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  • The Motorcycle Diaries

    One of the movies that tops my list of “Oh I Can see it a million times” is The Shawshank Redemption… After the first time I saw it, I must have seen it already about 20 odd times still a while to go before the million happens but anyway 🙂

    … and lets add another to this list today….

    The Motorcycle Diaries or Diarios de motocicleta… The story of two doctors, well almost, who set out on an adventure in a old Norton 500 bike, which they call “The Mighty One”, “La Pederosa” to be specific in the language the movie is made… The movie is in Spanish and I saw it with the sub-titles ofcourse… During the course of their journey, these two friends go through whatever one can think of… Bike Accidents, Crashing into cattle, skidding off into water, Snow, Desert, Water, Wind, Hunger, selling off the bike and so on and so forth…

    One of the best scenes for me personally was when Emesto Fuser, jumps into the Amazon to cross it in the night only to reach the other side which is the camp for leprocy patients and celebrate his 24th birthday with them….

    When I finished the movie and started reading about it, I realised that this man Emesto Fuser, later went on to be called Che, the iconic Marxist Revolutionary… Incidently I was unaware of this name till a few weeks ago when Bhumika talked about a Luxar highlighter ad which had won at the Cannes festival… That is when I had about the face with Subbu and Aro and we had briefly discussed him…

    So Coming back to the point… This movie is now a favorite and stays one !!!!!

  • The Weekend in 20 Steps…

    Another super weekend came to an end yesterday… probably the last in the series of weekends!!!

    Next weekend is going to be very different with what I know as of now… Not sure if I am super excited about it right now but I am getting used to the thought 🙂

    Let’s talk about the last two days right now though 🙂

    1. Friday evening shopped for some curtain cloth with parents…

    2. Friday early evening drove to Priya and had a small DFC get together… and i managed a peg of my favourite Absolut Peppar…. i love that flavour and the taste of it…

    3. Managed to get Aro and Subbu at the party too…

    4. It had rained nice and cool by the time we left, and then I drove to Gurgaon with them to meet Shaji and his super son Shawn!!!

    5. We were on our way to Shaji’s place when Mon called and told me that I had to come to Dublin (the disc of Maurya Sheraton)

    6. I stopped Shaji and told him that I had to go… Dropped Aro and Subbu in Dwarka and drove quickly to Dublin…

    7. So between meeting the DFC gang once and then meeting them again, I had already driven like 60 odd kms…

    8. Dublin is the worst disc I have ever been to… The DJ was dead, and the sound pathetic… I was missing my two outings to the Orange Room with friends and how we came out all exhausted after dancing for hours together… Dublin did not even make me feel like dancing… Highly unrecommeded folks!!!!

    9. The good thing was meeting a few friends again…. that made up for most of the loss of good music though…

    10. Quick drive back to Dwarka… actually pretty fast (took li’il over 10 minutes between Dhaula Kuan and Dwarka sector-9) saw a little bit of Varekai, and then called it a day…

    11. Woke up darn late… and tried to watch a few movies but did not really watch anything…

    12. Finally moved out around 4ish and went to ASK, where I gave them the cheque of Rs. 10000. (I will give the rest of the money as soon as I have it) Discussed with Dr. Khan about various issues that we as bloggers can target talking about… something might come up on Chai ki Dukaan too in near future…


    13. Time to move to Shaji’s place now… We reached and realised that he was not home and his phone was not reachable either… so we decided to move back to Dwarka… but stopped in between when Shaji called and said that he was coming back!!! While waiting, I managed some hot chocolate fudge at Nirula’s…. I think I like the last weekend’s create your sundae better…

    14. Shaji wanted to see Varekai too… So me and Aro drove back to Dwarka from Gurgaon and came back with the CD… Varekai went on till midnight, and by that time one of my friends also finished her work at office!!!

    15. Picked her up, and drove back home after dropping her home… The ice cream walas at India Gate had already packed, but it was nice to see at least 200 people around the place at 0100 hours in the night when we drove past…

    16. Sunday started very late…. A friend called me and said that he hates me because whenever he goes to his girlfriend’s desk, she has a window of the Chai Ki Dukaan in front of her 🙂

    17. Went out shopping with Bindiya… got myself two stunning Kurta’s!!! And a nicey frame for the wall… pretty neat stuff!!! I had posted a picture of Bindiya on flickr sometime back and decided to get it printed and framed and give it to her!!! It was awesome to see the shocked look on her face when she opened the packet!!!! Its nice to do certain things which you are least expected to do 🙂

    18. By the time I came back, Aro and Subbu were home already… Had called Subbu to meet pa… Later, picked up Tushar, Went to the market, got a whole bunch of VCDs of which I kept a few….Arobindo, the bugger bought the entire collection of Calvin and Hobbes too :'( what an ASS he is !!! I don’t like him for it…

    19. Dropped Tushar back, went to the Tshop… and had a few teas… Subbu was not too happy
    with the milk in the Darjeeling Tea, and Aro was not happy that I ordered ice tea for him… So I had the Fresh Lime Masala and some Peach Ice Tea…

    20. The Day ended with the movie “Strangers”… Surprisingly I had not heard about this movie ever before and it turned out to be one of the best I have seen with incredible performances by Kay Kay Menon and Jimmy Shergil… I am not going to spoil the movie for you by telling what it’s about, but it’s a MUST watch if you have not seen it yet!!!

    And Monday started as usual 🙂 it’s already 4 and I don’t know how the entire day passed by… I have been busy I guess 🙂

    Nice!

  • just a thought…

    Life becomes much easier when you let go of certain things…

    its the letting go part which is difficult !!!

    Thankfully life on this side of the screen seems to be moving in the right direction… Thank you Uncle God… you know how to get the things into place !!!

  • On Grass Courts…

    The sexy girl in shorts fell pretty short of a 2nd round win against the 154 seed 20 year old Russian Alla Kudryavtseva.

    I did not watch the entire match but the second set and there was no doubt that Maria was not really playing half as good as Alla… While trying to save the match on her own serve, the girl does a double fault… nahiiiiiiiiiin !!!


    Personally I think she was looking too beautiful with those earings to crash out of my favorite tennis tournament like this… Let me not talk about how hott she is and feel worse about not being able to see her in the rest of the tournament !

    However, noone even comes close to Gabriela Sabatini in my heart 🙂 Call it a teenage crush or whatever 🙂


    And I don’t think anyone can ever play as good as Steffi Graf… serious !!!! *bows to the best*

    Images : Wimbledon Official Site and Internet

  • Things People Do…

    I met a friend today and she showed me a 29 page greeting card that she had made for her husband on his 29th birthday… Every page different, with a different message, made differently, new colors, new message… Awesome stuff !!! God bless them both 🙂

    A total of 10 days of effort!!! And every second worth it!!!

    I told her if someone would do something like that for me, I would not even know how to react!!! Do i smile or say thank you! Or what do I do? And she just laughed!!!

    I am still thinking about what the hell would I do if someone does this for me… I guess I would just go silent and would be dumbstruck!!!

    Maybe I just don’t know!!!

    🙂

    And here is something more that someone must have done to make someone happy!!!!

    Customise a HONDA CRV to PINK Color!!! I don’t think this is a HONDA Original color !!! NO WAY

    Pink, by Aerosmith is one of my favourite songs EVER!!!

    Pink it´s my new obsession
    Pink it´s not even a question
    Pink on the lips of your lover, ´cause
    Pink is the love you discover
    Pink as the bing on your cherry
    Pink ´cause you are so very
    Pink it´s the color of passion
    `Cause today it just goes with the fashion
    Pink it was love at first sight, yea
    Pink when I turn out the light, and
    Pink gets me high as a kite
    And I think everything is going to be all right
    No matter what we do tonight
    You could be my flamingo
    ´Coz pink is the new kinda lingo
    Pink like a deco umbrella
    It´s kink – but you don´t ever tell her

    But here someone has taken it literally I guess!!!

    Phew!!!

    Enjoy the pictures…


  • Contrasty Weekends and More !!!

    I feel very satisfied for being able to do what I started off for… And mind you, it could not have been possible without a few, actually more than a few, people around who played very very important roles during the entire initiative…

    I have a commitment of Rs. 12500 from the two posts that show the paintings and have received Rs. 8000 already and the rest is in transition or process and should be with me soon!!! My next step would be to go to ASK and give all this money to them for Sankalp…. Thank you again everyone who has contributed in some way or the other… I am in the process of arranging the paintings and sending them off to their respective owners…

    I should, however, mention a few names here specifically…

    I had only thought of going to Sankalp and giving away the Stationary etc to the kids there… discussed the thought with Arobindo and our conversation resulted in the day turning into a Painting Competition for the kids where they could use the stuff we take for them… Thanks Bro for your support…

    It would have stayed a painting competition, if I had not seen a framed painting made by a small kid at my friend’s place… I was at Nidhi’s place one day and that’s when I saw the painting… I think AP had bought it for her from an NGO, and that moment a bulb was switched on in my mind… I had more to do than just organise the painting competition… Nidhi, if it was not you, we would not have a single rupee in our kitty today!!! Cannot thank you enough really!!!

    Bindiya was told about this thought, and she loved it… We figured out a few things over a few calls and organised the entire event… Kalpana ji from Sankalp was always more than keen in helping us out with whatever we required. I love it the way Bindiya (also read ASK) lets me take complete ownership of what I want to do and also give me the freedom to do it my way!!! Thanks Bindiya for everything!!!

    Tushar and my cousin Ashish was both excited when I asked them to join me that day!!!

    Not many people knew about the initiative except Me, Aro, Bindiya, Nidhi, Tushar, Ashish (my cousin) the team at Moradabad and Sharanya, whose excitement and loads of ideas she shared acted as a Catalyst to the entire thought process…

    And once we were back from the Painting Competition, almost everyone I know in this big blog world helped the way they thought was appropriate… some came forward to take one of the painting, some encouraged me with very kind words, and some mentioned it on their pages to ensure more people knew about the initiative !!! And I also need to mention that my Hughes Gang rocks!!! For many reasons and one of them is the quick response that I got from Aseem, Subbu, Aro, and Naveen to buy the paintings…. Overall a great experience this was and needless to say, a very successful one to thanks to a lot of people!!!

    Now something about what I have been doing for a while, other than trying to sell paintings 🙂

    Some flower in my balcony… no idea about the name

    The last weekends have been so different from each other yet very fulfilling…

    The last Sunday was spent in silence… I did not speak much the entire day was almost locked (with an open door though) in my room… Watched movies (Juno and the Bucket List), read a book or may be more than one, went through the Calvin and Hobbes Tushar had given me for my birthday (A very welcome change from the travel books he gifts me all the time 🙂

    My bed on the floor, the laptop the ear phones and dark !!! nice Sunday it was…

    My lunch one of these days… brown bread with Sauce and Jam and Marmalade…

    I like the way smoke moves out of Incense Sticks… I have lately realised I can look at it for a long time…

    It rained last week… Did you get out to enjoy it? I took a bath in the rain twice last week 🙂

    This weekend I was on a talking mode 🙂 was trying to make up for the silence that started last Sunday I guess 🙂 the weekend started a few hours early with a long drive to meet Ruchi, handed over the painting to her, drove to haldiram, got stuck in a two way truck and trailer traffic on a single lane service road (for about 5 minutes after we were already 25 minutes into the jam, I had a feeling that we might stay stuck there for a few more hours, but thankfully the jam cleared and we were out of it in like 35 odd minutes)…

    Friday night at Arobindo’S place, with one more lad from the Hughes gang… laughter and bakar bakar bakar bakar and more bakar… Poor Raj was the target of most of the jokes while I and Arobindo laughed our asses!!!

    Saturday started early and ended pretty late (Only on Sunday by 0200 hrs) and it included watching The Gods must be crazy part 1 and 2, having a late breakfast, not feeling like getting up from the beds till like 1400 hrs, taking the metro to Mandi House and not getting the tickets for a play I wanted to watch (GhasiRam Kotwal)… taking a wrong bus to CP from Mandi House, walking towards CP and singing songs fairly loudly on the road with Subbu, searching for Nirula’s and finding it eventually after having a nice pan at Odeon, having the Make your own triple sundae at Nirula’s with a scoop each of Black Currant, Mango Mania and Tutti Fruity, having the mango milk at Cavenders, going back to Dwarka in the Metro, singing songs, learning some English from Subbu, meeting a few more friends from Hughes at Aro’s place and bakar bakar bakar bakar bakar till post midnight !!!! Phew!!! Long day eh!

    Sunday was again a lazy day with the highlight being the English play Indian in the Bronz… and interesting subject but not really presented in the best of the ways… I revived a lot of good memories from the past of the various technical things that I had learnt about one act plays and how we used to implement most of them… I wish I can contribute to a theatre group soon… Maybe once I have shifted base to Delhi, I would… Not sure if Bindiya also had the same opinion about the play, but she made a nice single word remark that the play was interesting!!! Let’s buy that opinion for now 🙂 Had to wait a good 20 minutes before we got a seat in the Bengali Sweet house before having our dinner of Chole Bhature, the Pao Bhaji and the lovely Kulfi Faluda!!! A quick drive back home and a few more discussions on how I can contribute more to ASK and various other initiatives in the organisation!!! We did discuss about some websites that talk about one can contribute to the society as well… I am going to write about them too in future once I have gone through the sites in detail!!!

    Too long a post eh!!!

    Never mind 🙂 If you have managed to read it fully, congratulations, or if just jumped to the last line, well 🙂 I think you missed a lot 🙂

    Have fun, God Bless!!!

    Oh and guess what, I have this small water pot in my balcony, which I fill with water every few days… sometime last week I there was this Pigeon who visited visited the waterhole of sorts… There was not much water there, but I guess enough to keep him there for a good 15-20 minutes and there was something in there that he was eating too… I guess he had brought it himself !!! Check the pictures below 🙂 It was nice !!! very !!!


    ok… final ta tu !!!

  • More from Sankalp 🙂 Thanks Friends…

    Here we go… The second lot of Paintings from the painting competition in Sankalp. Needless to say I am delighted to know that many of my friends pushed me into posting this set as everyone wanted to contribute something or the other…So here we go 🙂 Take your pick. Leave a comment here and drop me an email at prashantbhardwaj[at]gmail.com with your address… Like the last set, I am expecting you to pay atleast Rs. 500 in case you decide to buy one of the following ::)
    Apologies but I could not note down the Artist’s name and her/his class for this one. My Mamaji decided to take this one for himself 🙂 Someone said it just right, Charity begins at home 🙂
    Made by : Hina; Class VII (Not available; Reema Srivastava has offered to take this one)
    Made by : Aayesha ; Class IV
    Made by : Farha; Class IV
    Made by : Tarannum; Class VI
    Made by : Shaqib ; Class V (Not available; Ankur Prakash has offered to take this one)
    Made By : Rabia; Class : VI (Not available; Mayuri has offered to take this one)
    Made by : Noori; Class III (Not available; An Online friend who does not wish to be named has offered to take this one)
    Made by : Sajid; Class III (Not available; Ankur Prakash has offered to take this one)
    Made by : Laiba Noor; Class III
    Made by : Faisal Hussain; Class III (Not available; Sarika has offered to take this one)

    And this is the palm print of the kids from Sankalp 🙂 Ruchi Sharma has offered to take this one 🙂

  • ah !

    Madhubala is so freaking gorgeous !!!

    muah !!!

    Nothing beats her looks and her laughter in “Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi” !!!

    Haal kaisa hai janaab ka?

    o o o

    aa aa aa

    🙂

  • I AM Wondering…

    About a lot of things… Glad I had thought of a few and managed them pretty well… there is a whole new set waiting to be completed… Going through a series of mixed emotions these days where everyday is a plethora of thoughts and feelings and I sleep looking forward to a new day !!!

  • Thank You Folks !!!

    My heartfelt thanks to

    • Arobindo Sinha
    • Aseem Kumar
    • Monika Rawat
    • Naveen Katlaria
    • Pankaj Trivedi
    • Reeta Skeeter
    • Geet
    • Mayuri Chaturvedi
    • Gaurav Agrawal
    • Subhadip Purakayastha
    • Kavita Bhargava

    for coming forward to take the paintings that I shared in the last post… I was hoping but not really expecting to reach the milestone this quick !!!

    THANK YOU FOLKS !!!

    I know of atleast 5 people who are keen on extending a helping hand to the initiative, and I am going to post another set of 10 paintings very soon from that painting competition and I am really happy to see that we would be able to collect more money than we initially thought of !!!