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  • What’s the Point?

    This question at times stares me in the face…

    Whats the point?

    ~ In thinking of a day after tomorrow when you are not even sure what happens tomorrow?

    ~ In thinking of a dream you have, when you know the reality today is a different world from you dream?

    ~ In giving yourself a hope, a reason to live through today and tomorrow and day after with all that you have?

    Right, whats the point? in trying, if you know nothing is going to happen right away?

    I don’t know whats the point!!!

    and I don’t know what to say, when someone asks me this question, Whats the point Prashant?

    Thankfully I don’t ask this question a lot… I think there is a point… if I believe in something, I don’t care if it happens today or tomorrow… I will still give it what I can… I will live with some faith, some hope.. and I would make an effort… and not back off by asking myself whats the point !!!

    Today I am closer to a few dreams that have been a part of my days, thanks to not letting this question contol my actions !!!


    Thank you Uncle God for making me feel that There IS a Point !!! Just keep letting me hold on to that small thing called FAITH, even if I have darkness right in front !!!

  • Words and Stills in ONE?

    Have been thinking of merging the two blogs that I have…

    So everything that goes on Behind the (*-*) Lens will now be posted on Chai Ki Dukaan… and that would mean, atleast one picture in a couple of days here…

    thoughts?
    ideas?
    suggestions?

    While you are thinking, here are some of the pictures that flickr thinks are the most “interesting” pictures I have taken…

    What makes me happy is that the first picture is from my first trip with the dSLR to Orchha, and the second is a picture that I had taken a looong time back when I started thinking about taking photography seriously… Both of these pictures are very special to me, and I am glad to see them on the top still…

    The rest are from a trip to Agra, McLeodganj, Pondicherry, Chattisgarh, Banaras, Moradabad, and Red Fort 🙂

    And what makes this selection interesting is that it has 5 pictures from my trip to Chattisgarh where I went with Bindiya and Manas Da for the PMU Evaluation workshop and 1 picture from Sankalp, Moradabad… I would like to believe that I was at my best when I was doing these shoots for and with ASK… thank you Bindiya and ASK for giving me the best reasons to have a camera with me…

    Details :
    1. With Age…., 2. Waiting For the Rains…., 3. Wah Taj…, 4. Desires…., 5. I Can…., 6. Dark Windows, 7. My world… my thoughts…, 8. With her !!!, 9. No Matter What, 10. Shadow, 11. Pretty…, 12. A Silent Evening….

  • Anger Management

    amandeep:
    main gusse mein hoon…..

    amandeep:
    tell me some new, innovative way to vent it out

    Prashant:
    100 bucks ke kaanch ke gilas ke
    bori mein bhar
    aur hathode se tod de

    amandeep:
    LOL

    Prashant:
    aur ek ek karke

    amandeep:
    now this sounds good!!!

    Prashant:
    jab tak choora choora na ho jaye

    amandeep:
    YES!!!!
    You’re the best!!!!! 😀

    Prashant:
    🙂

    amandeep:
    but usske liye will have to wait till i leave office!!!

    Prashant:
    oh koi na
    achche kaam ke liye wait to karna hi padta hai re

    amandeep:
    hmmmm…..
    koi nahi karenge…
    now i hope sham tak mera gussa shaant naa ho jaaye!!! 😛

    Prashant:
    haan sochna
    kaise todogi glass
    maza aayega

    amandeep:
    i’m already imagining myself in the midle of that act!!!

    Prashant:
    super

    amandeep:
    🙂

    _______________

    And for the guys, make it a point to add the most innovative of the galis while you are breaking these glasses or cups whatever !!!

    Anyway, you got a way to vent out anger? Tell me !!!!

  • Sunday THE 13th with Cirque De Soleil

    The weekend did start pretty well…Amazing dinner from receipies from a lot of places around the world, and then two nights of dancing, and one night of getting drunk !!!

    What a weekend it was till Sunday…

    I knew there was something planned for Sunday evening, but my bugger brother had not told me yet !!! So I knew we were to reach somewhere by 1900 hrs, and I would get late in reaching back home to Horley, and that there was no photography allowed…

    What I did not know was, what I was about to see this Sunday, the 13th was

    Suppa Duppa, Classy, Marvelous, Incredible, Astonishing, Splendid, Beautiful, Fantabulous, Magnificent, Brilliant, extraordinary, fantastical, terrific, tremendous, unreal, unusual, wonderful, wondrous, astonishing, awe-inspiring, awesome,awing, impressive, surprising, intense, irresistible, errorless, faultless, flawless, chamatkaran, mahe-surr, kamaal, fabuleux, fantastique, adbhuut, azab, gajab, mukkamal, Fantastique , Fantastisch, Fantastico , Überraschen , Stupore , Überwältigen , Sopraffare , Perfetto , imaginative, implausible, incredible, insane, extreme, excellent, fascinating, incredible, marvelous, prodigious, shocking, stunning, surprising, unbelievable, wonderful, astounding, bewildering, breathtaking, extraordinary, impressive, marvelous, miraculous, spectacular, staggering, startling, striking, stunning, stupefying, stupendous !!!!

    Thanks to everyone who has read the previous post to help me out with the words…

    And It was NEAT and Phenomenal (thanks aqui for reminding me of these 🙂

    I got out of the bus, and what I see is that I am standing in front of the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington, London !!!

    This is a shocker in itself… Every time I passed through that place, I used to wonder about how would it be to watch a show here, and there it was… right there in front of me and I was about to watch

    Cirque De Soleil (Means Circus of the Sun)

    This is an annual Circus event that is presented in the Royal Albert Hall …

    And this year’s show was Varekai (Means Wherever in Romani Language)!!!


    What followed in the next few hours is something that I am not capable of describing in words the way it happened… The most colorful of the dresses, the most flawless moves, people flying around coming out of nowhere, people jumping atleast 20 ft high in air, people balancing themselves with one hands 30 ft in air, and more and more and more…

    I would leave it to the following pictures ( picked up from the official website) and a few videos that I managed to find over the internet to really show you what was happening there… Mind you these pictures and videos are nowhere close to how it felt during the 2 hours I was sitting in that auditorium…

    Triple Trapeze

    Water Meteors

    Georgian Dance

    Handbalancing on Canes (Me and Abhishek, both fell in love with this girl Irina, 😀 )

    Flight of Icarus, The way this guy kept flying around with ease was unbelievable… I think I was in so much AWE throughout that I did not even clap and kept wondering what was happening…

    The Musicians

    The Russian Swings… (My favorite of all the acts) Amazing Energy, Amazing Flawless Fearless Performances)

    Take sometime off, put some headphones to your ears and enjoy the videos that follow…

    Cirque du Soleil’s Varekai – Icarian Games

    Cirque du Soleil’s Varekai- Handbalancing On Canes

    Cirque du Soleil’s Varekai- Arial Straps

    Cirque du Soleil’s Varekai – Russian Swings

    In case you are interested in the factual information about Cirque du Soleil or Varekai, THIS is where you can click…

    And Abhi, Thank you Again 🙂

  • EXHale…

    For about 2 weeks, I have been thinking of writing why I had a series of unsuccessful relationships in my past, and why I still know how to MESS things up BIG time and why I think I am a misfit when it comes to relationships 😀

    Just that I have not been able to gather enough courage to go public with that amount of truth…

    I should start an anonymous blog !!! or steal someone’s diary and write what I want to in there… or hack someone’s account and post it in their name !!!

    what else can i do?

    Write it on a wall in UK 😀 when no one is watching… Graffiti… with the crazy people I know here, it might just sell for millions…

    Make a painting out of my thoughts… again worth some greenies…

    Umm… take pictures and say what i want to say in code… Naah… I make an attempt to take happy pictures or make them look encouraging.. with some exceptions of course !!!

    What else?

    Talk to someone about it? I did… with three friends…

    One took a split second to agree to the fact that I suck !!!

    the other gave me a lot of gyan and tried to pep me up, and partially agreed…

    and the third, made fun of me and applauded at the honest confession !!!

    For some reason, I am not feeling too bad about it… there are good things about me, there are bad ones too… Not being able to handle people I love is one of the BADDEST ones !!!

    Why am i writing about it right now?

    Valid point…

    And I am doing it ,

    Because I think i should take that thought of thinking about writing about thinking about why I suck should be out of my system…

    And because I have been carrying this thought for a long time… years maybe !!! It needs to go out of my system… it need a body wash that can clean things from inside…

    Or maybe I just need to eat at a dhaba, have chai at a road side stall, drive the entire night, have a few paranthas at murthal, honk the horn when i feel like, have a few golgappas till my eyes and nose start running, flip through the useless TV channels, etc etc…

    Ok… so two things now…

    1. No Gyan please 🙂 take this post into your stride and humor 🙂

    2. Read the previous post and help me out !!! not with Fishing Rods and instructions on how to fish, but with some FISH 🙂

  • Test your Vocab… Help me…

    I need synonyms for

    Fantastic

    Amazing

    Overwhelming

    Flawless

    Perfect
    In as many languages you know of… 
    So if you reach this page somehow ( RSS feeds, visiting Chai Ki dukan, Flickr etc etc) please do donate generously your gift of language for me… 
    Drop a comment with as many synonyms you can of the words mentioned above.. 
    PLEASE !!!

  • An Evening Alright !!!

    My first visit to a 5 star hotel’s restaurant in Central London… Called the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park.
    Amazing service for two reasons…
    Thats how it is in the Park
    and it was the Pastry Chef’s birthday
    So we ordered our starters and the main course…
    In addition to the Chinese Spring Rolls, The French Asparagus Salad, The Thai PakThai, The Indonesian Nasi Goreng which we ordered, kitchen made some “not on the menu” dishes only for us… The Arabic Pita Bread with Humus, and the Chinese Dimsums… very interesting food this was… 
    And I was asking Abhishek to tell me the best dessert in his kitchen, and when we checked for desserts we were told that we cannot order it because the kitchen had prepared something for us… again not on the menu… So we had something made of Hazelnut cream, black berries, strawberries, raspberries, blue berries, and choux… suppa duppa… 
    Thanked the people around for the amazing dinner and then walked to Piccadilly for my so far favorite club in London, the Strawberry Moons… the inhouse DJ plays amazing music and even with my very limited knowledge of songs I enjoyed the beats that make you move… and to add to icing on the cake, he played Summer of ’69, Jump, You Give Love a Bad Name, Wake me up before you go, Grease and a few more that I knew… 
    and now time for the highlight of the night… Picture this.. 
    A platform for pole dance…
    lovely young women dancing there (no these were not performers, these were the guests at the club who could do their 30 seconds or minutes to fame)
    and my friend Abhishek decides to enjoy his birthday doing some pole dance with a girl there… comes down of there after 15 minutes and then is dragged up again by a blonde who literally takes all his clothes off doing the pole dance with him… So my dear friend cheers the crown up with some topless dancing for sometime and becomes an instant celebrity !!! This should be good for a birthday 😀
    And we left only when the music stopped which would have been around 0300 hrs… 
    this does not look like and end to the post… 🙂 its not… the weekend is still on… two more days to go… lets see whats happening… It might just be like all the other weekends… Ghar, Movie, TV Food and a relaxed time…. 

  • Wasted…

    I have never been this drunk before… and i don’t remember feeling this loney before either… i was in a club tonight celebrating Abhishek’s birthday and throughout I thought that there was something missing…

    never mind….
    I am still drunk and I am letting go of myself… saying what i want to doing what i want… God bless us all… May we do what is right for us and our loved ones !!!
    God bless us….

  • Of Curves and Cuts on Tyres…

    This year’s Auto Expo (one of the exbitions that I love to love) looks like one of the more practical ones in the last few years…

    Two things that I have been following and am happy about are…

    1. The cheaper Car – Nano… The claims are that it costs a lakh, however when you add things like road tax, insurance, a few accesories etc this should be around 1.25 on-road for the base model… not bad at all for a 33bhp 600 odd cc engine… I think this should be a very practical buy for city driving… The only thing that will keep me away from it would be the poor Tata build quality in cars… except the Safari, the plastics of most cars are cheap, and they can start rattling in about 6 months of regular usage… Indigo is a delight to look at, and has one of the best ACs that I know of in Sedans in India, however the sound that it starts making after a few months is something that is a big put off… Ankur now has a Safari and I am really looking forward to some first hand reviews from him…

    The sad part is after I have driven the FIAT, the build quality of almost every car that I have been into seems inferior…

    2. The new SUMO… relabelled as the Sumo Grand… though the looks seem to be coming a lot from the LandRover, minus the headlights which still have a dated feeling… the first looks at the SUV made it look impressive… again.. the TATA build quality is something that I would really like to consider before I would recommend this to anyone… Mahindra seems to be much better in their engine refinement and the quality of the vehicles when it comes to a comparision between the Sumo and the Balero and the Scorpio and the Safari…

    But with this new good looking Sumo, and the “I so want it but cannot afford it” Safari, things might be a li’il tough for Scorpio and likes…

    Another news that I have been waiting for was the launch of SKODA Fabia… Its a premium hatchback, which personally makes a lot of sense to me, and comes with the SKODA tag… needless to say the safety, reliability, build finish and quality are the things that you can assume coming with this car by default… Not sure how successful it would be though in the very cost concious Indian market… We are not too keen on paying a premium for a smaller car which comes with added benefits… If the Fabia 1.4L Diesel engine delivers like the much higher and bigger Octavia does… they already have a customer in line for the car !!!

    Honda also had on display the Honda Jazz which is a sleek looking 5 door hatchback… Another car to look forward to in terms of reliability and performance…

    Oh, and yes I also saw a few pictures of the new Suzuki Dezire… the sedan version of the SWIFT ( which is a nice car) but Dezire is one of the most stupid looking cars that I have seen in recent times… Looks like there is a competition of sorts about who makes worse car backs between Mahindra Logan and Suzuki Dezire…

    All in all, this looked like a good beginning for the potential car buyers, and people who are looking at decent upgrades for their existing vehicles…

    I am looking forward to another FIAT though 🙂

  • Call the FireBrigade… save the CAT…

    I am working from home today… there is no one in the office who I can talk to and its no fun going there when my BT Boss is not around…

    and I get my share of adventure today…

    One of my house mates forgot his keys inside the room and the room got locked… and he is on the first floor… and these were the spare keys because he left his spare keys at home when he went there this Christmas… situations i tell you 🙂

    Thankfully his window was open.. and all we could do was to climb up to the window, get inside the room through that 1ft by 3 ft window and open the room !!!

    So here is what we did….
    Picked up the ladder from the backyard 🙂 it was just there 🙂

    first he tried climbing… but I am not sure if he was used to climbing up these ladders so it starting shaking bad… so I volunteered to do the Cat Rescue ACT 🙂 climbed up the ladder.. opened the window full… and tried to get in…

    now imagine this… an almost six footer, managing himself on the 4 inch space on the bar outside the window, trying to get inside through that 1*3 ft space… not easy… i just could not get in… so the next best option !!! get the keys out… i managed to see where the keys were.. but I could not reach them through the window… what a dilemma…

    So got a few pipes and rods to somehow pull that key chain towards myself and finally managed it after 15 minutes of struggle…

    Yippieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee….

    Tshirt
    Pyjama
    hawai chappal
    sard hawa
    aur ek 10 ft oonchi khirki

    kya situation hai 😀

    I ROCK 😀 !!!