for two movies – Aabra ka Dabra & Kabuliwala…. luckily i managed to have my team figure out the films… there were some like Aalam Aara and others which brought the hell out of the people It was sheer fun which went till 1 AM i guess…. it was getting chilly but we all enjoyed it…. Then was the time to conquer some tent…. there were 5 tents with around 18 members (including 3 children and 2 ladies) i m not sure how all was organized but we were forced to be 5 huge guys to be in one tent trying hard to sleep without our legs extended (ie. being bent as there was no place we could extend them) no wonder the tent was named ‘Garib Rath’

The next morning i woke up to the pains in my leg… the 3 guys sleeping towards the exit had already woken up…. it was only me and nids inside…. i woke up to my amazement…. this was the pic that i saw

it was awesome sight…. some of the other pics are at

Orkut Album

Having roamed around for 30 minutes we started the climb down…. it was pretty fast initially but i knew that my leg might backfire as it did during Naval’s wedding…. it did…. it was terrible coming down with the guys who were with me had been down near the parking with me some 20/30 minutes behind them…. still i fought on…. and reached down…. it is amazing that when u know that there is only one way out u somehow get that strength to do it and thats what happend with me that day…. i somehow fought on thinking that only way i m gonna go down was by walking down even though it is with the pains…. Nag’s Kneecap surely helped but still there was quite some pain…. finally we managed to come down and i surrendered myself to the plush leather seat of the Swift…. Again a zoom zoom drive back to pune…. Kishore promised to share the pics but unfortunately he deleted the pics that were mine/nids and we got some 40 odd pics out of 150 taken…. didn’t expect that from him… but i guess thats how people r…. i was wondering what prompted him to do it as he had nothing to gain from it but still… chalo its his thinking… his mind…. i regretted not taking some pics via my phone…. chalo anyways good trip…. great fun…. next target Mahabaleshwar (26/27 April 2008) till then cya

Well FM on 29 Feb gave a very socialist budget – for corporates no rise in corporate tax, for Middle class he raised the Tax slabs, excise duties on small cars reduced – getz, santro, M800 r 20K cheap now, welfare for backward class and minorities, …. but the thing most discussed about will be the 60,000 crore loan waiver for farmers…. First thing i did when i heard about the news was that i changed the TV channel and tried to get myself back on track by watching the SL vs Aus Match (which SL won by 13 runs)… Well i too don’t want my fellow citizens suiciding and living a dejected life… but i am completely against the loan waiver thing…. The problems i have with it are as follows:

1) You are just providing them a very temporary solution to the problem and possibly ruining the chances of providing a better future to their kids. How? its 60,000 crore that matters…. I don’t have the problem with allocation to agriculture sector… its the place where Mr FM wants it…. By completely waiving off the loan he’s enticing farmers to take more loans as now they know that eventually - during election time the loan is gonna be waived off…. Its where people are not responsible for their deeds…..
A simple example would be that he is asking the farmers not to jump off the cliff right now….. but he’s taking them to new heights from where if farmer wants to fall he’ll definitely have desired results….

2) From where r u getting 60,000 crores???? is it loan from IMF ???? or the hard earned money of middle class which governmentsucks as Tax…. or the Corporation tax that the companies which are trying to make 
their name in international arena manage to shell out…. its very important that this money is used judiciously and not considering that the elections are round the corner – which is the case right now…. FM has just made a very selfish effort to buy the votes…. Sorry sir but the words are coming from within….. you cheated me and whole of the hard working middle class and corporates…..

Possible Solution: One thing that you did good was that  you didn’t waive it for all the people…. you waived it only for those farmers who took government loans and have land less than one hectare…. thats pretty smart…. but along with it i hope that some biasing is not involved in selecting the farmers and the ones who have profit…. only the needy ones who had poor rain and bad crop get the loan waiver….. i know that i m being idealistic but the era in which we live we need 2 cut short on each expenditure….

An ideal solution would have been: allocation of the money to irrigation projects similar to Narmada Sarovar Dam project…. which will help them not only now but also in future…. Here the problem might just come up again after 3 years: what 2 do then??? One shouldn’t try to delay the solution but should look for one…. he could have allocated the amount to some 2 irrigation projects on some rivers in Maharashtra and AP and might have provided better future for the farmers after 5 years…. but he choose to think otherways…. maybe not his fault….. indian politics is like that only…. but till we do not get out of this cycle we can’t expect to get good output from agriculture….. with ecosystem being imbalanced a lot, we can expect even more failed crops and inconsistency in rain….

Reference: IBN LIVE

1) A true son of soil sacrificing his life for country (http://www.ibnlive.com/news/day-after-getting-award-capt-dies-fighting-militants/57521-3.html).

2) Devil Politicians rather than focusing on the problems are pulling eachother’s legs (http://www.ibnlive.com/news/who-are-the-minority-bjp-wants-a-definition/57555-3.html)

When someone says whats the biggest thing that Dr. Ambedkar saheb forgot to include in the Constitution, I’ll say he’s forgot to incorporate a system where right people are 
at right places. At one end we have the army officers and police personnel who have so many true Indians in 
their ranks who r ready to sacrifice just about anything for the country.  On the other hand we have our politicians who are the devils in disguise of human beings just interested in their own assets. For them social service, people’s welfare, etc. do no have any importance…. Sorry for them its not important for most part of their 5 year ministerial tenure except in the last couple of months. Thats the time when dog comes begging for any bit of help to each person’s door step….

Its pretty surprising that our history boasts of innumerable number of freedom fighters who selflessly 
sacrificed their lives for the country. And today, its hard for us to find handful of good politicians.

I think thats where Dr. Amberkar saheb faltered. The path to political success passes through so much crap and shit that when a person gets along quite a bit, he’s no longer is an Indian (who lives and dies for his country) but is a pseudo-Indian who is essentially a _____ (incomplete)

Coming back. Do you know that in Andhra Pradesh the dowry given for getting an IAS groom can go over 2 Crore
 rupees. For a Doctor or an IIT graduate it can be anywhere around 1 crore depending on other factors. And its not just in AP, dowry has its roots in Punjab, Harayana, UP, Bihar, most of south - in short everywhere. Rich or poor, educated or Un-educated, everyone follows it. I say if its the case then only one decision determines your future – Whether u got a baby boy or a baby girl. As a result of it abortion is at an all time high. Where the hell is the world headed??????? A world without girl child.

Basically people have become spiritless. Courage has been sold off. I am not a dad so i don’t know what goes 
into raising children but my logic says one’s got to be just a little more prudent and strong when raising a girl child. There are loads of examples in my life and one of them being my Mom herself. The strength inside my grandfather was key to my mom coming out a fighter. Take a leaf out of these fighters is very important or else we will have roles cut short.

Everything has a price………. We are experiencing it nowadays. Girl shortage coming across has been seen. I am a staunch supporter of women rising up in society and matching shoulders with man in all the fields. I personally have a liking for girls with attitude and passion. I admire those who like to fight it out against the tide and leave their marks. But today i have to succumb to the scarcity of girls and accept whatever is there in store for me. Can’t help it as its not my decision. It has been taken by my parents. Along with it scarcity of courage in me to fight it out is also a reason why i have no other option than to accept the fate. I am ——— JUST ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL——- nothing else

This time round we have a team which has a lot aged cricketers but the  competition for each place is fierce. For me no one except Ganguly and Jaffer can say that they are pretty secured. Positions and tasks of most of the guys might be changed. The Aussies too are charged up to take revenge of the 20-20 loss both in India and in WC. lets c. looks like the ingredients are all there for a spicy series. I hope both teams live up to the hype and I and you are the real gainers of an exciting cricket series.

Test 1:

 Stage was set for a great test match…. Hayden and Jaques started with a 150 run stand but the the Indians fought their way after lunch and restricted aussies below 350…. couldn’t have expected better…. But then the so called ‘fragility’ of Indian lineup came back…. indians bowled out under 200 but there we saw the glimpses of great class and exuberance present inside the little master-blaster Sachin…. Ganguly too was at his best before he threw it away…. Aussies then amassed a big total in Third innings posting target of 499 and the Indian team trembled once again…. The match finished on fourth day itself…. Aussies 1-nil up

Test 2:

First Day First Session: Both Aussie openers back in the pavilion…. This was a big thing as these two had 150 run stand in the first innings in the first test….. Half an hour into the second session and aussies are 131/6….. yeaahhhhhhhhhh… this is the chance to get the series back on track and the lifeline to get 1-1 on the series…. Awesome but then the rub of green went against us…. Symonds clearly nicking one outside the off… absolutely no doubt that he was out was given notout by Steve Bucknor…. not even 1 in 100 chances are there that such a thing is given notout… and the spiritless Symonds took stayed there…. that was the beginning of the shame and lack of sportsmanspirit creeping in…. Symonds given notout twice when stumped when it clearly appeared that he’s out…. once by a third umpire…. could u believe it…. a third umpire giving a wrong decision…. the guy amassed an unbeaten 167….. and Aussies piled up 463…. in reply Laxman and Sachin showed their class in their centuries….. Ganguly was a bit unlucky to miss out on a century when he threw it away Indians taking a lead of 63 runs…. The test was heading for a tame draw but then again the umpires turning villians and like the

Part One: Pune 2 Ahmedabad

Scene: Well it was time to reap the fruits of joining the job in Pune…. i.e. rush back 2 ah’d at will…. so even though my knee was like the one of the ugly ogre in Beuwolf, i decided lets give it a go…. eventually meeting family is at the highest priority…. but as usual i m the completely unplanned feet together person looking for guidance…. and ya people always come 2 ur rescue in those cases…. [:)]…. reminds me of my 32 FMPs (http://dkvarma.wordpress.com/2007/06/20/fmp-20-june-2007/ )…. loved it….

anyways my bro told me that i can catch a luxury from a nearby place…. i prefered the sleeper one over volvo as for me 6 feet long bed holds priority over AC volvo seat…. anyways looking back now it was a better option…. as my fro journey was in a volvo and was really not good…. 300 extra bucks spend for not getting place 2 sleep…. thats what i can say right now…. The bus left around 7 PM and i was into my cabin on first floor… best time 2 sleep and contemplate…. and think of the romantic situation…. someday i’ll surely travel in a similar sleeper with my wife in the double bed bus…. truly speaking it might be one of the biggest and cheapest fantasies one can think of…. coming back…. marriage is still 4 yrs away….

All i thought in the evening was the lovely moonlight sky…. reminded me of jyotsna…. damn me but it can’t be taken away from me…. call it luck by chance or serendipity or whatever…. i met someone who had similar fighting passion for life…. this beautiful girl was a gujju doing job in pune and living just besides my school…. but the thing that stood out was her boldness…. she boasted of it a couple of times but nothing wrong in it…. i m really happy that gujju girls too r fighting it out in the sun…. pretty impressed by her idea of self sponsering her marriage…. her dad must be a proud person….

Coming back to 7th evening…. standing below moonlight on a highway…. cool breeze blowing by…. some distant vehicles coming and going…. in the background far away i could listen to some of the songs being played in ‘dhaba’…. cool immaculate moonlight bathing the soothing night breeze…. a welcome break from hectic daily hubbub of the city…. missed my Karizma…. zooming around on that road and using the raw power generated by its 225 cc engine is a passion which will be fulfilled in near future…. highway nights roxx

the next day i woke up around 6 am and comforted myself by placing my aching ___ into the desi sofa seat below…. for couple of hours it was usual siteseeing the highway and side by side reading the server-client connection document of Gemfire…. a bit of reading was required for me to get the knowhow of the functionalities…. can’t help myself from my bookwormish attitude…. Around 8.30 it was a homely stop on one of the gujju dhabas…. after many months i cherished bhajia and chai…. i think it was this time only when i started talking to this Powerpuff gujju girl…. but its for one’s own good health to be away from a girl…. and someone like this one…. its a must no no….

reached home around 11.30 and asked pa to come 2 paldi….

(incomplete part 2)

Now after 5/6 years I live thousands of km away from my family and I kick myself to have experienced that thrill…. The thing is that now i care a lot about my life…. Its not that i have started to love my life…. no its not it…. but i fear for my parents…. And to put the icing on the cake i bought a Karizma…. The damn bike doesn’t come to terms before 60kmph And it is so smooth one doesn’t realize when one is near the limits…. Luckily the bike has awesome balance and braking system which has saved me a lot of times but not on 26 November evening…. I was returning home after a usual casual day at office…. My team-lead disclosed it to team that i m leaving – that was the only different thing that happened that day…. nothing else…. I took out the bike and was driving carefully upto the Trinity Circle…. It was red but still cars were breaking the signal and taking turns…. I was in a hurry that i too get through and in that i ignored a Maruti Omni coming straight from the lane for turning right….. We both were in wrong lanes…. result…. crash….

I was kicked in the back by the car and i fell on the right side…. For a moment everything stopped and i was lying on the road thinking why the hell did i drive that fast…. Now i think i recalled the starting scene of Fight Club…. When u r in a state of shock, all u think is just shit…. For a sec i knew that the car was behaving weirdly…. I contradicted my own rule…. “Allow others to pass” and hence suffered the fate…. Result…. bruised right knee…. which of late has started to pain and burn…. a bits of cuts on the left one too…. torn jeans…. torn shoes…. and bike getting a blow on the top right side…. luckily nothing much for the bike…. I have done the required first aid and all but I have made my last days here in Qwest a little difficult…. Now i can’t do what i love doing in office the most…. play TT

Today was a tough day at office…. after a weird ride to office ( i stubbornly decided to take by bike) now siting on the chair too is a pain…. whole day i have tried to keep my leg straight and any undue bending causes pain…. i know that its going to be that way but now somehow…. i don’t like pain…. i don’t want to give in to pain…. i want to fight it…. i m therefore against painkillers…. Its a test or a way in which i vaccinate myself…. so today the best i could do was to play carrom and watch others play TT…. this went on till 7 PM when i realized that its time to take control…. i can’t let the injury take away from me the opportunity to play for the last times in Qwest…. I have made really good friends here and its difficult to part from them…. i know life moves on but…. chalo…. anyways I started playing doubles pairing with Ratan opposite Vancie and Reddy…. the first game was taken to deuce when we lost…. the guys were apologizing whenever they pushed the ball far from me but i urged them not to play with a sympathetic heart…. last thing i want is sympathy…. its not that bad a situation where i need some…. i can handle it…. and then the next game onwards we won 3 in succession…. can u believe it Reddy and Vancie beaten by a langda and Ratan thrice and that too convincingly…. consider it a fluke??? have this…. then i played 3 matches with Abhishek and that too i won convincingly…. then i beat Vancie in a match…. r all these flukes???? nope…. they are not…. i m not saying that i play really good TT or m boosting about myself but then when u have the pressure of facing the consequences of loosing gone then u can play, as sachin says, “khulke” (freely) and that was the reason i guess…. these guys have crushed me before ruthlessly…. but today it was something different…. and my leg too was feeling OK….

Lesson : “Do what u love, no matter what the consequences are”

Of late i have become a misogynist…. Some of the past incidences have forced me to be one…. Seeing Basic Instinct II today was the final nail in the Coffin…. Girls are a strict no no and all they can bring in life for you is glimpse of hope and stack full of pains and disappointments At the current moment all i can recall is a Akshay Kumar Dialogue which meant something like this – “Hum jis ladki ke peeche honge woh hame ghaas ka patta na de aur jis ladki ko hum pasand aaye woh kisko chahiye” Might sound too arrogant or so but in a way there lies bits of truth in it…. Everyone must have witnessed many marriages around in the neighborhood back in hometown…. I find it pretty strange how tapori guys like me find really beautiful and smart girls in marriage…. But when u roam around in city all u get is the kachra of the city…. In colleges, hotels, jobs, parks everywhere what we find usually is that kind of crowd which has a poor sex ratio and the quality of girls too is so so

Well about the Law we have a simple rule which every IITian will agree with – Beauty x Brains = constant as none of those who land in IIT are can be categorized as a show-stealer…. But once in a blue moon we do have some who are really beautiful who violate the law Beauty x Brains = Constant…. These have high ego…. So all in all if Ego too is brought into picture we’ll have a well balanced equation…. No hard feelings towards girls…. But if u ask yourselves u’ll find….”ke main sach bol raha hoon”

The book starts with a shepherd boy who does his usual stuff i.e. grazing his sheep in the nomadic lands of Spain when suddenly his heart starts to ask questions regarding his destiny…. He comes to know that his ‘real’ treasure lies buried nearby the Pyramids of Egypt and then he starts on his quest…. Along the way he comes across many scenarios where he’s offered challenges…. He bravely faces each obstacle and learns the lessons which one needs to to survive in this practical world…. simultaneously he also follows his heart to find the meaning to his life…. He uses his brain and foresightedness to pull him out of tricky situations and in the end…. step by step he gains the wealth of knowledge to untangle his life…. He learns that he like other human beings like other animals and plants and like other inanimate objects have been created out of the single entity or thing and everything has to return back to that one thing…. life returns back to earth…. after millions of such life cycles the earth too will return back 2 the universe and universe too will go back to the point of creation…. cycle goes on…. one has in his heart the closest ‘thing’ that unites him with the ultimate soul…. The soul that represents the naked form of every object or entity…. Human beings have been lucky enough to have evolved a lot than other animals and plants and inanimate objects and have the power to think…. They have the ability to follow what they like as they r the most superior species and they have the freedom to follow their will…. It is debatable that the ability of humans to have loads of desires helps them or doesn’t but it does atleast provide them with an opportunity to help themselves and gain pleasure by following their desires…. The inner instincts asks person many questions and the answers provide him with loads of satisfaction…. It is similar to the plants obtaining nutrition, thus growing and an engine being injected fuel to push ahead…. It can be considered a necessary condition in some cases but definitely not the sufficient one…. The more one listens to his heart, the more the heart trusts the person and gives him signals or omens…. If one can decipher those he can help one’s self greatly…. If one doesn’t then the heart slowly gives in and stops sending signals….

Another important thing that the book said was that those who try to be alchemists never become one…. only those who follow the practices without expecting it to happen become…. As a saying in Hindi – “Karm kar, fal ki aasha mat kar”…. Only those have been successful who have pursued what they love wholeheartedly…. not those who pursue something because it is bound to bring success…. In life line boundaries need to be drawn for things one is supposed to do and for those territories which one doesn’t want to be in….

Went there for 4.5 days…. Diwali day went in usual diwali rituals and stuffs…. The next day (new Year day) too went as a normal new year day – meeting relatives and relishing sweets …. But the show stealer was sunday evening (11th Nov 2007)…. after lunch around 3 PM pops told me that he’s scheduled a “chhokri jovano” occasion (for Marriage seeing a girl) at one of the places…. I was expecting it of late but not like this…. it was like…. everything muted for a couple of seconds after he said so….. I was like…. “khudko to sambhal nahi sakte ladki kya sambhalenge”…. Seriously…. Everyone is frustrated in the world and think that one should get settled asap…. but for me…. my future is still undecided…. i don’t know where i m going….. don’t know what to do…. and getting married and all is a bit too much to remove my solitude… mom gave me an option that if i like a girl i can be engaged to her and can extend it for a year or so…. at first it sounded cool…. Also it wasn’t required from my side to commit this early No point thinking much this early…. But the only reason i agreed was because pops had given commitment and so i went to keep his word……

So around 4.30PM we left our home…. Her home’s in chandkheda (which is some 15/20 km from our place) all along the way i was thinking what’s gonna happen and how things are gonna shape up…. in the background i also recalled about Priya but now its past…. no point thinking much about it…. Dad knew that they lived somewhere along the new CG Road.. So once we entered the road dad called Dr Madhubhai (her father) and he led us to his place… We parked the car outside the society and carried on…. We were received by the girl’s mom, supposedly girl’s brother and supposedly girl’s sister all comforted each other and greeted happy diwali in a way that everyone knew all since birth but i guess thats the drama that happens everytime when meets like these happen…. One more thing…. Dad told me that Dr Madhubhai is a very cool calm guy and likes to talk it out…. So i went in with a preparation that I too am no less and considered it a battle to be won tooth and nail…. No hard feelings though, its just one of those usual personal tests i do on myself….

Before going to their place i asked mom what all things need to be considered…. she said :
1) Girl’s Family – What dad does, bro/sis do and how well they are placed
2) Girl’s House – How sound they are financially (We don’t have dowry funda back in Gujarat)
3) Girl’s Education and looks
4) (Added by me) Her maturity and attitude towards life

We settled ourselves on the comfortable sofa-set they had and started admiring their place…. It was a nice home…. It was one of those rare occasions when i found a home to be as good as ours…. with well placed furniture and nicely contrasted varnish…. all in all house was pretty good…. Requirement #2 meted out fine…. Her pops was a doc and her bro as well as sis were doing their medical…. All in all a pretty well educated and well placed family…. Requirement #1 also fulfilled…. for around 30 minutes odd we discussed about them and us and their home and all…. Her brother was pretty quiet…. No issues…. the other girl who sat near the dining table was much into her TV…. surprisingly for most of the part she was watching the ‘Detailed Analysis’ of the Indo-Pak cricket match that India won…. We went around to have a look at their home…. had similar configuration as that of ours…. one hall/dining/bedroom/kitchen on the ground floor and on the second floor it had 2/3 rooms with very bright colours…. in a way it looked pretty cool in a way a little flashy too…. in one of the rooms i guess was the girl whom we had come to see…. I didn’t look much at her just had a glimpse…. It looked like she was studying something…. I tried to be a ‘dahyo damro chhokro’ and just walked down the stairs back to the place i was seated…. I guess we had loads of this superficial talks and came back on track…. After another brief chat and then there was a pause…. I felt awkward and broke the ice by admiring the painting in front of me…. I was kicking myself for raising such an idiotic topic but in the anxiety and tension i just couldn’t think much Again some few sentences spoken and then a pause…. i was gesturing with my sis and then her dad asked her mom – “Bolo?” (i.e. say wat to do)…. She said “Jamine jao” (have dinner) i was like…. all here are doing this for the first time…. Then her dad started introducing each other one by one – first his wife then the son and then he said that the girl sitting there is his daughter who completed the 7th sem of EC at DDIT till now i was thinking that the girl studying upstairs was the one…. All the equations broke…. All calculations were rendered inconsequential…. I was so ashamed or felt shy that i didn’t even look at her… I was lost by that time…. again some pause and then mom told “chalo jaiye”…. I thought isn’t the guy asked to sit and talk with the girl…. we went out wished each other a very happy new year…. We went out and started to wear the footwear…. i was tied my shoelace when my dad whispered – if u wana have a chat u can have it…. I too thought lets have a brief chat…. Atleast i’ll come to know what a girl thinks and all….

I went inside and sat down on the sofa where i sat before…. The girl came and sat at the other end of the sofa…. It was the first time i had a good look at the girl…. She is beautiful…. No doubt… Also in her eyes i could c the confidence which i admire …. i could c that she had the courage to stand up and face the ‘tough’ situation (It was tough for me)…. It eased out the pressure i was under….. I thought a girl at 21 would be too shy to talk rather at that particular moment i thought that its ok as she looked pretty cool and composed with what all was going on…. I sat there and exchanged a smile and was left speechless as to what to say…. for some 2/3 seconds i guess both of us were getting settled…. I don’t exactly recall how all started…. I think the talk started by me saying that I thought that the girl whom i came to c was the one on the first floor Both of us smiled and she told that everyone mistakes her to be the elder one…..or Maybe i told her that her home is pretty nice and about her room…. She said that the purple one on the first floor was hers…. I then i guess apologized for the torn informal clothes i was wearing…. She said with a smile its ok…. I asked about her college…. Chat went on pretty Ok…. we discussed about our respective lives, hobbies, choices, likes-dislikes…. movies…. etc.. etc… I think i was the main contibutor but she too was pretty open to talk and i liked that in her…. she didn’t do that well in her examinations but she stood by it and took responsibility of it honestly…. I liked that quality of her very much…. Study and marks are superficial things…. Most imp thing is whether the other person likes to face the storm or look for cover…. She stood firm….. Lucky me….. Till that time i wasn’t considering it sincerely but then i realized she’s a lot matured for her age and I should start thinking it with a lot more seriousness…..

We talked about movies – she likes action and thrill movies so we shared some of our best ones…. Discussed about college life and even bf/gfs…. Anyways it rounded up well and we left…. No comments on what i felt after it…. or what i thought of her afterwards…. But after giving a lot of thought to the events that occured I will say that the meet was pretty immature…. the events that followed were pretty much the same…. lets c how all go further…. I need time…. I need time to forget the past and focus on present….

Only an external person can analyse whether its ok or not but from my point of view one thing which i can take advantage of is that I am malleable…. Am a lot more flexible than most of other guys…. I know that I am credulous and get easily excited by the near happenings… E.g. for a couple of days after an F1 race, it seems like the jam-packed Bangalore streets are a part of SilverStone circuit… E.g. I feel like when’ll i meet my Kate Benkinsale of Serendipity movie…. or after seeing Basic Instinct 2 one feels that the world is full of bitches and the best thing one can do is become a misogynist or brahmachari and never have the door ajar for any girl to come into one’s life…. Its like a DCH’s Saif Ali Khan type personality where he likes each and every girl he comes in contact with…. Me too am waiting for that Sonali of mine to come…. lets c…. notable difference between saif of DCH and me is that he managed to make good friends with them but in my case ‘ladkhiya ghas ka ek patta bhi nahi daalti’ kya kare…. Gulshan grover style personality jo hai

If someone has had patience to read this much, then he/she must have realized that by ‘normal’ standards i m a weirdo who doesn’t even have the sense of what one should write publicly and what one shouldn’t…. i have had this conversation for hours with my friends who ask me to be a little prudent with what i write…. my reply has been pretty straight and simple…. i don’t like to present any facades or masks…. i be what i m…. like it or not this is what i am…. Vulgarly open…. i don’t like to be Dr Jekyll…. Mr Hyde is fine for me so one thing you can expect from all my blogs is honesty….

Cheers as always Always have quality time

The season started with a lot of passion and promise as Hamilton started his career finishing on podium in all the initial races and was leading the championship The guy showed the maturity mixed with aggression that F1 fans have been witnessing since long from Michael Schumacher. He’s an ideal successor to micheal. I was thrilled to see him win the Canadian Grand Prix. Anyone’s first win is always very very special and the emotions run high…. The guy showed in previous races that he had in him all the ingredients to become a very good F1 driver…. Now it was achieved…. I guess that was the time when the masala flavor was added to the 2007 season…. Alonso gradually realized that the biggest challenger for his F1 title was his own teammate and also found that the British team has started to support the rookie more…. Even though Ferraris were off the pace in mid season the climax always stayed at peak as the two Mclaren drivers fought among themselves for the title…. Ferrari data found with Mclaren…. Alonso blackmailing Ron Denis that he should be the one who should be supported by the team…. One couldn’t have asked for more drama….

Concurrently Ferraris too found the space in which they could just manage to improve so that atleast Raikkonen had a glimmer of hope to challenge for the driver’s title…. Luck ran out of Massa’s Car but everyone in Ferrari camp knows that the guy has potential to be a very successful F1 driver…. He has his flaws which needs to be corrected but there are loads of positives…. The end races that Raikkonen drove were simply awesome…. The sheer consistency he showed No wonder he carries with him the maximum fan following…. Iceman has a distinct class to be admirably calm in most critical moments…. All one can say after Lewis slipped of the track at the Pit-lane entry in Chinese Grand Prix is that experience is important…. there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that the guy has as much talent as any in the Formula one circuit but their is no replacement to experience and unfortunately Hamilton learned it the hard way….

All in all as a Formula one fan i can say that it was victory for F1 as a whole…. the year has brought a new life and energy which no-one might have expected after Michael retirement…. Cheers for Raikkonen

Coming back…. The title….. Ogling Eyes…. My friend Suresh Prasad urf Bihari told that Akhil has one of the most ogling eyes and after that its my turn…. i too have one of the most ogling eyes…. he said that girls around must be definately feeling that my intensions are not right when i see them…. How can i help myself???? Eyes are something on which I do not have control…. I am rather happy and thankful to god that i have a good pair of eyes even though I have glasses and all…. but the ogling feeling that girls might be getting is something i can’t help…. I have missed the bus on 7 occasions now, the latest being a few days back and i guess this reason holds one of the keys for me not been able to pull off my relationships well…. All that girl feels in that moment is asking this ‘kutta kamina’ questions like ‘ghar main ma/bahen nahi kya?’…. If one looks at the other side of the coin, its not her fault too….

Before i started to write the blog i had loads of points that why ogling eyes are cool but somehow i just can’t recall any of them…. i guess the past has again captured my thinking brain and all for sometime now i m gonna think is why i just couldn’t do much in each of these cases….

Well one of the latest gossips in bollywood is the love triangle between Kareena, Saif, Shahid…. The celebrities have the freedom to do whatever they want to or to be with whom-so-ever they want themselves to be associated with…. Saif- who married Amrita Singh (Why the hell did she fell for him??? Nawabi wealth??? Is money more imp than ……???) who was at the peak of her carrier – proper bubbly and sweetheart character…. but nowadays share prices of Nawab himself have rose and so Amrita is a no no now…. forget the kids…. now he has new chicks like Roza and Kareena available…. who wants a dedicated Amrita??? Kareena…. when she was no one, she found a hubby in Shahid whom i respect as a self-made person…. and now that guy is a dumped person…. And these are the kind of people we consider role models

Physical beauty can only be superficial….

I love RBK line “I am what i am”…. holds loads of statements inside

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9-eAYHooUo&NR=1    (Crawling)

and you will realize why i say so…. I have met people who have had very hard times and its not always that the inner strength is capable to take you out of difficult situations….. I personally too on 7 occasions atleast have been in that phase…. All you think at that time is that the world is shit and there is not point to be going…. mind becomes storehouse of crap…. all u speak is rubbish and the defeatist inside you takes control…. world looks gloomy…. i have had a close shave some days back to this defeatist inside me and unfortunately i passed quite a bit of my gloom to my parents who couldn’t sleep till 4AM that day…. i m dumb, idiot, moron, stupid…. i know…. but at that time the brain is so fucked up that all one thinks is complete shit…. now sitting back and contemplating on what i should have done, i realize that i committed a blunder – equivalent to the two i committed during my college days….

Music has the ability to melodiously pull the person out of the deepest of glooms and dump him at a higher platform from where he can try to think beyond shit…. He gets the opportunity to have a glimpse of positive things around…. Its like the crap in the mind has been vacuum cleaned because of seeing the video…. one feels that the close one/ support required by each in the fighting times is there and so it brings about psychological stability and peace….

Think of LP’s Numb or LP’s In the end…. One step closer…. Papercut…. Somewhere I belong…. and the ultimate – What I’ve done…. these guys have the talent to find generically the emotional nerve thats malfunctioning and meticulously repair it and being in the sense back to the person….

Cranberries and Dolores too have the feel but still personal preference goes to LP…. Sir Thank you very much…. You have provided to the world the elixir which helps in any kind of breakup….

Coming back to topic. Ya we had a nice lunch and a bottle of Kinley Mineral water as i had to fit the amount in terms of my Sudexho Coupons (32X). I am the one who enjoys his lunch to the max and hence take  maximum time to finish. I took the bottle with me and was drinking the water along the way. Reminded me of Dharmendra in Sholey where he roams around with a bottle in his hand and drinking at will. I came out with others and the bottle was completed when we were walking past HSBC bank. I found a cool dustbin placed just beside the garden of HSBC. I dumped the bottle inside the dustbin. When i looked up i found the security personnel looking at me with suspicious eyes. Eyes were similar to Crazy eyes with Avinash usually shows. It was like the guy thought that i am a terrorist who just threw in the dustbin a bottle-bomb….

For 5/10 seconds i was just lost in the consequences which might be if something happened today here. Think of a case something wrong happens outside and the guard points out to the police that he suspected me. I didn’t even have the bill for the food we ate All the horrible bollywood scenes of torture by Police flashed before me. How the hell am i going to defend myself? Dande pe dande, dande pe dande. Friends turn foe. I loose my job. My identity, character everything is tarnished. Its like Indian team on score 32/4 in 12 overs – basically nothing can be done from this stage.

Suddenly i came out of my dream and i was still looking at the security personnel who was now rushing towards me, shouting in Kannad. The only word i could understand was ‘Parking’. I looked behind me and found an auto rickshaw parked just in front of the No Parking board opposite the main gate of the bank. The security person rushed to the auto rickshaw driver. Close escape   I am chicken-hearted

Right now at work I find people. Pardon me i do not meet people, I meet resources who do mundane work daily – according to our technical director. We all are resources who are being juggled around by the management at will. I find people submissively accepting whatever task is being assigned to them only because they get decent money. The only difference between majority of lot(who do mundane work) and those who are in jail is that we here have freedom to roam outside in world and are paid much more than what jail-mates are being paid. I know its not judicious to compare the two but the ‘work’ we do and they do in the 9 hours/day must be similar- Mundane.

Another different thing that i find in this ‘professional’ world is that people around are not living the way they wana live but rather live it from a different perspective. E.g. my group includes 5 people – Avinash, Amita, Bihari (suresh), Baba (Rohan) and me. I don’t know much about Amita neither about what girls think or do. I guess the most successful relationship handler must be the one who is closest to understanding whats going on in the girls mind most accurately. Coming back to the topic, we all of late have started to take lunch together as Amita will be leaving us and going to US after marriage. All the best to her and may she get all that she expects but the guys around including myself are not the same when she’s around. I know that one’s got to change the ways a little when one has a girl in the company but this much wasn’t called for. We all are bankrupt people but in her presence its like that we have won ourselves a lottery. Spending 1000 bucks each day on an average on lunch isn’t called for. I know people might say that the gujju nature is inherent but i don’t think that this time I am wrong in what I think. We know that Amita’s leaving but did we do the same when PK was leaving or Ashish was leaving. Did everyone shell out when these guys left us. I know she won’t be coming back and has marriage and all but somehow the girl funda is coming in. I personally don’t think that this is fair. The internal khichdi is well known and the girl deserves it but somehow the double standards that we all have adopted don’t sound appropriate to me.

Frankly speaking i don’t feel comfortable here as i have been a person who has always followed games and action and those have been the source for all events around. I have never been around a girl so don’t know what to do or what not when one’s around and that i guess amita too must be knowing well. But i have never tried to be someone else when she’s around or she’s not. I never tried to change my ways and try to create that ‘good boy’ image. Rather I did that which i thought was correct everytime. whether it be making fun of myself for my frugality or my passion for food and games or whatever. I know one thing that she doesn’t like me sitting besides but neither do i like to see someone uncomfortable because of me and am very sorry for changing my seat. Don’t know where i went in this blog but I don’t like the way people around live their lives. One more thing that came to light about people is that they don’t refrain from making fun of others even though the one might be sorry for making the mistake. ‘Mauka mile maar lo’. I know that its a way to crack a joke but for me its no fun. One is psyche if he/she likes to take fun out of ridiculing someone else. That i realized after Bheja Fry. That all are just brick in the wall. Ladki dikhi aur jo woh bole kare woh sahi. No wonder i don’t have a girlfriend but now i think it is better this way. Atleast I am a good human being.

All said and done but in the celebrations one should not forget that fight might be over but battle is not won yet. We have now a very shrewd and calm leader in form of MS Dhoni and a young side which could be groomed to yield rich dividends. 20 20 might be a great milestone but important thing is to raise the game to the next level. Whether it be victory or defeat, true winner is the one who takes positives from both and tries to rectify the mistakes. India should look to imitate Sri Lankan team after 96 world cup – how suddenly they raised their game and stayed there.

Rest all is mundane. Shahrukh’s cheap publicity stunt to promote his film ‘Om Shanti Om’ at the venue. Politicians trying to gain as much limelight as possible from the players. Hockey team (that won Asia Cup flawlessly) was meted out with step-motherly treatment and so on…. But one thing that I personally can’t forgive is the comments by Shoaib Malik at the presentation. “I thank all the muslims around the world”. What cheap statement is that. One should understand that u are the captain of a nation- representative of your country. Its a sport and one is not permitted to polarize communal tensions. A true Hindu or a true muslim or of any religion who supported Pakistan must be thinking now that what low-valued team it was supporting. Sportsman spirit is the key and anyone who doesn’t have has no right to play and bring chagrin to the game.

Actually the routine lives at office has taken almost all of the day from us and we are just after money…. there are few who love what they do but the percentages would not be more than 20 or 30%…. i must be optimistic if i say that 30% love the work they are doing…. if that was the case i would have seen people coming in on weekends…. because for those who come on weekends have the desire to do whatever they like and if they like work they’ll do it on that day also…. i agree that working some 5 days in a week is sufficient for the working appetite of every individual but i say that one should work in that field where he’s interested in doing it 24×7…. u call him any day anytime and he should be there willingly to work considering himself lucky…. i have found only one person who comes in that category and thats Abhinav Soni who loves to try out new things…. hats off to him…. he hacks computers and even tried hacking the Air deccan site only to be stopped at the final hurdle at Database…. Thats why i admire Sachin…. he’s best at what he does…. and loves doing it even after he has done so for last 17/18 years at international level…. I admire Michael Schumacher for his thorough desire to burn the rubber on race track and u find that childish zeal in his approach to win every single little battle and he gives it 100% whenever its asked of him…. once he was asked to cover some 17 minutes over 25 laps and he responded by doing it….

People who do what they like inspire you and motivate you in doing something…. One tends to believe it could be fun…. Take golf for example…. if need to be highly tolerant to watch a golf match but once u start following any game and realize the tussles and complexity involved in it one appreciates each effort or each move…. I say all those who call golf a boring game (including myself) to be uninteresting people….. There are only uninteresting people but nothing like uninteresting work/activity…. but there are definitely some why ignites the wick of desire to please urself by taking the challenge…. i loved playing CS/AOE/Cricket anyday because i loved the challenges that they offered…. along with the challenges i knew that i was good enough to help myself out of those challenges…. i know the days are gone and thinking about it now will only bring frustration…. i know that to get money i need to be that brick in the wall and spend some time and energy sitting against the damned computer helping some coding which has some logic…. Somewhere i miss the key part and am not able to realize the problem or i just need some experience to find the crux of the problem but in either case its boring Joining TIME has opened a new horizon which lets me do something different that along with helps me out in earning as well as improving my interpersonal skills…. and also helps me differentiate myself from other bricks in the wall…. Ignorance is bliss and i still say that lives that our ancestors or even parents lived would have been a lot more happy and satisfied in their times…. I am some hundreds of kms away from my home who cries each day over the pathetic food on offer…. But i guess this is the way to ‘success’…. I know there are some 50/60% people who come in the same category but don’t come out in public…. who cares…. when i c around i find that my life might not be perfect but its in the elite people…. money gives u the option to enjoy almost all material things…. for personal things one needs to rely at least a little on faith and let the dots connect themselves…. i love that speech by Steve Jobs…. its awesome…. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA

Cheers to all those who don’t want to be another brick in the wall!!!!

Anyways luckily my problem is solved and somehow…. i don’t know how my problem is solved and i m getting that awaited message “Build Successful”…. so now its time to do my testing and my modifications…. somehow i dont feel the work to be clicking…. i need to find it why…. but i guess the definition of job is “doing monotonic uninteresting and unwilling work”…. well everyone in this world is after money and unfortunately so am I…. referring to the Frustopia syndrome i guess people in this (incomplete)

But one thing i forgot was that TOI was not only meant to enrich the lives of people by giving them a good newspaper…. The main motive behind the TOI’s stake holders was to make maximum profit which was only possible if the newspaper sells more and more and it keeps on increasing its market share…. and around 2000 was the time when loads of new news channels popped out of nowhere and the customer had the option now of having a look at the news in the way he wanted…. the DD news ishtyle news delivery was rejected and fresh look to news was given by channels like NDTV 24/7, Aaj Tak, CNN-IBN etc…. So TOI realized that it was loosing that chunk of its readers who wanted news and was on prowl of new preys…. it started providing a colored ‘Ahmedabad Times’ for TOI in Ahmedabad…. started focusing on the various Page 3 events and gave lesser importance to the headlines…. one obscene or vulgar article on the front page became a norm…. and it raised the threshold for the photographs’ ratio of the skin showed to skin covered…. in short it started to lure the weak-minded or frustu individuals by igniting the hay of single hood which brought about an increase in levels of ‘frustopias’…. in my hostel i had a lot of guys living nearby my room who opted for TOI only to start the day looking at fresh good pics…. ignorance is bliss and TOI tried to remove that ignorance…. accept it or not but looking around i find that the Indian youth is still immature to accept the western standards of exposure…. I personally believe that Mallika Sherawat and Imran Hashmi might have been one of the best things to have happened to Bollywood in last 3/4 years as it brought about a radical change in the ideology and movies like Metro and Page 3 removing the veil from reality…. but it has along with  brought about an increase in criminal offences too…. the audience or people are too immature and they try to immitate whatever they feel looks nice or cool…. after “Bunty and Bubli” there were lots of cases of similar thefts….Criminal cases are on a rise…. Raping a woman is a child’s play in north india…. its normal for kids to imitate what an actor in a movie does but when you find a lot of youth too taking a leaf out of the book thats when the alarms be raised…. thats why i believe that TOI is taking a cheap way to success but along with it its polluting the mentality of fragile readers…. I know the economic pundits will certainly disagree with me and the youth too will not be ready to accept the reality but TOI has sown the seed of tree of social chaos…. no doubt (incomplete)

Occasion: PK’s party. 27 June 07

Characters: Me, Avinash, Pk, Baba, Bihari, Akhil & Amita

Events: I was playing TT when bihari informed me about PK’s party being scheduled today. I was expecting it to be in near future but as Bihari was planning to party on his b’day on the next day partying that day was not called for. As always we wasted a lot of time in deciding the venue and it got a bit late. Finally ‘Paparazzi’ – which was at walkable distance from office was decided. The view from that place was awesome but unfortunately all the tables along the glass wall were booked and we too wanted an open terrace. But the place was cool and worth giving it one more try…. next time….Akhilbhai too reached Paparazzi and luckily on time no akhilbhai…. only akhil….. ya akhil too joined us outside paparazzi and it brought a big smile on baba’s face…. finally he had a sutta partner as well as sutta which he desperately missed after avinash quit it….

Bihari got a table booked for 7 at ‘Case Del Sol’ which is located on Residency road – some 3 km from office. The traffic on the day was at its peak and no one had the courage to take the bike that day. Also there was no certainty that we will be capable of driving after the party. so taking an auto was the best option.

We reached there before akhil and baba and quickly ordered the “starters” I was in complete mood to reach to the “elevated level” asap…. There r several reasons behind getting it done asap -

1) I hate the taste of beer. I have grown up munching all that tastes good and feels good and fortunately or unfortunately beer has neither of the two qualities.

2) The faster u drink, with max bottoms up the earlier u reach that elevated level.

3) I don’t drink just for the sake of drinking and getting cheered up. or to run away from reality. that elevated level does give me the opportunity to think otherwise and helps me sort out many things which i find it difficult to do in normal circumstances.

4) I don’t like drinking in public so asap when there r less people is a better option.

Coming back…the service was cool and v got what v ordered pretty quickly…. i had couple of bottoms up and feeling the true flavour of beer as i didn’t have lunch…. a practice which is bad but i don’t wanna compromise on the promise that i made to myself…. Akhil n Baba arrived and then we were all set to have “some quality time” …. v had beers and chicken and mushrooms – good open place, perfect breezy weather…. my bottoms up count went to 4 and i could feel that i was near my destination…. PK had ordered a cocktail which everyone tasted and admired…. it was one of the best cocktails i ever had…. its a different issue that i can count on fingers the cocktails i had but anyways it was good one and me and baba ordered one…. i guess by that time Amita and avinash too arrived…. i don’t know much what all v guys were discussing but its the case everytime v have “the quality time”…. I’ll appreciate some narrations of incidents from friends:

Avinash:

Baba:

PK:

Bihari:

All i can recall after 10 PM was that avinash was on cloud no 9 and firing bcs from there to anyone who interfered with him…. the situation was going out of control where i expected his majesty Akhil and the mastermind Baba to rise to the occasion and establish a bit of control on what was going on…. in my drunken state also i could foresee that its not going in right direction…. but i guess they too were a bit drunk at that stage…. somehow i couldn’t control myself and i tried to stop avinash who was going berserk – giving gaalis to waiters and us, breaking glasses, taking shots and shots of vodka and even throwing his camera…. baba too felt the physical tyranny of avinash who threw away his glasses and pulled his hair – one time in front of me and a lot in my absence…. baba got so much enraged that he almost decided to get his hair cut so that he wont have to face the physical torture nexttime…. Bihari was in his own mood after baba said something something to him which neither of the two wanna say…. the final word is that it was some ‘misinterpretation’…. Amita too was……. Actually if someone could figure out what was going on in her mind or why she didn’t retaliate (as she was the only one in her senses and had the authority) at that time plz enlighten me on it…. could be a case that she was afraid of ‘Mr Hyde’ avinash…. or maybe she was enjoying the drama…. or she was bold enough to withstand this and taking it lightly…. or maybe she thought it not good to leave the party halfway through as it doesn’t look nice. also finding and going by auto alone could be a problem….

Anyways after the party when v were looking for an auto avinash was giving gaalis to auto drivers too…. luckily they didn’t understand…. We got an auto at double rate and when traveling avinash was frequently bulging out of the auto window and the driver warned me many times that he might fall off the auto…. I knew someone had to carry him to his bed…. I was not confident that i can carry myself through, carrying avinash was a distant dream…. i called the roommates who came on time and helped me make him reach home…. and then started “Baap re Baap” cassette and the vomiting barrage…. I was about to go so i guess bhattu and amit will be better narraters…. but i know that some sweet lime was made and they were discussing whether they should call a doctor for avinash…. but ya i guess baba might have got it right – Bipolar syndrome….

Anyways its ok to let it go in front of friends…. thats what friends r for i guess…. to help u out when in need….

The class was in Indiranagar…. location of the center was not known to me prior to the class but it didn’t take much effort in finding it out…. the first reaction was…. oh god…. one has so many students in indiranagar!!!! the center was supposed to be one of the less student prone centers but the whole college floor was flooded with students…. I knew it…. i was lacking the beginner’s luck…. the first step was not going to be easy and it wasn’t…. I reached the place pretty early and asked the staff boy for the papers…. He handed me one and i was shocked…. the paper really had pretty complex problems…. atleast it seemed complex for someone who was about to take his first class…. somehow i didn’t get that strength to take the class and i said its better to teach what i have prepared and decided to take the Trigonometry class….

I entered the class and kept my stuff (helmet and bag ) on the desk beside the main table…. but there was no reaction from the students – I expected things to settle down as they had a teacher in the class…. but it was otherwise…. the class was in its own mood…. I announced that the person who was about to take the horrible DEX paper is not available and i m filling in his place…. and also said that i’ll be covering the basics of trigonometry…. There were sounds of disapproval and dejection…. I too had faced similar situations many times at Time…. many times it happened that the class which was having some ‘quality stuff’ was replaced by a pretty basic boring lecture…. But i couldn’t help them…. I had to help myself…. so i started explaining some of the concepts of angle, radian, etc…. i had planned to take some of the concepts of geometry too but the students said that they already had the class of Geometry and were pretty clear about Apollonius Theorem and all…. i lost half an hour of lecture there itself…. I realized that its going to be a tough lecture…. I plotted the sin, tan and cos curves and then decided to take some examples…. As i turned after completing the examples there were some who would shout out the answers and the whole fun of the problem seemed gone…. I realized that i too did the same mistake when i was a student at TIME and i took away the opportunity from others to learn…. Sometimes its better for the sake of whole that one keeps himself shut….

Some weird problems…. Some good problems…. Some where i explained them the fundas…. overall i guess explaining the examples was a pretty decent part of the lecture…. i looked at the watch…. it was only 1 hour gone…. what I was left with was the height and distance section…. I was pretty confident about it and explained that too – hopefully pretty well with help of examples and i could c the class responding too…. finally i got the satisfaction that i was successful in explaining a concept to a major portion of the class…. looked at watch 12.40…. took some more examples…. reached the end of the chapter…. i didn’t knew what to do and somewhere behind someone started to walk out…. i waved towards him signaling its fine to leave but the whole section of that class rose and started to leave…. i looked again at watch…. i left them some 40 minutes in advance…. god…. TIME’s going to kick me out…. but i was little happy the class was over…. i needed time to sit back and think what went wrong and which were the areas where i needed improvements so that the mistakes r not repeated again…. along the lecture i made good friends with 3 students of mine…. after the lecture i was chit chatting with them…. one was a doc ( i was shocked)…. a doc, after so much hard work was looking at CAT….. other was a 1 yr exp engineer similar to me and the third was a college grad…. I took the engineer with me to have something in nearby place…. I was feeling pretty stressed out and physically a bit fatigued…. He took me to a south Indian restaurant on CMH Road :S …. I didn’t have any money…. but the HDFC ATM nearby didn’t give me the money I was feeling little embarrassed…. I’ll be taking a favor from student…. but i guess when the lecture was a disaster nothing else mattered…. At the restaurant we discussed what he did and howz the work at his place…. I took his number too – for referral and all

The other two lectures in the evening which were assigned to me went pretty well and I guess i was able to share my knowledge in a much better way…. and the time too wasn’t that long…. both the classes ended around 2 hours only so it was a good confidence booster…. I got the first lesson on how one should go about teaching and some feedbacks that r going to help me in long run in delivering a lecture…. I know that i m pretty bad at explaining in a lecture…. hopefully it will help me in shaping myself…. Also there is an opportunity where i m also getting paid