Thoughts of a Music maniac

For someone who has been hearing music since childhood, hearing these “talent hunt” err reality shows a bit more seriously than required comes only naturally. I am a big time music buff and have heard and appreciated all kinds of Indian music from Hindustani classical, Carnatic Classical to apna Bollywood, ghazals – you name it and I have appreciated it. 

Something has been hurting me a lot since the ouster of some of my favorite participants in these shows. And the reason for their failure is the great voting system of India. We never took voting of politicians very seriously, how we are expected to take the selection of a winner of a talent hunt show seriously is beyond my understanding. Well that would not have hurt me much either but there is another thing bothering me. And that is the expectations from the winners of these shows. They are expected to do playback singing and this is what that bothers me the most. I have followed Star Voice of India and Zee Sa Re Ga Ma Pa very closely – the former only because of one singer – Mohammad Toshi Sabri. I think he is the real find this season. I request you all please hear him once. Specially, Teri Deewani, Piya re, Main jahan rahoon, Allah Hu, Mera piya ghar aaya…You can listen to all his renditions here http://starvoiceofindiashow.com/category/toshi/

We have been conditioned so much to hear Bollywood music that we think that is the only kind of music or the only real music. There are many who have commented that Toshi can sing only a particular genre of music. But they conveniently forget that his genre is the original and the most difficult one (though I do not think that he did a bad job with other genres). 

Let me talk about the Bollywood music first. Bollywood music has not been great always. There was a golden era in the 60's-70's when songs regularly used to be semi classical based rendered beautifully by Lata ji, Manna Dey saab, Md Rafi saab and the likes who were classically trained. This was the time when Hindi cinema music did more progress than the movies we were churning..The music was way more mature. Listen to Kuhu kuhu Bole Koyalia, Jyoti Kalash Chalake, Maayi ri Main ka se kahun peer, Madhuban mein radhika naache re, Laga chunari mein daag, Poocho na kaise maine, all the songs of Baiju bawara and the list is very very long. These songs are still considered standard for anyone aspiring to sing without the guidance of a teacher. There were some emotional numbers like Din Dhal jaaye, yeh raat yeh chandani fir kahan, Rahe na rahe hum, waqt ne kiya and I know this list is probably bigger than the earlier one. For those who have heard a lot of classical music, these songs will always remain in a very high esteem.

Then came the era of Mr Kishore Kumar who had a strong power packed voice but who was not trained. But he gave some beautiful numbers and a long and never-ending list of imitators and I cannot help but put Harshit (he will be crowned VOI) in that list. And unless he develops his own unique style, he will not go much ahead.

After Kishore Kumar, there has been a general degradation in the kind of songs being made except an occasional brilliance here and there. There has been a revival of sorts of late in the music of SEL, AR Rehman saab, Vishal Bharadwaj, Pritam and to a certain extent HR (when he prefers to use the voice of other singers)

But is Bollywood music the only kind of music in India? No definitely not. But it is the most easily accessible music for the masses. But IMHO, classical music (Hindustani as well as Carnatic) is still the best and most refined form of music and will always remain so. Ghazal, qawalli, sufi, bhajan all have their roots in the ancient classical music. And it is unfortuante that there are more listeners of Kumar Sanu than Pt. Kumar Gandharva, Pt Bhimsen Joshi ji or Pt Jasraj ji. 

But let us face it. Playback singing is more about making your voice suit to a certain situation to a certain person. The aim of any movie is to reach out to the masses and thus in the process generate revenue for the producers. These talent hunt shows have succeeded in generating high TRP and money but they have failed miserably in giving genuine singers. Only 3 singers have really made a mark in the last 15 yrs. Reason? There can never be so many playback singers as these talent hunt shows generate because the existing ones are doing everything for the producers and music directors. So I will remain skeptical about the future (?) of the winner of these shows in Bollywood singing. 

But we do need many more singers that are classically trained in the future. I doubt that the "filmy" music in this age of "dard-e-disco" will ever give us easy to grasp classical music as it did once. We need singers who can do that independently and I wish Toshi would do it. I won't mind if he does not get a chance to playback for SRK..but I will be only happy to see him doing it in his private albums and live shows.

The voting system has become a necessary evil. Gajji and others cannot live without it now. And singers like Toshi will keep on loosing to this system not once but twice because there will be fewer who would really understand that. How I wish somone starts a classical talent hunt show (sans voting system). Any takers for the show? More than that, any producer having guts to launch such a show?

A long post but then I was too involved to stop myself. I welcome your thoughts on this.

Meri kahaani, blog ki zubaani

Ah! Honestly, people, it takes a lot of effort to make myself write. But the problem is I am not able to stop myself once I get into it. So what am I thinking about today? 

I read a beautiful line somewhere. “Never take life too seriously. Nobody comes out of it alive anyway!” So you see, we spend our entire lives dodging the inevitable but one fine day you finally face the thing that has been chasing you since the day you were born and then you are free to sleep without any interruption from the mobile alarm (2 mobiles if you are on IT support) or your maidservant or doodhwala. Well, I have successfully dodged the inevitable for another year in this lifetime. Also, this happens to be a very special year because I will be completing a quarter of a century and I expect to achieve the quarter feat at least three more times.

But then this makes me think about my life so far. Has it been good? Have I done any justice to it? Have I been a good daughter (umm…interesting question!), a good sister (well, this is the best I could be to him), a good friend (no comments!), a good student (definitely not!), a good professional (hehe..you gotta be kidding)? 

Okay! It all started when I troubled my mom for the first time by disturbing her sleep on a reasonably cold night. Octobers are cold in Bhopal, at least they used to be a quarter century back. I have mentioned in my earlier posts that I am a lazy person and I was too lazy to even born. My parents were waiting for me for a complete week. They thought that I would remain in my mom’s womb for the rest of my life. But I finally decided to open my eyes to this beautiful world. I am told that my dad was in tears when he saw me for the first time. I hope it was because of euphoria and not because of a rude shock! :-D Well there are many legends surrounding my birth. One was that my dad was in tears, another one being I used to look like a chipkali (many believe I still do!) and the most sensational and popular one being that I was picked up from a naali. :-| Why do all the parents in this world have to crack that pathetic joke! I will never do it to my kids (or maybe I would. it is a nice way to annoy them! :-D). 

And since then it has been a journey. Sometimes I had company, at other times I was alone. Sometimes I wished I had company, at other times I wished I were left alone. Some people made my life look ordinary; some others made mine extra ordinary. There were moments when the entire world seemed to be at my feet; and then there were moments when I was brought down to my feet. There were days when I could relax (the entire semester would be time to relax and idle) and then there were those that made me work like a donkey (it happens a lot in IT). There have been people who trusted me and then there were those who broke my faith. Some were funny; some made me look funny. It has indeed been a mixed bag and maybe that is how life should be. Of all the good and bad things that have happened, I think this life has been worth living for. :-) 

After living for such a long time, I still don’t know what is that one thing that is waiting for me. I still don’t know what I want to be, where I want to be. Recently a friend questioned on his blog – how many of us start with a single most aim and work towards it till the end? Well, there might be some who do, but I do not fall in that category. I achieved some unexpected things at times and failed miserably at others. But did I learn my lessons? Umm.. I think yes. I might be adamant at times to accept and follow them, but I have learnt them, definitely. My life has followed the path in the following lines..

Apni marzi se kahan apne safar ke hum hain…

Rukh hawaaon ka jidhar ka hai, udhar ke hum hain..

I have no regrets, though, I would try not to make the same mistakes again. And life has been kind to me to give me some important support systems throughout – my parents, my brother and some extremely good friends. 

And special mention about two very special people who have taught me the ways of living. I would have been a very different person without these two and I want to say THANK YOU. One will definitely read this and the other most probably will not! 

So wish me a very happy birthday, pray for me and just come down to Pune for a party!

Mushkil kaam hai Bhaiyya

Maintaining this blog is becoming difficult by the day now. I don't get a clue what I should write about. A friend asked me to comment on India's T20 World Cup win. I thought, finally! I have something to write about. But before I could finish up the post, India was already 2 down against the mighty Aussies..So I thought, I will write about the way the Indian Cricket team swings and how unjustified it is to give them the status of Demi-Gods. But before I could finish that one, India pulled a heroic win against the World Champs in the Chandigarh match. So the Indian Cricket team needs to perform consistently so that I am able to write something on this useless server space. 

I also thought writing something about the musical shows - Star Voice of India and SaReGaMaPa. Specially, the oust of Toshi from Star Voice of India. But before I could do anything on that, Toshi was brought back by the TRP boosting Wild Card round. Also, this site http://starvoiceofindiashow.com/ has everything about this show and yes you can even hear the videos. (Do check out Toshi's performances in this show..) I thought I would compare SVOI and SRGMP but Poonam's and Amanat's recent performances on SRGMP has removed all the doubts I had about which is the better show. I am however, planning to compile some performances which I consider to be this season's best. But you gotta wait for that.

In the end, there's nothing I had to write about. But, then I wrote a comment on a friend's blog and I thought I will post it in my blog. All I could manage to write was this..

Manzil apni, raaste paraaye,

teri raah poochti woh hawaaein,

kabhi hote the apne bhi afsaane,

aaj gumnaami ke andhere saaye..

samjhana kya, dil jaanta hai,

har safar tanha hi kat ta hai,

koi tanhai mein mehfil dhoondhta hai,

koi mehfil mein tanha ho jata hai..

Btw, I want to thank my friend for the above lines. Words from my keypad, inspiration comes from her blog.. :-) Without her, today would have been another postless day..

Jana Gana Mana

A beautiful rendition of the National Anthem by the country's best performers. 

It brought tears to my eyes alright. Agreed, I cry a lot. Any thing which claims to be emotional, (for eg, seemingly innocuous "Lifebouy's maa ka ladoo" ad), brings floods of NaCl to my eyes. But this album is very very special. The last time I remember seeing all the legends singing together was the unmatchable, unforgettable "Mile Sur Mera Tumhara". I consider it a blessing to be able to hear the voices of Pt Bhimsen Joshi and D K Pattammal. For those who are far far away from Carnatic Classical (and also happen to read this blog), D K Pattammal is the contemporary of M S Subbulakshmi. These two and M. L. Vasanthakumari are popularly referred to as the "female trinity of Carnatic Music". Now if you don't know who M S Subbulakshmi is, please take a glass of water and drown yourself there! Before you do that, get a copy of Bhaja Govindam (by M S Subbulakshmi) from the nearest music store and hear it. Maybe you will get a life. 

Now I know that the National Anthem was not originally written for our nation. The controversy says that Shri Ravindra Nath Tagore wrote it in honor of visiting monarch George V. Another motivation for writing this was reported in the Indian Express in 1968 where a disciple was quoted as:

"He (Tagore) got up very early in the morning and wrote a very beautiful poem.... When he came down, he said to one of us, 'Here is a poem which I have written. It is addressed to God, but give it to Congress people. It will please them."

In a letter to Pulin Behari Sen, Tagore himself wrote:

"A certain high official in His Majesty's service, who was also my friend, had requested that I write a song of felicitation towards the Emperor. The request simply amazed me. It caused a great stir in my heart. In response to that great mental turmoil, I pronounced the victory in Jana Gana Mana of that Bhagya Vidhata [ed. God of Destiny] of India who has from age after age held steadfast the reins of India's chariot through rise and fall, through the straight path and the curved. That Lord of Destiny, that Reader of the Collective Mind of India, that Perennial Guide, could never be George V, George VI, or any other George. Even my official friend understood this about the song. After all, even if his admiration for the crown was excessive, he was not lacking in simple common sense."

Read Wikipedia for more. 

Controversies apart, we have symbolized it to be our nation's anthem. I have been singing it right from my first day in school. It was the first song I ever played on my synthesizer/harmonium/guitar. Maybe a mistake (I personally think Vande Mataram was always a better option). But Pt Nehru's logic that Vande Mataram would be difficult for the band to play has been definitely proved wrong if this new album is anything to go by! Well difficulty is not in playing the tune because people find it so difficult to sing Jana Gana Mana also and the reason is not always the lack of ability to sing. Forget singing, I have seen people running around and looking for their seats when it is played in the multiplexes. They find it very difficult to stand for 52 seconds, expecting them to sing is probably asking for the moon. But this album shows what musical accomplishment these women and men of India have achieved. And these legends arouse that rare feeling of genuine patriotism in you. And all of it when most of these singers and musicians are well past their prime (they are still better than the younger lot!). Thank you Rahman saab. It is a gem.

An inspiring album. You can hear it here.

Would love to know your thoughts on this. :-)

Death is nothing at all...

A gem I came accross. Wanted to share it with you all...

Death is nothing at all,

I have only slipped away

into the next room.

I am I,

and you are you;

whatever we were to each other,

that, we still are.

Call me by my old familiar name,

speak to me in the easy way

which you always used,

put no difference in your tone,

wear no forced air

of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed

at the little jokes we shared together.

Let my name ever be

the household word that it always was.

Let it be spoken without effect,

without the trace of a shadow on it.

Life means all

that it ever meant.

It is the same as it ever was.

There is unbroken continuity.

Why should I be out of mind

because I am out of sight?

I am waiting for you,

for an interval,

somewhere very near,

just around the corner.

All is well.

-by Henry Scott Holland

Late, Later, Latest

Yes I know I have a very bad English but I am not trying to prove that latest is the superlative of late. It is not for nothing that I chose this title. The titles are, probably, the only significant thing in this blog. I know, I have been very late in writing this post and I do not have any excuse this time because most of the people who know me would laugh if I gave the reason of not being active here and so I am not going to tell anyone that I have been working like crazy in office. However, life still moves on and finally, there were enough incidents, which brought me back to the world of blogging.

Well, being world’s laziest person, I am always late. I used to be late for school, I used to be the last one to enter the lectures in college and I am always the last one to enter the meeting room in office – always with a poker face. However, no one missed me ever as I have maintained my position of being the most insignificant member in the group. But the other day, I lost my insignificance when, in the process of grabbing the last seat, I stood in front of the web camera with my back towards it, trying to determine the shortest route possible to the last seat. Incidentally, at that time, I was wearing an IBM t-shirt with “I am the Reason” printed in bright yellow. The “oh-you-just-wait-till-this-meeting-gets-over” look on the face of my grand manager (my manager’s manager) made me understand the importance of being punctual. So now, I have decided to be before time to any meeting and be the first one to grab the last seat.

The other thing I learned is the benefits of networking with important people in the organization. You never know when you might need them. I have been networking a lot with the security guards in IBM. The security guard in IBM would always wave and give a “girl-you-are-late-again” look everyday. I would return a “yeah-man-I-know” look and I guess we developed a special bonding. Of late, I realized that the there is a new security guard and he gives me a real nasty look each morning. I really miss my friend in uniform. So, I could not believe my ears and eyes when I heard him shouting “Hey you! Do you Remember me?” in a famous multiplex. He is now on duty in Inox security and was so happy to see me there. The guy’s really an angel! I was searching for dinner one night (I was late again, sigh!) and he was kind enough to open the gates at mid night (when he was supposed to keep me away since the mall was about to close) so that I could get something to eat from McDonald’s. Therefore, the second lesson I learned is, never be late to a place where you don’t know a security guard.

Now the other thing that has been bothering me is my habit of procrastinating things, my habit of saying “later”. Mom would ask me to study and I would say oh mom, later. Dad would ask me to take my career seriously and I always said later! My boss would request me humbly to get back to work and I would smile and say – later. I guess the only thing I have done eagerly is gana-bajana-khana-peena. But this habit has backfired. I have become a little wary of coding because I thought I don’t need to bother today – I can do it later. I have lost touch with so many friends just because I thought, I would be able to call them later. I have gained a lot of weight because I thought I could always workout later. Now the only consolation left for me is the fact that round is a shape and so I can still consider myself to be in shape. As a child I used to dream a lot – “kaash aisa ho jata..kaash vaisa ho jata”. My uncle said once “Duniya mein sab hota hai, bas yeh kaash hi to nahi hota”. I think I might add that there is nothing like later also. “..jo bhi hai bas yehi ek pal hai..” So, my sincere apologies to everyone I could not talk. I am clearing my backlog and getting back in touch with all of you – “Aap katar mein hain..krupaya prateeksha karein”.

So that is all about this post. You must be wondering what I wanted to say about “latest”. Well it is nothing but a small joke played on me. The joke is my latest salary slip. It gives me a good laugh every time I see it.

One helluva experience!

What is the most terrible experience you ever had? Watching India crash out of WC 07? Listening Himesh Reshamiya yet again? Watching some really stupid movie like Vivah or something else? I wouldn’t have been able to answer that till yesterday. You see there are so many experiences to choose from! But I have a very definite answer today. The title for the most hellish experience I ever had goes to visiting the passport office!

Before I go on telling about the experience itself, I would like to tell why I had to make myself go through it. Well simple logic. I went to the passport office because I don’t have a passport till date. Now I have spent close to 3 years in the great Indian IT industry. But I never bothered to apply for a passport. Ideally, I should have applied for it when I was in college itself. But at that time, I used to think that only two types of people apply for a passport – first those who give GRE and second those who get placed in CSC or TCS. In my college days, only these two companies came and took a few students. I was not eligible to sit in the former (since I was not from Comp Sc background) and the latter rejected me in grand style (for the records, it rejected me twice and it is probably the only company which knows my abilities!) Well there did come a few more companies but before that I got placed in a firm which did not bother to ask for passports. After I came to Pune, I needed to spend atleast one year in the city to apply for passport. I spent one year and by the time the second year started I had completely forgotten about this all important artefact! But then one fine morning, my TL realized that I am the only one in the entire team not having the passport and he wanted me to get one asap. (Please note that I am not going nowhere. They need my passport just for the records)

And so there I go to this hell people call Passport Office. Luckily I had all the documents I needed. I had some problems earlier and I will not tell anyone what my first experience was like. So this time I had my birth proofs, my residence proofs, some affidavits, some bills. I had even kept all the certificates I ever won in some music competition or GK competition, just in case. The long journey from my place to the PPO has one advantage. I have a habit of remembering things suddenly while driving and so I could stop at all the photocopy shops and complete the required document sets. I had left at around 9 am and reached there by 10. The line for getting a token was already out of the office and I was around the 100th one. I got the token in about ½ an hour but since there were two counters for document verification, my number was 53 on counter A. The Pune passport office is a small, suffocated room with 9 cramped counters. I think the room cannot hold more than 150 people at a time but during peek hours there can be 700-800 people there. It happens often that people stand in Q for getting a token and by the time they reach the counter they realize that they are at the enquiry counter. There is also a very good probability of loosing all your original documents in such mad rush as is evident with the many Lost and Found graffiti all over the place.

Now for all those who are planning to apply for passport from Pune, BEWARE! Pray that you don’t get counter A. But if you are in desperate need of passport, you will definitely be directed to counter A. The gentleman behind that counter is a man alright but there is no trace of gentleness in him. Your future, in terms of getting your passport and your past, in terms of all the certificates you have ever owned right from your birth, are in the hands of this man, literally. So pray to the Almighty that his wife remains in a very good mood on the day you plan a visit to the passport office and that his children behave properly with him. Also pray that his neighbours remember the commandment “Thou shalt love thy neighbour”. Pray for anything and everything you can think about because this man, if he is in the slightest of bad moods, can do things to your documents you can never imagine. Your original documents will be flying across the room and you would not know how to get them. And also try to put a poker face when you go to meet him. Make sure your face does not resemble a homo sapien because he develops a liking for human faces and wants to see them again and again. He will make you come there atleast twice and you need to face the whole ordeal from the scratch. I realized that most of the people around me were veterans with 4-5 visits in their kitty and I felt that I am still new to the place. By the time my number came, I had heard stories of how people were sent back for not getting a 3rd set of photocopies when the whole world (as the rules mandate) gets only 2. Or the only purpose of the Enquiry counter was to prepare you for the kind of bad treatment you are about to receive from people at various counters.

After hearing these tales, I was quite sure that my nightmare with PPO has just begun. There will be more photocopies, more lines, more stories and more pains. Finally, the number A53 flashed and I went to the counter with a very heavy heart. I just wanted to tell the officer on the other side of the counter to be a little more patient with my documents, if nothing else. My birth certificate is as old as I am myself, and the condition of that document is not healthy. I gave a smile to the officer and stood my ground and prayed (for the health of my documents!). I soon realized that I was sweating badly. My heart rate was 150 beats per minute. I thought I was about to faint when the officer handed me back my originals and asked me to go to the payment counter. I have never cleared any major entrance exam with great ranks. But the feeling of being a topper in CAT or in IIT JEE would be similar to the one I felt as I moved to the next counter. And for the first time I realized that not resembling a human has its own benefits!

As I came out in the unbearable hot summer afternoon, I realized that it is not a bad world after all. Very few times you get to see people with genuine concern for others. I felt that in the PPO. People were actually congratulating complete unknowns for getting the documents verified. There were others who, while waiting for their turn, were explaining the lost warriors on how to bounce back!

But this was an experience I would never want to go through again. But then you got to do what you got to do, no?

Of Cricket, movies, fridge and TV

I recently realized one thing. I sit to update my blog the day I forget how my blog actually looks. So the first thing that came to me this morning was how my blog looks like. And I just could not remember the template. So I thought I would revisit it and write something.

With the World Cup fever on, I thought I should write something about Cricket. But then already more than 1 billion compatriots are writing about it or discussing it in schools, colleges, offices, Parliament etc. Also, the wonderful situation that the Indian team has managed to be in leaves little to comment on. More than our game, we need to see how the two so called minnows, Bangladesh and Bermuda, play, their margin of victory, their run rates etc etc. We might also want to worry about the health of the coaches! Guess, now even the coaches will have to undergo a fitness test to be a part of the squad. But this world cup has made me realize one thing. It is time we stop taking cricket too seriously. The whole country sits and watches these matches. Only to see them lose to the weakest team! The entire nation worries about the form of Mr. Sehwag, who after scoring a century against Bermuda after nearly two years has the guts to say that he was never really worried about his form! What is more, this game is now taking toll on people’s lives. And to top it all, we get masala news like this http://www.rediff.com/wc2007/2007/mar/21mir.htm Come on! We don’t play sports like this. Being obsessed with cricket, we think we are being patriotic. Somebody rightly remarked in one of the forums – “We take patriotism sportingly and sports patriotically.” Well, it is not worth it. Just not worth it!

I also thought, that I might want to write something about the next obsession – movies. The last movie I saw was Apocalypto. I don’t want to say much about that movie. It will make me revisit it and I think I will faint if I think about that heart held in the hand or the head being chopped and rolling down! Blood and gore is what it is all about. I had to go to the other extreme and watch “Hum Saath Saath Hain” to come out of the spell of Apocalypto.

So the two things I was obsessed with have kind of let me down. But I have developed a new interest now. The best channel in this universe – POGO! I have been watching “Just for laugh gags” and “Takeshi’s castle” for a week now and every time I break into non stop laughter. Varsha swears she never saw me in this dangerous avatar ever. Another good thing to have happened to me is the fridge we bought to beat Pune heat. I get ice-cream (every second day) and put it in the freezer and enjoy it! That the ice-cream remains in the freezer for only 5 minutes is a different thing altogether.

So you see, I really don’t have anything to write about. But I promise to write something as soon as I get something to write about or as soon as I forget my blog template (whichever happens later). Till then this can rust in peace!

Once upon a time..

It is one of those days when I am feeling very nostalgic. I don’t know how normal “smelling” the past is, but I smell it quite often these days. I don’t have any other word to describe that longing for the past. Everything looks and feels, suddenly, like the good old days. Even the air smells exactly as it used to then. But then there is no one around. The sudden realization that time has flown by and that there is nothing remotely close to my past today makes my heart ache.

How good it was when the biggest worry I used to have was to clear an examination. How simple life was when the greatest pleasure was to talk to my best friend over phone. How easy life was when the only expenditure was on petrol (which used to cost Rs 22/- per liter), greeting cards and cassettes and the pocket money (Rs 50 /- per month) I used to get was sufficient for all my needs. I think I now agree that school days were one of the best and brightest days of my life.

I felt like a bird then driving my red TVS Champ. I would always take the longest route possible to go practically anywhere. I would gladly go out to buy household stuff to the market close by because mom would allow me to keep the change. Even inside the house, I would never walk. I would run and then jump and try to touch the upper rim of the door. I never realized how soon the “jumping” was not required because I was now tall enough to touch it and how soon I forgot this activity. I still remember how I would wait for Sunday evenings to watch Spiderman and later Mowgli with my brother every Sunday morning. The Sunday afternoons were devoted for Mahabharat and mom would make us sit and watch it. I distinctly remember those days when I would wait for dad to return in the evening. I would know the sound of dad’s scooter so well. And then he would drive me around our locality, a daily activity which we used to call “round lagana”.

The magical summer vacations would comprise of Rasana, Mayur Park, ganne ka ras every night and nani ka ghar. I would stay there and play and fight with my cousins. It was so wonderful to stay awake and talk till my grandfather would grumble about the new age kids! I still remember going to parties (usually wedding receptions of some uncle / aunty or their distant relative) with mom dad and have a good time eating pani puris and ice-creams and in the more lavish receptions we could have “baraf ka gola” as well.

The school teachers were wonderful human being (agreed some of them were nasty). The punishments and penalties for talking would range from kneeling down to cane beating. Or the class monitors would write the names on the board. In my case, my name used to be beautifully underlined with some stars around it – a penalty for talking twice, thrice or non-stop. The teacher’s day celebrations, the practices for annual function or sports day were the most awaited events of the year! It was all so great and wonderful then.

I don’t say that the present is bad. Probably, 10 years down the line, the present would also be a part of a glorious past. But sometimes, past is all that matters. Sudarshan Faakir has penned it beautifully in the following lines:

Yeh daulat bhi lelo,

yeh shoharat bhi lelo,

Bhale cheen lo, mujhse meri jawani

Magar mujhko lautado bachpan ka saawan

Woh kagaz ki kashti,woh baarish ka paani

I think it is just one of those days.

Kya likhun main?

Of all the things I have lost, I miss my mind the most. A certain UFO has taken my last post very seriously and as promised I had decided not to write anymore. But then, well, I could not stop myself. So here I am back again. 

Now what do I write about. Dada is back on track, infact the only one on track, Reshamiya is still rocking, reservation will happen and I have not been kicked out of IBM till now. The small piece of code I wrote has been deployed by God’s grace and it is working; only God knows how. And they are trying very hard to keep me away from computer so I really don’t have anything to tell you anything about anything happening in office. (err..anything wrong with the last sentence I wrote?) 

OK. I can tell you a couple of things though. I have changed my flat. The ek kamare ka ghar has now given way to a proper 1 BHK flat. The old flat was so small that it was getting impossible to fit Varsha in, I mean her stuff in. You know, she has this big wardrobe and I reckon she has some kind of a database where she keeps track of all the tops and suits she has. I have been sneakily wearing some of her tops and I thought she would not recognize that they were one of hers, but then I could never fool her. And it still amazes me how she remembers how she acquired all her tops and the long story associated with each of her suit. Smart girl she is, no doubt! My stuff has been far less than hers as far as wardrobe is concerned. That I have more books (novels and stuff which I never read!) than her tops is a different matter altogether. Shifting the stuff was quite an ordeal. And thanks to Shalabh and Nitin(yes we needed some manpower for the shifting ;-)), things are settled now. Though there is still a little difficulty in getting Varsha’s wardrobe in. 

But then she did a fine job in keeping things in place. So much so, that my mom liked my flat for the first time in 2.5 years. Infact, she was ecstatic. Mom and dad were in Pune for 3-4 days. It was refreshing to have some authentic rasam prepared by mom. I had almost forgotten how it tastes because whenever I try my hand in, it tastes anything but rasam. Do moms do some magic trick when they are in kitchen? Thankfully mom did not do any of her “jawan ladaki ki ma” roles and so their stay went off very peacefully. Probably she understands me now. Or maybe she agrees with my brother that I need time to grow up. Whatever be the case, it came as a relief. 

The New Year weekend was very boring. We had nice Chinese food in MG Road. I was made to stay up till 12 after which Varsha and Ankita wished me and allowed me to sleep. I broke some New Year resolutions on 1st and that was how New Year was celebrated. 

Well this post has been longer than I intended. But then, you see I could not help myself. But I can assure you I did not use brains to write this. The brain’s gone for good to a certain alien and he/she had a good Xmas dinner of it.

Sale! Sale! Sale!!

Robert Frost once remarked "The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office." How very true! It just stops. The brain, I mean. I understand that you need to nourish and nurture your brain and it can become a wonderful slave. Well, MY brain is hopeless. I nourish it with 4 cups of coffee and 2 cups of tea daily, but still it won't function. Not the way it is supposed to at least. Forget becoming a slave, I can swear, it is becoming more of a liability with each passing day! Wish there was a way I could get rid of it. Any takers?!? :-)

I can list down all the features which might just want you to have my brain. If not you, your friend maybe. Or maybe you can gift it to your enemy and I can promise, he will loose all capacity to conspire against you.

1. It has not been used much

Yes. I have kept it safe from any kind of wear and tear. Even after seeing 25 winters and 24 summers, my brain has all the capabilities it had when I was born. Nothing has changed much and it looks brand new. It has all the innocence of a child, ahem, and is innocuous. It just cannot think of anything that would make you want to do anything wrong. Infact, you would never ever Do Anything.

2. Mera dimag comupter se bhi tez chalta hai

I am not a Chacha Chaudhari silly. Like any good salesperson, I am promising more and delivering far less. What I actually mean is Mera dimag mere computer se tez chalta hai. You see, my office computer is full of trash. Of the 40 Gb space I have, about 12 Gb is project related stuff. Even though I never get much opportunity to use it, I can't delete it. The remaining space is loaded with stuff that I have copied from my mobile; at least 5-6 Gb of songs, useless downloads from the internet and what not. The result is that, it has become so slow, that it sure would win the world slow cycling championship. And my peanut sized brain can do 2 + 2 faster than my computer. Ha! My computer would not be able to start the calculator in that time!!

3. It is maintenance free!

I promise, you wont have to spend another penny on newspapers, novels, books, jokes, smses.. It understands nothing. :-) They say, Kala Akshar Bhains Barabar. And you try bringing these things close to my brain and it would start hallucinating buffalos all around. You would automatically stay away from these things and I bet you would be saving a lot of hard earned money!

4. Forget the price!*

Well, it is free of cost if you have been a regular reader of my blog. :-) This is the only way I can show my gratitude! You take it, and I promise never to write again. If you are new, still no worries. You read all the posts, comment on each and every one of it and voila! You can have a claim too.

Disclaimer: The brain will be given as a whole. Because of the small size it won't be possible for me to divide it. :-|

* Conditions apply.

Kamzor Kadi Kaun?

Cricket team : Saurav Ganguly (Is it end of road for Dada?)

Politics : Arjun Singh (He has competition for this post)

Hockey : Team India (What a pity!)

Singing : Himesh Reshamiya (Is there anyone who can challenge this man?)

Coding : Yours truly (I bet you can't beat me!)

Well, this is my personal rating. So all you Saurav Ganguly or Himesh Reshamiya afficianados, please don't make this blog a space to vent your anger. It won't help your cause. The thing is I have been doing a lot of coding these days. You see, I am essentially a Java programmer. I think I knew everything about it. I believed that there are two types of java - mar java and mit java. I know Java is a beverage consisting of an infusion of ground coffee beans. So when you say that you work on Java, you actually work your way in and out of pantry room holding your coffee mug. When they taught me that Java is platform independent, I was more than happy. I thought I would find coffee not only in IBM pantry room, but also at all the platforms in Pune station or Bhopal station(if I ever had to work from home)!!

Last month and a half have been very hectic here. The more I code, the more errors I find in it. I bet I must have introduced a whole family of bug into the small code I have written. So much so that now my team lead wonders whether I am an application programmer or a bug in disguise! My accuracy in missing atleast one test case a day is so high that they are planning to send me as IBM's official entry to Guinness Book of World record in the same category. They find the easiest module and after doing all the supplications and invocations they assign it to me, only to find out later that they made their biggest mistake ever. I was scrolling through the design document the other day. And to my surprise I found that in the Project Risks section, they had listed Anusha Murthy as the first (and only) risk item. There was a single line in the Assumptions section - The project will be completed in the stipulated time frame assuming Anusha will stay away from it.

In short they don't know what to do with me. And I am equally clueless whenever I attend any status meetings. They ask me questions like how much percentage code has been completed. Well I have been very bad at Mathematics specially in equations with two unknowns. How the hell I calculate the percentage completed when I am never sure of the total work that needs to be done!

They have decided to play safe now and are now asking me to prepare quality documents. Sigh! They thought that nobody reads these documents anyways so it seemed a calulated risk to them. Well they have allowed me to mess with one last thing before I move on to documentation. They have asked me to prepare a script which would trigger my java program. I asked them whether it should be an action movie script or emotional drama script. They answered that they need a Unix script.

And I better get back to work and prepare that script before they officially decide to confer the Kamzor Kadi title to me. :-)

An irritating one.

It is a strange day. The sun is shining brightly, but it is very gloomy inside the office building. It seems there has been some outage in Hadapsar which has forced the facilities to switch to single tube mode instead of the usual two. I feel very uncomfortable whenever I am in a dimly lit place. I recently had an argument with Varsha, who also happens to be my flat mate, on a similar issue. We live in a single room flat (I prefer to call it "ek kamare ka ghar" instead of the more sophisticated "studio partitioned" flat.) and there are two tubelights to light up that room. Varsha usually comes back before me and switches only one tubelight. Now, when I come back, the first thing I do is go to the other end of the room and switch on the second tubelight. This would have been alright but if you do this before saying a simple "Hi" and after giving a nasty look to your roommate, you deserve to get a good thrashing, don't you?

I used to be a fairly unruffled person. I used to stay calm on a day before my semester exam even when I was fully aware that only a miracle would help me cross the magic no. I usually cleared my subjects decently (thanks to the little miracles), but there were times when I cleared them gracefully (pun intended). I remained my usual calm self when I was being rejected by quite a few companies during placement days. I remain calm when my boss bangs his head on my table trying to make me work, somehow. That reminds me sometimes of a donkey - who remains calm and collected even when it is beaten up and made to carry the load. There is no other specie which remains more calm and sober. I feel a lot like the donkey (even without the load) – calm and collected.

Or so I believed I was. Because off late I have realized that there are many things that make me uncomfortable. I feel very uncomfortable when I twist my leg wearing those goddamn heals. I feel unable to breathe when I find that my top, which I brought from the Shopper’s Stop sale a couple of months back, does not fit anymore. :-( I feel like crying when I have to drive through one of those pot holes ridden office route. I feel irritated when I find one of those chain mails in my inbox asking me to forward the mail to everyone in my mail list so that Amy Bruce, a 3 yr old kid will receive a new life. I feel like going and hitting the person who sends me yet another dumb joke on Sardars. I feel like smashing the TV set when I see movies which show South Indians as funny variant of Homo sapiens. I frequently get those you-are-crazy and have-you-gone-mad looks from my friends when I show my resentment when a young man driving his Karizma (or even Bajaj M80 for that matter) thinks that he is the king of roads and the traffic signals are meant to be damned. You know, even seemingly innocuous comment on how boring Telugu marriages can be from a very good friend makes me furious these days. I think every kind of marriage, leave alone Telugu marriage, is a boring affair. Then why blame one community!! More so, what right does anyone have to pass on a comment like that?

In most of these cases, all I can do is complain and trust me, I do that very well. But there are cases when the mob mentality hurts. It hurts something in me which I call self-respect. It might be my bloated ego as well, I don’t know. But it does hurt and all I can do is get more irritated and more furious. There are things I cannot change but I won’t accept them as a way of life either. Not until I realize the futility of the effort.

I had no intentions of writing this post. But my dimly lit bay made me write this. And just by the way, Varsha and I reached an agreement about the tubelight issue. She makes sure that she switches on both of them before I come back. And I don’t give her that nasty look if she forgets to do so someday. And we have been living happily ever after. :-)

My Comeback to blogspot

After being away for almost 2 months, I feel this blog space deserves a bit more attention. I know this may sound really funny, but the reason for this self imposed Sabbath was that I was busy. But before you start imagining myself coding frantically on my computer for a crazy deadline, let me tell you beforehand - I did not code anything worth even an Afgani. Actually my TL caught me napping one fine afternoon and decided to load me with work which comprised giving effort estimations for some projects which, everybody's sure, would remain in pipeline.

Another reason for being away from blogspot was that all brave hearted souls who used to visit this space (Rohan, Rt, Dev Babu, Vandit a.k.a Kobra etc) have gone busy - the gentlemen with their B-schools and the lady with her hubby (ie Rohan) , trying to make him a good boy (for more details on this activity pls see Rohan's blogspot link in the navigation bar). With Varsha busy with her sister's marriage, I was quite sure there would be no one who would want to waste time here.

Well, a lot many things happened in these two months. I went to Harsha di's (Varsha's sis) marriage. It was awesome! Attending two marriages back to back in two consecutive months was reason good enough for my mom to sky rocket her BP. She is playing the role of "jawaan ladki ki ma" to perfection! But sometimes I really wonder why does she go berserk everytime I delay my "settling down" plans. Is it really the genuine concern of a "jawaan ladki ki ma" or does she want to get rid of me asap!?!? I am more inclined to think of the latter because my dad has not shown any signs of stooping as he should have being "jawaan ladki ke pita". My younger brother, on the other hand, is seriously convinced that I have always shown signs of retarded mental growth and by his calculations, I would take another couple of years atleast, to reach the mental age of an avg 21 yr old female. So "jawaan ladki ka bhai" is hardly bothered just like the "jawaan ladki" herself is!!

Coming back to the central theme of this post, which is what I did in the intervening months of the last two posts, I must say that I had one helluva roller coaster ride. Pune roads offer many chances of enjoying this ride lest you missed it in your tiny tot days. I also went to Sinhagarh (this time in the correct trek route) with my brother and after seeing the scenic beauty I forgave Pune for its bad roads. Western Ghats is trekkers paradise in monsoons. I would try to upload some of those stunning moments soon.

And in the meantime, I purchased a smart Nokia 6270. It is an amazing s**y silver beauty with a 2 mega pixel camera, mp3 player with dual speakers with features like bluetooth, infrared etc. I got a 512 MB memory card with it. And I store all kinds of crazy photos and videos in it. I have a foto which shows my finger nails and I can swear by the image quality. It could pick the tiny dust peck in the finger tip of my small finger. I also got a USB port with it so my computer is also flooded with crap. I have some good games in it, I can connect to internet and yes, even make a phonecall!!

So these were a few things that kept me away from blogspot. But I am back!! You see, my work has been drastically reduced in last few days. So I have started spending some time thinking how to bog down all you brave hearted souls. Keep visiting. :-)

IBM's Big Day

6/6/06 was one of the biggest day in IBM India's history. The annual IBM Global Briefings meet (a meeting with Wall Street and other top analysts) was held for the first time outside US of A / Europe. All the hotshots of the Big Blue and other major investors were in Blore for this 2 day mega fanfare and which would turnout to be the biggest employee event ever in Asia.

The event was broadcast simultaneously in all IBM India locations and webcast to about 340,000 IBMers world wide. It goes without saying that this event had great business significance for India (Sam Palmisano announced to invest $6 bln in the next 3 years), I would pen down those small things which no newspaper or T.V channel would cover. :-)

How my day began

I had gone to Sinhagarh fort on Sunday. It was built by Shivaji. What a beautiful fort it is but I wonder why on earth did Shivaji choose the highest mountain in that area! We had trekked 10kms on foot because we had taken a wrong route. So Monday was marked with blues all over. All the muscles, even those I never knew existed, were paining badly. The IBM event was to start at 9 am Tuesday and I was in no mood to get up so early. I had almost decided to forget the event but my kachrawala and maid servant had some other plans. The kacharawala comes at 6 am and maid at 7. Everyday the same old story! Tuesday was no different.

I am never on time on a normal day when I am supposed to reach at 10:30 am, so, obviously, I was late for 9 am deadline as well. The Ganesh Kala Kreeda bhawan, where the satellite broadcast was scheduled is a good 12 kms away. I covered the distance in 15 min. I must have set a record of some sorts - risking maximum lives while driving or something to that effect.

Who all were there.

Big Blue's top boss Chairman and CEO - Mr. Samuel J Palmisano, MD, IBM India - Mr Shankar Annaswamy apart from other members of IBM senior management. The Chief Guest was Honourable President of India - Shri A.P.J Abdul Kalam. Other dignitaries were CM and Governor of Karnataka, Mr Sunil Bharati Mittal to name a few.

The Beginning

Dia Mirza! The gorgeous beauty was emceeing the show. Personally, I never liked her much in movies. She looks like a plastic doll at times. But here she was looking very very graceful and cute (a colleagues' remark :-) ) in a red saree. But what amazed me most was the elan with which she conducted herself and the show. She remembered all the facts and figures correct and spoke with conviction. She had clearly done her homework well. Great job Dia!

Men of Honour

Innovation has become a buzz word within IBM. A handpicked leaders from India Inc were honoured by Mr. President for innovation in their respective fields. Mr Sunil Bharati Mittal was one of them. Then Mr Raghuraman from IBM was also honoured for filing as many as 15 patents in US of A, 2 of which have been granted! Then the team, which had worked so hard to help the Tsunami victims in Andaman and Nicobar islands and Tamil Nadu, was also awarded.

The Funny Man. 

Politics can be a seriously funny business at times. It was Honourable CM of Karnataka to don the funny man's role this time. He had decided to grace the occasion wearing an ordinary white cotton shirt and chappals when the occasion demanded a little more formal attire. Maybe he is a man of simple living and high thinking, which I should respect (but am unable to). Maybe he too is not used to getting up so early. If that is the case, I don't really blame him. I can understand.

But one would expect him to know, atleast, what he is saying - sorry, reading. We could all guess very easily that Mr. Kumaraswamy did not shine with grades in recitation exams in his primary school days. Maybe one rehersal would have been a really good idea. He mispronounced Sam's surname as Palmino (Darn, it was Sam's mistake! Could'nt he find a better surname for his trip to India!). Excused him for this, it might have been a malaprop. But then came the mother(and father) of all malaprops. IBM has been the highest patent filer for the 13th consecutive year. Mr CM acknowledged this by saying "IBM has numerous parents, errr patents filed..". And we in Pune were ROTFL. Man how did the Blore crowd control themselves. Finally when the laughter subsided, we heard him saying something about Infosys. Did he get the wrong speech? Was there a mess up? We dont know. But it was'nt possible to control the laughter any further. And the last we heard him say was "Jai Hind, Jai Karnataka!"

This was followed by a well read speech by Mr Governor. Nothing worth mentioning about his rendezvous with the mike.

The "Rocket" Man.

I don't have words to describe what pleasure it is to hear Mr. President. He talked about IBM, Watson Sr, Vikram Sarabhai, technology, future computing, creativity, leadership etc.etc. He is a big dreamer and achiever! It shows in his presentations and examples. He surely has learned the most essential lessons of life well - being humble is one of them. You dont feel like you are hearing a President speaking. He is a teacher and will always be that - whatever his portfolio be. And he is no short of humor as well. Like in the beginning he said that he will try his best to give a decent speech even if we all were more eager to hear Dia Mirza. Or how he took "three" last questions one after the other in the Q&A section. :-)

Wish there were some people like him in active politics as well.

Other speakers.

Mr Sunil Mittal spoke about the successful model of Airtel and his vision of Airtel to be the No 1 brand in India by 2010. Quite an achievable task considering the persona of Mr Mittal.

Then it was Mr. Palmisano's turn. Most of his talk centered on how well IBM India has been doing and how important India is for IBM's growth. Heard him for the first time after which it was time to sign off from Blore.

The traditional gaana and khana

All such events are supposed to be complimented by naach gana and khana is the unwritten rule in IBM. This time we had Kailash Kher performing live in Pune. It was the magic of his voice which made IBMers dance at 11 am. He sang all the hit nos- albela, teri diwani, mangal, toota toota ek parinda to name a few.

This was followed by a grand buffet. I hate luncheons so would not go on describing what all was there. I had daal bhaat after which I rushed back to office. Have about 5 tickets to work on, upload code to CM Synergy etc. Dont get confused. It hardly makes sense to me too.

Clearly one of the finest day in my 1.5 yrs with IBM. Hope to see some more such events soon.

How I spent my last weekend?

This post should have come 4 days back. But sometimes it so happens that my company gives me some work to do. Rather, it is lucky enough to find some work about which they are sure it would not affect their profit margins. This was one such rare week when I was really really busy. So much so that I had to miss my morning coffee for some meeting where we discussed how much effort would be spent for a support only project which has been on hold for 5 months and about whose future nobody is sure.

Anyways, this post is not how I spend the 8 billable hours in my office not falling asleep. Nor is it about how I spend the remaining 16 hours doing nothing else but sleeping (sometimes in strange places). Actually I spent a very expensive weekend. There is a saying in Hindi Bhagwan jab deta hai to chappar faad kar deta hai. I would want to add to it Aur jab leta hai to thappad maar kar leta hai.. The former rarely happens to me. I am more blessed with the latter. So I am here trying to pen down what actually happened that you had to bear the consequences reading this. Go ahead if you are not bored till now.

Come Friday evening and you would find me singing, whistling and laughing with my colleagues. On a long weekend you might even find me dancing. So even though the last weekend was not a long weekend and the tectonic plates below IBM's foundation were intact, I was having fun. It was a weekend after all. After 5 days of hard work (excuse me for occasional lying) you get a 2 days break. So while I was busy singing some Himesh Reshamiya number, I found my mobile dancing. At first, I was amazed by the magic of my voice. If Tansen could force rains by singing raag Malhar, I could force Nokia 2600 dance to ooooooo huzoor, 13 13 13 surooor. I was brought back to reality by the realisation that it was Deepshikha - my college friend, call. Dipsi and I planned to spend the weekend together at her place. I became happier and stressed with full nasal force on 13 13 13 suroor.

And with that my mobile started ringing again. Before I could think of any weird reason of its behaving this strange way (I hardly receive calls), I saw the number flashing on the screen. It was my landlord's number. Then I remembered that I had not paid the month's rent and it was already 5th. I told him that I was, very busy (ahem) and I assured him that I would pay the rent that day itself. With a very heavy heart I went to the ATM and withdrew 5k (my rent is 4.5k damn!). So the weekend did not start auspiciously. I came back home, watched some stupid movie and slept.

Saturday morning was'nt very eventful except that I took bath. I went to the guitar class and played D chord when my teacher asked me to play E-minor. Then I realised I had to give my fees. So another 500 bucks gone. Now I had to go to the ATM again. It was very hot and I was enjoying chilled nimbu pani when my dad called and asked whether I booked my tickets? I have to go home in June. I got a real good thrashing when I told him that I did not book the tickets because err..I was very busy. Anyways, I went and booked the tickets. The ICICI ATM was out of order as it always is. I had to withdraw from some other ATM and loose extra 50 bucks on that.

It was already 3 pm by the time I got my tickets. I called Dipsi and we decided to meet at E-square - a multiplex mall in Pune. Poor girl was waiting for me and missed her lunch. With that guilt, I decided to treat her and Vineeta with panipuris at a nearby thela. But she was way too hungry. We ordered sandwiches, coke, bhelpuri, coke, chat, coke, manchurian stir fry, coke. Whatever happened to the eating habits of my generation?

After watching the movie (Darna Zaroori Hai), we thought we were still hungry. Who said girls are conscious about their diet?! Then Abhishek Soni joined us and we went to Rajwada - a garden restaurant for dinner. At midnight, when the waiters started removing the chairs and tables we decided to stop eating and go home (we got the remaining items packed actually!). Vineeta, Dipsi and Abhishek convinced me that I am still not out of that guilty conciousness and paying the bill would make me feel better. Well, I don't want to elaborate on what I felt after that.

We decided to go to Vineeta's place. Poor Abhishek was alone and so I gave him my Activa. Vineeta stays with her bhaiya and bhabhi and they live in a very beautiful apartment. They had gone to Mumbai and so we had the time of our lives! We had each other's company along with a TV, DVD player, laptop and a fully loaded fridge. So you can imagine what would happen when 3 ladies are left alone in such circumstances. We finally went to sleep at 2:30 am.

I was dreaming about John Abraham in those early hours when it happened. My mobile rang again. It was, gulp, my landlord again. This time it was his daughter on the line and she told me that I had left the tap open. Now Vineeta's place is about 25 kms from my flat. I frantically called Abhishek. But you can hardly do anything when Murphy's Law is at work! I could not call him and I later came to know that his cell had no balance (he came from Mumbai) and he could not recharge it. I was worried that my home would become a Titanic and the bigger problem is I can’t swim.

I took an auto and asked him to rush. God bless him, he took me through a short cut. But still I had to pay him about 100 bucks!. To my relief, the situation was well under control and no Titanic like scene to be seen. I went back to Vineeta's place after all the damage control was done - another 100 bucks.

I am about to loose some more money. Read on. For the lunch we went back to Dipsi's place. Had a tight lunch and were wondering what to do after that. Dipsi had some playing cards and she said she will teach me how we play 3-patti. Initially we were playing with dummy money. I don’t remember whose idea it was we started playing with real coins. And with that my beginner's luck was overpowered with the skills of veterans like Dipsi and Abhishek. I started with 16 bucks and lost more than 50 bucks and I resolved never to get into gambling again in this life.

I thought my financial woes are over for the day. But oh no! In the evening I and Vineeta went to FC Road. I parked my Activa and we went to CCD. After that we bid good bye and I came back looking for my Activa. But I found a fruits ka thela instead. I thought transfiguration was Professor Mc Gonagall's forte and it was a rare possibility of finding her in this part of the globe. Who could transfigure my smart Activa to a hand cart? The thela wala informed me that the traffic police had taken my activa with them because I parked it in no parking. Lost 150 bucks more to get my Activa back.

And then my mother complains that I don't save money. Can somebody tell me how can I if my life moves like this?

Outage in IT..

Time for a new post!

I have loads of time today (not that I had less of it yesterday, the other day or any day for that matter). Reason - there is some major network outage in the client network today and the hardworking souls of my company have been left strangled in the middle with nothing better to do. So here I am with the next post. Now, let me not get into the technicalites of the matter, though I am not sure what technical information I can give, but in simple words internet not working. :-) And since a fast reliable internet connection is the raw material in the IT industry, we have no option left but to enjoy the break!

You have to be in a software firm to fully appreciate the kind of reactions people give in distressing times like these. For one, the entire floor becomes empty baring a few souls who can still be found glued to their seats. Nah, dont mistaken them to be the sincere types. They actually are freshers who have recently joined their projects. The young blood cannot rest and tries to go against the basic commandment of internet - Thou shalt not be able to work if the server is down. They try to show their commitment to their project in difficult times - trying to impress a team lead who is not at his/her cubicle! Sooner or later these young turks realize that they missed having fun and that too officially. Well you learn that with experience!

The Team Lead, depending on the person's gender, gets time to discuss matters of grave importance with his/her peers. If the TL happens to be a male, you will find him smoking with others in the clan in the lobby, cursing his Project Manager or planning his next vacation. On the other hand, the female TL can be found having coffee in the pantry, cursing her Project Manager or planning her next vacation. No gender discriminations in such matters.

Some people get the shock of their lives! Network down is the last thing they expect to happen. These are the souls who have a sword dangling dangerously over their heads in the form of a deadline. Each day (and night) counts. They have been working 74 hrs a week to meet this creepy deadline and all they find is a deadend! My sympathies with them.

Finally, there are those who are beyond such petty things. God bless these carefree souls, life is party for them with or without a network! And they find really good means to kill their free time - blogging for instance..

Wondering how I could post this? Well my $ 97 bn company has a network of it's own :-)!

May, Mitra and Mitraa

Well blogger.com does not allow me to type in Hindi. So pls read the title as "May, Mitra and Mitraa" :-)). See Mitra - friend and Mitraa - beloved.

May is the hottest month in this part of the globe. And it's going to get really hot this year. No I dont work for the Metrological dept and unlike them, my prediction's gonna be correct..And the reason for Mercury rising like the Sensex this year is one of my mitra has found his mitraa. That's not all! His mitraa also happens to be my mitra and they are getting married when the mitra (mitra also happens to be a Sanskrit word for Sun) is going to shine brightest! To cut the long story short, Rohan, my classmate and a close buddy, is tying wedding knots with Aarti, one of my first roommate, this May..

Ok! Enough playing with words. But I like dramatic openings :-). And Rohan Aarti's wedding is a big news afterall..The first one in my gang of brats. Now we all knew of their long courtship - the lanky, handsome dude falling all over Aarti who drew loads of oos and aahs form the guys...The surprise element was the date (and month and year as well!!) and you bet it was a pleasant one..Frankly, I was not expecting it to happen so soon..But Kabirdas probably had couples like Ro Ro and RT in mind when he gave the world the famous "Kaal kare so aaj kar" doha!

Rt u break hearts of many! Though I am not aware of ur heart breaking abilities, Rohan :-). Yeah but I remember u broke many promises. Rohan skipped so many brain storming sessions we used to have while making our final year project that we stopped counting him in our batch! Well, that we used to end up eating samosas in canteen or playing taash in Varsha's place in these meetings is a different story altogether (More on that in the coming posts!) ..This true fokat son of Instru wanted to change his branch to TC in his final year. Even we wished it was possible for their convenience (and ours too..). But that did not happen. And we had to tie him to a computer in our lab to finally get some coding done. He actually did a wonderful job in just one day and that was the only part working in our project :-).. Rohan's a stud in his own right..

And his sweetheart is nothing short of an all rounder..She is beautiful, she has brains (as per Rohan that's a rare combination in females, though i beg to differ!), she sings, she dances and is a total mastikhor when it comes to having fun. I would always remember the way Aarti's slapped this guy during Dhadkan practices (dont want to mention his name and risk getting sued in the process)..So Rohan u know that u will have to behave urself!

All in all a very sweet couple...Here's wishing both of u a very happy and wonderful married life..Khoob saare bachche hon aapke aur dher saari shaitaniyan karke pareshan karen tum dono ko (u both deserve this - itna pareshan kiya hai sabko!)..

Waiting eagerly for this May!! When all mitra will meet once again for the marriage of our mitra and his mitraa!!

My experiences with..well..read on!

There cannot be a more beautiful body than the one I am seeing now. There cannot be a more perfect neck either. The body is handsome and fits so perfectly in my hands. The lines and cuts are divine. The tan brown colour of the skin only adds to the beauty.

As I roll my fingers over it, I feel a sensation beyond words and I feel something moving within me. As that blissful sensation reaches my heart, my eyes fill with tears..For my love cannot find any other way to express itself - all other senses are mesmerised..And with the first sounds I realise that something hot is running down my cheeks..I finally have it! After years of yearning and dreaming, I have my guitar in my hands..

I was always fascinated by the sounds of this beautiful instrument (infact, I am in love with all the music instruments I know..). The chords can do wonders and has such soothing effect!!..There used to be a music class near my hostel in my first yr engineering..I remember a couple of instances when I used to hover around that building just to hear the sounds - though they were never very clear..:-) And then I heard my dear friend, Vandit, playing Mandolin..These experiences only added some shudh desi ghee to the desire to own one - some day..

Own one - someday! And it took me almost 5 years to finally have one..And was I delighted! It was like the experience of owning the first bicycle, running the scooter for the first time..Boy! I actually, wanted to dance..:-) But keeping my foot tapping abilities and my general concern for the neighbours in mind, I decided otherwise and settled for a bar of Dairy Milk and some coke for the celebrations..

I found a class and I go there every Saturday..My teacher is a wonderful guitarist..and you know what he did in the first class?? He played Summer of 69..and my reaction? a very simple - Ah!! And I was all geared up for the lesson..I was very confident that I will do wonders..I said to myself - boss u have a reasonably good music sense! This should not be tough..And after some basic understanding of the instrument, I started with the G chord..And then I realised a simple fact - this is not going to be that simple! And in another 10 min time, I was sharing my confidence level with a certain Saurav Ganguly..Yeah I was not feeling any better. I even thought that I was looking very awkward with the guitar..Soon I realised that the strings want to test my endurance..There was a sharp pain in my fingers..The strings won the first battle and got good taste of my blood!! My teacher smiled and said "That should be enough for the day.."

It has been almost 3 months now..I practise a lot and I feel less awkward holding it..The tips have become numb..I guess the battle is almost over..My guitar allows me to experiment with it now..And the sounds have started making some sense..I think in a year's time I will be much better at it..Well, I just hope so..:-)

The new Chaska..

Being in a software firm has one big advantage..A free access to a computer with 1GB RAM and an internet connection whose speed is rivaled by the supersonic jets.So here I am, with a free blog space and hundreds of thoughts, raring to go..

Right now I am just trying to acquaint myself..and will start posting soon..

Till then take care..