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  • JuSt LiKe DaT….

    its fun when u just do not want to do anything at all…

    like i did today…

    the habit of waking up early ensures that even if there is no alarm.. i still cannot sleep beyond 0800 hrs 🙁 so like it or not.. i have to get up… and i did today too…

    and then just idled away to glory with both the laptop and the desktop switched on… while i kept transferring some data from the lappie to the home PC… the laptop has been acting up for a few days i am afraid i will loose some important data if it conks off…

    a nice bath in the afternoon…. a good lunch and sleeeeeeep for 3 hours saw me wake up to a lazy evening…

    and then got reminded of a few things that needed completion for work.. did them and done for the weekend ( i guess 😉

    rohit just called.. he is in noida.. but i cannot meet him.. looks like mom has a few plans.. and i am in no mood to get into an argument about me not giving enough time at home right now… so i am home….

    last evening was good… left from office around 2000 hrs.. after Ashi came in… so it was Me, Ashi and Munshi who went to GK this time for the Golgappa treat !!! a different shop this time.. but good stuff…

    and a walk around the place.. and a discovery… the Sales House… wonderful shirts… i am going to buy at least 5 next week.. and a few trousers too… did not buy it yesterday because my billing cycle for the card is coming to an end… and delaying the shopping for 3 days means getting a interest free credit cycle for 50 days…

    and then also ate the pan at the Prince Pan bhandar… i think that was the last time i am eating the pan there… its not value for money at all… not that it takes anything to spend those 15 bucks.. but they make the pan look a lot bigger then it really is by wrapping and re-wrapping it atleast 3 times with paper and stuff… and when you reach the actual pan.. u have nothing more then something of the size of a small toffee to eat !!! huh…

    that reminds me of the Banarasi Pan wala in New Market, Bhopal.. i have never eaten better Pan then Bhopal !!! i am missing that shop 🙁

    i called up tushar to find out what he was doing.. looks like he is busy too with his folks.. so the late evening ice tea does not look possible for today !!! anyway…

    what else..

    i want to watch IceAgeII tmrw… lets see… if i can manage to go there in the evening and get myself a ticket i will….

    oh.. and yes.. Ashi got me two magazines from British Council… and its full of Camera reviews and related stuff… loved the mags… will read them too !!! ye ye !!!

    am happy !!!

  • iNnOvATe !!!

    we all go through a phase in our everyday life when the usual things we do become so boring, so irritating so monotonous that we do not want to do them anymore… we do not want to be part of that daily routine life anymore…. and we do not know what can be done to change things.. because most of it looks like its not in our control…

    some examples…

    • i hate to get up early in the morning… its such a pain…
    • i hate to take that same chartered to office.. or that bus to college is so crap…
    • i just cannot do this job anymore.. its taking me no where…
    • my job is so boring….
    • i do not have anything worthwhile to do in the evening… all day work and then nothing.. it sucks…
    don’t all of us go through something of this sort.. almost very regularly…

    i also do…

    and what do i do to take care of this..

    well

    • either i can crib…
    • or i can keep quite and keep things inside me and keep getting troubled
    • or i can think of something that changes things…
    like…

    if i have problems getting up in the morning… i might think of doing something first thing in the morning that excites me… to start with listen to an alarm that is nice ( this might need a phone where you can change alarms as your favorite songs)

    or go to the radio.. and listen to my favorite station…

    or just get out of the house and take a walk around the neighbourhood…

    or switch on my PC and run the cartoon that i love to love..

    if i do not like the way i travel everyday…
    then…

    i can take a different bus.. maybe a bus 10 minutes earlier then usual…

    i can take a different route if i am driving myself…

    listen to the tapes that i bought 3 years ago.. and have not heard in a long while…

    or spend time over the weekend recording my favorite numbers and then listen to them in my walkman or discman…

    or give one of my old friends a quick 10 minute call… wonderful way to catch up…

    ok..what was the next problem?

    hmm… i do not like my work at office…

    well there are times that this cannot be changed… too bad we cannot choose our own bosses and work profiles( at times)

    so what can be done…

    do the same work.. but Innovate !!! try new ways of reporting data… change the fonts that you use… think about naming conventions for your files… and so on and so forth…

    try new things in doing the same activity…

    shift your desk as well…

    try facing the window if you have one.. and look outside when u do not feel like working…

    walk upto the person you like talking to at times and go for a cuppa tea together.. .

    about evenings now…

    call up old friends.. those 10 minutes do wonders…

    work out for 10-20 minites..

    pick up an activity… like drawing.. sketching.. learning to play an instrument.. swim… go to the gym… that makes you spend time outside the house…

    make sure you are the one who prepares salad for dinner ( thats all that i can do hence this idea)

    read.. and then share it with someone who would listen to you…

    i am sure there are a million other ways to improve our lives… but there ARE WAYS… we just need to look around.. and find them out for ourself…

    treasure hunt…

    isn’t life one?

  • AnOThEr… WeEkEnD….

    this was a long weekend that just went by… lots happened in this long weekend too..

    while i was worrying very hard because sayan asked me to… why? because she was away on a trip.. and she did not want to worry about anything.. so like a good friend in need, i offered to worry in her absence.. and so i did..

    and what else did i do…

    hmm… i realized that for someone who is earning around 30000 bucks per month, it was not possible to buy a decent house in Greater Noida..

    the real estate prices are sky rocketing… to the extent of 25K to 30K per sq. Meter.. which means that for a plot of about 60 sq.m. someone would need to shell out about 15lacs… add to it the cost of building the house and the rest of the charges, registration, tax etc etc… phew.. tough.. life is tough !!!

    so that was saturday’s realization…

    and Sunday… well.. thanks to DMRC… i was very very happy.. a metro ride from Barakhamba to Dwarka.. which took about 60 minutes made me happy.. met chacha and chachi after a long time.. chacha came to the station to pick us up and dropped us back too.. so it was kinda cool… i went from Noida to CP in the car… parked the car @ Birla Towers next to the Barakhamba Station and took the metro from there.. pretty neat eh !!!

    and then came monday… the worst day of the week… enjoyed some of my favorite songs on my way to the office… and then the usual too much work at work days… started with a heated argument with one of the guys because he could not understand something that i was trying to make him understand for over a week now, and was continuously creating unnecessary noise about things… so he was taken care of… and then blah.. and some more blah.. which was followed by blah.. and more blah.. before i finally switched off the damn laptop and got out of the office leaving a few things for tmrw… had golgappe in the M block market… ummm… yummy !!! followed by the nimbu soda @ prince pan bhandar and then the thanda meetha paan…

    and the icing on the cake.. a quick 3 minute dash to complete the toll bridge with bon jovi screaming his lungs out to Its my Life !!!

    yo !!!

    back home !!!

    totally chilled !!!

    where is the bed?

    gotta sleep !!!

    oops…

    food..

    gotta eat too..

    ok..

    lemme eat and sleep !!!

    ta tu !!!

    good night !!!

  • sHiMLa….


    so now is the time to write about the last weekend.. why !!!

    because i got the snaps today… writing about the trip without pictures is not really fun !!! so here i am…

    friday evening… the bag was packed in 15 minutes… and me Aditya and Shubhika left for the metro station.. both of them had not seen the metro from inside so far, and the excitement was justified… so we took at bus ( we got on at 2100 hrs easily) and reached the Rajiv Chawk Station… huh !!! its the CP station… grabbed the tokens and took the train.. the crowd at this to take this train was nothing less then the Kolkata Metro !!! tooooo many ppl at the platform… thankfully when the train came to the station it was empty and we could get in with ease…

    the Delhi Main Station… or the Chandni Chawk station has two exits… one which takes you to the Fawwara Chawk and the other ( which i took for the first time) which takes you to the entry of the Old Delhi Railway Station… Love you DMRC… going to the Old Delhi Railway station is fun now !!!

    there were a total of 21 ppl who were going… all very excited… we quickly ate some sandwiches and searched for the bogie… and took our seats.. had to make some adjustments to sit together… so we asked a lot of ppl to exchange the seats with us… and they had no option… afterall who would like to sleep in between a group of 21 ppl.. we are expected to make noise right ?

    the guys who wanted to have drinks enjoyed the drinks after the train moved.. and the other group… with 6 girls were getting bored… and then the game of dumb sharades started… and it was real fun for about 2 hours before some ppl woke up and asked us to sleep… but we could not stop… and carried on for a while this time controlling our voices…

    reached kalka in the early morning around 0500 hours after i managed to sleep for about 3 hours…

    tried getting a seat in the two trains scheduled to go to Shimla…but Shivalik Express and the Himalayan Queen were both full !!! and there were ppl waiting and fighting the TT because the idiots and taken waiting tickets and wanted a seat… anyway… we moved out of the station to find out alternatives to reach shimla…

    took a joyride in a small truck to the Gandhi Chawk bus stand… and waited for a bus there… we could’ve taken three qualises for 100 bucks per seat… but we chose not to and waited more for a bus.. and finally a Himachal State Transport deluxe bus took us to Shimla… we managed to reach Shimla around 0930 hrs and spend about 1.5 hours looking for a hotel… and finally checked in to the Maharaja Palace near the Kali Badi Mandir… checked in… got ready… and moved out by 1300 hrs… had a wonderful time eating chinese food at Alpha near the LIC of India Office on Scandal Point… and then spent the rest of the day just walking around the Mall Road… what crowd !!! manh !!! i have not seen better girls in this quantity for a long time… the place was FULL of people.. and a good percentage of this PEOPLE was CHICKS… yummy !!!

    some of the people got really tired and went back to the hotel while me and a few more decided to stay back on the Mall… i was one of the ppl who stayed back.. took some pics… watched some chicks… and then called everyone for dinner at one of my favorites The Plaza near Guptajee’s on the Mall.. both of these restaurants have been the places i make a point to eat at whenever i am in Shimla…

    managed to sleep around 0030 hrs… had to wake up early to go to Kufri…we managed to hire 2 Sumos and one Alto… some view points… lots of mules in kufri… and the nature park walk… some rain… a wonderful view point… some pictures… and some great kashmiri pulao and wonderfully tasty pineapple raita followed…


    we reached the shimla station @ 1600 hours a good 2.5 hrs before the toy train was to leave Shimla…we had planned to take the general tickets… and to kill time we just kept our bags inside the small ticket counter area… and started what i am never going to forget ever in my life…

    the next two hours saw me, Rajat, Lalit, Shivasheesh singing songs loudly.. and on request…we even were asking the other passengers for just 5 bucks for any songs.. hindi, english, marathi, punjabi, sanskrit.. whatever… after sometime the show shifted to the platform where we had the entire passengers of Shivalik Express as our audience.. and we even managed to Sing our way to 5 bucks from a foreigner.. in addition to about 50 bucks that we earned from within the team by singing songs of their choice !!! i will see if i can get one of these videos and upload it…

    and as soon as the train arrived… the general dibba was full 🙁 and we did not have a place to sit… so we quickly graduated to a sleeper class compartment and talked to the TT about the extra fare… and made the payment !!! nice… 30 seats in one compartment and 21 of them were with us !!! so no points for guess what followed…

    about 4 hours of non-stop singing… with all of us singing at the top of our voices… and me adding some beats to the songs by picking up two empty water bottles and using them for managing the tempo of the songs… a personal question hour.. one Chichora hour… and some non-veg jokes followed… and this journey from Shimla to Kalka because one of the most interesting and well spent journeys of my life !!!

    kalka came…we took our seats… and were back in Delhi by 0700 hrs in the morning… so a weekend very very well spent in the company of some amazing people…these are the times when you know life’s good !!!

    the next weekend is already here and i am not doing much this time…

    and i noticed that starting Sep’05 i have managed to be one a outstation trip every month !!! i am praying to God that this continues forever !!!

    Amen !!!

    oh… and i almost forgot… the fotos have been uploaded to flickr… you can check them out by clicking here

  • GrOwiNg….uP…. sTiLL…

    I am on this planet for 27 years, 11 hrs and 45 minutes as of NOW…

    birthdays used to be one day when all my family members.. chacha chachi, mama mami, mausa mausi, bua fufa, all cousins came over to my place and we used to celebrate…

    and then it stopped… everyone became busy in their own lives… and i moved on too… and then came the time when i started celebrating with friends.. dinner, lunch, tafri watever…

    i remember having a party in Lodhi Garden as well… my college gang was with me.. and we had a picnic in the centre of the park !!! it was fun..

    and then came the time when i had my girlfriend to celebrate the day with… nice romantic days… ugh !!! can’t think of repeating that as of now…

    and for the last few years… the birthdays have been more of a silent affair… meeting a few friends… lots of calls yes !!! and the usual work !!!

    today, i feel birthdays are milestones in my life… the time when i should be judging myself on what i have done in the last one year… i have grown older… but am i more mature with time as well.. have i learnt anything in the last 52 weeks…

    well… the last year has been fairly fair to me…. have learnt a lot… but i still cannot sugar coat my words… i am still very blunt with words… maybe this coming year things would improve…

    i have grown on my patience levels… i can not let go a li’il easily and i can listen for longer…

    i still do not know how to handle stupidity…

    i love driving more then i used to on 11-April-05…

    i love fotography more then i used to on 11-Apr-05…

    i love travelling more then ever…

    i have met some wonderfully nice people in the last one year…

    i have managed to be out of relationships and related worries for another year…

    above all…

    I have managed to be MYSELF !!!

  • OuTTa…. HeRe !!!

    i am getting out of delhi tonight… for two days…

    much needed break from the negative frame of mind i have been in since the time my salary got credited this month…

    i need some fresh air…
    i need some train…
    i need some curves on the road…
    i need some hills…
    i need myself…

    i am going on my way to get it !!!

  • {C} A LiFe…. & a DaY…

    i used to think it was only India which was full of festivals and reasons to celebrate and all the jazz… but with these firangi concepts of “day” coming in… we have
    Valentine’s Day
    Father’s Day
    Women’s Day
    Mother’s Day
    Rose Day
    Friendship Day

    am i missing some of the popular days?

    i guess not…

    and to top it all, we have seperate gifts for seperate days… Rose day obviously calls for a Rose… on the Valentine’s Day anything red and heart shaped sells… Father’s day would see some special for-father gifts… not to mention some special mother’s day gifts for the day for Mom’s too…

    if i had to make a wish list… this is what i would really like to celebrate…

    • listen to your music the whole day, day
    • kick your irritating neighbour day
    • run over the bugger on the road day
    • no incoming calls day
    • speak only truth day ( i am sure the world would be observing silence this day :D)
    • scream at the top of your voice day
    • play childhood games day
    • only smiles day
    • fire your boss day
    • be what you wanted to be in your life day
    • take your crush out on a hot date day
    • kick your crush’s boyfriend/girlfriend day
    • live like a single day ( for married ppl ofcourse)

    what else… lots i guess…

    tell me what all days would you like to celebrate in an year !!!

    i am waiting…

  • PaSTa…PaRTiE….

    please welcome… prashant bhardwaj… the COOK 🙂

    while i can cook ideas and naughty acts in my brain… i can successfully manage to feed myself with a fresh nice “made with some help” chilled pasta salad as well…

    it all started in eatopia… i wonder how many things would start from there…. one of my affairs about 3 years back… the ODM… and now the pasta salads… when i ate the pasta salad there… and really liked it… and wanted to make it myself…

    sayantani was there to help with the list of things i needed before i could make it… and i managed to buy the capsicum… or the bell peppers as she calls it… green ones; some carrots… and hara dhaniya… on saturday itself…

    now the hunt for the right kind of pasta started on sunday afternoon… and ended at store-18, which now is my favorite store for things i need… because 1. they take cards, and 2. i got all i needed there.. including the mayonese, the pasta, and some salsa sauce….

    so back to my house ready to cook…

    chopped the veggies, nicely… boiled the pasta for about 20 odd minutes with some salt and a few drops of oil… washed.. or rinsed with cold water…

    took some mayonese… beat it… and then mixed it with the pasta… added some chilly flakes… some pepper… a li’il bit of salt… and the mexican salsa sauce… the veggies… i had “power boiled” the carrots as well before… and then some grapes too…

    and chilled it for about 30 minutes… and then relished the treat… too bad mom could not share it… it was her fast yesterday.. and pa in any case eats only once.. so he could not comment either…

    and because i really needed some comments so i took some to tushar… and i did not know that he does not really like pasta and all.. so it was a dull reaction from him too.. Preeti however told me that it tasted just fine… and i am happy that it was eatable !!!

    so ladis and gentalmans… next time you really need to eat some nice pasta salad… please feel free to come over to my place… but… gimme a days’ notice so that i can get all the things i need to cook a good delicious salad for you 😉

    ta tu…

    and i have to go to gurgaon tmrw again… a drive of 50 kms one way !!! aargh !!!

  • AnOtHeR DaY… HaPpY…

    life been pretty hectic for the last few days… starting from the day of joining… no no.. nothing has changed in terms of work.. but the quantity has picked up…

    i have applied for my corporate card… and as soon as it arrives, i need to travel to EAST… Bhubneshwar, Guwahati, Kolkata and Patna… might just steal a couple of days for myself as well during these work trips…

    yesterday was very very good evening… went to dv8 in CP… the dj there ROCKS !!! literally i used to think Blues plays the best rock in CP, but this was much much better !!! after listening to some wonderfull rock for about 3 hours… with a couple of drinks… and some good foodie snacks… moved out and walked on the empty and otherwise very crowded roads of CP… i love CP… and would always call it that way.. no bloddy Rajiv or Indira Chawk for me ever !!! Manish told me about all the bird watching that he used to do there when in college… we went towards D’Pauls as well hoping that it would be open but it was not… so basically it was a very nice evening spent in the company of some good friends….

    slept very late… after working on a couple of things for office 🙁 yes… rohit can vouch for that… i was working at 0100 hrs 🙁 slept around 0200 hrs after completing my work desperately hoping that tushar does not call up in the morning for jogging… that bugger did… and i had to get up… oh and by the way i have been jogging for two days now… terrible pain in the entire body… and an old left knee injury reminding me to take care of it !!! so i cannot jog a lot 🙁 would have to think of other fat burning ways 😉 other interesting fat burning ways 😛

    met sayantani today… it was fun… her office is so cewl… all books … i feel good when there are so many books around, i usually do not read any.. but what the heck.. i still like that feeling… and i could trouble her with all my nonsensical talks while she was inviting some bachelor big shot for a book launch on the 4th april !!! 4 books arebeing launched on that day !!! and her name is on two of them… am totally proud of you editor girl !!!

    and then we thought about what we want to do.. where do we want to go.. initially she was to treat me to a movie.. which she denied… also the PVRs for some reason had no bloddy show before 1400 hrs… what are they doing in the auditoriums before that time !! huh !!!

    anyway… we decided to go to Cafe Coffee day, Green Park… this is at the backside of the deer park… on a road which has very less traffic… and i like it for the view it gives… but then i decided to experiment with the route that we take, and landed up on the Lodhi Road… and then decided to go to IHC… i have somehow started liking IHC a lot… there is something or the other you can watch there… and something or the other is always on there… like it was today… started with a full parking lot… and a b/w foto exhibition with fotos of some street children… being sold for amounts like 10K-20K !!! huh !!! and then went to this painting exhibition of breasts and butts… no seriously !!! this exhibition had all the paintings but 6 which had women painted in all different colours and the two body parts as mentioned above being focused at !!! Sayan also asked me why one of the chicks on one of the paintings had a strange orange butt !!! the only reason i could think of was that she was spanked big time, before the artist got down to painting her !!! anyway… we then went to the Visual Art Gallery, where there was an exhibition of some musical collages !! it was nice… abstract… very nice…

    when i used to sketch… i used to try to hard to have everything proper… proper eyes, proper face and a balanced landscape and all… but then most of the paintings/art work i have seen actually is not that way… abstract obviously is not easy but i guess its a better form of the free flow of expression.. and leaves you with a lot of questions too.. and as sayantani puts it, the work there was Visually Interesting !!! nice…

    oh and there were these two hotties taking care of the exhibition there !!! and of them wanted my name and address !!! ya… to be written on the guest book 😛 hehehe…

    Eatopia followed… and a lot of talk too… about LLAs, and chicks, and guys… and sayantani kept telling me that i am gross and disgusting all that.. and i should talk to a girl like that about other girls.. but then i made her understand that if she is a friend, i should be able to let my thoughts and words flow freely in front of her… otherwise its not really being friends… which meant more conversations… maza aaya…

    oh.. and we picked up a line from that exhibition in the Visual Art Gallery.. so profound.. here it is for you guys : “Even the face of an angel can be devilish red when the sound of his voice is not true“… nice eh !!!

    and then i dropped her @ the power grid office where her dad was waiting for her… and on the way i made her listen to one of my favorite tracks these days…

    Toone Deewana Banaya to Main Deewana Bana…
    Ab mujhe hosh ki duniya mein Tamasha na Bana…

    Abida Parween has done magic to these words… and 10e obviously liked it… oh.. and i also gave her a compilation of the best of angreji music that i have.. and i got the CD of Kailash Kher’s album Kailasa from here… so we also exchanged some music too !!!

    came back… slept… and woke up !!!

    talked to richa… all the best for your exams sweetheart… do well !!!

    nice day so far… lets see whats up in the rest of the weekend…

    ta tu for now !!!

  • SiMpLy CoMpLiCaTeD…

    alice….
    has written about what she is feeling this days in her relationship…

    she loves her boyfriend…

    he loves her too..

    and still there is some emptyness around…

    she feels happy alone.. she thinks he is too good to her… and so on an so forth… you might like to read what she has written.. just make sure that you do not aggrevate the pain she is going thru…

    her post reminded me of the painful times i went through when i was in a relationship… i certainly am more happy without a relationship today as compared to what i suffered…

    this march end it would be 2 years that i broke up.. yes i feel that at times there should be someone for me to hear me out.. someone who can give a shoulder to rest.. someone who would just be around…

    but all these feelings are so temprary in nature that i have even stopped bothering… and is that killing something inside me as a person.. am i loosing out on my emotional ratios… am i over with the passion in my life… would i never be able to love anyone ever again…

    i guess not… i am still a very emotional ass… i still can cry when i do not get what i want… i still have the same passion for a lot of things… ican still love.. but a women in my life… maybe i am not really want it… coz i am afraid…

    because i am afraid that things change..
    because i am afraid that i loose my space…
    because then i will have to think before i speak…
    because then i will not be myself anymore… there would not be any i or you there would be a we “there was a time when i used to love this line, however today this like brutally murders my individuality, which i hate to even think about“

    and a lot of other “because” lines…

    but then does that mean someone who is in a relationship should get out of it only because there are a few things that do not seem right…

    if i judge it from a very practicle point of view, i would suggest moving out… not to look around for one more person.. just move out of the concept called a relationship.. live your life.. and if you still feel that the person stays very very important for you and worth leaving that independence go back to him her and pray that (s)he is around…
    but is that really possible… you have to and you should snap off relationships actually… you can continue streching things as long as u can.. b in a lot of pain yourself.. and let the other person keep wondering too.. but thats not being fair…

    so what was i thinking when i read what alice wrote.. what should she be doing…
    i think she is in a situation where she loved to eat sweets and had a li’il too much of it… something that we feel when diwali is just over… no more sweets please feeling… i guess the only option as someone has very very rightly mentioned in the comments on her post… give space… and also go ahead with your life.. if you still need him.. come back… and i will add to it… pray he is still around..

    but alice girl.. go live your life for a while… lets yourself loose… know yourself better yourself… just be alice or whatever your name is… and then see where you reach… come back if you feel like… or carry on if you are happy… you will always have someone or the other to take care of you.. in a friend, in a lover, in a boyfriend, in a stranger, in a parent, or in GOD !!!