Simply Me

Love is in the air

2011-12-16T13:14:00.012+05:30

With the 100 days between our engagement and wedding, I tried to find out love stories about some of our near and dear ones... While in a love-cum-arranged marriage, the questions are... Who proposed, how did he/she propose and so on, in an arranged marriage, the love part of it generally happens after the engagement and the the period between the engagement and the wedding is a time when the guy and girl try their best to meet each other or find some way or the other of communicating to each other...

With amma and annu, the engagement lasted a 100 days as well... At a time when meeting each other was close to impossible and no internet (yeah yeah, the dark ages) and amma in Mangalore and annu in Pune (this distance takes 15 hours by bus in this year and date, so meeting was definitely not a possibility), they exchanged daily letters or cards... The cards were pretty and sweet, amma tells me (like she would show me any of those) and she has preserved them, she says.

When I was talking to Geetakka and Ganesh maam on the phone, both of them on different extensions at their house, I told them about annu and amma exchanging letters. Ganesh maam tells me, they had done the same during their engagement period, but, with a difference... Suddenly, I could hear giggling on Geetakka's end of the phone. They were both in different cities. Ganesh maamu had been working with a bank and while they exchanged daily letters, with the year end at the bank, maamu was more than a little bogged down with the amount of work... After being unable to write for a week, Ganesh maamu was surprised by a letter from his fiance's father one day... Of course, the surprise was nothing compared to the shock at the wordings in the letter... Ajju had written a severe reprimand to him asking him why he hadn't written to Geetakka for so many days... Ajju's poor daughter was in tears at not having received any letter, worried to death about Ganeshmaamu's health... Needless to say, Ganeshmaamu was quick to reply to the letter and write without fail since...

These topics of course led to our conversation on the dining table yesterday where Vasanth mhanthu and Vidya mhava looked at each other with smiles on their faces. Mhanthu was then posted in Delhi and mhava was in Cochin... With the 3 hour wait for placing trunk calls, they were quite lucky that STD calls were being introduced on a trial basis to and from Delhi to different cities of India... Needless to say, mhave's father was quite annoyed with the telephone bills but the fact of the matter was mhanthu and mhava were definitely not bothered by that... Mhanthu then quietly said, he'd send mhava gifts as and when possible.. One was a red saree... with which he sent a letter; but he was definitely in a quandary when he decided to send her a red VIP bag... what does he write now? He expanded the letters VIP for her.... What he said... Lets see who can find out...

Vatsalakka and Shinnamaam's wedding was a little different... Vatsalakka's parents informed her that she was going to get married to Shinnamaam a week hence. So the first time they met was at the wedding!!!

Rekha mavshi and Manali mavshi had been laughing when we asked them. Manali mavshi and Deepak kaka were both in Mumbai and they would meet as often as possible at the station. Her boss was used to losing his secretary at lunch time... Rekha mavshi on the other hand... Kaka had some work in the same town and had been staying in the same house as Rekha mavshi with her family... so much so that people actually thought he was one of the dozen kids of the house. While this had the advantage of there being not the heartache of not seeing each other, the obvious problem was he had gotten to know all her tantrums.

Luckily for R and me, we had the best of all communication media... phone calls, SMS, skype and between the time we first met and our wedding, he came to visit me about 4 times in Pune - once being a surprise visit for my birthday :)

While I started this post before the wedding, the engagement is now over and I now get to see my hubby, Raghavendra, daily... life is definitely sweet :)

Wedding bells...

2011-12-04T16:31:00.003+05:30

Almost an year after my last appearance on my blog, this time I return with an announcement... 'I'M GETTING MARRIED.'

So today, 16 days to the wedding, while I sit at home with huge piles of clothes towering all around me on my bed and on the floor, I decided to write about 'him.'

My fiancé, Raghavendra, is just the sort of guy I was looking for - the exact opposite of me. I keep saying, when God made him, all the qualities He had left in the other box went into making me... He is sensible... I am a nut-case; I am a chatterbox... he will listen to every nonsensical comment of mine; he is a romantic... I am... well... clueless; I love to read... he has promised all my books are going to gather dust sitting in the book shelf he is going to buy for me 'cause he says he wants me to give him company in not-reading!!! In another life, I would have probably been a psycho-rocker... he keeps me grounded...

The question my school friends started with was... 'Tell us everything... Start right at the beginning.' So I did...

Teen saal pehle ki baat hai... (They go: Teen saal???!!!), amma decided to start looking for a prospective groom for me. (Oh accha, wahaan se start kar rahi tu...)... So I continued, saying, we met in Bangalore at my mhanthu's (my dad's older brother's) home. We had a very practical discussion about the typical must-have questions... job, friends and jealousies, clothes - restrictions, how religious is his family, how family oriented everyone is. We moved on to things like hobbies, friends, general stuff... We met up again the next day - Friendship Day. I said I needed time to think and probably talk to him a bit more before coming to a decision. We had received a 'Yes' from his side that morning.

Monday morning, we took a flight back to Pune. My cell pinged with a message as soon as I turned it on... Hope you reached safely... I replied, Yes, reached Pune. Could I call you later around 11 P.M. after I get back from office? He said, 'Sure.'

I called him up at night. We said hi to each other... Then I said, 'Actually, the reason I wanted to talk was to say - Yes.' His reply - OK. You are not saying that because you are being pressurized by your family, are you? I am like!!!??? Ye kaisa reply hai? 'No, I thought about it and came to the decision. How about you? You aren't being pressurized by your family, right?' (I mean, no excitement, no pressure na... itna practical question??? :( Gharwaalon ne to nahi haan bulwaaya usse) 'No-no, nothing like that.' We spoke for a while more and then cut the call.

What I missed telling them was, since then, I have already teased him endlessly about the lack of emotion when I said yes. And he has since told me that that monday was the worst of life in between the time he read my message and I gave my assent. He said he couldn't concentrate on his work and worried incessantly about what I would say. I said, ‘Of course, what else could I say? You ticked all the check boxes in my list of what I wanted...’

Since that first time we met, I have visited Bangalore, he has visited me in Pune, we have each surprised the other on birthdays, we have gotten engaged, we have fallen in love... (though he claims he fell in love with me after talking to me the very first time).

What I didn't tell my friends was R and I were probably destined to be together from a long time. We had been sent each others' horoscopes 3 years ago - right at the beginning of our respective searches but while according to their pandit, our horoscopes matched, not according to our pandit. 3 years down the line and after receiving his horoscope about 5 times from different sources, my mamama ( amma's mum) finally said, 'You know what, lets check again.' Well, needless to say, the rest is history. This time the horoscopes matched and quite well I might add. Apparently, relative positions of the stars makes a difference from time to time... Ohhhh...kkkkay.

Whichever way I look at it though I'd say smart catch on the horoscopes. So as we soon embark on a new journey, we both keep our minds positive about the future and look forward to writing a new chapter of our lives - this time together.

P.S. Archana was wondering if I have known R for 3 years... so maybe my post is confusing... We met august of this year... 2011... So amma of course keeps teasing me... Yeah yeah, and before you used to say... 6 months of engagement... Now from the time you first met him to the wedding, just over 4 months... What changed?

How to make the man sitting behind you on a bus stop snoring (and basically find a way to wake him up)

2011-01-28T12:34:00.000+05:30

1. Make a sound clip of his snore and play it in his ear startling him awake

2. Suddenly take back your chair to its limit so that the jerk wakes him

3. Turn on the reading light over his head so that he dreams he's in an interrogation room and wakes up

4. Gather all your energy caused by the frustration of him talking annoying loud and turn around and start playing antakshari with your neighbour... They are hardly likely to be asleep with the background score

5. Start drinking water and then 'accidentally' pour it on his face

6. Get some cotton and sellotape and tape it to his face

7. Warning: This is not my brainchild. Results may vary. Extreme caution necessary. Author not responsible for consequences

a) Stab him with something

b) Hold a pillow on his face

8. Just kick him

9. Make a deal with the cleaner. Tell him he can catch his beauty sleep if he switches seats with Mr. Kumbhakaran. There is no way the driver is gonna fall asleep. Trust me.

10. Last but not least: Shake him awake and scream at him like a banshee (Don't forget to mess up your already rumpled hair) while pretending you are the ghost of sandman past, present and future and tell him how his snoring didn't let his kids concentrate on studies due to lack of sleep, show him how the other passengers are staring at him and how his neighbour is unable to sleep and finds it difficult to stay awake on the bloody business meeting they had been discussing at full volume before going to sleep

2010-08-11T11:10:00.002+05:30

I have always maintained I have never been in love... but it really is not true... I'm not the jealous type, but surely, this person made me envy the people who took him away from me, who shared his heart... who shared his time... who shared his love. I think he knew. Somewhere in himself he did know for sure. That he was married, it wasn't really to diminish my love... it was in spite that, that I loved him... still do...

I knew he loved his wife more, my amma... but annu was always my best friend... I could talk to him; we'd both tease amma incessantly... I knew what I couldn't tell my mother, I could tell my dad... I am like him actually... crazy, a little more ready to trust people than amma; I do look like him too. Every day, I'd sit and tell him everything.. fight with him... cry, shout... drive amma nuts... but still he was one of my best friends... though it took me too long to realize it.

Annu would drop me off at college and it was one such day when he had dropped me off... We had a free lecture and I was in a free class with my friends when mahesh bhavaji came to the class... Needless, to say, I was surprised... Other than family occasions, I hardly ever saw him... Out of the college and into Meetakka's waiting car... when she broke the news... Annu had passed away from a heart attack... I remember being shocked... speechless in fact... I don't think I cried at once, not when she told me, not when she hugged me hard... I kept thinking... why am I not crying... I'm not sure what was going on in my head apart from these thoughts... , when, how... how is it possible... and most importantly, why... these questions suddenly started to fill my mind...

Coming home to so many people was again a setback... I could see amma was crying and so was bapama, ajju I could see was hit hard, but was taking it as calmly as he could... it had to be hard for them, losing a husband of 20 years... losing your son.. seeing him die before you... no parent should have to go through the pain. When Ashwini came, she was crying too... I was tearless and stonefaced... She said that I shouldn't cry in front of amma, that was easy enough, the tears wouldn't flow in front of anyone... I could only cry when I knew no one could see me or I knew amma was asleep and couldn't hear me... I'd cry myself to sleep everyday...

Talking about annu was like somebody put a hand through my chest, got hold of my heart and squeezed so hard, it ached... it felt like that pain would never go away... it still does feel like that sometimes... but the pain has subsided...

Its been 10 years now... I don't talk about annu to people who don't know already... So I thought it was time that I let it out.

In the 10 years, I have gotten to know amma. She is one of my best friends now... I still say good night to annu after all these years before I sleep, but I do tell amma everything that happened in the day... I have followed annu's advice of being more of an extrovert... talking more freely... but sometimes, I still wish he could have seen the person I am now... Losing annu, and in the past year my ajju and bapama... it feels like I have lost most of my immediate family... The tought that anu wouldn't be at any of the important events in my life, hasn't been during so many, makes me tear up...

Just wish, you were here to help me out and advise me when I fall apart like you were before...

...But it rained

2010-06-12T00:55:00.003+05:30

...So Neha says, 'I don't get it. What's with the traffic jam? I mean if it were one of those serpentine roads, it would make sense... But this is a straight road...' 'Hm,' I said. 'I think the rain makes people a bit mad. Everyone wants to get home faster and then cut through the normal road lines.' What's more, we saw cabs, trucks and buses alike trying to wedge in their way from the wrong side of the road blocking the clear road as well. In your face girls... It was no laughing matter, people really go a little mad when it starts raining.

...If my throat wasn't making plans to protest each time I yawned, with the beginning of a sore throat and cold, I would have loved to eat some of the ice cream in the fridge... Well drat it all, I'm gonna eat some ice cream anyway. I have two days to get rid of the cold before I have to go back to office. The weather's finally cooled down and the open window near my head has given me a cold.

...Priyanka was the first to give a miss call today when it rained

...Wonder how going to Varsha's in the rain is gonna work out tomorrow. I have never had a chance to eat something Varsha's made and I'm super excited

...The rain reminds me of our Mahabaleshwar trip when we were in the 11th standard at Modern College

...It also reminds me of hail storms in Madkeri and Gold Coast

...Amma told me it had rained huge hailstones when it rained a couple of weeks ago... I can't believe she didn't keep some of them in the freezer for me :( (she ate them all by herself... how RUDE!!!)

...I remember my white tie shirt and blue jeans; the ensemble which ensured I came home dripping wet... and the ensemble reminds me of Ramoji Film City... the grand tour of which was interrupted by the rain

...And it reminds me of going to watch Gupt and being afraid the beginning of the movie would remain 'Gupt' for us since we were caught in the rain... (For the record we DID NOT miss the beginning)... And Gupt reminds me of Usha Pacchi and amma and annu and me watching many movies together when Usha Pacchi visited Pune.

...And the rain reminds me of sitting outside the door on the steps of mamama's home and enacting all Ads of those days with Narsimha maamu and Usha Pacchi and making paper boats

...And the memories keep flooding...

What an IDEA sirji!!!

2010-06-05T17:56:00.005+05:30

So we finally got an IDEA SIM... While that in itself is not exactly an interesting blog worthy news, the events that led up to buying it sure seem to be worth penning or rather typing down...

It all started Thursday last week or the 27th to be precise... When I called amma when I went for break, I got a number cannot be reached message... If you are an Airtel user, you would know this can be irritatingly normal. I left it at that and called on the land line... Everything is fine amma says... OK... Life goes on as usual the next day.. amma gets a couple of calls on her cell and makes some outgoing calls as well... But as evening approaches she starts getting messages which say 'Call 9890098900.' when I call her, I get 'This number does not exist.' I come home and amma says... Something is wrong, I suddenly started getting the message and now there is no service... Try restarting it or putting the SIM back in she says... OK... That's what I do and still no service.. SIM registration Failed it says... OK.. So I call 9890098900 from my cell... (Yeah I use airtel despite the large number of dropped calls too.) Madam, this number is not in our database... Please visit our Airtel office comes the reply from the Call Centre female...

The office near Karnatak High School is a small office with two ladies at the help desk... who seem absolutely disinclined to help... Prepaid number? Are you sure? This number does not exist in our system... There's a phone there... Call 999 from that number... OK, immediate reply on the other side... On comes a guy who starts off in marathi... No probs... Here's the deal... Our number is disconnected and the lady here says the number does not exist in your database... What do we do now? Well your number definitely does not exist... Did you get any verification calls? No... Was this number bought outside Maharashtra? No, Pune. How many months have you been using this number? 6 years... 6 YEARS??? Yes 6 years... Hmmm, whats your name... Its registered under Lata Shenoy's name... Ok Lataji... (He suddenly starts speaking in Hindi for some reason now... Like because my last name is Shenoy, I suddenly am unable to speak marathi... Whats with people? I have seen this happening so many times!!! Well anyway thats beside the point) Could you give me your alternate contact number... address... last recharge date? Well point is the number is not in our database. What is your expectation? That you want the same number? Yes and we had a balance as well. (Rs. 250+ is quite inconsequential when it comes to telling people who have known this number for 6 years... but still, I wanted to point this out) OK ma'am, we'll call you on the alternate contact number (I gave both land line and my cell number to be on the safe side) within 72 hours. OK, and what if I DON'T get a call in 72 hours? If... you... DON'T... get a call in 72 hours? Aap ye number 6 saal se istemaal kar rahe hain, to humara bhi kuch farz banta hai aapki taraf... You have spoken to me for like 15 minutes, I'll ensure you get a call back. I'll discuss with my seniors. OK...

Apparently, 'ye number 6 saal se istemaal kar rahe hain' isse koi farz nahi banta... We did not get a call back. We had resigned to going back the coming Saturday. Amma suddenly got an idea on her way home from her evening walk on Thursday. She walked up to the shop where we get our balance recharge done every time and told him the situation... He immediately called up and gave the call center people a major dressing down demanding to talk to floor manager and getting a complaint number. Call back in 24 hours was guaranteed. Threaten to contact Consumer Court was the advice we received from most relatives and friends. So 24 hours hence, still no update...

We ended up back at the airtel office this morning and it was back to the same questions and I finally said to the girl, these are the same questions I had answered last week. Please tell me what we need to do now. She figured I was a crazy irate customer (the same kind we make faces at and mute the phone to scream at when things start going mad on our calls) and passed me on to her floor manager. After repeating the same question-answer session, he finally said, You'll get a call back in 24 working hours i.e. Monday. I'll call you on Monday at 6 P.M. to check if you received a call back or I'll escalate the matter he says... Too frustrated, I said OK... Wrote down his name and the new complaint number.. The one we were given earlier was incorrect apparently... only 8 digits against the actual 10 digit number... Don't know what game they were playing.

So we walked out of there and went to our usual recharge shop and got an IDEA connection. In all honesty, we needed a number quickly and this made sense. I coaxed amma into getting a non-airtel number. At least we have 2 separate connections now. Though if and when we get the number back I don't know who's supposed to be carrying around 2 cell phones... I don't get why people do that and for a person who forgets her cell at home, doesn't carry it around and needs to call from the land line to figure out where I had put it before forgotten its existence, I'm not gonna lug it around. So lets see.

Anyway, now looks like we get to explore our fourth service provider... lets see how this is... Strange that Airtel themselves were what convinced amma to change her number to IDEA when all my arguments that IDEA has cheaper call rates hadn't convinced her to give up her number and that in spite of the bad reception at home. Ab dekhte hain kya hota hai.

P.S. Other evidences:
1- When I told this to Priyanka last week, she said her brother had got frustrated with the bad airtel service and switched to IDEA...
2- I chatted with Amit this afternoon and he said his dad has this airtel lifetime validity number which he or his brother used when they visited their parents. The last time he went home, it seems the SIM did not get any service. Calling on the number redirected to another person. Apparently, since they had not recharged (note again, this is a lifetime validity number) for the past 3 months, they had recycled the number. After a lot of calls and threats to contact consumer court, the SIM was reactivated.

Saying goodbye...

2010-05-26T22:43:00.003+05:30

Some people just touch your life and become a part of it. And when they leave, you miss them terribly. Some of them you miss when you don't see them at their desk or when your realize that when you turn around to talk to them, they just aren't there... But there are others, who make you feel you are going to burst into tears as soon as they start off on their 'Goodbye... I'm gonna miss you... And this is what I think of you and what I want to say to you' pre-cake-cutting speech.

The last time this happened to me was when Anjali had left. My fellow gossip, mostly I was a sounding-box when she complained but she has done her share of extending the sympathetic ear when I cribbed about how much I miss my grandparents or cribbed regarding how moms never understand you. Standing on the BOBJ floor and trying to wipe off tears unobtrusively was really difficult as we said goodbye especially considering she was off to Singapore... definitely not as close as a call or chat or a weekend meet away.

Today when Pulkit was about to leave, I could feel my eyes fill up and my throat choke; I knew I had to shut up if I didn't want to start crying then and there. I'm sure I sounded callous when all I said is bye. He said we shouldn't miss him since we'd keep meeting and it won't be Goodbye. It's true but the fact is I won't see him in office; I'll miss his enthusiasm, spirit, sincerity towards work, his friendship... I don't know.. just way too many things. Probably more so because we were in the same group and have shared tiffins as often as gossips.

I'm sure we'll keep meeting Pulkit and Saumya even though he has left but I'll still miss sending out the ping for lunch with his name not there in the list. It's one thing knowing someone is on leave and entirely different when you know they aren't coming back.

Well Pulkit, considering you said we'll all keep meeting, trust me this time you have no way around us coming to your place to eat Saumya ke haath ka khaana. Lunch is still pending. All the best buddy for your new job. Hope you reach as many lives and people as you did here. Take care.

Happy thoughts...

2010-05-21T00:25:00.004+05:30

Life Never leaves you empty,
It replaces everything you've lost.
If it asks you to put something down,
Its coz its asking you to pick something better.

So let me start the post by thanking Sheeba for this truly positive message.

I have been in a rut; so much that I had spoken to someone and said that I had lost all positivity... I who once in a conversation had said, 'I mean, if things go from bad to worse and you finally hit rock bottom of what you thought was a bottomless pit... the only way to go is up.' I believed it, I honestly did. Things, be they good or bad, change...

This message truly conveys positivity... There are many cliches, like when 'One door closes, another one opens.' This one is very similar to that, but the fact is this SMS really touched that part of me that was getting buried under and bogged down under stress and confusion and brought a smile to my face... And that is why I share it here.

Making studying fun...

2010-05-01T00:52:00.006+05:30

So I'm studying for the SAP Certified Application Associate Exams... The pattern changed today i.e. May 1st and I really wanna be one of the first in the team to give the exam. But as I try desperately to study and my hands keep wandering to Mozilla Firefox and the Facebook tab, I have to think about the time I had really enjoyed studying...

There were my classes in 10th at Rajesh Study Centre (RSC) when we used to sit at the class all day and study. While one sir kept the doors unlocked for us, the other gave us treats of Samosas (in my case kachori) and soft drinks. Aditi, Sonal and I had a ball studying and chatting.

Then there were the engineering days, be it practicing graphics together or studying for IP, we have gathered at my house and studied... but not before 'Pet Pooja'... Pehle watermelon and then studies...

Then came the MCSE classes (I still can't believe I never gave the final qualifying exam to become MCSE certified... I stopped at 6 exams... can you believe it???)... Staying back after class, playing with the VMWare, making all those images, testing all kinds of crazy scenarios that took our whim...

But, in all honesty, this post is not about all those times... as we went out to Mezza9 to celebrate 3 years of the Campus 1 batch at KPIT(though our batch completes 3 years on 7th May), I got talking to Uday, our trainer, about all the fun we trainees had had. When I had first seen Uday, during the walk-in at Tejas Office, I had thought he was one of the engineers, a young guy like him definitely wasn't a recruiter. I am embarrassed to admit, that I had actually borrowed a pen from him since I had nervously left my pen case (yeah I used to carry one... Manish has even teased me about it being evidence that I was Uday's trainee) in my sack (yeah, I still prefer it to hauling around a purse). Imagine my shock when I walk in with 4 other people and see the same guy talking to a room of almost 50 people. It was later that I knew that he was, indeed, the trainer. 7 days of intense training both technical and V&A and I was a nervous wreck about the first exams. The exams left just about 15 of us with some shifted to the dev training and just a handful in Architecture (that was what BIP was called back then). Then around 6 more joined us for the product training and we were on our way. To cut a long story short our training started on 7th May 2007 and ended on 7th July 2007 (get it.. 7-7-07?) That's just the short of it, but what made it enjoyable was this...

We celebrated everyone's birthday with songs from Yogesh (if you look back through my posts... just search for the name Yogesh and you'll know... he is one incredible singer) and for some reason from me as well... Mimicry(I wonder if anyone remembers the Hyderabadi stand-up)... e-mails on our KPIT group (all sorts of non-sense including a chain mail.. again something you'll find somewhere in the posts)... the servers and workflows lessons with chocolates (needless to say all said chocolates were provided by Parag as it was a rule that whoever called Uday 'Sir' was to get everyone chocolates the next day. Parag had a ready stash of chocolates), the last day i.e. red day and cake cutting, the presentation 4 of us had given as a possible Sales team marketing Business Objects (I remember Manish saying, 'You said you get stage fright? I don't think so') and most importantly, the BOCD presentation that Parag, Sumeet and I had given. That gave us a lesson in presentation, addressing the public at large and in my case an idea of how to keep your mouth moving, making words come out of it and sound sensible even though your knees are shaking and you are on the brink of a panic attack.

The singing, writing on the glass partitions (drawing the workflows... not ruining the glass partitions), listening to music until Uday came back to the training room as we tested all the tasks, the laughter is something that I miss while I study alone today before my computer... Some of my batchmates are still in KPIT, though very few of the then architecture training team remain... just Parag, Nikhil K., Yogesh and I... Atleast 3 have left in 2010 alone...

Of the Campus 1 batch, most are senior engineers, one ASME, one Manager but the fact is, the celebration still is big...

Wishing my Campus 1 batchmates and the two trainers Uday and Manish CONGRATULATIONS on our completing one more year at KPIT... As Anis Sir's e-mail said, Keep Walking...

EBUS Oscars and Party...

2010-04-25T00:45:00.005+05:30

What does it feel like dressing up... walking down the red carpet... being interviewed... watching the Oscars in person... having friends giving a Thank You speech with your name in that... Well those are questions I can now answer... and the answer is...

AMAZING!!!

So after all the anticipation, mystery, preparation and endless teasers, we finally celebrated the EBUS Oscars... Greeting us on the red carpet were Siddhi, dazzling in pink and Avinash, handsome in a suit... And of course the camera person, Pulkit, dashing in a suit. After answering questions, being complimented and writing on a white board something special about EBUS... (Exquisite, Brilliant, Unique, Stylish), we went on to the auditorium where the Oscars were held.

The ceremony began shortly with the jury and guests... Pawan S., Sumit B, Shilpa D., Sunil K., Anurag, Mangal, Venkat, Gaurav and Vikesh. Awards included categories like Customer charmer (M & F), Sweeping Closures(M & F), Best Debut, Backlog eradicator and more with the penultimate best Manager and HEPZ (High Energy and Performance Zone) representative. The jury charmer speech was of course Nakul's speech after winning the Quality award... His acceptance speech said... 'Its cool to get an award for doing the simplest things and nothing special' (well I paraphrase of course)... The two special awards were grabbed by Vikesh and Gaurav respectively.

What makes any event special are of course the anchors and they were Siddhi and Avinash. With a witty script the two put up a really smart show. With a song performance by Pradnya, Mimicry and an ingenious song (based on beedi jalaile) by Anshul and skit showing the managers' meeting (something every engineer wonders about) by Pavan (as Venkat), Pulkit (as Gaurav), Pradnya (as Bhavi) and Yuvraj (as Vikesh) the show was a grand success. The way the managers' nuances were captured by the Fantastic Four is very commendable.

A ceremony like the Oscars would seem quite unbeatable, but then it was party time today... At Aqua Lounge and Laguna (Disco/bar and Dinner)... With foot stomping music, everyone was on the dance floor... Dancers ranged from almost professionals (like Venkat, had heard he was in Shiamak Davar's academy... Double Wow to his dancing) to creative (like Rajeev... chapati making step, cooking step, driving step). Some unbelievably good dancers and dance steps. Needless to say, everyone said 'Please don't Stop the Music' though the dance had to come to an end and we proceeded to Laguna for dinner.. with delicacies like Ghosht, Murg (no. sadly I couldn't eat this, Saturday no-non-veg), Paneer, Mushroom-Corn, Rice, Daal and Raita... the dinner was quite fantasti.. to cap it all were the desserts... Jilebi and Rabdi and my all time favorite Vanilla with Chocolate sauce (Still drooling after the chocolate binge... yummm...)

A ride back with Pulkit, Saumya, Siddhi and Pradnya completed the day off nicely. Thanks a lot to those who made these events possible... Sunil Sir, Venkat, Gaurav, Vikesh, Bhavi... This was memorable...

Event rating: ***** for each of the two... Unfortunately that's the highest I can give... an additional * because I finally went o a disco... (Yayyy me)... So 6* out of 5... actually more... the best office party :)

P.S. Need to ask Venkat if EBUS displayed HEPZ culture on the dance floor as well :P

Things to do when you can't fall asleep

2010-04-24T01:01:00.002+05:30

1- Count from 1 to ... and visualize each number. Restart counting from 1 if your mind starts to wander. You'll be so bored of going through 1-10 over and over, you fall asleep
2- Study... Need I say more?
3- Look at photos and videos... Videos of dancing with friends at Sanskruti and mechanical bull ride at Essel World.. Trust me you get tired just looking at that stuff
4- Make like Heidi and count goats jumping over a fence... If you haven't seen goats lately, your brain is gonna quit before you are able to visualize the goat...
5- Start writing a poem for your friend who's getting married... complete the poem and then go to sleep.. mind is cleared after writing the poem.. no more mental lyrics composition required... You'll fall asleep
6- Start to write a blog post about 'Things to do when you can't fall asleep.' Thats surely gonna leave you knackered... And now that my eyes are starting to droop, mez gonna sign off.. Good night... Whew just 1:10 and I'm bushed...

I am overjoyed...

2010-03-20T00:46:00.002+05:30

I seriously am overjoyed... I have got today (or should I say yesterday, its almost 1 in the morning...) something I have wanted for sooooooooooo long... For the first time after 2 and a half years, I became the Hero of the Week...

I understand 2 and a half years is along time to win this prestige, but that actually makes this sweeter... I have been jumping with joy and grinning since I got home...

Is it selfish and self-centred if I just keep talking about how I feel??? But the fact is, I just got something I have really aspired and craved for and it means a lot to me... probably more than any other recognition that I have received at work since a long time... This doesn't make all the other recognitions any less, its just that this is something more... much much more...

So here goes the e-mail...

---------------
Subject: This Week's European Business User Support (EBUS) & IBUS Hero of the week is......

……..is Tejaswini Shenoy from IBUS EBUS BIP-ADMIN Team based in Pune.

Tejaswini has been a key player in the team and has demonstrated exceptional skills in managing AUTH queue at IBUS EBUS Team.

We received the following comments recently appreciating Tejaswini’s dedication and commitment:

***:

Tejaswini Shenoy is a technically competent, polite, kind and with great patience! Brilliantly she resolved our problem. I'm very satisfied from your support service.

xxx

Italy

***:-

We received quick and reliable information on what to do. So far this case is closed cause we are looking forward to move on to XI 3.1. I was very pleased with the commitment and the accuracy of questions asked and solution provided. Thank you

***:-

Tejaswini Shenoy makes a really good job. It takes a long time to find a solution but it was a more a problem on xxx-domain-policy. She analyzed all the problems and at the end we found the exact solution what she suggested. The other problem was my calendar as it was overloaded. She was also very helpful behind all the requests we had for the problems.

Best Regards,

xxx

Senior Application Manager

This feedback truly reflects Tejaswini’s dedication & commitment on delivering the best to our customers. Experts like Tejaswini lead by example and, as we see from their comments above, customers are clearly delighted with the service offered.

Congratulations and great work Tejaswini!

Graham

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

(Sorry for all the xxx... I think the NDA I signed does not allow me to mention the names of customers or customer contacts)

I received some really nice comments and congrats e-mails from many of my colleagues and friends and seniors and I really want to thank them... And a huge thanks to Gaurav for nominating me and as Gaurav said, a huge thanks to Bhavi for pressing my case on his behalf since he couldn't join the final Hero of the week call... Thanks for all the support, for the encouragement and for believing in me... (This might sound like one of the Oscar speeches, but this really means that much to me :D )

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS :D

P.S. As I was returning from work, I looked at the calendar and realised I have a week and a half rather than just 2 days as I had thought originally and you know what... I am going to make my resolution of the month come true...

Note to self: It has been a long time since I wrote Uday a list of 'First's since I went live in the process... Ensure that this e-mail is forwarded to him as well.

Now what do I make of this...?

2010-02-16T01:17:00.001+05:30

It was a sunny day and amma had walked down with me from our house in Rambaug colony on Paud Road. I really didn't want to go to office today. One of my best friends was getting married in Pune and I wasn't given a leave to attend her wedding. I had been in tears all through morning that my one of my links to childhood was slipping away and I couldn't go to wish her on her special day and heaven knew when I'd see her next once she left Pune.

Amma advised I take the lower road which was nice and full of trees and then climb up to the bus stop than the usual sunny upper road. Sure. But the problem was, I had never taken that road before so I wasn't a 100 % sure how to get there. After getting to the end of the road, I started climbing. I kept climbing till I had reached the top... But where was the bus stop? In fact where was I? I couldn't find my way down. I look around and I see a wide water body, a river perhaps and on the other side, a giant wheel. I remember thinking of Essel World.

But where exactly was I? I remember feeling utterly lost, scared and helpless. I picked up my phone to call up amma. I was stuck on something of a hill with no way down...

Thankfully amma woke me up just then. As I related this to amma, I realize I can never remember feeling as lost in my life as in that dream and considering we had left that home more that 10 years ago, what exactly do I make of this?

...

2010-02-07T00:55:00.005+05:30

I didn't want to go to Bangalore in October... and I don't want to go tomorrow... I guess it just makes me HAVE to believe they are both gone...

I can't call them to tell them about my office... my ajju won't ask me my salary and say, isn't that less? Bapama won't say, don't worry, don't feel bad about ajju... Bapama won't say, don't worry, you'll get married when its right; when you find the right guy...

I can't call them every weekend... I can't call ajju just to ask him which is correct: 'I am as good as he' or 'I am as good as him.' I won't be able to show ajju any of my poems if I ever get around to writing one again...

I surely can't tell either of them how much I love them... I could never really say goodbye to either of them... I can't listen to ajju tell another story or sing another song which hasn't been recorded... I can't hear bapama ask how some relative or family friend is whom she hadn't seen for years together...

Amma won't be able to tell bapama about a neighbour from Ashwamedh society where we lived until '99 whose son is getting married and be surprised when she asks about not just them but also about half the other people in that building WE hadn't thought about in years...

I can't say anymore that my ajju is going to complete his 102ND year or bapama reach her 90Th year or them celebrating their 75Th anniversary...

I won't be able to take their blessings when I get married... When I do find that guy I'll marry, he'll never be fortunate enough to have met them...

Never again will I see them smile... Never again will I see him look at her with love or with that possessive look... never again will I hear her say in a choked voice how happy he would have been to hear me sing one of his favorite songs... Never will I be able to hear her reminisce something funny from the past... or hear her tell a story...

There are so many things I never thought to ask and they never thought to tell...

I have to keep telling myself this is for the best, but still my eyes well up.. still my throat chokes... still I try not to let the tears fall down... still I try to think of all this without getting depressed... still I try telling myself that losing 3 of the 4 people I have loved the most in my life isn't the end of the world... still I tell myself life should go on... still I tell myself that neither of them would be OK seeing me feeling low... still I hope to see them again as someone else... still I hope I have already learnt enough from them... still I say shubha ratri, good night and oya sumi nasai to the three of them...

Goodbye bapama...

2010-02-01T00:04:00.004+05:30

As tears finally course down my cheeks, I think of my bapama who had lived with us for almost 16 years of my life. The woman who was whimsical, childish, who fought with annu and would not talk to him if he scolded me, who loved her husband so much and was loved equally in return has now gone on to join him in his heavenly abode.

Though they had an arranged marriage, ajju and bapama would be subjected to all sorts of teasing since he was her brother's friend and colleague. 12 years apart in age but so strong a love and bond was hard to come by.

Celebrating a love for 75 years of a truly blissful marriage and a cute romance is an example any couple would like to follow.

A protective grandmother, a possessive mother, a loving wife and most of all a woman who had her feet grounded in tradition but a mind which learnt to adjust to a more modern outlook, she has been a woman of formidable strength though frail and tiny.

I wipe my tears now thinking ajju and bapama are back together after a separation of 4 months.

I'll always love you bapamu. Good night. Sumadhura swapna.

Quoting quotes...

2010-01-23T11:12:00.003+05:30

...So after long anticipation, Harry and Michelle came to visit our office on Wednesday. We had meetings, sessions, awards... the usual stuff that happens when clients come over. So as yesterday was to be their last day in our office, some cards had been brought for the entire team there, for us to sign and for Michelle to take back with her.

The plan being that everyone sign on the left page and write the recipients name on the right hand page, I raised a request that we write some sort of quote as well. I volunteered for looking for the quotes. Nakul, the one with really good handwriting, was to write down the quotes.

As soon as we started, Manju and Siddhi claimed the cards that they wanted to be sent to Carmelo and Barbara respectively. Theirs would be the first signatures on those cards. Once all cards were signed, Nakul and I took the cards back to my desk to look for something to write. The only quotes we found though beautiful were quite impersonal. We started off with those for Carmelo, Barbara and Michelle.

But as soon as Niks saw them, he was like, this is so impersonal. We said, look for somethign interesting then. True to his word, he found some beautiful personal sounding thank you quotes/sayings/verses. (Needless to say, the first one he found we wrote to his 'long-distance' girlfriend. BTW, I wonder how his wife Varsha would react to that.) And for the last 3 or 4 I managed to write something myself or spin-off on some existing quotes.

Unfortunately that left Barbara, Michelle and Carmelo; the three people we wanted to really thank and they had the most or rather only impersonal messages. For Barbara and Michelle, we did manage to add something interesting, but for Carmelo, this was difficult. Manju was obviously disappointed. After all the one person she wanted to write to had such a vague message.

So she decided to find a quote and the one she found was obviously vetoed: While saying 'I would thank you from the bottom of my heart, but for you my heart has no bottom' sounded bad enough, changing this to say the words from the entire team sounded even weirder. 'We would thank you from the bottom of our hearts, but for you our hearts have no bottom.' That sounded totally like poori ki poori team ek bande pe line maar rahi hai... Absolutely, totally, completely out of question. I started writing something to say Thanks.

You have always helped us, be it evening or noon
Wish you could also visit, hope to see you soon

'Nahi, Its not like he has specifically helped me. But he looks so good in the photo. Dekh Nakul... You either write the quote I found or atleast say, Come to India,' says Manju. Now that I had a clear idea of what she wanted, I modified the earlier verse(Note to self: Tell Pallavi, verse is better suited for the topic of our conversation than stanza)

Your photo is so good, it makes Manju swoon,
Wish you could also visit, hope to see you soon

To the point and clear... 'It is true,' said Manju. 'But we can't write this.'
OK, how about this...

Your photo is so good,
That it has taken Manju's heart,
Now she cannot concentrate,
Because you're so far apart...

'Kitne bure ho tum log,' said Manju as Siddhi, Nakul and I laughed.

Alright, how about this...

Your photo is picture perfect,
It has taken Manju's breath,
Just one chance to see you,
Would make her feel so great...

As we 'ROFLOL'ing, we finally went with the first option after Manju had the temerity to say, 'Aisa karte hain, tune jo likha hai, thoda change karte hain... aur likhenge...'

Your photo is so good, be it evening or noon,
Wish you could also visit, hope to see you soon

Nakul was like, 'Photo kaise din mein alag time pe alag dikhega?' 'Lights off course,' we said and laughed again.

So finally with the last one done, Siddhi stuck all the ribbons on the envelopes and all cards were signed, sealed and ready to be delivered.

P.S. I am now officially signed in as the Content writer for my friends' wedding Invitation :) Gotta prepare a nice little verse for them :)

P.P.S. Will write the rest of the stuff I wrote, some other time

A secret confidante...

2010-01-23T01:20:00.002+05:30

Whenever I have been to a Beauty Parlour, I have observed that people bare their hearts before the hair snippers... Be it about their nasty MIL or bitching SIL... In fact, even the hairdressers themselves talk about their own miserable home life... I had always wondered how people can do that... I mean seriously, yo are washing your dirty laundry in public and literally public you have never met... I always thought that if you talk to your Family-In-Law you would be more likely to get to the crux of the issue than with 10 strangers eavesdropping on your tale of woe...

Well working in the IT industry, I wonder if we aren't doing the same thing... I mean come on... if you want to know which company is good for you son to join be it with regards to the salary, management or pressure, the best person to ask is probably your car driver's brother who drives a cab ferrying IT employees to their offices...

I mean, seriously, we are like almost totally indiscreet about whiom we talk about in the cabs... family, room mates, managers, home towns, boyfriends, girlfriends... and the silent listener is the cab driver...

And they are definitely as much into gossip as the female hairdresser at your local beauty parlour... The cab drivers hear people talk about their jerk managers who are biased, about the management which won't talk about a pay raise, about colleagues who are the managers' pets, which manager is most likely to fight for his team member to get them a decent VPI... and they definitely pass on the gossip; Be it to another cab driver or employees sitting in the front seat...

I was wondering today when a friend was talking about her nosy room mate and we were bitching about a certain biased good-for-nothing someone, just how much the cab driver was taking in...

I wondered if he were not thinking that he had a much quieter life driving a cab with an entertaining saas-bahu like drama enfolding with the employees sitting on the passenger seat and back seat.

I wonder....

2010-01-19T01:03:00.003+05:30

If someone is my best friend and if I am 'apparently' their best friend as well, why won't that person listen to me when I tell them to do something... and that too for their own safety??? :(

Finally... Whew :)

2010-01-17T19:50:00.002+05:30

It has been more than an year since Siddhi and I had been planning to go to Durga coffee house. And since then Siddhi has shifted to Sinhgad road and now Paud Road and we finally had a chance to go to Durga Coffee House.

So 6:30 saw Nirjhari, Siddhi and me at Durga. As I stood outside, I started wondering...

1- After all that I had extolled the place, would the coffee live up to Siddhi's expectation?
2- Having been there only once before in my entire life, was the coffee really that good?

My questions were indeed answered as I took the first sip. The cold coffee is still the most amazing cold coffee I have ever had. It is frothy and yummy and so brilliant, I wonder when I'll go again.

2009 - The year that was...

2010-01-01T23:35:00.005+05:30

...So at 2:00 A.M. last night as I got into bed, I realized my mind was racing... I really wouldn't fall asleep until I got everything out of my system... I was too tired to write down everything and just decided to record whatever I was thinking... But whatever I recorded last night, I really can't bother posting... I don't like the sound of my own recorded voice pausing, breathing, thinking... So I thought I'd just write down stuff

...Last year, in January, the first Sunday of the year, 3 girls met... at Hakka for lunch... The most memorable thing here was the notes we wrote for each other, Purni, Shrads and I... Purni had written a toast to our friendship and singlehood (The last one may not last long though, right... she had written)... Shrads wrote that each day we live we leave footsteps behind and it is important how each day is spent because the imprints lie like footfalls in snow... How very true... Purni's words seem prophetic now... Shraddha is now married for almost 4 months and in Germany, Purnima has found her soul mate as well and will be married this year...

...For me year 2009 was mainly an year of joys... an year of revelling in the happiest days of some of my friends' lives... weddings, babies, committments... Priyasha, my neighbour got married... Two Gauris from school got married, coincidentally, on the same day... The Gauri who was my good friend in school, I met after 9 years on her wedding day... Suchitra and Supriya got married.. Sujata has now a daughter, Nitya... Ananthanna is engaged... At office, Imran got married though is not working at KPIT anymore.. Nikhil, my fellow, auth team member and buddy got married in Feb to his sweetheart... Pranjal is engaged... My little bro, Vijendra, brought a new member to our family, Padmini/Vandana... his lovely wife. So many of these are love marriages... and I have to mention that there are two more of my friends who are committed but about whom I heard from other friends, so I shan't mention details here... Such and Shrads are now abroad... But so is Anjali... her husband's project got transferred to Singapore and after leaving her job here, Anj is working in S'pore as well... One of my dear friends is expecting a baby... again not gonna give away details just yet. We went for Anirruddha's moonji in Udupi...

...I made new friends and by this I mean some acquaintances of 2008 are now good friends... There's Rachana, Garvit, Pulkit, Saumya, Nikhil S., Nirjhari, Siddz... Two friends got added to the my list of best friends.. Amma of course and Sujay from work. After 9 years, Friendship day, brought with it a friendship that was never ever forgotten.. Wasima and Basma I met for the first time after school... and Sharvari and Priyanka and Balmeet...

...I read a lot of books... most significant of which is the Harry Potter series; I am reading the 7th book now and will read the first one last... I feel that one is jinxed, I have never been able to complete it. We painted our house... I bought a new Teddy Bear home... Watched some fun movies with Shraddha, Purnima, Pallavi and amma.

...The saddest event of the year for me which hit me personally was losing the second love of my life, my ajju. But, this was not completely sad in that, he had lived life to the fullest... genuinely king-size... and passed away so very peacefully. He never had to depend on anyone... He lived and died on his own terms, surrounded by part of his family and still so much in love with Bapama... And maybe that's what gave HER strength... the strength to pick up the pieces that we were shattering into.

...At work, I got promoted to Senior Engineer... I am now working with the Admin team... so its a new team and a new manager and also a new Senior manager. Some of my batch mates switched jobs. Some are serving their notice periods. I received some wonderful comments from friends when we had our post-it week when we wrote comments and stuff for each other. A group of my office friends and I watched so many movies together and I have rated all of them so badly that Nikhil S. said that for Tejaswini to really love a movie, it really needs to be exceptional. Our team went to Essel World last month and had fun bonding and acting like kids... We had a joyous Christmas and loads of gifts and wonderful comments for our managers.

...I have missed dance classes this year... and I have missed writing poems; though I did write two... one for Shraddha, at 1:50 or something in the morning after she told me she was getting married and another for Sujay as a testimonial and birthday gift. Ashwini introduced me to some beautiful blogs... sensitive ones and nasty, bitchy ones. My hair is now quite short thanks to the quick snips of my hair dresser, though I don't have too many complaints.. I love it this way; its just nasty business tying it up so that it doesn't get wet in the shower.

...That was my year 2009 crammed into one post.

2010 is now here... I am gonna go and continue reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows now..

Good night and a Happy New Year

Avatar

2009-12-27T12:08:00.005+05:30

So... I watched this movie with my office friends on wednesday... A good movie overall and good movie to comment on.

The story is quite interesting in that, on a distant planet in 2054, humans are to connect with their minds to their 'Avatars' (Read Ae-va-th-aar-s) which look like the indigenous population Na'vi. The Na'vi have a strange connection to their planet, the animals and trees. The story is then the usual... hero falls for the alien female, then fights against the evil researchers/scientists/miners from his home planet to lead the inhabitants of the planet Pandora to victory.

Whats hot about the movie is the colour and imagination put into making this movie. The animals though have a resemblance to earthly animals are still very different. The flora and fauna is all colourful and vibrant. Bright blues and reds dot the frames. The holy tree is breathtakingly beautiful too.

Whats not hot is the fact that this movie has been made in 3-d and it is terrible... especially if you have watched movies like Final Destination 4 which has you gasping and shrinking when objects seem to fly at you. Honestly, there is not much of a point to have made the movie in 3-D. It doesn't have anything for the need of the 3rd dimension and what little is shown in 3-D is sloppy work indeed.

So overall, my verdict for this movie is 3 stars for the movie - 1/2 a star for the bad and disappointing 3-D. So overall, 2+1/2 stars. Catch the movie in 2-D. The 3-D wow factor is only for those who have never watched a 3-D flick.

Secret Santa

2009-12-19T13:44:00.006+05:30

Christmas and New Year are right around the corner and since I joined KPIT in 2007, it has meant the following things... End of quarter... so mad pressure to meet targets... no leaves... no customers... no counterpart engineers... and strangely last two year ends two of my cousins got married. This year though, our senior manager came up with the idea of celebrating Christmas.

He calls us in one day last week and says... 'It is celebration and festival time and everyone is working with dead faces. So what we are going to do this year is celebrate Christmas at work.' Now apart from the themes and decorations and Christmas tree, we were to have Secret Santa. Now, for the uninitiated, Secret Santa basically means, the names of all people involved are written down on chits and each person brings a gift for the person whose name is drawn.

Accordingly we brought in and decorated a tree... it looks lovely in fact downright stunning by the way... we drew names. Now came the huge issue... what do we get? Now I know what I'd buy for my close friends.. well at least I think I'd know... I can guess what I could buy for my BIP team mates, I mean I have been working with most colleagues for a great deal of time... but what do I get for the team mates from ERQA whom I know nothing about??? I mean, I talk to them, but still am clueless to their likes and dislikes... heck, all I can think of is a nice Parker pen for guys and accessories for girls... but how do we get a personalised gift?

As luck would have it, I drew the name of a girl from the ERQA team.. whom I am on pretty much hi-bye, nice dress, looking nice basis...Now what do I get her????

***************************************

Yesterday was Christmas eve... There was huuuuuuuuuge 5 KG cake brought in to be cut and eaten and distributed across the floor... as in not just our ETAC region but also the ATAC folks who come in by 7:30... The sight of the yummy looking cake was quite tempting but more so was the idea of gifts... I knew I had two gifts... One from Sujay, I knew that... He had played secret Santa to 5 people in fact...

So after much deliberation and time changes we all gathered at 7:30 in the Kund area... Photography prohibited... Sonal and Bhavi stood in as the Santa and Santa's helper respectively to call out the gifts and the recipients...

I had got Asha a slim purse, a cute silver one and had written a small line for her on the card... 'For a girl with style and class.' She says she liked it... moreover both, the gift and the words... In fact it seems many others did too considering a lot of the girls ooh-ed and aah-ed when she opened it... Me is definitely happy :)

I got a lovely photo frame from Sujay (the guy sure is a good listener, he had heard me talking about getting a frame for my pic with Purni and Shrads... though I shall use this one to put in an old office pic with Anj and him, a pic with my oldest and best friends at work)... and a beautiful huge purse from Anis Sir... which is perfect with loads of compartments...

I found one of the gifts I had been looking for my friends... A Sai Baba statue for Sujay.... for the others... well I'll get them when I find what I'm looking for...

In the mean time, as it is Christmas today and since I told Santa that I hadn't put up the socks last night because I got two really cool gifts already, for anyone reading this,

WISH YOU A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR

The worst thing about fighting with one of your best friends is...

2009-12-15T01:09:00.005+05:30

...there's no one you can go to cry to

...another best friend feels this is just like all those usual times you come home after fighting

...you feel hurt that you hurt someone

...you realise, finally, that they really do not understand what you are talking about

...you switch off the phone when they call and feel worse that you probably made them feel worse

...you punish yourself by punishing them

...you feel miserable that you have no one to talk to... specifically that you do not want to talk to them

...you write a really crappy blog post about it so that everyone including they realise you feel awful

...it hurts... it always hurts...

Just a forward... Battle of sexes

2009-11-24T00:54:00.005+05:30

I was on my clean-up drive and was clearing up an old account... Here's a silly e-mail chain my friends and I kept adding to for (wow!!!) 22 whole days... Here's unleashing some of the madness... (This was literally a colourful e-mail but blogspot doesn't seem to accept it.. And not in the mood to fiddle with the colours all that much)... One of the silier episodes that I remember of my KPIT training team

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: chetashri
Date: Sat, Aug 25, 2007 at 5:52 PM
Subject: Re: Just for giggles....
To:

Hurray!! That was superb Tejaswini!!!

On 8/25/07, Tejaswini wrote:
OK Parag... let me continue with your story...

Now one thing you can never blame girls for is learning from their mistake. Now on their way back from Lonavala to Pune, they decide to take a local... The guys now confident of their so-called superiority, decide to repeat their previous plan of buying no tickets... The girls smart as they are, realise the guys' folly and all buy tickets. When the TC comes in the gals are safe and sound and guys are kicked out not to mention the penalty they had to pay... They in their over confidence had forgotten locals don't have toilets. :P

On 8/20/07, chetashri wrote:
my god!!! Somebody please take initiative to and keep counting no of replies and we can celebrate the century!!!!!!! :-)

On 8/19/07, parag wrote:
=================================================

Hey dear, i don know @ others, however i couldn't understand what is the meaning of ur story.......

Hehe.. seriously good one Parag.

Feminist Fairytale

As u know I'm poor in English. mere liye alag se simple english me likha karo.......

==============================================

Here is one story for u all from my side......... Enjoy....
Boys v/s Girls

who is brilliant a Girl or a Boy ??

7 Girls and 7 Boys are going from PUNE to
Mumbai. So they both gather at Pune Station. Both
groups are desperately trying to prove their
superiority.

SCENE 1 (PUNE- MUMBAI) :

7 Boys take only 1 Ticket and 7 Girls buy all 7
tickets..Girls are desperately waiting for TC to
come...... When TC arrives, All 7 Boys get in one
toilet SO when TC knocks , one hand come out with the
ticket and the TC goes away....Girls say "Dekh
lenge"

SCENE 2 (MUMBAI - LONAVALA) :

Girls decided, "this time we will prove that we too
are equally SHAANE"....All 7 Girls take 1 Ticket. Boys
don't buy any ticket at all!!!!!..TC
arrives....
ALL GIRLS IN ONE TOILET.ALL BOYS IN THE
OPPOSITE ONE..
One Boy gets out and knocks the door of Girls
toilet, One hand comes with the tickets, he takes the
ticket and comes in Boys Bathroom... TC DRIVES out
hey! Boys r always smart.....donn u agree boys!!

parag.........................................

=========================================
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Tejaswini
Date: Aug 18, 2007 10:37 PM
Subject: Re: Just for giggles....
To:

Oye Naveen!!!!! Come on do u honestly think either of us believes in this sexist nonsense? Its just that this kind of bashing is fun.. I seriously smile at some of the things the guys come up with... and don't worry no ones fighting.. chill Naveen.. neither are we gals after u guys' blood nor the other way 'round... continue this thread and have a good laugh reading all the things everyone writes..

Thandh rakh Naveen.
-Tejaswini

On 8/18/07, Naveen wrote:
hey peope what is this keep on fighting on a single topic

what ever it is i believe both are equal as not one exists with out the other
this is fact every one knows abut that then y this contraversies

be cool we have much more thngs to do in life rather than fighting

enough of baashan

uday told us to be profestionals not people in fish market

naveen

On 8/18/07, Tejaswini wrote:
Hehe.. seriously good one Parag.

Feminist Fairytale
Once upon a time, in a land far away, a beautiful independent self-assured princess happened upon a frog as she sat contemplating ecological issues on the shores of an unpolluted pond in a verdant meadow near her castle. The frog hopped into the princess's lap
And said: Elegant Lady, I was once a handsome prince, until an evil witch cast a spell upon me. One kiss from you, however, and I will turn back into a dapper, young prince that I am and then, my sweet, we can marry and setup housekeeping in yon castle with my mother, where you can prepare my meals, clean my clothes, bear my children and forever feel grateful and happy doing so.
That night, on a repast of lightly sauteed frogs' legs seasoned in a white wine and onion cream sauce, she chuckled to herself and thought: I don't think so!

:P

-Tejaswini

On 8/18/07, Indian !!! wrote:
That's Really nice Parag.. hahaha......

On 8/18/07, parag wrote:
======================================

WOMAN has MAN in it .

SHE has HE in it.

Mrs . has Mr. in it.

LADY has LAD in it.

MISTERESS has MISTER in it.

MADAM has ADAM in it.

HOSTESS has HOST in it.

FEMALE has MALE in it

and so on the list is never ending

SO NO need to be proud ....Girls
YOU are always incomplete without
Boys....ha ha ha

Parag..........

====================================

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sumeet
Date: Aug 13, 2007 12:07 AM
Subject: Re: Just for giggles....
To:
i guess only we five (Tejaswini, Parag, Nikhil, Chetashri and Me) are there to add on to this mail. no one in this group are interested to add or speak on the topic... :)

Ok then, we can stop speaking on the topic now... its a high time now... :)

~Sumeet...

On 8/12/07, Tejaswini wrote:
WOW!!! This mail is being added to for 10 days now :D.. go on ppl.. anymore PJs? Bashing guys or gals to add to this mail?
-Tejaswini

On 8/10/07, chetashri wrote:
Me too. felt like I dont understand english anymore...............

On 8/10/07, Tejaswini wrote:
Is it just me or is everyone confused after reading Sumeet's comment? No offense, but wat u trying to say here? No further comments..
-Tejaswini

On 8/8/07, Sumeet wrote:
well, i guess in that case its again man how succedded in confusing the ladies and hence the ladies went on with a wrong conclusion... :)

thats y its said if a girl have buty in her, she dont have brains, and if she have brains, she is not beautiful... :)
buty n brains are like the 2 pollar region for them that can never meet.

he he he he...!!!

~Sumeet...

On 8/7/07, Tejaswini wrote:
u know Parag... thats ok.. ican understand u r confused.. u meant to say cows and gals as in 'GAI's and gals.. no probs.. chal tujhe maaf kiya
-Tejaswini

On 8/7/07, parag wrote:
==============================================

Well Chetashri.......... I think u r correct.
I was wrong........ as i'm always confused between cows and Buffaloes 4m my childhood.
Could u please help me 2 decide ?

parag

=================================

---- Forwarded message ----------
From: chetashri
Date: Aug 7, 2007 3:04 AM
Subject: Re: Just for giggles....
To:
may b he means guys n gals.................now tht shows a woman how confused a man is when he does something on his own!!!!!
this series is going to b a interesting one !!

On 8/7/07, Tejaswini wrote:
@Chetashri: Hey ur just for giggles has proceeded to become an all out Battle of sexes :P

@Parag: Boys and COWS!!!!??????

On 8/6/07, Nikhil wrote:
man this is real funny :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

--
Nikhil

On 8/4/07, parag wrote:

Well boys and cows,

what i wana say is.......

Behind every successful man there is a women (many women) because women always run after a successful man.

and now a days

@Behind every successful women....... there is a women*. @

*Also applicable in India.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Nikhil
Date: Aug 3, 2007 7:08 AM
Subject: Re: Just for giggles....
To:
Dear Mam, i want to re correct the sentence

Well Sumeet... maybe wat u mean to say is... Behind every successful man, there is an even MORE SURPRISED WOMAN

--
Nikhil

On 8/3/07, Tejaswini wrote:
Well Sumeet... maybe wat u mean to say is... Behind every successful man, there is an even MORE successful WOMAN

-Tejaswini

On 8/2/07, Sumeet wrote:
I guess this may be a reason why it is said that:

Behind every successfully MAN, there is a women - To take away all the incomes and spend them... And behind every successfully WOMEN, there is an exhausting man to accomplish her work. :)

~Sumeet...

On 8/2/07, chetashri wrote:

Time for some male bashing..... (For a change)
>
>
> Q: What is the difference between men and puppies?
> A: Puppies grow up.
>
>
> Q: Why do men always have a stupid look on their
> faces?
> A: Because they are...
>
>
> Q: What do men have in common with ceramic tiles?
> A: Fix them properly once and you can walk all over
> them forever.
>
>
> Q: If you drop a man and a brick out of a plane,
> which one would hit the ground first?
> A: Who cares?????.....(both are equally dense!!)
>
>
> Q: What did God say after he created man?
> A: I can do better than this! And then he created
> woman!!!! (Yea)
>
>
> Q: What's the difference between an intelligent man
> & a UFO?
> A: I don't know, I've never seen either.
>
>
> Q: What are two reasons why men don't mind their own
> business?
> A: i) no mind ii) no business
>
>
> Q: Why did Moses wander in the desert for 40 years?
> A:! Because even back then men wouldn't ask for
> directions ..LOL!!!
>
>
> Q: What is the difference between men and pigs?
> A: Pigs don't turn into men when they drink...
>
>
> Q: What do you do with a man who thinks he's God's
> gift?
> A: Exchange him!!
>
>
> Q: Why do men like smart women?
> A: Opposites attract.
>
>
>
> Pass this on to some women who need a laugh..
> And to men who can handle it!

Ajab Prem ki Gajab Kahani...

2009-11-08T20:04:00.000+05:30

I have to start by saying... I have never seen a more stupid, absurd, illogical, dumb and ridiculous movie... But I also have to say, I haven't laughed this much while watching a movie in a long time... I would have said this is a little like those petty Priyadarshan movies where everyone keeps running for no reason and the USP is the physical comedy contained... But, this one does have a story... though not all that Gajab... you know what's gonna happen in the end... Arre bhai aakhir hindi movie hai...

The story is about the happy-go-lucky, President of Happy Club, Prem. Never one for responsibility or studying or working... the guy lives a chilled out life surrounded by his equally good-for-nothing friends...

Life follows a simple, stammering, vegetarian way, until he meets and falls in love with Jenny(he falls in love... and gaana begins), a vegetarian, stammering soul mate... Raised by a family she considers her own and which still considers her the orphan they brought home, she finds acceptance in Prem's motley crew...

All is well with Prem and Jenny until one day when Prem decides to tell her his 'dil ka haal' (cut... another song)... They are to meet at Boat Club... but she doesn't turn up... she is in Goa where she is to marry the boy her 'parents (who don't accept her as their daughter normally until the point where her marrige to the guy would help ensure a decent life style for them)'... No she loves someone else...

Prem obviously decides to help her out... the twist? The person she loves is not Prem but someone else, Rahul, the son of a Hindu minister up for election...

Ok.. honestly its not much of a story to continue with... blah.. blah.. blah.. in the end she realizes she loves Prem.. Tada end of story...

The movie has its moments... undoubtedly... the fight towards the end reminded me of Andaaz Apna apna and Prem Deewane... in fact there are many parts of the movie which reminded me of many different movies... But the fight sequence was truly funny... something out of a Tom and Jerry cartoon (actually now that I think of it, the fight also reminds me of this one episode of Tom and Jerry in which Tom's mouse-loving nephew comes over to learn from Tom the art of mouse catching)...

To be very very precise, this is a fun movie which you go to watch with your friends to just relax... but a word of advice... leave your brain at home (Thanks Mukta for the warning... I definitely benefited from it...)

The movie is riddled with the most misplaced songs... if you thought Wanted was a movie where they could have done away with songs at the most inopportune moments, this is even less appealing

So ratings... 2 for the movie, 1/4 for the chase sequence when they bhagaofy Jenny from Goa, 1/4 for the misplaced but fun songs and 1/2 for the end fight... it was simply absurd... in total 3 stars... Will remember this movie for its absurdity so has to score more than average and even more.. better than London Dreams... so the total of 3 stars... ***

The long and short of it...

2009-11-03T00:54:00.003+05:30

As a kid, many a times has the swing outside Blossom Beauty Parlour seen me crying after amma had taken me there to have my hair cut... Considering I wanted long hair, amma didn't want to bother with my hair and annu loved my hair cropped to a boy cut, you can understand who lost the fight AND her hair... After amma had dragged me screaming and wailing to the parlour, I would beg and plead with amma not to have my hair cut into a boy cut... Though I now understand her sentiments, I always hated having my hair cut short then...

The Blossom parlour lady had intervened on the situation once by suggesting a Ponds cut.. something the female in the Ponds ad had back then... Now, though I didn't remember what the model looked like in the ad, I knew for sure no female in an ad would have a boy cut... So I readily agreed to her cutting my hair to the Ponds cut... Now for anyone who knows what a Ponds cut is, this was again a disaster since a Ponds Cut is a marginally feminine boy cut... Obviously since I had agreed to the cut and I was too proud to show how distressed I was to see to see my hair back to being short, it was again the swing which had to bear the brunt of rust due to my salty tears...

While going to the dentist couldn't prompt a reaction so strong... (I have always maintained, Dr. Vaze's reception is like my second home, so often have I sat there), a visit to the parlour sure would have me crying buckets of tears...

Amma had never plaited her own hair when in school and though her hair was curlier, bushier and wilder than mine, she would tie it in a huge pony tail once she went to college... so she never really learnt or had the patience to plait her or my hair... And needless to say, with a daughter who needed to be coaxed out of bed by 5:30 to get ready for school at 7, amma really couldn't manage running after me Taare Zameen Par style making me get ready by time the school ricksha-waale kaka came to our door...

At 16, with school behind me, I finally had the freedom to let my hair grow... Now 9 years hence, Blossom is long closed down... and no one has seen me with a boy-cut or a Ponds cut or a Diana Cut or whatever else it is called in these past years...

...That was until the fateful saturday 3 days ago when we went to my now regular parlour... The owner of the parlour wasn't there... The woman with the scissors frowned when I said I want my hair short upto my ears and I guess that was all she was thinking of when I told her I want the rest in steps... A STEP CUT... The first inkling of the fact that I won't see my longer than shoulder length hair for the next few months came when amma gasped behind me and I felt the fan's coolness on my neck... I was officially back to sporting the Ponds cut...

Surprisingly, I love my short hair... absolutely no maintenance, expecially for one as lazy as me... I keep the window rolled down on the highway and won't bother with a scarf... Most friends have been quite encouraging and have complimented me on the way my hair looks and the way it suits me; Although some people have said... :O Ye baal kyon kaate? I mean, bura nahi lagta... par kyuuuuuuuun??? Or.. ka? ka? ka?

The best thing, though, about hair is, it grows back... be it a few weeks or a few months... atleast when you cut it of your own volition... So I live in the hope that I shall braid my hair again a few months from now... and until then... I need to find all my missing hair pins so that my hair doesn't get wet in the shower...

London Dreams...

2009-11-02T00:09:00.006+05:30

Arjun (Ajay) has this dream of singing at Wembley London Mannu(aka Manjeet Khosla)(Salman) is his devoted friend

Arjun lands in London, struggles to get closer to his dreams and one day returns to Bhatinda to take Mannu with him as a backup vocalist of sorts... only Mannu not only outshines him on stage, he also scores over Arjun when it comes to heart of Arjun's love, Priya. So, wild with jealousy Arjun, with the help of one of the band members gets Mannu hooked on drugs. In the end, sach baahar aata hai and Mannu returns thinking that he is a threat to his friend's dream. All should have been well that ends in a happily ever after were it not for a really boring last song

The movie is unique in that it is absolutely unmemorable... it isn't as funny as any of the Priyadarshan run-around-hitting-people-in-the-head physical comedies or as intense as Ajay Devgan's acting in HDDCS... It isn't pathetic like the much hyped Ghajini and it isn't as good as TZP (OK I understand none of the examples I give share a common genre or audience of movies) It isn't crisp.. the end of the movie drags...

Flaws and strong points:
Asin is shown hanging out with the band all day long and late into the night... how her conservative father never realises this is beyond my comprehension
Ajay.. Ajay..Ajay... :'( That's all I can say
Mannu... As a kid as well as the not-so-grown-up, chasing after girls Romeo... is so well portrayed... Totally unexpected... seriously.. Salman's job is commendable and does justice to the character he plays

Acting-wise... character-wise...
Salman takes over the movie as Mannu takes over in the movie... His character is soooooo endearing even when he is chasing after all those girls and getting drunk... you can't help feeling awww about him
Ajay has one blank frown through the movie... absolutely none of the intensity which had made me so desperately want to watch the movie... I for one couldn't have understood what was supposed to have been happening in his mind if I had just seen his walking... rushing along the Thames... and not listened to the words...
Asin... well I seriously don't know what she was doing in the band or in the movie... but atleast she doesn't over-act like in Ghajini
Rannvijay... (I'm sooooooooo in love with that guy since I have been watching Roadies... anyway...) has probably shown more of the vengeance that I had expected from Ajay
Aditya... Again...??? The last confrontation between him and his bro is.. like.. seriously... ??? Thoda to chehre pe expression dikha hota mannn!!!

My rating: ** + 1/2 * ekkshtra only for Salman

Strength of a woman

2009-10-10T18:35:00.006+05:30

We were all afraid for bapama when ajju died... It was quite weird really... When ajju stumbled, as they picked up ajju and got him back to bed, as they called the doctor, as they called all of us; bapama slept... while ajju lay right beside her... And what was stranger was the fact that many people pointed to; the radiance on bapama's face... Sohananna said it almost felt like Ajju was saying goodbye to her in her sleep, telling her that it was all ok, asking her to stay calm... Vatsalakka while in tears at the loss of her father wondered how bapama, her amma would take it. She slept for almost an hour before she woke up... when she came to know of his death, she calmly asked why she hadn't been woken up earlier...

I can honestly say that I didn't know how to talk to her... so when I picked up the phone telling amma I don't have the courage to talk to her and wondering what I would say to her, amma said, talk normally... She's the one who is most emotionally stable among all of us...

As I started to speak to her, it was so difficult to not let my voice break that I ended up just muttering 'hmm' while SHE kept consoling me... She said that it was good he didn't have to suffer, that he had lived life to the fullest, that I should consider it a blessing and not a sad event because he had spoken to me in the morning and wished me on my birthday... She said that I usually asked her not to cry and today it was her turn to ask me not to cry.

The lady whose eyes would fill up just as ajju's did when we would go to their room to touch their feet before leaving to Pune saying those words to me made me pass the phone wordlessly to amma were I to obey amma's loud whispers admonishing me not to cry.

As we spoke to other relatives, my cousin, my aunt, everyone maintained that she kept consoling them. How hard must it be to lose your companion of 74 years... The person who worried about you constantly, who could hear your tiny voice, who could still see you as the young girl he married in the 89 year old you are today...

Of the only two times I saw her cry when we went to Bangalore, one was when I went to sit by her on the 12th day, the day before we were to leave... I had had my lunch early and she was alone in her room... "What do we do," I asked. "Do I tell you a story?" "Why don't you sing Priye Paha," she said. "I don't remember it after all these years," I say. I start singing the few lines of the few bhajans I do know... "If only you could have sung for him," she says. "Who knows... It might have been different... He kept singing Priye Paha too... would talk about you all the time. He would keep talking about your birthday. Accusing everyone of not informing him when your birthday had passed. After convincing him that your birthday was yet to come, he would calm down for a while and then after a few hours, start off again... What is the day... what is the date... why didn't you tell me when it was Tejaswini's birthday."

It is difficult to not cry... It is difficult to follow Ashwini's words telling me not to cry in front of amma or amma's words to not cry in front of bapama or my akkas.

Losing the people we all loved... still love, is difficult... it is a terrible experience to go through... but sometimes it is the one pillar of strength that you need to lean on... but sometimes you need to understand that the shoulder you cry on might be falling apart from within... They too sometimes need the same consolation that they give you...

Shri Suratkal Krishnaraya 'Mashtrumaam' Shenoy (16th June 1908 - 25th September 2009)

2009-09-26T20:21:00.014+05:30

For the past couple of days, I have kept wondering whether I am being bitchy and selfish when I thought that when I get married I want the names of my grandparents to be there on the card; inviting everyone for their granddaughter's wedding. Not late but them being there to bless me and whomever I married. After all they have blessed all their grandchildren, why won't I be blessed with the good fortune of being blessed by my 101 year old grandfather and his beautiful young wife of 89? What could be more amazing than a bond of 75 years blessing a couple starting a new life?

It has been hard to see my grandparents who had lived with us for almost 16 years of my life looking so different now. It was difficult to comprehend that he couldn't hear what I said or that she has turned into something of a rag doll, so frail so weightless. It was difficult to watch Sohananna and Anil Bhavaji bring them downstairs on a chair knowing walking a flight of stairs was akin to climbing the Everest.

Still somewhere you rejoice when you speak with him or hear their voice on the phone. Hearing him say your name thrice in a effort to hear you call out to him as he wishes you a Happy Birthday. Hearing her talk joyfully with you.

Still when you see the missed call on your mom's cell from your mhantu you know it is not to wish you on your birthday once more. Something is wrong. You see your amma's hand trembling when she asks you to call but you can't make yourself dial the number.

You nod your head when she murmurs close to tears that your second love, your dear ajju is no more. You don't cry... you can't cry. Tears seem to have frozen. Slowly a lump forms in your throat but you have been strong for the people around you for so long, that its difficult for you to let the tears fall. You have cried over a bad viva in college and bad CSATs at work... Yet you can't shed tears for losing the person you loved second most in the world.

Shri Suratkal Krishnaraya Shenoy, aged 101 died today of a heart failure. He is survived by his wife, 3 daughters, 1 son, 2 daughters in law, 2 sons-in-law and his grandchildren, their spouses and great grandchildren.

Lovingly called Mashtrumaam by those who have known him from his teaching days was a beloved aanu, cherished ajju and adored taata. A respected and well-known teacher of Kannada at Canara High School, his students still came to visit him when he was in Pune and when he went to Bangalore. With a joy of hindustani classical music, he spent a lot of time listening to music, singing or teaching music. A master at mythology and Hindu parampara, he loved to create quizzes on these favourite subjects.

Losing a son and a son-in-law, this gentleman was still a wall of strength and an idol for his family. A simple man who ate vegetarian food, walked for exercise and enjoyment as long as his feet could carry him, a storyteller with a smile which could light up a room and a simple joy of life, is someone we will cherish. The joy of travelling, love of family, acceptance is something we all take from him.

I end my post with a simple kiss of love to this man who has taught me and so many around him so much. Shubha ratri ajju. Hope the stars shine brighter with you among them now.

Final Destination 4

2009-09-22T00:49:00.003+05:30

So finally watched 2 of the 3 sort-of-recent movies I wanted to watch for a while...

Been ages since I have watched a 3-d movie, so Final Destination was definitely worth it... Especially finding that at least one of my friends shares my love for ewwness. Purnima and I definitely shared some laughs and yuck moments watching this movie.

Not for the squeamish, the 4th part takes 'Death has a design' to new gory heights.

While it is icky enough to watch people being burnt in a plane malfunction or squished under a runaway truck or being thrown off a roller coaster gone berserk, this movie has peoples' heads and internal organs thrown at you through the screen.

It is disgusting to say the least but if you aren't the-throw-up-at-the-first-sight-of-blood types, this is definitely a movie worth a watch. Don't go on a full stomach though if you can't stomach this stuff.

Not exactly horror, final destination movies run along the same theme, the lead has a premonition of dying and survives death along with a few others. But since death was their destiny, they can't skip it and have to die; in a predetermined order at that.

You would think people would scream and squirm at the theatre-blood and intestines falling from the sky, strangely though audiences give nervous laughs and giggles when one more of the survivors is burnt alive or has their head cut off.

You would think I am blood thirsty right? Watch the movie, it is great entertainment. Good for a weekend popcorn overdose with your friends.

Tejaswini's verdict *** and a 1/2. The bad ending killed half a star for me.

Tag from facebook

2009-09-10T20:40:00.002+05:30

Place an X by all the things you've done and remove the X from the ones you have not, then send it to your friends (including me).

Things you have done during your lifetime:
() Gone on a blind date
(X) Skipped school (or college)
() Watched someone die
() Been to Canada
() Been to Mexico
() Been to Florida
() Been to Hawaii
(X) Been to Australia or New Zealand
(X) Been to Europe
(X) Been on a plane
(X ) Been on a helicopter
(X) Been lost
() Gone to Washington, DC
() Swam in the ocean(floated:))
() Seen the Sequoias and/or Redwoods
(X) Cried yourself to sleep
(X) Played cops and robbers
(X) Recently colored with crayons
(X) Sang Karaoke
() Hiked up a mountain
() Paid for a meal with coins only
() Been to the top of the St. Louis Arch
() Done something you told yourself you wouldn't
() Made prank phone calls
() Been down Bourbon Street in New Orleans
() Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose
() Caught a snowflake on your tongue
() Danced in the rain-naked
() Been skinny dipping in a pool or a hot tub (Creek)
(X) Written a letter to Santa Claus
() Been kissed under the mistletoe
(X) Watched the sunrise with someone
(X) Blown bubbles
() Gone ice-skating
(X) Gone to the movies
() Been deep sea fishing
() Driven across the United States
() Been in a hot air balloon
() Been sky diving
() Gone snowmobiling
() Lived in more than one country
() Lay down outside at night and admired the stars while listening to the crickets
() Seen a falling star and made a wish
() Enjoyed the beauty of Old Faithful Geyser
() Seen the Statue of Liberty
() Gone to the top of Seattle Space Needle
() Camped in the Mountains
() Camped on the Beach
(X) Been on a cruise
(X) Traveled by train
(X)Traveled by motorcycle
(X) Been horse back riding
() Ridden on a San Francisco CABLE CAR
() Been to Disneyland OR Disney World
() Truly believe in the power of prayer
() Been in a rain forest
() Seen whales in the ocean
() Been to Niagara Falls
(X) Ridden on an elephant
() Swam with dolphins
() Been to the Olympics
() Walked on the Great Wall of China
() Saw and heard a glacier calf
() Been spinnaker flying
() Been para sailing
() Been snow-skiing
() Been to Westminster Abbey

... and I tag Purnima, Rachana and Nishanth

...???

2009-09-09T00:11:00.005+05:30

How do you manage when two of your closest friends can't stand each other???

Does it tear you apart to see two people you love so pretending the other doesn't exist or do you try to help them make up? Do you try to let them fight their own battles or do you want to bang ther heads together to remind them that once upon a time they were good friends... that the quirks that made them enemies they used to like about each other?

How do you explain it when the animosity still lives years later? Can you still summon the same amount of anger that you felt back then when you had fought with someone?

Do you forgive and forget or do memories of anger still eat you up inside? How do you handle the pain of a friend when they know they still want to be friends with someone and it is their ego which keeps them from trying to meet the other half way?

Have you ever wondered....

2009-08-31T22:32:00.006+05:30

...How fast you get to used to the people around you

...How when love knocks on the door everything else flies out the window

...How life's a bitch on the people left behind to collect the pieces

....How parents seem to know what you want before you even tell them

...How before you know it an era ends and you take a huge breath and go on

...How life seems like a fairytale and your prince charming suddenly comes into your life

...How you get so excited about a good news your friend you want to tell everyone you know about it

...How you don't realise how much you missed your friends until you meet them after 9 years

Dedicated to all my friends who recently found their prince charming, all wonderful parents and all the friends I miss when they are not around... i'm sure you know who you are

Swine flu... bright and dark sides..

2009-08-15T20:09:00.000+05:30

For better or for worse,swine flu is a reality Punekars are facing. So what has changed in Pune since the virus decided to make Pune its abode (hopefully for not much longer).

1. Everyone including those who used to describe Puneri women as dressed like terrorists now wear masks, scarves, hankies around their nose and mouth

2. The traffic has gone down drastically. Even at 12 noon where a few weeks ago there used to be a perennial traffic jam, nowadays people stop at signals and follow traffic rules.

3. PMTs seen with people hanging out of the buses have enough empty seats for people to be seated.

4. Malls, multiplexs, schools, colleges are shut down

5. Pune has now lost a doctor, teenage school goers, family members, friends to swine flu

6. If anyone coughs or sneezes, everyone around them jumps

7. Hospitals are full and pharmacies are short of medicines. Everyone suddenly believes in homeopathy, allopathy, ayurveda, God, naani ke nuske and every remedy anyone has suggested is tried

8. Office goers are welcoming ideas of working from home

9. People are demanding Mexico-like shutdown

10. Death counts rose earlier by the week, then by days and now rise by the hour

...

2009-08-02T00:40:00.001+05:30

Ever felt that someone has put an arm through yor chest.. held your heart in one hand and squeezed hard... The most painful experience ever....

Happy Raksha Bandhan

2009-07-27T00:30:00.010+05:30

You'd think that after what, 18 or so years, of writing to my brothers for Raksha Bandhan, I'd know what to write? But after the first line of 'Hope this letter finds you in the pink of health' as Savita Pacchi used to write to me, I sat there flicking the pen and racking my brain what to write... Asking them to visit, tying the rakhi thinking of me... what else... After 3 quite impersonal letters, it started to feel that I know so very little of my brothers... So I dredge my memory to try to remember something deep within to write something more personal...

So there are Sohan anna and Vijendra who got married since the last Raksha Bandhan... Aniruddha whose thread ceremony happened this year... Gauthan and Gaurav and Sohan anna were my first brothers I tied rakhis to on Raksha Bandhan personally and that was last year... And Kiran, the shy guy, I met after very many years at his brother's, Vijendra's wedding...

As 'fun' as it is to write letters, the only person I write to is ajju and that too was long ago... After asking amma, SMSing Nishanth to give me an idea from a guy's point of view what they expect when their sisters write to them, what it seemed is when you write, write from your heart... like I write this blog... not because someone need read it and but knowing you made an effort putting down on paper or an HTTP page what you felt... what you know and what you'd like to know...

So this post is dedicated to my brothers, who as it happens don't know the existence of my blog... Wishing them all the best and all my love and hoping that next year might be easier... that I would stay better in touch with them... Happy Rakshabandhan

On a wet day...

2009-07-26T11:50:00.004+05:30

...we were sitting in the car waiting for the rain to stop with the windows open to catch hailstones to eat.

...we had met at Vaadeshwar for the first ever Pune konkani meet.

...i sat on the window sill watching the rain and writing poems.

...we went on bikes looking for our BE project.

...we sat at ICC towers level 9 talking and looking at the rainbow and reminiscing

...we went out to look at Arun's new bike when it was not raining and were drenched by the time we reached the main gate and back with 4 of us under one umbrella.

...

2009-07-24T22:45:00.003+05:30

Have you wondered how when life seems all fine and hunky-dory with all the usual bickering and pressure and one small incident one day blows so way out of proportion that it ruins the day and hard earned rapport and foul up everything?

Some of my favourite english movies

2009-07-17T00:44:00.002+05:30

In no specific order and only those I can think of right now...

The Lake House:
Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock
A love story across two years... with a twist... they fall in love when he is in 2004 and she in 2006... a love where they never meet... but fall in love... 2 years apart...
Favourite song: This never happened before (Paul McCartney)

Stepmom:
Julia Roberts, Susan Sarandon and Jena Malone
A family drama showing acceptance and then a family being born when a new woman comes to take the place of their mother...

How to lose a guy in 10 days:
Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey
Rom-Com where he tries to make her fall in love with him and she tries to get herself dumped by him

Notting Hill:
Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant
Rom-com... They meet... they part... it was inevitible they fall in love
Favourite scene: I'm also just a girl standing in front of a boy asking him to love her

Serendiptity:
Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack
A chance meeting spirals Sara and Jonathan to leave their lives behind to find the one person they had a 'million and a half years ago'
Most memorable line: ...about some mystery guy I met a million and a half hours ago. It was only a moment, a fragment really. But it was like, in that moment, we were supposed to be together.

P.S. The only reason I can think of that I am writing this is that I just saw The Lake House for a millionth time and realised I am in live with the song...

Simply jealous...

2009-07-11T23:24:00.003+05:30

Today, A and S were talking about D and P. Whether D and P are seeing each other remains the biggest mystery, but the fact is they are joined at the hip. S started to say how jealous D is of P and S's friendship. She actually told S to her face that she was jealous of her. A said that it was not just S really. D is jealous of even A and P being friends. 'Its not like we are remaking dostana,' said A. S continued, saying D knows that she and P are like sis and bro. I told her that its not like D is suspicious. Its just that D doesn't like the fact that the two of them are so close. They do share this relationship that is more stable than P and D's volatile relationship after all.

That did get me thinking though. I was stabbed by the bitter knife of jealousy myself... A couple of times atleast that I remember.

When my best friend told me she had a boy friend, I don't know what came over me. I just started to cry. I couldn't stop. She kept feeling worse and worse, berating herself for ever telling me. I still don't know what happened that day. I was ok with her having other friends. Other best friends who were infact not I. But a boy friend? Sharing my best friend with a boy friend was more than I could endure.

A was saying how A1 is jealous of any female looking at her husband for too long. Anyone staring at him is bound to make her head to his side. Like how at mc d's when she caught this girl staring at her hubby, she quickly moved to his side and snaked an arm around his waist. Just to make her claim and ward off the evil eye of this woman lest she bewitch him.

Jealousy isn't a positive emotion and it certainly doesn't do any good. But whichever way you look at it, it certainly isn't the most explainable of emotions.

...And then there were three...

2009-07-05T20:26:00.004+05:30

So Pri, Versa and I took Sup out for her kelwan yesterday... She is getting married next week.

In college, it was the six of us here in Pune... now there are four... Sujata's married and in Mumbai... We haven't met her since she got married... Anagha's in the US, almost done with her MS; though I'm not sure when or whether she plans on coming back... Now Supriya will go to Bangalore...

I do sometimes feel lost... I miss my friends and I miss talking to them and playing dumb charades... I do miss that life...

While I do understand, that life goes on, we make new friends, I feel sometimes if I am not losing old ones...

Mannequin

2009-05-24T20:41:00.004+05:30

So Shrads, Purni and I met up today for the usual gab session... after ages actually... After spending a couple of hours complaining, gossipping about people the others didn't know about or did and commenting on the people who had come to Peppinoes, we turned to leave... Since Purni had parked her car further away, Shrads told me that if I walked with Purni, she'd catch up by her bike...

As we walk to the parking, we see a mannequin outside a shop... What caught Purnima's and my eyes was the pose of the mannequin... Left hand high in the air and right hand much lower at shoulder level, we wondered what this 'female' was doing...

'Doesn't she look like she's playing shotput,' I ask... 'Nah,' says Purnima even as Shraddha agrees... 'Com'on I say... its either like she's playing shotput, we need to place an iron ball in her right hand or basketball (though I later realised volleyball made more sense)'

As Shraddha walks to her bike, Purnima and I argue. Purnima says, 'No way, it looks more like she is trying to give one tight slap to someone...' 'Logically impossible,' say I. 'The guy would be too tall the way she is standing... her hand is too far up'... 'It's like she is holding his face in her hand to slap him'...

She can't slap a guy that tall, I mean seriously, all the kinetic energy and momentum would be lost in the effort to lift her hand so high...

Since this is not really gonna get settled, Purnima and I return to the shop and take a pic of the mannequin...

So I ask you... (if anyone actually reads my blogs that is)... what do you think is this woman trying to do?

I'm talkin' 'bout love....

2009-05-23T14:26:00.001+05:30

I haven't quite been able to figure out this potent power the emotion LOVE has over people (though I think I have written my share of blog posts about this topic)... I have seen people reduced to a mass of depressed agony when the person they love does not work with them anymore or if they break up... People fighting, crying, accepting betrayal... and all in the name of love... Why is it?

...Meaningless musings...

2009-05-01T22:49:00.003+05:30

I leapt off the roof today... I leapt off the roof and jumped on the clouds... I tap-tap-tapped my way across the sky... I floated with the wind... I danced my way in my ballet shoes over the snow covered hills... and piroutted as I came to the earth with the rain drops...

I glided on a moon beam and twinkled with the stars... I flew across lands near and far...

I rose with the fireworks and exploded into a million smiles...

I rise and fly still on a wave upon the sea....

I voted... Did you?

2009-04-25T20:45:00.005+05:30

I exercised my right to vote on the 23rd... I performed my duty as an Indian...

I have heard people crib about the government, the state of the city, the roads, each and every detail... However, when it comes to voting, these very people shrink from taking responsibility towards forming the government... If they don't... won't... do they really have the right to make any comments?

40% of Pune voted... Every remaining person probably thought 'As if my vote going to help'... Think about it 60% of the people DID NOT vote... 20% MORE than the people who DID vote... Wouldn't their vote have impacted whatever will be the results?

I vote, I express my opinion towards giving someone the responsibility to represent me and take forward my issues and try to solve them... Maybe I make a mistake... But does that mean I shouldn't vote? There is a next time... Next time I vote for someone else... I know I'm not conceited enough to think I can not be wrong...

All politicians are alike people say... Absolutely corrupt... whom power has corrupted absolutely... but we never consider going into politics... Being a politician doesn't help they say... Then why not vote for the people who have the will to contest in the elections... What are YOU doing by not voting... Maybe your one vote COULD have made a difference... The each 'my' vote that could take the 40% to 100% might make or break whoever comes in power...

Its not the false promises which brings these people in power; its OUR lack of interest... Its OUR disdain... its OUR 'whatever' attitude... its OUR 'belief' that we can't make a difference...

WHY CAN WE NOT MAKE A DIFFERENCE? WHY CAN'T WE RAISE OUR VOICE...

There have been lots of arguments about the cricketers in South Africa... supposedly icons to our country not voting... Its their choice... someone's mistake... their contracts which subject them to not be in India to vote... But does this really discount people who decide to follow the footsteps of their favourite hero and not vote?

How many of us try to find out who is contesting for the seats in our city... Do we take the time to find out what they have done in the past? Did they really provide rice/wheat to poor people at Rs.2 last time? Do we check whether the idea of street lights and free education and financial help to farmers and what-not was indeed given last time? How educated are these people? What have they really done if and when they had been in power? Do they have the mettle to stand up and actually put forward the issues of the people who voted for them?

Politicians have been dividing the country based on different things... Religion... but then the way for this was paved during the Independence of India... wasn't it? They did learn from the experts the idea of 'Divide and Rule'... Castes... but then in a country where minorities get ridiculous amount of advantages, does it really help which religion one belongs to if one is not in the minority? We have been divided on the basis of sex... Being a woman has its privileges... politicians can promise more reservations and free education... Language and states... of course if you belong to this state your job should not be usurped by an alien from another state, right?

You can bitch about all of this or take action... you can try to get someone who can change this to power... Why don't you vote next time? Why don't you get off your bed or couch on this mid-week holiday and cast your vote? Why don't you make the effort to get your name registered as a voter... in the city where you reside? My friend signed up on jaagore.com.. She said that it made the process quite simple... Why not give it a try...

A couple of interesting campaigns to vote... not for someone just to VOTE... here they are...
1- Tata tea ad
2- Vote... Aapke haath mein hai
I don't know how to add videos... but have a look... you might be impressed enough to be more aware and vote next time

Give it a chance... You might find that you DID make a difference... If not... it atleast would be the beginning... of a revolution...

Being a Punekar....

2009-03-27T00:59:00.004+05:30

When asked, I say I'm from Karnataka... but I also say I am Puneri... Having been brought up entirely in Pune, I believe I have the right to say I am a Punekar...

As Punekars, you learn to talk the talk... Some words are distinctly Puneri... They might be marathi words but in Puneri, they have a different meaning altogether... here are some examples...

Jhepla... in the dictionary, this word is translated as... to be able to do, to afford... in Puneri, it means... to understand... Then there are the conjugations... jhepish/jhepoed (the english twist)... jhepa (the hindi lingo)... So this would be used as:
Kay jheptayka or Jhepa? (Specifically when speaking in hindi) or jhepish?

Bha-po... Now this is used when someody keeps going on and on about something and what you wanna say is chill... I got it... Bha-po basically means... Bhavana pohochlya... Enough of your ranting... I understand... Some other usages here are Bha-ja-ja-po... Bhavana zara zorat pohochlya or even Bhaplya... BHAvana pohochaLYA...

Panchat... as a word this means diluted... in puneri it can be used to describe a PJ (for the uninitiated, Poor Joke)... in short, PJ also stands for panchat joke...

So before amma come to scold me for still not going to sleep at 1:30 AM, I'll call the other Punekars who read my blog to comment with typical Puneri words... hope I can increase my Puneri vocab...

Cool in Caprice...

2009-03-20T10:45:00.002+05:30

I'm back... I'm back... I'm back... To my room... Honestly it looks simply great... Before we went for the painting, I would call this colour lavendar... Asian Paints calls this Caprice... So be it... It looks great and me is happppppppppy :)

The hard part would be in the days to come... Setting my Showcase with all my stuff toys and such in the weekend... And more importantly keeping the room non messy until all our friends have seen it... Seriously that is going to be a big task...

My bedsheet matches the walls... Next stop.. buy curtains to match the walls and bedsheet... aah a feeling of sheer satisfaction... I'm lovin' it...

Chal Chala Chal...

2009-03-19T00:42:00.002+05:30

So what movies do you get to watch on your bus journeys? Being a bus driver, I can understand the inclination one would have towards playing movies starring buses... But this one took the cake.... I mean honestly... What were the people who made this movie and acted (won't say starred... these stars lost their she here...)

Govinda stars as this guy (don't ask names... this movie isn't worth remembering names of the characters)...

OK... This review takes a detour... Just to try and give a small push to my memory, I decided to look for the movie online... What I found were some reviews... One of the first few lines of the three reviews I read are...

Deepak, a young man/simpleton has been switching jobs as he does not want to succumb to the corrupt system that exists everywhere.
Since years, with unwavering efforts, financial hardships and an unshaken faith in the judicial systems, he has been helping his father [Om Puri] in a legal matter.

OK so I start over... Deepak, a young man/simpleton has been switching jobs as he does not want to succumb to the corrupt system that exists everywhere. Since years, with unwavering efforts, financial hardships and an unshaken faith in the judicial systems, he has been helping his father a legal matter.

His brother-in-law, Asrani is a lawyer, fighting in the court against Deepak's father, Om Puri, who is an ex-principal (I had thought he was a teacher... at the beginning of the movie I was happily reading a book.. It was only when it turned dark and I couldn't read anymore that I started watching this sad sad attempt at a comedy)... Deepak's other brother-in-law, is an RTO officer, corrupt as they come... but we'll come to him later...

So anyway the court case is about some library that Om Puri built with the school going at a loss and so no pension for daddy dearest... But we do have some property worth the amount says Asrani... a bus... And what a bus it is... One wheel missing, pigeons making it their home... Won't start...

Om Puri tells his son that this is his chance to work, serve his fellow citizens and earn a decent income without bowing his head to corruption...

The 'comedy' goes on with him fighting with a female... of course she's the female lead... and her being 'hit' by the same bus... he says he would look after all the needs of her and her family so she won't go to court... His RTO officer BIL keeps stopping him on the bus route on myriad petty offenses... fighting with the labour union backing the driver and conducter he has hired at Asrani's behest... And each time some hurdle comes his way, one of the senior officers... be it the senior RTO officer or the Labour official, says to him... tum 'whatever his father's name is' ji ke bete ho na? Ye humari guru dakshina samajh lo... Wah... students ho to aise...

The movie really doesn't go anywhere... The conductor runs off with all the money and then gets the labour union chief to file a complaint of unlawful termination of work... The meek Deepak turns into Parashurama on a rampage... but you can already guess that... The female falls in love with the sweet kind Deepak but then you can guess that and finally when the Labour union guys turn the bus into junk and our hero beats them up, the very unexpected people come to defend him... The Labour Official, the bus driver... but then if you didn't expect this twist, how would you expect him to win? And truth (read hero) always triumphs... Father sells of the house his greedy sons-in-law were always after and says something cheesy like... 'Bete tumhare dil jitni badi jagah mujhe rehne ke liye kahaan milegi?' Or something to that effect...

Now I do understand that Delhi 6 has been rated negative by most people I know, but if you have a DVD with Delhi 6 ( and 3 other movies) and Chal Chala Chal (Oh did I tell why this movie is call CCC? Because when they ask, what do we call this bus, the two nephews are told Chal by their respective fathers and Govinda is told 'Chala' by his father... Wow now that is probably the most original and imaginative idea of the movie)... why would you play this crappy movie?

I repeat what I statred off with... this is an absurd waste of film masquerading as a movie and a comedy at that... The only time I cracked a smile was when I was thinking... well I didn't smile at all apparently... can't think of a single time I smiled... I groaned at the movie... that's for sure... I kept thinking that were the windows open and this were not an AC bus, I would have probably jumped out... so this was a good thing...

Acting... bad
Story line... Ackk
Songs... Why?
Movie itself.... Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?
Mr Govinda, Om Puri, Asrani, Rajpal Yadav (Oh yeah, he's Deepak's jigri dost dying to go to America) and whoever else was in the movie... what low in life brought you to act in such a stupendously idiotic movie? I mean it was so absurd I wouldn't have been able to pass comments on this movie... had I even watched it with my ever-faithful never-at-a-loss-for-comments college group...

My rating... Not even applicable... If someone gifts you this CD or DVD, don't wait for next holi to burn it... just light a bonfire... but then it might just rain proving what a washout this movie was...

Painting...

2009-03-15T13:21:00.003+05:30

In a way the energy required to have your house painted is probably equal to that of shifting... Maybe even twice... When you are shifting, you either dump your furniture in your old home and start afresh or envision beforehand what goes where... When you are painting your house, it means, the furniture actually needs to go back to its original place as well... so twice the work...

Painting begins in our house on monday... with my bedroom nonetheless... (well thats why I wanted to write now... just before lunch... hmmmm... kurlya phannaupkari... but thats going away from the topic...) Just finished clearing off the knick-knacks from the showcases... my stuff toys, little shells and keychains and whatnots... brought down the poster of Leonardo DiCaprio... I was so worried it would mar the wall forever, didn't have the nerve to bring it down and then again, it was a gift from Neha, didn't really want to remove it either... The first big piece in my room, my music system went off to ajju's room...

The matress will go to ajju's room tonight and the computer table... so no internet either... The wardrobe and book shelves will be sealed for the painting... Need to remember to carry over some books and clothes to the other room...

The room already looks bare... I am feeling the empty-bedroom syndrome now... Amma just walked in and I watch her look around... 'Khaali distaasa nave,' I ask... 'Vai... Kashki dista' ('Looks empty doesn't it?' 'Yes... Looks strange')

Its a lot of work moving large pieces of furniture but when the tiny ceramic and delicate stuff needs to be moved too, thats scary, just hope nothing breaks... Need to post some before, after, later pics after my room is completely cleared and the painting is done...

Weightless Wonder

2009-02-23T11:17:00.004+05:30

Now, I have been described as thin, slim and other similar adjectives... but honestly, until a few months ago, I would address myself as borderline anorexic (no I do not have any eating disorders... I just am grossly underweight) ... So whats changed now? Nothing much really... as per some of my friends and neighbours who see me after a while, claim I have put on a few milligrams atleast... whew... huge relief...

Anyway why this makes me post is, at office, though we have enough chairs, someone or the other keeps chair-napping... first thing when I get in is to find a chair, hopefully, lowered as low as possible, tuck my feet under me and have a seat... Then there are those days when this just won't work out... I probably am one of those people who can't abide with the chair raised too high... So here the work flow goes, find a chair, sit on it, try to lower it (which more often than not I can''t do), switch to a couple other chairs and repeat process... then call out to any of the guys who comes in early... Arun or Sujay and ask them to lower the chair for me... Sujay has tried many times to get me to sit in the chair and lower it... but to no avail... Its not like I can't get it done, I'm too weightless apparently for the chair to realise I am sitting on it...

Oh the woes of being underweight!!!!!

(P.S. Can't think of a single suitable song to add a tag here...)

Filmy tag

2009-02-15T00:11:00.004+05:30

OK... So this is the first time I'm making up a tag... So making it a filmy tag... or with songs for answers... I tag my posts with songs... So I make a tag with films or songs in it... Please give just the most appropriate answer (I mean I normally give multiple choice answers myself when asked to fill a tag, hope you don't) and explain why that is your answer...

1- Which was the movie that you had waited for with anticipation and turned out to be an utter dud?

2- Which was the one most ridiculously stupid movie you watched in a theatre and then thought that you might as well have thrown that money in a well for all it was worth?

3- If you had to be in a movie or a scene that you would want really really to be something that happened in real life, which would that movie or scene be and which character would you be?

4- Write three songs that would tell me what you lovvvvvvvvvve to do in your spare time...

5- Name a movie you actually thought was better than the book or atleast did justice to the book...

6- You are on a desert island... you found the island genie who granted you on wish that he would bring one person to join you on your exile... You have told the genie who you want that to be... apparently the genie isn't all that magical... he went to get that person and you are waiting for the procrastinating genie to get back with that person... What song do you sing while you wait?

7- One song on your IPOD/mobile that was a huge hit a few months/years ago and the radio stations used to play every hour and seem to have forgotten all about now that you tend to listen to often enough

8- One song that reminds you of somebody or a group of people... Do inform why it causes you to reminisce...

9- The one movie you saw most recently and which lived upto all your expectations if not more...

10- The one song you have heard atleast twice today... either on the radio or the cell or on TV...

Bonus Question: In view of today being Valentine's day... Well it was when I started thinking of this tag, type down song which is meant to be romantic, but the lyrics make you think otherwise (There are a lot of Govinda songs I know, but try to think of a song not many people would know or think of)

...And now for this tag, I tag Purnima, Rachana and Anup... Hope you have fun...

At the movies...

2009-02-06T00:53:00.002+05:30

There are two different types of people I have seen at movies... There are thosewho love to comment on movies and there are those who watch the movie so quietly and with such concentration, you'd think they're gonna enter the screen...

When we went to watch KANK, it was Varsha, Supriya, Supriya's li'l sis Malvika and I. Before the interval Varsha and I were sitting next to each other chattering away to glory... MAlvika beside me and Supriya next to her. For those who have already seen the movie, this is one of those disasters that you shouldn'tget your impressionable younger sisters to. On top of that if that sister is more quiet than you, you being the quietest in the group, watching the movie is totally painful. End of interval, supriyacomes to sit beside me, Malvika relegated to the corner. The movie is too ridiculous not to comment on she says... I am missing your commentary Tejaswini...

On the other hand, Shraddha watches the movie with a concentration one would reserve for their board exam studies. To know what I mean, read the Ghajini review.

Purnima on the other hand can manage in both types of company.When we went to watch Slumdog Millionaire, Purnima agreed to sit between Shraddha and Pallavi. Pallavi and I were commenting quite a bit while Purnima sat quietly next to Shraddha. When we had gone to watch Guru, Munnabhai.., Jab We Met and most importantly Namaste London, we enjoyed the movie all the more because of the commenting nonstop. How the same girl could watch a movie in almost silence (well Pallavi was commenting to both of us...) is beyond my understanding...

Slumdog Millionaire...

2009-02-01T00:14:00.002+05:30

You know its going to be a memorable day when you call up a friend early in the morning to tell her its time to get up, we have a 8:45 A.M. movie to catch and the third sentence out of her muth for the day is 'Oh Sh..' (Well .. because she didn't complete the word... )

Having made plans to catch the early show, Purnima informed us that the movie would begin at 8:45 instead of 9 to make for Shraddha's penchant for being late... Hungry and half-asleep we reached the theatre... And with no trailers and standing up for the national anthem, the movie began...

Slumdog Millionaire is about a boy who grew up in the slums and went to the show 'Who wants to be a millionaire?' (Now that's a surprise... sorry for the spoiler)... Anyway, he is one question away from the final 20 million rupees question and he is put in a jail cell and tortured to find out how he really got to know all the answers...

The boy draws on all that life had taught him... from the kid dressed up as Ram when a communal war kills his mother... to the Colt that his brother wields after killing a big-time don... Life takes him from a normal slum boy (I am assuming that is normal what is shown) to an 'orphanage' to peddling in trains to pretending he is a guide to working in a Call Centre as an 'assistant.'

Three actors each play the three main characters at different ages... Jamal the almost millionaire; Salim his brother, who is protective of his brother, misled at times, generous at others, an opportunist at times and a religious murderer at others; Latika, the girl Jamal falls in love with and keeps finding and losing throughout the movie...

I agree the movie is very negative with all the bad experiences that can happen happening to the kids... but it also tells of how one brother tries to put his old life behind him and work at a Call Centre as a chaiwallah not the tele-operator and the other becomes a hired hand who works for a Don and does all the dirty work necessary... It tells a side of human nature when at the beginning of the show Anil Kapoor calls him the 'chai wallah' with disdain and later when he comes to money keeps addresing him as the 'Call Centre employee from amchi Mumbai'...

The only joys in Jamal's life are in the form of Latika whom he first loses back at the orphanage, then when again his brother takes her away from him and when he finally finds her again, the goons again part them...

As a movie, this is a definite watch... one time maybe... nothing specifically watch in a theatre about it... except that the background music is so amazing you HAVE to have a surround sound when watching the movie...

The most endearing character is little Jamal, a sweet, sensitive, caring, talented and actually Jamal's character is just plain lucky at times... Salim is realistic in that he would do anything to save his own hide, he is aggressive, loud mouthed, foul talking and more believable than Jamal's character when you hear Jamal's polished english... Latika actually an important character 'coz everything Jamal ever does is to find her... though you wouldn't necessarily guess that.

Watch it for entertainment... don't miss the beginning, its a short movie... it is in a way a masala movie... most importantly it is a different story... Listen to the background music... Its fast paced, so not a movie where you would pass too many comments... well executed and crisp...

I give it 4 stars... 1 for the background music, 1 for little Jamal and the rest to be divided among everything else in the movie... Watch it!!!

Mercy - Jodi Picoult

2009-01-31T00:04:00.003+05:30

Is it selfish if you know you are losing the person you love and you would have them suffer than see them die? Would you if they asked you kill then with your own hands? Is love greater than the pain of losing the person you love more than yourself?

When life throws a curveball and the 'you' who has always had this wanderlust has to stay and take care of your clan, would you put your duties before your own desires? Would the person who is as free as the wind make you fall for them so hard that you would be ready to give up your wife, your roots, your whole being and be ready to take off with them wherever life might take you?

There are two stories running parallelly in Mercy... 5 lead characters and main supporting characters... Cam, the police chief and the chief of his clan, bound by tradition to take care of Wheelock after his father's death; Allie, Cam's wife, owner of a flower shop and the person for whom the sun rises and sets at her husband's behest; Mia, a new comer to the town who enchants Allie with her bonsai and enchants Cam with her whole being... she is everything he ever wanted in life; Jamie, who loved... loves his wife so much that he took his wife's life when dying of cancer she asked him to kill her so she wouldn't spend each day worrying about when her lat day would come; Maggie, Jamie's dead wife, who though dead lives in Jamie's heart and mind... Then there are Graham, Jamie's lawyer, Ellen, Cam's mother and Angus, Cam's uncle...

The story begins with a woman selling off all of her husband's belongings and walking away... It then goes into flashback when Jamie comes to Wheelock to surrender after having smothered his wife...

The two stories run alongside each other... As Jamie says, love is never equal... one loves the other more than the other... Jamie loves his wife so much he grants her request without considering the consequence to himself... Allie loves Cam so much that when all evidence points to the betrayal of her husband, she puts an innocent turn to it... Mia loves Cam so much that she doesn't want Cam to lose his identity because of her...

How exactly do you measure love? The memories it brings? The time you spend together? The way you see them in your mind even when you don't close your eyes?

I still haven't finished the book... Jamie stands trial for committing a murder no matter how heart-rending the situation... Cam on one hand hires a lawyer for Jamie and on the other tries to sever all ties with him... Allie defies her husband to support Jamie, because she can understand the love that made him do what he did... Mia loves Cam so much it hurts to go away but she keeps trying to put her distance for her sake, for Allie's sake, for Cam's own sake... most of Wheelock thinks Jamie had no right to play God... Jamie and Maggies' friends think of Jamie's gesture as more noble than wrong... but what does the law say? Would emotions win over the law?

Musically yours....

2009-01-26T10:40:00.004+05:30

There is something about music that can soothe your soul... Your favourite music people ask me... Anything that suits my mood at that point of time...

Being the Grand-Daughter of my ajju... a connoisseur of classical music and shastriya sangeet, I was well brought up listening to and enjoying classical music... I'd never guess you might like classical music said Ankur when he was browsing through the music on my cell looking for something interesting...

Classical music does have the ability to reach somewhere deep into your being... Close your eyes and feel it...

Amma and I had been to a Rudra-Veena recital last weekend... It was absolutely phenomenal... A single instument... even without the saath of tabla felt like it filled the air with the sound so clear and amazing it felt she was playing two instruments at once... the veena and a percussion instrument... The only female rudraveena player in India, the way Smt. Jyoti Hegde played could move one to tears...

All this brings me to why I wrote this today... YEsterday we were watching this programme on Zee MArathi... Nakshatrache Dene... which literally translates to 'Gift from the the stars'... And featured yesterday were songs by Pt. Bhimsen Joshi... A remark Nina Kulkarni, the anchor, made got me thinking... She said that we were really lucky to be born in a time as to get to hear Pt. Bhimsen Joshi sing... Here's my favourite...

As the reality shows which give more and more importance to Hindi Film songs grow, what is the future for this style of music? I developed a taste and love for classical music because of my family... ajju, annu, amma... Surprisingly, Ankur likes classical music... Supriya has learnt Carnatic music... But that just counts for 3 people that I know among my friends and colleagues including myself that have an inclination to this music... Are others of my generation interested? Would the next generation even know of the existence of this 'Gift from the stars?' The singers? The songs? The ragas?

I asked amma this... Have you heard the children sing in marathi Sa Re Ga Ma Pa? There are these kids who sing shastriya sangeet and classical music so beautifully... Don't worry she said... Classical music is here to stay...

Snippets...

2009-01-21T23:59:00.003+05:30

Lost...

We were in Mangalore and had gone to a festival and dinner to the temple. All of us on my mom's side... When the ladies and children were ready to leave, no sign of Vijendra... The men were busy serving... An extensive search revealed no signs of Vijendra... Asking both maamus to keep an eye out for him, we decided to go home to see if he was there... And halfway there, was Vijendra, his fair face and eyes red with tears... He thought we had forgotten him... Walking all the way home and a lock... the distressed child lost his way and thats how we found him where he was... he couldn't find anyone he said...

Forgotten...

Before I was born and Sohan anna was a child, mhanthu and his family had come to Pune. Asking Soniakka to sit with ajju and bapama in the car, mhanthu and annu went to the doctors' Sohan anna with them... They asked him to sit outside and sit on the compounder's stool... After a while, the boy got worried... he came out of the dispensary thinking both his Pappa and Bappa had forgotten about him... He was quite good with cars and asked someone on the road to take him across the road... Crying out for Papa and Bappa, he reached the car... At the dispensary, the two men, busy talking came out totally forgetting that his son/his nephew had come with them... At the car, everyone asked... Where's Sohan? Then they remembered... Thankfully Sohan anna was with the people in the car and they were pulling the men's leg...

House Arrest...

Three year old Ashwini and her parents were leaving for Dombivili early in the evening... About a couple of hours to leave, Ashwini goes to ajju and bapama's room and turns the key to lock herself in... Cajoling and confusing by the grandparents and her mother didn't help and Ganesh mamu's anger didn't simplify matters either... Ashwini was close to tears... All the shouting of breaking down the door woke up amma... First things first... she asked everyone to calm down... she'd see what to do... Everyone had already taken the handle apart... No way to try anything from this side of the door.. All upto Ashwini... Ashwini do you see the key? Put it in the lock... Now... Do you know left? yes... Turn the key left... Ok now turn the key right... Left again and real hard... The door comes open with a push...

The human doll...

At Chavathi (Ganesh festival), our entire family came together... Sohan anna, Ashwini and I were partners in crime... Sohan anna and Ashwini an year apart in age... Me the youngest 2 years younger than Ashwini... Finding that we were very silent, our families came searching for us... The older two had put on make-up on te youngest and a beautiful doll... a make-up of kajal made for the vaina pooja... the doll went into the dustbin... and half the day went to make me look presentable enough... Don't forget mhanthu's cream on the walls either...

A hard day's work...

Shifting to a new house is always a pain, especially when you are unwell and there's furniture being made and you have a 4 year old daughter to take care of... The carpenters had asked amma to take all the clothes left for drying into the room so that none of them got wood dust on them... Amma put them in ajju's room... that was the only room with no furnishing to be done... the bed had a pile of matresses on them since we always had guests coming to our place... Ajju and bapama at mhanthu's, tired amma went to sleep as soon as the carpenters left... Left to my own devices, little Tejaswini picked up a litre bottle of oil and decided to pour it on the freshly dried clothes... At the 'Devva kooda' water went into the bowl containing kumkum... An angry, exhausted amma sees this and goes to the bathroom to get everything cleaned and her feet can't stay on the ground... she is slipping... a litre bottle of shampoo is poured in the bathroom...

Tom and Jerry

2009-01-09T01:09:00.002+05:30

Introducing you to two other members of our team...
Manju who joined the BIP team from ERQA DeskI last year & Ranjit who joined the BIP team from ERQA DeskI this year.

These two keep fighting. Pranjal calls them Tom and Jerry. Have you seen those Tom and Jerry cartoons where Tom keeps trying to bait Jerry and Jerry gets his own in the end? Well do you also remember the episodes where Tom finds this hot new girl'cat'friend and has little time for Jerry. Jerry does everything possible to break up Tom and the girl-cat's relation just because he is lost without Tom.

That is how it is with these two... Ranjit yahaan se chale jao... Just get LOST!!! Arre main yahaan tumse thode bol raha tha... Main to bass aise hi baat kar raha tha... Nikhil Ranjit se kaho yahaan se chala jaaye... Why do you have to sit at my desk? Tumhari apni jagah nahi hai kya? Arre main isse nahin baat kar sakta kya?

All day long.. back-and-forth back-and-forth, these two keep annoying each other either entertaining or irritating the rest of us depending on what all of us are doing... but it is a constant treading on eggshells around these two... And they love to drag everyone around them into the fight as well..

Tejaswini tum hi bolo maine Manju se kuch kaha kya... Main yunhi baat kar raha tha...
Tejaswini Ranjit ko bolo mujhse baat mat karo

Ranjit stop teasing her and just leave her alone for 15 minutes... Manju just ignore him... falls to deaf ears... I guess they have as much fun hating each other and fighting with each other as most of us have listening to their ding-dong battles...

Blog roll

2009-01-07T00:16:00.002+05:30

I just spent about half an hour reading through my old blog posts... The other day read out the funnier ones to amma...

I just realised the best thing about writing a blog... its like looking through your old album... when you read your own blog, it brings back all the joys that you felt when you wrote them... the bitter-sweet memories of friends... the ones you speak to all the time and those whom you have lost touch with or have fought with... The emotion of seeing a dead lizard or eating dried up squishy maggi or watching some stupid movie with friends... Memories of the poems you wrote... of the books you read...

Realising that the fact that all your Labels being songs makes no difference since you have no link to redirect them to the respective blog :'(

Happy New Year... In advance???

2008-12-31T11:01:00.005+05:30

As kids, we used to wait for midnight on New Year's Eve to shout Happy New Year!!! There would be the crazy New Year welcome TV shows or crazy New Year parties... Music, dance and most importantly the coundown... 10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... HAPPY NEW YEAR... It was fun to scream out to everyone in sight....

Dil ko Dhadkan se pehle,
Dost ko dosti se pehle,
Pyar ko mohabbat se pehle,
Khushi ko gam se pehle,
Aur aapko 3 din pehle,
Happy New Year 2009

Now it is a race to wish people a Happy New Year... The first SMS I received was sometime in the beginning of this month... Advance Happy New Year... I want to be the first one to wish you... So wishing 27/28 days in advance (With more emotion of course)... I mean com'mon... Does this even make sense?

Before 2008 ends let me thank all d ppllyk u,
Who made 2008 beautiful 4 me.
I pray u b blessd wit fruitful yr ahead...
HAVE A GREAT LAST MONDAY OF THE YEAR

There have always been those loads of Advance Happy New Year wishes since the invention of mobiles and e-mails... But this year really took the cake... People don't even bother to write ADVANCE Happy New Year... Its like we already are in 2009...

Last year's words r old voices& next year's words await another voice.To make an end is to make a beginning. May ur wish be fulfilled.Happy new year 2009!!

People do not want to wait for the new year to come to wish... After all, 'Kal kare so aaj kar... Aaj kare so abb...' So might as well wish everyone... NOW... Right?

Wish U A VERY HAPPY N PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR! Coz 4m 2mrw,3 big beggars of d world Reliance, Airtel & Idea will beg Rs.1.5 4 wishing ppl.So lets Not promote d beggars

So do I also end this blog saying HAPPY NEW YEAR on the 31st of December???

Magically tagged...

2008-12-29T11:14:00.006+05:30

Tagged by Purnima.. So here we go...

1. The love potion you made tastes terrible. How will you drink it?
A. I don't quite understand why I need to drink the love potion... If I made it for someone I'm already in love, right? I'll sneak it into the guy's food or drink or something... but not before I add some rose essence to make it smell better (ewww... hopefully no one tries this on me... )

2. You can punch a hole in an apple using a straw. How do you think that makes your milkshake feel?
A. Wow!!! Steel straws have been invented, have they? Don't worry I'm not gonna add the horrid love potion to this milkshake...
...And the milkshake says... Nahiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

3. You've been entered in a shadow puppet contest. What's your best pose?
A. I'm a bird... I'm a plane... I'm Supergirl? What? There are copyrights to that line? Hmmm... I could stand in front of the screen and pretend I am a shadow myself...

4. Do you believe that forks are evolved from spoons?
A. A nick here... a cut there... a touch here... a bang there... and voila... we have a fork... So sure... See I made one myself...

5. Your people want to make a statue in your honor. What will it be made out of and what victory will it commemorate?
A. A statue made of diamond and gold... In honour of bringing world peace... I knew I should have tried for Miss India/Miss Universe... With that answer I'm sure to win

6. In the dream where you show up to school naked, why do you never go swimming?
A. I can't swim :'( I might sink lower than a submarine...

7. The children are waiting! Please tell them the story about the bald frog with the wig:
A. There was a frog as bald as an egg... To cover it up he stole a wig from a peg...
To kiss him he asked, the princess he saw... I am a prince hehe haw haw...
She kissed him well and what happened you see... He turned into a prince... she turned into frogini :'(

8. You have to dig a hole to China. Where do you start?
A. I'll make the guy whom I made the love potion for dig me a tunnel... Hey he's my slave now, isn't he? :P Put him to WORKKKKK :D

... And I tag no one...

Ghajini...

2008-12-28T00:22:00.004+05:30

Just read the review of Rab ne... by my dear friend Purnima and figured I should write about Ghajini... After all this has to be the first movie I saw on the very second day of release... Warning.. big time spoilers ahead.. Also I am not so good at narrating... so might be boring as well...

Short version:
Boy falls for girl... Girl falls for boy... Girl killed by Ghajini (won't say villain since then you won't know why the movie is called that)... Boy gets short term memory loss in the scuffle and ends up avenging his girl friend's death...

Long version:
The movie begins with 2-3 medical students finding the records of a guy and try to find out more about him from their prof... One of these females is Jiah Khan (Did anyone know this already... I was shocked to see her name... I had figured she had gone back to wherever she was before Nishabd)... Getting back... the prof hears out the students and immediately pulls the bio of the guy 'Sanjay Singhania' on his computer a temporary memory loss case who lost his memory (how no one knows 'cept that someone had hit him in his head)... After every 15 minutes his head is a blank board... Just like a child he remembers stuff by repeating everything or writing everything says doc... Poor guy.. I wonder where he is now, says Sunita (Jiah)...

And guess where he is... he is out killing someone... we find him throwing someone across the room and then holding him in a stranglehold while he pulls out a metal tap which was stuck way in the wall (how he gets super strength is beyond me... I mean I doubt even professional wrestlers would be able to yank out taps with that much ease)... and drives it in the stomach of the guy... As Nishanth and I waited for Aamir to turn the tap and the blood to drip fron the tap, Shraddha sat glued to the screen while some people in the theatre snickered and others oohed and aahed... yeah whatever... And then suddenly the vengeful look is gone from his face and he looks at the dead guy while something beeps... That something turns out to be a poloraid which we learn beeps every 15 minutes and he takes pics of everything around him... (How he remembers to take pics... don't ask) He looks for the dead guys belongings and finds the number of 'Ghajini'... Obviously he remembers its Ghajini he is after and the dead guy is just a pawn...

With the help of pics (he remembers) are in his pockets he ends up at his home and opening the door he follows labels to place his wallet, camera, photos and lot of other stuff... And then he crashes for the night... Morning brings him back to consciousness (I didn't hear the beep of the camera during this time but maybe I wasn't paying enough attention)... Off he goes to the bathroom... There next to the tap is written.. Remove T-shirt.. We all know what's written here... KILL GHAJINI... KALPANA IS KILLED... well everything as mirror image... of course... he can't read it backwards... duh!!! Though he can tattoo himself backwards... He goes mad with rage... reminding you of a caged beast... Well there you go... thats how he remembers what to do... the pics remind him whom to kill... how to find his way around...

While he is sleeping the ever attentive police (read good cop) finds a bus ticket... not the crime scene investigators mind you... the good cop... and he finds it under some desk... Off he goes to find out where this ticket was from... The bus station master tells it belongs to someone who had started off from Hiranandani... Ah yes says a conductor this was the guy who had given him a Rs. 500 note for a 10 rupees ticket which is what is written on the back of the ticket by the way... 10/500... the guys keeps forgetting he says... sometimes he forgets to buy tickets... sometimes change and sometimes keeps buying tickets... He can recognise this guy... He takes the cop to the bus stand and our dear protagonist... The bus passes them by and the cop jumps out of the rick he had been relaxing in and runs after the bus... He runs and runs... and catches up with the bus... This can only happen in hindi movies I say... You haven't seen tamil movies have you asks Nishanth.. Shraddha is still glued to the scene unfolding... I decide not to disturb her with my comments...

The cop finds Sanjay... The former attacks him and binds him to a chair and finds a diary for 2005... there begins the story...

Sanjay Singhania... the boy born with a silver spoon... the chairman of Air Voice company... finds out he wants a building for his company which is inhabited by a female 'Kalpana'.. He sends his cronies to find this woman and ask her for this flat... no one knows wh owns it... Now this Kalpana is a nobody model who is one of the background females acting in 'Kite' detergent ad... And the ad director is waiting for her before they start filming the ad... (Com'on she's the lead of the movie... any other movie and she would have been fired for being late/playing pranks but here she plays a major role)... Sanjay's PA comes to talk to her while she is in the makeup room and to convince her about leaving the flat... All the guys outside hear is how she says no to the chairman of Air Voice company and draw the conclusion that the guy has his heart set out on her... yeah well... she finds her opportunity to make it big and pretends it is true... Now this info gets into a magazine and she keeps spinning tales about how they met and so on...

Sanjay on hearing this asks... is her photo in there... no say his cronies... nor is yours... Did I forget to mention there was this interview on CNN about Sanjay Singhania? No one watches TV 'cept for ads... especially who has time for news about the high and mighty businessmen? Right? Well in this movie that is the case... Now people gather at Kalpana's doorstep for her blessing to get an ad... Sanjay comes searching for her... His convoy waits at a traffic signal... I am guessing this is a verrrrrrrrrry long signal assuming how much the story proceeds while they wait... A nun is waiting with some girls who bear crutches and can't cross to the museum because of the ground covered with drain lids... Out of the museum comes a female on a scooty... No points for guessing its Kalpana... She helps the girls and Sanjay is bowled over... Finding she is the Kalpana in question he is even more intrigued... and speechless...

A kind soul with a golden heart, Kalpana helps Sachin (as she thinks is the name of Sanjay) and helps him wet his feet in the ad industry... Life goes on... he falls for her completely but does not reveal his true identity... he proposes to her... she decides she might as well love him in return... (Hmmm for someone who doesn't believe in love... maybe I'll have to make a conscious effort to fall in love someday as well)...

End of year... end of diary and AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA Sanjay wakes up from his stupor and hits the cop... the cop is half-dead and no idea what happens to him when Sanjay's PA/manager comes with a doctor for check-up...

Story goes on... Sunita meets him and has him take a pic of her... 'My Friend'... is what the pic says... Sunita finds he is a murderer... finds the cop... Sanjay finds them... He runs after the cop... Sunita runs after him... Cop dies in roadkill... Sunita escapes... She tells 'Ghajini' that this guy is out to kill him who in turn decides to kill Sanjay... And when he realises he is a 'Short term memory' case decides to remove all traces of Sanjay's memory by destroying all evidence by destroying all photos, papers and untattooing all tattoos...

Sunita in the mean time realises she has the diaries... Reads them... Investigates and comes up with the entire tale... Ghajini had killed Sanjay's girlfriend... Yada yada yada... story goes on... she decides to become his memory... brings the diary to the hospital and while he reads both diaries (all in 15 minutes mind you) explains all that had happened where the diary entry ended... She takes him to Ghajini's office and he keeps killing everyone (I still can't figure out whether she keeps reminding him of what happened or whether everything from the start of the diary till now has happened in less than 15 minutes)... Ghajini runs and Sanjay's mind is a blank... Ghajini tries to kill Sanjay... Sanjay kills Ghajini... (What did you expect really that the villain gets off and runs of to Switzerland???)... Why Sanjay didn't die when Ghajini tried to kill him as well is not something I'm trying very hard to find out... let bygones be bygones I say... End of movie... end of my investigation... Though I still wonder... hmmmm

For movie watchers... sure that the movie is really worth only 3 and a half stars or is that because I was commenting through the entire movie... different story... if you haven't watched the tamil original or the english original original Memento...

Reviews:
Asin: Major Over acting... would give Kareena a run for her money... but then she has her lucid moments and is quite good
Aamir: Aah the king/Ikka whatever... good as always
Jiah: Whatever... she had to be in the movie... Her character at least... no overcting... nothing wrong quite good
Movie: Has its moments... lots of loopholes... At points just short of falling into them... At others pretty good... Very few songs... could have been better... not too realistic... one time watch... Go with friends some who love to comment others who love to concentrate on whats happening on the screen... You'll enjoy it one way or the other... won't fall asleep thats for sure...

'Scintillating' Conversation

2008-12-04T23:48:00.003+05:30

Rather stupid conversation... Entirely in marathi...

Anjali and I went for dinner yesterday. Ankur and Sujay were already there, eating with their friends... Anjali showed the pickles she had brought in her tiffin...

A1: He bagh majhya sasar kadun aalela loncha... khaun bagh kasla masta aahe... Fakta limbu and tyat meeth...

T: Arre... he tar aamchya kade pan kartaat..

Discussing merits and demerits of the 'loncha'

A1: Sujay khaun bagh...

S: Sahi aahe... Chala Anjali la evdha tari karta yeta

A1: He shijvun kartat..

S: Ho te lakshaat aala... itka naram ahe te...

A1: Ho pan he unhaat pan thevtaat... tyamule pan naram hou shakta...

S: Hehhh... Unhaat thevlyaavar kadak hoil..

T: Barobar aahe... Unhaat thevlyavar kadak hoil... Shijvava lagta...

A1: Unhaat thevlyavar, tyat vitamin C tayaar hota...

S, A2 and T, laughing...

A2: Unhaat thevlyavar C nahi D vitamin tayaar hota...

T: Infact, B ani C vitaminla jasta oonh-vara lagla tar udun jaatat te...

S: Unhaat thevlyavar te CD hota

T: Ani te CD chadhun var jaata

S: Ani suryala touch karta... Ani khaali yetana DC hota... karan te ulta utrat yeta... Mhanun te khallyavar (Pretending to eat lemon with the normal reaction people give when eating lemons...)... assa hota (i.e. the sour expression) Karan angaat DC yeta..

T: Ani te baghnaryanchya angaat AC tayar hota... Mhanun tyanna gar-gaar vat-ta... Mhanun te hasayla lagtat...

:P ;) :D

Dashavatar...

2008-11-30T22:50:00.004+05:30

As a kid, I loved to hear stories about Dashavatar... either told by ajju or by Narsimha maamu... It tells of the 10 avtaars of Lord Vishnu... But, when you think about it, it also tells the story of evolution...

First there was 'Matsya' a fish, something that lived in water... then 'Koorma,' a turtle... an amphibian... then 'Varaha' a huge beast... then came 'Narsimha,' half man half animal... then there was 'Vamana' a dwarf... then 'Parashurama,' a wild man... then 'Rama' the ideal man.. then 'Krishna' someone who enjoyed all the pleasures in life who had both vices and virtues... then the saint, 'Buddha'... the final avtaar is said to be 'Kalki' someone who is still to be born... someone who will come to earth when it is filled with evil and destroy everything... and then the circle is to repeat...

But how does God decide when it is time for Him to come to earth? News of bombs, terrorists fill the papers... Neighbours become enemies... Who comes to save the humans in time of need? Are these stories of Gods and Godesses just that? Stories? Bed time tales to tell children so that they keep believing that good triumphs over evil?

...then why did so many have to die in Mumbai last week? Some of them took the oath to save lives and they lived this oath by sacrificing themselves... Some of them were regular people, some unsung heroes... They laid down their lives for others...

People left their homes to go for a vacation... to do their daily jobs and never returned to hug their children or smile happily at their families and friends... some who escaped physically unscathed but mentally charred... will probably be traumatized for life after this experience...

Is there a God who allows this to happen or is He watching the events unfold as a part of His grand scheme or is He waiting for someone to take His place on earth? Does he, as he always has, come in the form of humans who will put the lives of others before their own?

Or does he want each human to become kalki and destroy everyone else and ultimately destroy earth?

What has changed

2008-11-21T11:18:00.005+05:30

What I don't do anymore....

1- Laugh freely
2- Write poems
3- Be mischievous
4- Be childish
5- Play messy-gory computer games
6- Find interest in work
7- Watch cartoons
8- Read comics
9- Chat online
10- Play online games
11- Run and dance around in the house
12- Talk to friends
13- Fight with amma
14- Beg amma to let me cook
15- Don't care about peoples' expectations of me
16- Not watch TV
17- Start dancing when listening to favorite song
18- Not complain and crib about everything
19- Drive by myself
20- Look to go to work
21-Not let amma sleep until she has heard everything that happened at work
22- Sing in the shower
23- Not be afraid to disappoint myself when I go to work and when I return

... Will add to this list as I think of other things... Need to rewind my life and go back to doing these things... Life seemed to be more fun when I did this...

Catching up...

2008-10-23T23:32:00.003+05:30

So whats been going on in the past month and a half since I last blogged... Well nothing special really... just routine life...

My birthday... infact lots of birthdays happened last month... my pacchi... my mayi... my cousin sis... her husband... my bappa... and three birthdays at office this month... not to mention our process at office turned three... unfortunately no parties for that this year...

Most importantly... last month was quarter end so verrrrrrrrrrrrrry busy...

What else... lots of my friends getting married... in fact as I just realised, in contrary to what I was discussing with Tina and later Nishanth, 2 of these are arranged marriages... one of my childhood friends, Shradha, got married on Saturday... another childhood friend is engaged to be married next month and two of my college friends are engaged...

Mukta and I finally joined dance class... Rumba and Salsa... Finished with rumba last week... salsa starts next week... Got to say, if the class is to be divided as experienced and brilliant, better than average, average and terrible... I come in the terrible group... I have two left feet when it comes to Latin dancing... was just starting to get the hang of it when rumba class ended... Well though, having fun anyway and as amma said, taking this up as a challenge... Gonna join samba and meringue class next...

Read lots of books... a crazy sambandha-less book from British Library... a couple of books by Mary Higgins Clark... watched loads of TV... Thought up lots of topics to put up posts on but got too exhausted after getting home and having dinner...

Lots of sari days at office... infact today was traditional day... but got too bored with saris (finally the day did arrive)... it was also bay decoration today... and this is encouragement week... lots of nice compliments from my colleagues... tomorrow is the judging...

My dear friend Purnima came back on the radar finally with her blog changing thrice... from crazy names like 'Chillies and chills' and 'Spluttered thoughts' finally settling down to something simple...

Well there's everything... in more than a nutshell... as I said... normal boring mundane life... Until next time... ciao.. .toodles... Good night

The Tyre Doctor...

2008-09-06T23:23:00.005+05:30

'Oh no.. Its THAT guy again!!!' I turned around to see whom my mom meant... I pretty much realised why THAT guy was WELL THAT guy....

After ages our little Santro had come out for air... so needless to say, before we went to Sheeba's, we decided to check the air in the car tyres... On way we decided to stop at Paud Road to get air filled in the tyres... I stopped at the tyre shop... That's when amma turned and saw HIM...

THAT guy as mom referred to him could be better referred to as the Tyre Doctor... and his diagnosis always is atleast one puncture... So tyre doctor came with the air pump and pressure gauge... I told amma to keep an eye on him... He'd inevitably pull out a rusty nail from one of the tyres...

After filling air in the tyres he comes around and says... You guessed it... 'There's a puncture madam'... I sat there on the wheel laughing... the Tyre Doctor's cohort must have thought me mad when he looked at me... Well put in the spare tyre we said... No that was punctured too...

So to cut a long story short... we reached Sheeba's home an hour late...

What amma and I wondered was how did this guy always find nails in the tyres... Did he have some nails poking out of the road right outside his shop or was it that God gave us sense to bring our car to his shop whenever we had punctures... Either way, next time I'm definitely not going to go to that guy to fill air in our car tyres....

Planning...

2008-08-12T00:06:00.007+05:30

Everyone knows of 5-year plans... But who knows of every year plans? These are the ones which are to be followed every year... The city of Pune has one such plan... Road maintenance... Well with a twist...

Every year about a month before the monsoons, the road construction work begins... what this entails is around a couple of weeks of digging up the already existing roads... then leaving all the ruins along the side of the roads or in case of the more 'well-off' roads which actually have footpaths... (Hey they actually exist in some parts of Pune... you might not find them easily but ask the hawkers or drunks who have no home to get back to or even those who are too exhausted to find their homes, they'll show you one...) you'll find them piled with rubble for another couple of weeks... so if you do the math, you'll figure out that the rains are now here... The first rains in Pune are always those variety where it rains off and on sun and light for days... and we have the thunder-lightning storms... so that's where the road construction work ends for the monsoons... that is how we welcome the rains in this part of the country atleast...

Now bottom-line of all this is that we have these beautifully dug up roads... well halfway length-wise... super traffic population who have like the most amazing drivers with zero road sense... rubble filled footpaths... (Do keep in mind that when no footpaths exist, these are all on the road itself...) pedestrians with even less road sense... Imagine people crossing the road when the light is green for the vehicles I might add... since, well the green lights for pedestrians don't exist... traffic never stops... and its every man/woman/animal for itself... which brings me to the facts that I've seen dogs and cats cross the road more sensibly than humans... and on top of that winds and rains... So the situation might be right out of the Amazing Race's visit to India... Ask them to send the teams to Pune in the monsoons and surely they'll remember the horrors of the country throughout their lifetime... to be honest, I do wonder how they find the Amazing Race people find all the strangest and depressing places in India, but that's another story...

Coming back to the roads or the lack of it thereof... So this year, the rains took some pity on the road construction guys... the real rains started just a few days ago... and it rained continuously for the better part of three days... the rains which pretty much flood the areas near the river banks... So after a 'nice' (Yeah right!!!!) rain filled weekend (going out anywhere was SOOOOOO out of question :( ) it was back to office today... the highway (can you believe it the HIGHWAY!!!) was totally filled with potholes... Heaven knows what they make these roads of which washes off with the first rains!!! This meant that our cab driver came to pick me up a whole 30mins after the normal time he should have come to my house and we reached office 4o minutes late... it was a lovely ride really... who can claim to have ridden a camel while in a car or maybe I should say we went to the moon and back...

Every year the same thing repeats... every year the same road constructions... digging up the roads before the rains and the streets piled with whatever was dug up with everything from stones, mud to telephone lines and water pipes... never has the question of making a drainage system to carry the water off the road been a concern... so the low lying parts of the road are water logged each year...

They say history repeats itself... But is this the sort of history which needs to be repeated each year????

Travelogues Part 2... Photo diary....

2008-07-26T22:47:00.009+05:30

... So ultra bugged of typing about the UK trip... Hence... Here are some pics...

To start off... The Hotel Intercontinental Grand, Mumbai, where we spent a day after the plane was grounded due to electrical problems...

My first day at UK... Visited Trafalgur Square and the near by places... So some pics of Trafalgur Square and some of the places we saw on the way to Trafalgar square... Had been there with my senior manager who was to leave for India the next day... So only time when I am seen in the photos...

... FirstBond Street outside FCUK...Then some nice architecture pics on way to Trafalgar Square... Picadilly Circus... Nelson Column... Unfortunately missing the top :( ... National Gallery, Trafalgar square... Some trick photography... a closer look at the National Gallery... Another general pic... And finally Covent Garden Market....

Next come pics of the BO House at Ealing throughout my trip... Its a beautiful 3 storey - 4 bedroom house... What's more... I saw a fox in the backyard a couple of times... Just couldn't get it in the frame through the glass

Sightseeing on your own can be a drag... But if you have open top sightseeing buses and you can get on and off at any time, it can be a joy... Here's some of the places I saw...

So left to right.. top to bottom we have pics of... well a statue with London Eye in the background... Another statue... Note the hooves of the horse... It is said if two feet are raised, the rider dies in battle... one foot raised, injured in battle and if all four feet on ground... the person died of natural causes... Next is Marble arch... The famous London Eye/Millenium Eye...Next two some places I saw when on the cruise across the Thames... Entrance to London Dungeon...The Millenium Bridge/Wobbly bridge... The City Hall... Tower Bridge... Blackfrair's Bridge (or what remains of it)... Tate Modern... London Bridge...London Eye capsule... A look at the Thames from the London Eye... Cleopatra's Needle and finally the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben...

After a lovely river cruise across the Thames, I visited Greenwich(pronounced Grenich)... For those whom Geography wasn't a pet subject, Greenwich is the place where GMT comes from... The 0 degree longitude passes through Greenwich...

Last place I visited that day... Madame Tusaaud's Wax museum... Whom do you recognise?

I ran out of batteries at the Buckingham palace... So armed with new cells I bought at the Tower of London, here are pics of the Tower... The place has the most gruesome history... people imprisoned and executed left, right and centre... Murders... However, it also houses the Crown Jewels including the Kohinoor Diamond... The guards here are called 'Yeomen' or 'Beefeaters'

Coming to the end of the visit now... For people who plan to visit London or those who'll be going there for work, here are some pointers... Getting around is really simple... even for a person like me who has never explored the city I have lived in all my life... Really well organised city... good transportation... Lovely places to see... Here's why I say that...

Hope you enjoyed the crash course and fly-by across London... See you all in my next post...

Travelogues Part x

2008-07-05T20:31:00.006+05:30

Well this is called part x because I wrote part 1 after being in UK for a week and that was something I had written before I left India... and this I write as I am about to leave... My flight is at 9.20 p.m. so leave the house at around 5.30 p.m. Getting extremely bored and anxious about the trip ahead... So had to do something to relieve the stress... Finally someone else has come to stay at the house... He just got in and me leaving... So basically for most of 2 weeks I have been alone in this place... I'll def upload some pics when I get back to India... Unfortunately company policy says I can't connect a pen drive to this laptop... so if I had been intelligent enough tho get my cam USB connector, it would have made no difference whatsoever... So anyway, will end my short (thankfully short for people who actually read my blog) blog post... See you all soon...

Travelogues Part 1

2008-06-30T23:02:00.003+05:30

18 hours after leaving Pune, I am still in Mumbai. Moreover I’m at the Intercontinental… Some of my friends had asked me to take pics of everything so that I almost have a photo diary… so though the diary needs to start at the airport, I obviously couldn’t take any pics there.

However, I can start by writing about the airport. My flight was at 11 p.m. Reporting time 8 p.m. I reached the airport at 6 p.m. Lots of calling people… Then I curled up with a book… At 8 p.m. I joined the line for check in… To cut a long story short, baggage screening, reporting, baggage check-in and being bumped to Business class from economy and a wait at the gate 16 for my flight later, we ended up in the plane… After about half an hour, we were told that 11 passengers who had checked-in were still missing. After they were escorted to the plane and an hour after the stipulated hour to leave, we were told by the pilot that there were some electrical problems. Please enjoy beverages… My neighbour was fast asleep from the time he sat at his seat. Another hour later another announcement… Hot meal would be served… The ground staff would be assisting us further... and we would disembark soon… At around 1.30 a.m., about 15-20 minutes from the time we were supposed to be in Abu Dhabi, we disembarked… Off to the Intercontinental for a halt… The hotel room is beautiful…

So now some important things… people I need to appreciate… the ground staff of Etihad… In a situation where, there were no systems, they co-coordinated really well when we were checking in… the counter was new… they had no computers… they had to confirm everything by mobile phones… the air hostess was all smiles and really sweet who managed the irate passengers really well (or maybe that had something to do with the fact that it was Business Class)… my manager Prashant Shah… a ray of hope really… He normally works in the Americas shift, but was ill and at home yesterday when I called him at 12 am in order to get word across to Ajit sir, who was to pick me up at Heathrow… I knew calling amma would be a waste… she would lay awake worrying… unfortunately I woke Prashant sir and unfortunately he stayed awake with worry… "Don’t worry," he said… I have family in Mumbai who can pick you up if necessary… “Don’t worry about Abu Dhabi either… I have my gang there…” It was really encouraging… Its one thing to know that the airways need to take care of everything, but to have someone say “Don’t worry... call anytime” is a whole different thing…

Well leaving now for lunch... the internet doesn’t seem to be working in the room… So just saving this as a draft.

Note: This was originally written on the day after I left Pune... the 19th I think... I am in Ealidng, UK since about 10 days now... I'll write about how that came about and the sights I saw soon (hopefully)

Happy Birthday Ajju...

2008-06-17T00:21:00.006+05:30

Ajju (My paternal grandfather) celebrated his 100^th birthday today, 16^th June… We couldn’t go there… because of my job… We called him up today and amma made sweets to take to office… but it isn’t the same… I missed him a lot…

Ajju and bapama had lived with us since before I was born till the year 2000, after which they went to stay with their other son in Bangalore…Ajju is a retired high school teacher who taught kannada at Canara High School in Mangalore and Bapama was a house wife… What do I write about? I could talk about their 5 children… I could talk about how he was loved by his students and who still visit him and have called since yesterday… I could write about the stories he told when I was a child… there are way too many things that I can write about him and too short a blog space…

So I’ll write about some memories of when I was a child… the difference he has made to my life… the lessons he taught….

Ajju has always loved to sing and he still has a very strong voice… Last year, ajju and bapama had been to Dombivili for my cousin sis’s wedding and as I always remembered, he suddenly started humming to himself… We all kind of stopped chatting and listened to him… I took my cell near his mouth and asked him to sing… After he got over his confusion, he started singing… as he sang, his voice grew louder, he grew more energetic… he stumbled a bit in the second stanza but got over it really quick and remembered the rest of the song very soon… He sang the whole song… After the song was complete, he wanted to hear the recording… he heard it… I could tell he was satisfied with the way he had sung… ‘Kashi jalla ajju (How was it),’ I asked… ‘What can I say about myself,’ he said modestly… He couldn’t fool anyone really… he had that naughty twinkle in his eye which we always recognize… he liked what he heard…

As ajjus and bapamas go, my grandparents also spoiled me a lot… getting angry with amma and annu if I fought with them… and speaking on my behalf even when I fought with my grandparents… a pure vegetarian, I tried to feed ajju monginis slice cakes when I was playing with my toy utensils… ‘Oh… egg isn’t non-vegetarian,’ he said… well that’s a point for discussion…

A funny memory is when we made fish… Amma made fish for annu, me and herself… we had and still use completely different utensils for non veg… everything from the cooking utensils to plates and glasses are different… We would always have dinner together… the whole family… so on the days when we made fish, amma would ask ajju and bapama to have dinner first… the very same guy who had wandered in the kitchen about an hour ago would suddenly realize amma was making fish for dinner… needless to say, the door to his room would be closed to ward off the smell of fish… of course they never had objections to fish being made in the house… If a fortnight went by without fish being cooked, bapama would ask amma why we hadn’t bought it… they taught me to be tolerant and generous…

Since my childhood, I was supported whole-heartedly when I wrote poems… Creative genes I inherited from my father who in turn inherited them from his father… ajju helped me with my English grammar… Of course he never understood why our maths had to be so complicated… a complicated sum whose answer he could work out in his mind in a jiffy, we had to work out from a series of steps… he corrected my poems… taught me to classical music… and adored me with his love and affection and stories…

I was listening to an old audio recording the other day… when I was small, annu loved to record everything I said on a cassette… now I can be very stubborn when I want to… so most of the tape is my amma and annu trying to coax me to sing, which normally I would do all day at the top of my voice (I inherited quite a good voice from both sides of my family and with ajju as my teacher, I was quite well versed with classical music…) I was giggling away listening to the tape when suddenly comes the voice of ajju singing… More like humming to himself… but completely content…

One thing that comes out of being married to your wife for 73 years is that you know each other very well… you can recognize their voice… their breath… their whisper… last year at my sis’s, we were trying to get ajju’s attention… all calling out to him… ajju is hard of hearing now… Bapama is 12 years his junior but quite frail… she has always been delicate, but now she is almost fragile… In her tiny voice, she called to him, “Aikata vae… appaitaasa palaiyaati” (They are calling you…) Surprisingly that tiny voice reached his ears when all our voices didn’t…

Bapama was quite ill a while back… I think it took the most toll on ajju… he fell ill too… he wouldn’t recognize anyone at that time… we were all concerned for them both… Bapama got well… ajju got well… we were relieved…

Today when I took the sweets and told all my friends and colleagues that it was my ajju’s birthday, they were all very happy for him and for us… to have his blessings with us… I feel lucky to have him… Hopefully we will get to soon visit him… I’ll stop now… Find below two links… one of a song recording from about a year or two ago and the second an article in the newspaper about his birthday… Again… Happy Birthday Ajju

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFE-GD2JgH0 (Special thanks to Nagesh anna who uploaded this last year on ajju’s birthday…. It meant a lot to me as well as our family to see and hear ajju sing)

http://www.hinduonnet.com/2008/06/13/stories/2008061359451100.htm

Studying...

2008-06-15T00:26:00.003+05:30

12:30 a.m. and I am still studying... last time I was studying so hard was during my MCSE exams...

Tired... but still lots to do and gotta complete this today so that I can complete the rest tomorrow... exhausted... so thought I'd look at my own blog and cheer myself...

The stupid module I am reading is supposed to be completed in 2 and a half to 2 hours 45 minutes... yeah right!!!!

Musical Game

2008-06-13T00:06:00.002+05:30

My sis sent this one… Fun game… won’t tag anyone… lets see… if you guys try it, post a comment on my blog and I’ll check it on yours…

Here's a game.

Rules:
1. Put your MP3 player/iPod on shuffle
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. You must write the name of the song that plays. No cheating! Don't change the songs!

Here are my answers:

IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY?" YOU SAY?

Halka halka (Chocolate)

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?

Inner Smile (Texas)

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?

Dil na diya (Krrish)(!!!)

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?

Tere Bina (Guru)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?

L.O.V.E. (Ashlee Simpson)

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Sathiya (Sathiya) (Looks like I am getting to know my innermost feelings :P)

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?

Ya Ali (Gangster) (Huh??? Friends could you please explain)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR PARENTS?

Bring me to life (Evanascence) (Isn't the tense incorrect???)

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?

Papa kehte hain (QSQT)

WHAT IS 2+2?
Zara Nazron Se Kehdo (Bombay Vikings)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?

Khoya Khoya (Shabd)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?

Nastes Ghari (Salil Kulkarni)

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?

Aankhen BAnd karke (Aitraaz)

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?

Mayya (Guru)

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?

Pretty Woman (Roy Robinson)

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?

Angels (Robbie Williams)

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?

All out of love (OTT)

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?

Barso Re (Guru) (Heck... I always thought I hated getting wet...)

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?

Show me the meaning (BSB)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?

Lekin mera dil (Nazia HAsan)

WHAT SHOULD YOU POST THIS AS?

Underneath your clothes (Shakira) (I repeat!!!!)

Rules are made to be broken...

2008-06-02T23:01:00.003+05:30

One of those great points about the cab service at office (touch wood!!) is the security measures they take... But drivers are quite adept when it comes to breaking rules... Moreover some rules ARE easy to break...

Here's one... Drivers and the front seat passengers are supposed to wear seat belts... and they indeed wear seat belts... for the 45 seconds that it takes to get to the gate... announce who is getting down last... and drive out of the gate... snap comes the belt out of the holder and back to its original position... the employee sitting at the passenger seat pointed this out to the driver today... Its ok for you said the driver... we can't drive with the seat belt... and there ends the argument...

Another says that the drivers have to go for a breath analyzer test before leaving the building... funny thing is, one of my colleagues smelt alcohol in the car one day and it turned out to be an employee... and there was the one time when they found a bottle of alcohol below the driver's seat... the driver was immediately terminated... Nowadays to save on time they do the breath analyser test before employees are seated... how that assures that they won't drink before leaving is quite beyond me...

Another rule is in between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. or so, a female employee can ask for an escort or rather, she HAS to take an escort... Earlier, the drivers used to ask particular guards to sit in the car... now that means that they are friends... so how would the female employee feel safe? We raised this point and the management immediately took measures to overcome this...

Going back to the seat belts, a funny incident took place a few months ago... Two of my colleagues were in the same cab... it was just the two of them in the cab... a guy and a girl... the guiy was to take the last drop... they were both seated on the back seats... a security guy asked the guy to sit in the passenger's seat... After some argument he agreed to sit in the front seat... If you are wondering why he had argued, it was because of the seat belt... He has severe neck aches and can't wear a seat belt... No you have to wear the seat belt said the guards... First they make you take the passenger seat against your will and then make you wear the seat belt... is it strange or what?

A rule says, girls aren't allowed to sit in the passenger seat... My pregnant friend had to tell atleast 3 guards the reason why she couldn't sit in the back seat before we left the office everyday... she finally lost her temper one day when the guard said... Madam, please be seated in the back... NO... she said... who could blame her? Maybe, we decided, to add to the DOs and DON'Ts list, a pregnant lady should have a sign stuck to her forehead declaring as such so that no one pesters her...

When we spoke to the management about some of these problems, some of them said... Wow... we never knew... We come by car... Well, thats easy for them to say... not everyone owns a car and bike accidents on the highway are a whole different story...

Anyway, let me wind up... how do you decide when a rule is helpful and when does it cross the border of sanity?

Bias...

2008-05-25T23:54:00.007+05:30

I was reading this book a few months ago called 'Chart Throb' by Ben Elton. The book is about this guy who accepts a challenge from his almost-ex-wife that he makes the 'Prince of Wales' the final winner of the Chart Throb program. Basically 'Chart Throb' is the top music talent show. The idea is to get max TRPs for the program and in the end no one quite cares who wins, right? It’s all about getting the max people to watch and vote... Wrong... Calvin has a lot to lose if the Prince doesn't lose... namely half his wealth to the manipulative female whom he married... Calvin is no angel; you come to know as you read along... The whole book deals with his manipulations to make the Prince win...

...But this post isn't about the book... This is about how close it seems to the reality of the 'Reality' TV talent hunt shows...

The biggest example I thought of this was Ruprekha winning 'Fame Gurukul'... I mean may be I was one of the few people who thought she sang utterly crappy but then I honestly felt Rex deserved to win... But let’s keep my opinions aside... Javed Akhtar, one of the judges on the shows, would extol her to such heights; you would think she was a martyr... There was this episode when the two highest rated contestants had an opportunity to either chuck out one of the two remaining contestants or keep them both safe till the next episode... The other guy, I forget his name, decided to let both the others through... So did Ruprekha... You should have heard Mr. Akhtar go on and on and on about how great Ruprekha was by not chucking out the others... I mean get a grip, man... It was utterly absurd listen to him being so blatantly biased....

In more recent shows comes the Marathi 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa.' The judges kept praising one of the contestants to the skies during the last episode... I don't remember his name... The guy's voice was a typical folk singer's voice... he has that specific influence over any of the song he sings... Nothing particularly spectacular or bad... just not an all-rounder voice... I really have nothing against the guy to be honest... Today were the finals of the show... I didn't feel like watching... But last time they announced who was leading; he was the one who was leading among the guys...

Then there is 'Jo Jeeta Wohi Superstar'... I wonder if Farah Khan has some vendetta against Himani... She wasn't the best singer in the last episode... Still the champions voted her as the best and she joined the champions... All three judges criticized for a whole 10 minutes after the votes were declared... And then when she finally sang, again she wasn't the best... Farah said she was sure that Himani wouldn't be able to sing... If there was any poetic justice at all, she said, Himani wouldn't sing well and that is what happened... Himani had made a deal with the champions to vote her, she said... Himani ended up weeping and saying she was not at fault... blah blah blah... I think the champions just voted for the worst of the three so that they would all be safe when the audience voted... That has seemed to be their strategy since they probably found out the power they had according to the game format... I mean last week they voted Amit Sana who has almost consistently been the weakest of the challengers considering he was really one of the most likely people to make it big after Abhijeet Sawant after Indian Idol 1...

I couldn't care less... What gets to me is the extent to which the judges go to build up a contestant they love or sabotage a contestant they hate... Very few people remember Ruprekha now... I am not sure where the 'Sa Re...' guy will end up... I am not even sure whether he won or not... Amit Sana will go back to oblivion as he did after he lost Indian Idol... Himani will definitely lose next week if the trend is anything to go by... she's the only girl left in the show and she had definitely performed way better in Sa Re Ga Ma... so she has a good chance to lose anyway...

Maybe winning and losing is a coincidence... However, I feel that when you are judging a reality TV show, you really should keep your personal feelings aside and judge on the basis of how well the contestant has performed.... But then... if there were no controversies, maybe people wouldn't watch them anyway...

Taggeddddd Part 2

2008-05-12T22:12:00.005+05:30

I AM THINKING ABOUT : Why exactly I am replying to a tag my sister sent by mail on my blog

I SAID : Kopu... She said 'Topu umti ghaali' (That is a conversation amma and I whenever I am home in the evenings...)

I WANT TO : FLYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

I WISH : I could go back to the time when Purni, Shrads and I were sitting in that car dicky... The photo I am looking at for inspiration as I write this answer

I WONDER : why amma wants me to go to sleep early... don't need a rocket scientist to answer this... I have to get up early tomorrow...

I REGRET : not too many things too often

I HEAR : my computer humming currently...

I AM : moody, confused, sensitive

I DANCE : more than I walk when at home

I SING : whichever song comes to my mind

I CRY : every once in a while

I AM NOT : crying right now... DUH... I am happily typing away...

I MAKE WITH MY HANDS : crazy stuff? Something I never did as a kid... I drew cartoons a few days ago...

I WRITE : to chill or vent out my frustration

I CONFUSE : people a lot when I am teasing them...

I NEED : music most of the time when I am at home

I TAG : Purni and Rachana... Its pay back time guyzzzzzz

No heading...

2008-05-10T00:30:00.001+05:30

Have you ever felt somewhat inadequate? Not that someone tells you so... Just that you put yourself in the balance and find yourself wanting?

Entwined - Lynda LaPlante

2008-04-29T00:18:00.004+05:30

A beautiful baroness... A fearless lion trainer... What is it that binds them?

Why does the baroness, Vebekka, behave so strangely? Why is she so loving at a certain time and why does she burn her daughter's dolls the next moment? Why does she attack a clown at a circus? Why does she hurt everyone around her... people she loves... people who love her? What are the strange colors she keeps seeing? What is it that possesses her... fills her with fury?

What makes Ruda so fearless? Her life hangs on the balance every time she steps in the same in the ring with 16 tigers... 4 lions... 4 lionesses... a panther... she loves her cats more than she loves the people around her... she loves them like her own babies... so gentle with them when the slightest human mistake makes her furious...

This is the story of Ruda and Rebecca, two sisters separated as children... their struggle as they try to find each other and themselves...

The way their lives are described entwines you in the mystery... The book is beautiful... a must read for anyone who loves adventures of a different kind... A very different book.. unexpected climax... You will love the two women who are so different yet so alike...

Tejaswini's ratings... *** 1/2 Beg... borrow... steal... Worth reading...

Ratings:
* Chuck it... Heck why did I even bother to bring the book home?
** Shelf it... Read it once... trying to forget it...
*** Beg... borrow... steal... Worth reading Read it... love it...
**** Buy it... Deserves to be bought
***** A keeper... Buy it... read it over and over... love it each time...

Amazedddd

2008-04-27T00:30:00.007+05:30

They say necessity is the mother of all invention... so who are the people who need the most? The poor? So do they invent most things? Probably not... but this young boy's videos touched my heart... An Indian boy who can speak 13 foreign languages... See how necessity made him learn so many languages in order to sell peacock feather fans...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_Gw2HgDbCc&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-URtZfIgKAU&feature=related

Watch it... it is definitely amazing...

The Move...

2008-04-16T23:23:00.003+05:30

Today we shifted to level 1... We the Europe support were on level 2 since about the past 8 months... in other words since I started to work at KPIT and since I joined my team...

Level 1 was what was originally the BOBJ floor where all BOBJ support engineers used to sit before the ETAC or Europe team was shifted to Level 2 back in August just after I joined... Since then, we have all come to love our floor... We had our small 30 odd strong 'little' family of Design and Architecture engineers and obviously our very own coccoon on level2... We were used to our neighbours... Rashi sitting opposite me... Her non-stop nok-jhok with her neighbour and buddy Nikhil... My neighbour Rajesh and I have got adjusted to each other... he is terribly quiet so I can keep talking endlessly and he listens... be it that I crib about some case or if I am utterly excited about some ridiculously simple case...

On friday we were told we'd move downstairs... The move finally came through today... Our lockers downstairs were locked... our machines utterly messed with... when we got in we spent about an hour getting everything just right... the test machine keyboard and mouse had to be on the desk... the production machine counterparts had to be on the pull-out trolley... then switch the monitors... restart all machines since neither of the devices could be hot-swapped... Work started at about 2 p.m.

I'd chalk it off to being the first day in a new location... but then isn't it strange when you feel half a dozen pairs of eyes staring at you as soon as you buzz yourself into the room? Moreover when you are seated right in the middle of the room, though it takes the heat off you in that neither the Operations Manager can see what you are upto from the right hand corner of the room or that you are way away from the clients who sit on the left hand corner of the room, it means that you have to walk across half across the room whenever you have to leave the room... its painful to say the least... Not in the least is the fact that half of our ETAC floor is accustomed to walking on the floor bare-feet... the level 1 floor is just atrocious...

Though my new neighbour, Arun, is as quiet if not more as Rajesh... and that Imran and Vaibhav sit right across from me... and Nikhil sitting right across the partition next to me... (Have you noticed there is not a single girl in my vicinity? Absolutely no girl-talk now... all girls have been separated to the extent that we have to stand up and shout if we want to talk or (horror of horrors) actually use the phone :'( ) .. its still not the same as annoying Rajesh endlessly or listening to Rashi and Nikhils' constant bickering... though the floor buzzed with our laughter and constant pranks earlier, here our voices seem to get lost the way the sound of a tiny ripple goes unnoticed when a wave breaks at the shore... I'll miss listening to Anshul as he in his own unimitable way spoke so well on the phone that he has elevated it to an art form... I'll miss Velington and Anshul nagging each other...

It probably won't be as bad once we get used to this place... I mean the day went off with lots of good news for the team (Touch Wood!)... Who knows this place might actually be lucky for our team... lets hope so anyway...

To like or to dislike

2008-04-15T23:14:00.001+05:30

What makes you like someone and dislike someone else?

I mean I am good friends with the girl who everyone dislikes… because she is childish… because she doesn’t think before she speaks… because half the time she opens her mouth, her words seem mean… I don’t know why, but she has been my good friend…

The guy the guts of whom everyone hates, I find him more silly than actually dislikable… The guy is too full of himself…but doesn’t that mean he is being childish…

Then there was the guy who talked in an almost condescending way changed as time went on… the girl who was known for her temper has grown quite mild now… I guess because they both matured… The guy whom I found absolutely non-courteous (I don’t know the opposite of courteous) and un-gentlemanly seemed quite sensible after I had met him a couple of times…

I found it amusing when one of my friends tried to turn me against another saying that that the other guy passed comments about me… well to his credit, the guy had said to my face all that he had said behind my back… so I couldn’t care less… So I have nothing against either of these people…

Then why is it that I dislike her? She is never rude… she has never gone out of her way to be unfriendly… if anything, I have never taken time to get to know her… why is it that I can’t find it in me to even try to change my opinion about her? Doesn’t that make me childish? Rashi was quite surprised at my vehemence… Tejaswini, you actually dislike someone? Was her comment…

Sometimes I can’t figure myself out… Am I really being childish? You can’t like everyone, Rashi said… but then why do I dislike this girl so much? Being late is no crime… Amma keeps complaining that I am not punctual… I certainly am more punctual than most of my friends… but then in the land of the blind…

Am I wrong in disliking her? Is something the matter with me?

In threes...

2008-03-26T00:57:00.004+05:30

Gotta say... everyone has been following our manager's footsteps... we were all quite surprised when Dada came after a day's leave with sweets and photos showing his engagement...

Rashi followed suit when she came from her 10 day leave rings adorning the third fingers of both her hands... We were surprised of course, but then so were she and her fiance when what was supposed to be a 'ladki aur family se milne ka program' turned to be an engagement ceremony when his granny suddenly brought out a ring for him to put on her finger... no pics were taken.. it was a total surprise... Well we got to eat loads of sweets... Thats for sure

Today when everyone gathered around Imran's desk... I was just starting to wonder what had happened when somebody asked to look at the mail he had sent... He was engaged... A 5 day 'weekend' had turned out to be a joyous engagement... again a 'ladki dekhne ka program' turned into a surprise engagement... now though he had told me about this girl they had been looking for him, it definitely was a surprise... needless to say, everyone has been hazing him all day... 'Haan ab to kaam mein mann nahi lagta...' The guy who rushes to catch his cab everyday was out 10 minutes early today only for us to find him later glued to his cell 'Ahem ahem...' I said...

Well they say, good news come in threes... so here were the three sahi news at work... lets see what happens next...

P.S. If Bhavi is to be believed, her design team is also seeing people getting engaged and people going on a 4 day break and returning after 10 days... And with Bhavi herself recently married and Ganesh to be married soon, I guess weddings are in the air...

Masti...

2008-03-26T00:42:00.004+05:30

I called up Rashi today morning to wish her on her birthday... actually to find out whether she had a fast today or not... I had planned to take her a cake today... kisi ka to birthday birthday ke din celebrate ho... Got her a yummy looking chocolate cake from Monginis (I swear by the chocolate cake of monginis...)

As soon as I reached (Rashi wasn't in yet), I informed everyone it was Rashi's birthday... Vaibhav came up with the 'brilliant' idea not to wish her at all until everyone gathered to celebrate her party... The poor girl waited expectantly for atleast one of her colleagues to wish her or for me to tell everyone else... sorry no can do... Finally at 4:30 she could bear it no longer... she pretty much announced to everyone in the team that it was her birthday and asked them to wish her... the poor thing was really offended I guess... Now, our team is nothing if not sneaky... everyone pretended not to believe her... Even our 'ek bhi baat pet mein nahi rehti types' manager, Dada, pretended to look up her birthday on Intra before wishing her.

Off we went for our break at 5:15. I had already tipped off the rest of the team to join us at 5:30. Anjali, Rashi and I always take our break together. But when Pallavi and Poonam also joined us upstairs, the penny finally began to drop... And when everyone came upstairs... everything started to fall in place...

Ofcourse, when a girl ANNOUNCES her birthday, she deserves to have her cake and eat it too... she had more chocolate on her face today than she had color on Holi when Vaibhav had smuggled colors to our office...

Well gotta say.. kabhi kabhi surprise party dene mein mazaa aata hai...

Happy Birthday Rashi... May all your wishes and dreams come true... keep smiling...

Of having and losing...

2008-03-24T20:15:00.006+05:30

I really have trouble making friends… but apparently more trouble holding on to them… especially when they are really good friends… Obviously losing a singe friend once is possible… but if I keep losing them it definitely has to be my fault, right? No sympathy deserved?

I am no good at keeping in touch with old friends… that’s why I am not so much in touch with my school and junior college friends…apart from the occasional phone calls that is… some friends I have completely lost track of though…

Now come serious offences on my part… not being in touch was bad enough… misunderstandings and ego issues made me lose one of my online friends… neither of us was ready to say we were sorry… and when we did it was too late…

One of my best friends and I have grown just too far apart… we don’t think alike anymore or maybe the problem is just that we don’t talk to each other anymore… we each have our own lives and though I hope this isn’t the end, it does seem to be the beginning of it though…

Another of my really close friends, I know not what happened... the chirpy funny enjoys life all the time type person suddenly became withdrawn… maybe its just me but he has changed and sometimes it hurts when he doesn’t talk to me as much as he did before…

And most recently one of my really good friends, to whom I shan’t admit that he was probably one of my closest online friends… we pretty much decided to end the friendship… because I shall never be quite as open and expressive as he would want me to be… but I never have been one of those who has heartfelt talks… I certainly am not the confrontational types to discuss issues…

So basically this post is just my cowardly way of saying sorry to all those friends I lost contact with… all the friends whom I did not understand and whom I did not let understand me… my apologies to all of them and even though I don’t say this to any of them directly… my best wishes to them for their future… and this was MY attempt at closure...

P.S. I don’t think anyone is going to really understand what I am saying… I don’t expect it either… just had to type this all down…

Today...

2008-03-15T00:08:00.006+05:30

When I decided to write this post I was confused which way to take this... but guess I am gonna write about today rather than memories of Mc Donalds... So here goes...

At office our team is quite silent... not much masti goes on... On the other hand the design team was always known to raise hell with their constant chatter and laughter and plans... so yesterday I had decided our team was gonna plan something different... So lets start with something small... I decided to start a chain of messages saying that today, Friday, we would have a colour theme... We would all vote for a color and all of us would wear the color or be punished. Of course punishments wouldn't be the regular TREEEEEEEEEEEEEAT... Punishments were to be utterly wacky like mimicking some actor or singing a song... whichever one was worse at... Now I shan't write about the 80-90 mails(no kidding... Rajesh counted... Wish I knew how he had the patience) that we kept replying to all to or the immense amount of laughter and giggling; but we finally decided to wear green... So Friday 14th March would be green day... Our manager, Dada as we call him, was most opposed to green since he didn't have a green shirt... But then we had just served him an ultimatum about the color without asking for his opinion... so kya karte woh bechare?

Today woke up bright and green at office in our corner of the world with shades running from bright green worn by Dada (he actually bought a new shirt) to a dark algae green not to mention the controversial sea green and grayish green and yellowish green (or should I say greenish grey and greenish yellow? Never mind)...

We had a surprise visit from our Operations manager to announce prizes for the last month... And a huge surprise in the form of a team bonding activity at 4:30 p.m. in the cafeteria recreation room... The game was simple (or was it?) 3 teams each with 8 people... each team were given 7 pieces of cardboard... Each team had to form a link of people and step on the cardboard to cross the acid river... the catch? Of course one cardboard less than the number of people... and the first piece of cardboard was never to be moved... that meant aadmi 8 aur cardboard 6... kaafi naa-insaafi thi, kyon? Our team came in last, but never mind we had fun.

To top it all the new member of our team was expected to give a party... We all coaxed and bullied him into giving a party at McDs that had opened a few months ago right in front of our office building... Now the entire team couldn't go at once... so five of us went ahead... Rashi, Vaibhav, Arun, Sundeep (the new guy... who by the way joined as a senior engineer) and yours truly... We went directly to level 1 of the McD building... Rashi and I immediately started playing with a balloon... And after coming back up after ordering, we all started playing balloon tennis... 5 of us and 3 balloons... now have no idea what gave Vaibhav the idea but he decided that all of us should target Rashi... Wham wham wham.. balloons flying at Rashi from all angles... Thank God we were the only ones upstairs... or we might have had to pay for lost customers with all the noise that we made... The rest of the team put up an appearance after half an hour which meant only 15 minutes for the cab to leave... Heaven knows how everyone finished their burgers and finger chips and cokes... Off we ran to catch our cabs before they left lest we'd have to wait till 12:00 a.m. for the next set of cabs.

Back home at 11:45 I called Shailesh to wish him.. hopefully the last to wish him and at midnight called up Rajesh to wish him on HIS birthday... And here I am at 1:00 a.m. writing this blog..

Say... shouldn't this post be called yesterday?

Fears...

2008-03-09T00:40:00.000+05:30

Finally the time has come to write about a topic I dread a lot… Maybe not too many people dread this topic. But I do. Love… Commitment… Marriage…

There really should be no reason for me to be scared of this particular feeling, I guess… But… I have never till date been in love... found anyone worth loving… A friend of mine says I don’t trust people… maybe that’s why… Kya pata… A friend at office said that I have that chulbuli type nature which most guys would look for in a girl…

I haven’t had too many comments on my blog lately… maybe if anyone sees this post, they might comment…

I can’t…
1- Make myself so vulnerable
2- Trust people enough
3- Think how I could take on so much responsibility
4- Become a part of another family…
5- Change myself enough to be considered normal by another human being
6- See myself loving another person as much as I have seen my parents do… my grandparents… both sets do…

I fear…
1- No one will like me for who I am
2- No one will tolerate my anger and temper tantrums
3- No one will accept my quick and hurtful tongue
4- I won’t be able to adjust to the ways of another family
5- I won’t see the kind of love my grandparents share… Ajju and Bapama have shared about 78 years of their life together… Ajju is hard of hearing… He can’t hear what we say to him… but when bapama calls out to him in her own frail voice… he can hear her
6- I’ll never meet the kind of person who lives life to the fullest… like my Idol and mentor… my father… annu…
7- I’ll never be able to love the person I eventually marry…
8- I’ll not be able to just be myself and dance around the house or just be this immature kid who laughs a lot or cries for no reason…

This post has been right from my heart… my heart and mind poured out… My mom is looking out to get me married… but I can’t explain all this to her… does anyone have any suggestions on how I could make her understand?

P.S. I have to post this today or I know I’ll bury this somewhere and never look back at it

Taggeddddddd

2008-03-07T00:19:00.004+05:30

So Rachana has tagged me... Things very few people know about me huh? Well few people know about these things...

1- I love to dance when no ones watching that is alone in my room after everyone has slept.
2- I am normally physically present mentally absent when with most people
3- I am terribly unsecure about my abilities
4- I don't believe people when they praise some quality about me
5- I am not as emotionally strong as most people who know me think
6- I am philophobic
7- Whenever I read I imagine most things in my head so take ages to read books
8- I have 4 barbies... 1 Ken doll and 1 Nikita doll which I still can't imagine parting with

Hope you did not enjoy reading any of these.. Hope I sound terribly boring :P

Mangalore trip

2008-02-27T00:30:00.004+05:30

So here are pics from my Manglore Teru trip... Tell me how they have come out... in case I have made any mistakes in writing some facts, please inform and I'll correct them.

Teru Pics...

Awaiting your replies and suggestions...

Changes

2008-02-24T12:14:00.001+05:30

Obviously a trip to Mangalore and that too my first visit to the Mangalore Teru merits a blog post. However, you got to know that would be too predictable… So though I am gonna write about Mangalore, it will be about something other than the Teru.

So what am I gonna write about? How much Mangalore changes every time I go there…

There was a time when wearing jeans made me feel uncomfortable as I walked around the city… Now the dressing sense has changed to the extent that I feel like I am walking on Pune’s MG Road. In fact I sometimes feel Mangalore has become quite the fashion destination. A few years ago, I had bought a top and trousers from there and my neighbor, Priyasha, was quite impressed by both.

Then this time during this Teru there was this guy with his shoulder length hair under a hair band à-la Abhishek Bacchan (OK old style I know… but fashion caught up soon enough right?) Then he had this tattoo on his arm. He had that over all look of one of those princes on one of those TV shows… (Before you start getting ideas, I was not ogling at him… when you see something so unexpected, you DO tend to notice)… I asked my brother about the changing trends and he starts laughing… A month ago, Tejaswini, he says, I had shoulder length hair and I was the one wearing the hair band… Well I can believe that. Vijendra is quite the trend setter. Tall and lanky my cousin brother does have a distinct sense of fashion…

The malls of Mangalore are definitely bigger than the average Pune malls. Pune has grown too much for there to be enough place to build a huuuge mall.

Definitely makes me think, maybe the next time I go to Mangalore, I have to dress-up to not look dowdy…

Rewind

2008-02-03T23:21:00.000+05:30

Its been an year since Shraddha and I stayed over at Purnima's... One year since the maggi debacle... Purnima, Shraddha and I met up for the first time this year... We had decided to meet on January 1st, but the plans fell through. So meeting today after so long was fun as usual... We chatted for so long, Purni's mum and my mom called us up asking... Did you come for the picnic or did you come to sit outside.. well you know how moms are... saying we came to sit outside and chat was NOT an option... In we went...

Well as usual there were loads of games... I won a prize as did amma... The most fun game as usual was Housie or Tambola...

Going back to the topic of last year's stay over.. am I sounding like Jodi Picoult go back and forth back and forth between the past and the present... Yeah high hopes for me, to consider myself a great writer... and high hopes for you if you think I am gonna write about the stay over AGAIN... I had already written about it before (Check the Bass do minute blog)...

But I could write about last year's GSB Republic Day picnic, which was what we had gone to today... They changed the date from 26th Jan to the first sunday of February from this year... not republic day silly... 8-| the picnic... Last year was all the more fun because we made new friends... A lot of our KIP friends had come in... Priyanka Pai, Ananth anna, Sankalp, Abhang and Nishanth... We also recruited a new member in the KIP gang... Sharmila... One year and so much has changed... Priyanka was placed somewhere out of Pune last time I chatted with her... Sankalp is in USA never having come to stay in Pune... Abhang had come for a few minutes today... he said he is hardly in Pune these days... his job is keeping him away from here... Nishanth is in Hyderabad... It was his birthday yesterday and I realised he has ALREADY left when his number came up as not in use... Sharmila is engaged and soon to be married... I joined KPIT... Purnima gave her French Diplome exams yesterday... Unfortunately to say... I have got utterly bored of Orkut and KIP :( ... Which reminds me, Purnima has given up ownership of KIP and left orkut...

A lot has happened over the year... Just seems that time kind of flies when in reality... an year is made of 365 days... 365 days when anything can happen and life as you know it.... might just change....

First post of the year

2008-01-20T22:58:00.000+05:30

OK... Lets start off saying this post is just to start the new year.. The new year is 20 days old... So I thought I'd wish my blog a happy new year...

So what's new since my last post? Hmmm... My cousin sister got married... Had loads of fun during her wedding... Returned the day after the wedding... Went to office... basically spent new year's eve at office... Was dead tired slept early... (I know story of my sad existence)

Supriya got sent onsite to UK... Talk about a horrid journey... The girl was travelling alone for the first time... by flight at that and to top it all an international flight... The flight was last week.. I mean the saturday of the week before that... 8 a.m. ... They reach the airport (after enquiring before leaving) and they are told the flight is delayed to 12.00 a.m.... Midnight... Back home they go... At night she calls me to say bye... but wait thats not the end.. se is to spend another night in amchi mumbai... Tomorrow morning 8 a.m. she says... All the best I say... I call her home on monday morning... Aunty says, yeah.. she finally left today morning!!! Moday morning??? 48 hours delay... Horrid isn't it? Poor girl... Unfortunately she hasn't mailed as yet... So don't know how eventful or uneventful the remaining journey was...

Tried to read another Jodi Picoult... got bored... Now reading something called 'The Society of Others'... End of another mundane post...

Oh yeah... one more thing... I concluded, I probably should find a boyfriend... not for the gifts and and chocolates and dates... Just someone to talk to on my way home... it gets terribly boring when everyone in the cab is talking on the phone and I don't get to sit near the window... Well lets just end the post here... Maybe I should just get a new cell and listen to music or rather nice lullabies and take a nice nap on the cab... no headaches...

Perfect Match - Jodi Picoult

2007-12-09T14:40:00.000+05:30

How far would you go?

You are an assistant district attorney... Every day you help put behind bars the perps who destroy lives of kids by abusing them... You will even consider putting the kid on the stand if that's what it takes to avenge the horrors they have faced... Your aim in life is to make every child ever to walk the street safe...

But what do you do when the child who is abused is your own? Will you put him on the stand and make him relive the horror over again? Will you wait for the justice system to take its course and avenge your son or will you serve justice yourself? How far would YOU go?

The Perfect Match is the story of assistant district attorney Nina Frost, her husband Caleb and their 5 year old son Nathaniel... When suddenly the bubbly energetic child stops talking, Nina and Caleb take him to a paediatricianto try and figure out what is wrong... The truth unravels as they find out what the child wishes to say... He has been abused... How far will Nina go to save her child?

This is the third Jodi Picoult book I have read and I have to say I love her style of writing... it just touches you so intensely... I shan't write anything more about the story.. just that this story has moved me and I had to write about it...

Jab We Met

2007-11-25T23:03:00.000+05:30

A zillion years after it released, Purnima and I finally managed to watch 'Jab We Met'... Obviously no one is asking us to write the review... u have prob watched it already... I am gonna write anyway... [:D]...

Jab we met is the story of Aditya and Geet...

Poor little rich boy Aditya Kashyap is son of a deceased industrialist... whose mom married another guy... the guy, love of whose life married someone else.... whose dad's company stocks are completely reducing to the price of dust and turning into a losing proposition... (OK so we have established that Aditya's fairytale existence is anything but).... So anyway, the day his love marries a different guy, he totally loses touch of reality and decides to walk away from it all..

...And to bring him to back to earth or should we say to make him ride the clouds, he meets bubbly chatterbox and samaritan (well thats debatable) Geet... whose remedy to any problem is 'Chalo BHAAG jaate hain...' (eyes wide open true Kareena style...) in a train going from Mumbai to Delhi... on her way home to Bhatinda, reaching where her idea is to... You guessed right... to Bhaagofy with the love of her life Anshuman...

The last thing Aditya needs is Geet on his case, but she decides he needs some Agony aunt treatment, in short a dose of her... what he (and we) get is a super dose of mind numbing chatter... in a span of 10 seconds she has told Aditya everything about her life AND expects him to do the same... He decides to slip away in the middle of the night... an gets down at some weird station... The lady decides to get down and bring him back... the train is gone and she is left standing in the station wearing a night suit and slippers and a whole lot of tingling clinking jewellery and perfect eye makeup blaming Aditya for her missing the train... What follows are some perfectly funny sequences where they finally reach Ratlam junction with Aditya driving like a race car driver (what they show is a toy car and toy train racing side-by-side childishly refreshingly innovative)... where she AGAIN misses the train and AGAIN blames Aditya... yep Aditya's life is a bed of roses....

Geet is again alone at the station... harassed by Romeos and an annoying station master who says stuff like 'Akeli ladki khuli tijori ki tarah hoti hai'... (Lord I am writing half the script aren't I? I was writing this on orkut... ran out of space [:D] )

OK lets cut to the chase... Aditya finally gets Geet to Bhatinda where her family suspects some Kaali daal... only to have their fears confirmed when Aditya and Geet run off... Geet off to meet Anshuman in Manali and Aditya back home but first he has to take Geet to her love... in which time he is hopelessly in love with her.. she plans to get married and return within a couple of days with Anshuman... Aditya returns home and within nine months his life and company are back on track... he has also taken an interest in himself and his life... Everything is fine until Geet's family lands at his doorstep demanding to see Geet... Well obviously Aditya hunts down Geet and la la la... usual rona dhona and sulah and songs and all that nonsense and gets her back to her family... Everything's well that ends well Aditya and Geet get married and everyone lives happily ever after...

Kareena plays the role of Geet to perfection... you feel like strangling her as soon as she opens her mouth and feel like strangling yourself when she shows no sign of stopping... they couldn't have found anyone better for the role... Shahid Kapoor is adorable... acts well... dances well... (drool) just perfect... they make a totally adorable couple... Really funny lines... Beautiful songs... well shot... Jab We Met is a typical bubblegum-popcorn type movie (thats my way of saying fultoo tp... one-time watch)

My rating 3+1/2 stars...