I was in Meerut last night, and the expression and body language that my Nani had, when I told her that I am ok with getting married and would try to get married soon, was priceless!
Come to think about it, Chai Ki Dukaan is a random blog !!! Not many posts are in order of being connected to each other, however there is a certain order that got built in between all this randomness over the last few years !
and here is a free flow of some randomness about myself…
1. I face Southwest in my office and at days when I reach early (like 7ish) and the day is sunny, there is sunlight on my desk… I love it
2. I like to give and get credit for things both at work and in personal life! If I am using something that someone else has worked on, I do try to ensure that the audience knows about that effort ! I absolutely hated it when a friend once used a picture that I clicked and put it on her page without a mention of me anywhere and without asking me… and all of this when she knew that the picture was very close to my heart… to top it all she comes back and tells me that she did justice to the picture by doing that !!! phew !
3. I don’t work for money.. I love what I do at work, and that’s why I work ! IT Services Consulting… love it! and money most of the time is the least of my worries… Surprisingly whenever it has been a cause of concern, it was taken care of… as if someone was ensuring it does not bother me! and at multiple times!
4. Mostly my life is driven by needs and not wants… if I want something too much then I try to figure out how it qualifies to be a need and then get it!
5. I want to get married next year… how to go about it is another story and will need a post a blog a diary an year to write about ! I am hoping I will find someone really nice who my parents would like too sometime!
6. I forget about drinking water and having food at times when I am too much into work!
7. I take my time (now) before I decide on what kind of a person someone is… earlier it used to be a quick(er) judgment !
8. There has been a phase in my life when I totally hated women and that went on for a year or so… no points for guessing that it was because of a relationship that ended at a very very bad note.. I have never cried that much in my life…
9. My behavior (mostly) is driven by how I would like to be treated in a similar situation… that has helped me a lot over the past few years !!!
10. I don’t have an excuse for not working out regularly ! and thankfully for the past two days I am regular with exercise… 😉 two needs to be 20 and 20 needs to be 200 !
11. I love tea and not all tea… tea is with tea leaves and not really anything and everything that you can dry and crush to a powder and put in a bag! Though I have to admit that I like some of them, but not many!
12. I am an extremely lucky person. There are times when I feel frustrated, but when I look back at things I realize that most of it did fall into place… and Uncle God has been around most of the time either in the form of my parents, or my friends or in forms that I did not realize then but I do now!
13. I can act strangely crazy, closed, stupid at times, and all of this while knowing that I should not be doing it… I guess I cannot lie to myself !
14. I think flowers good great in B/W photographs ! For that matter, I think most of the things look great in B/W… even life ! 🙂
15. I had a 3 gb collection of porn which I deleted last year! ok 3.4 GB!
16. I enjoy walking
17. Alone on the hills
18. and I feel the need of a company at times on the beaches
19. But I have sat down and looked at the sea for hours alone as well, and I loved all of those experiences !
20. I broke down the beach/hill/alone/company points above so that I finish 25 random points quicker !!
21. My interest in anything stops when learning from it stops!
22. But I also feel that I am growing up to be a more patient person than I have been all through these years ! So I tend to find ways to get some learning or make things interesting when they are too conveyor belt-ish.
23. I want to go back to London and stay there for at least 6 months during spring and fall.
24. I like open windows and fresh air… Even when the temperature was in negatives outside, I would open the window an inch or so that fresh air can circulate inside my apartment…
25. I like heights… I could jump from a plane 14500 ft above ground (Sky diving, Chicago last year) but I find it difficult to jump from a 22ft cliff into the water (River Rafting, Rishikesh every year, well almost every year).
26… So I finished 25 but I think I can write a few more
27. I like to be in love… Its a very complete feeling… and I am not really talking about the relationship love, it can be the love for someone without being in a relationship as well, and the willingness to do things to make them happy… I do not like an overuse of the word “love”… its a precious word for me!
28. I don’t understand football but I love Tennis (Pete Sampras and Steffi Graf are my favorites, but I don’t know everything about them like most fans do; watching them play was a visual delight like nothing else; I liked watching Ivan Lendl and Boris Becker as well) and Basketball( Lakers happens to be my favorite team and Kobe Bryant the favorite player)… I cannot watch cricket alone…
29. This number and my age have a certain resemblance that is both comforting and challenging at the same time
30. I am going to be 30 soon.. I wanted to take a month long break travel throughout India when that happens, but looks like I would be spending it here in the US.. the month long break has been deferred and the three must go places for me are Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Mumbai
31. I have learned how to play a keyboard and a guitar and have spent most of my college life either on the stage or in greenrooms or writing/directing/doing street plays… I really miss those times ! Really!
32. This is a very very long post ! tell me if you did manage to read it !!! Chandan, you specially 🙂
And I so wish that I erase the memory of a few people from my brain, because anything about them just brings back the pain that I went through, with them, because of them, when they were there and whatever crap… Even the mention of their name is painful at times !!! Actually not pain, its the wrong word to use right now, but for the lack of a word, worse or better (wondering what !) then this one, I will let it be !
Anyway, the good part is, that the movie is wonderful and Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet can be seen doing something which is unusual for their typical style of acting… The movie has been directed the unusual way too, or should I say the “Pulp Fiction” or the “Memento” way… (This basically means that you have to add two more movies in addition to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in your must watch list)
Had mexican today for lunch… (wish i could rewrite it like this – had a Mexican girl for lunch today, but I guess she would fit better for dessert I guess 😛) anyway….
so this Mexican Girl.. no, Mexican GRILL, yea that’s right, Mexican Grill, called Panchero’s serves all sorts of food (Deepu, Subbu, Bindiya, Aro, you have a lot of love here as I heard that the non-veg is great at this place) but I managed with a Veggie Burrito… which was both very tasty and filling… I am going to refrain from speaking the name of the place too much, because it sounds more the common sentence filler in Hindi 😉
वैसे हिन्दी में बोलें तो, मैदे की बड़ी सी रोटी में, राजमा, चावल, सब्जी, और चटनी भर कर खायी !!! और काफ़ी स्वादिष्ट भी थी…
First time experience of Mexican Food… and I guess, we can put this on the menu in the Chai Ki Dukaan too sometime later 🙂
Oh and btw, this weekend has offered me a series of first time experiences, which I am going to write about later… Till then, its for you to guess!
And the people who know it already, please do not spill the beans, I might use them in the next Burrito that I eat !
Pick up the syllabus and start dividing into sections
– Most Marks
– Difficulty Levels
– Current Understanding
I would first finish the ones with high level of current understanding, less difficulty level and more marks, gradually moving towards the ones which were least in value, highest in difficulty and I had no clue about…
At the end of my preparation, I would have left some 10-20 percent of my syllabus and I would have no clue about it either 🙂 Peers would talk about a few topics and I would always give them a blank look: P
Once I get the test paper, I would quickly browse through the things once again in the manner I mentioned above and just ignore a few questions…
Relaxed preparations/ relaxed examinations… a decent 80+ percentage consistently… life was good!!!
And then came the final year of college… My only option for survival in this big bad world was to get through MCA or a similar different masters 🙂 I had not attended even 20% of my classes in graduation, thanks to my attention to Theater and Drama and Stage during that time… but this was scary now… If I would not crack a competitive exam, my father would throw me out of the house…
Started coaching for MCA near my college, and by and large I used to sleep in the class… What else do you expect from someone who studies, err, is there in the college the entire day!!!
Anyway… so studies were a must now… and the course was too large… and I was not a night person… So what to do… and hen a miracle happened…
My cable guy started showing a channel called TB6 during those days, and I one day accidentally realised that there is a soft porn program “some diaries something” at 0330 hrs every night…
So here was the deal now… I would study from 2200 hrs to 0330 hrs every night, and then carefully switch on the television, and watch the 30 minute program on mute… We used to live in a 2 room flat then, and switching on the old TV, reducing the volume (we had a non remote TV ) were all works of ART!!! There were nights when I used to study like crazy till 0330 hrs, switch on the TV and see some irritating non- understandable Russian drama too, only to hope for my awaited program to start, and finally go off to sleep around 0400 hrs…
Whatever said and done, that half an hour of uncertain television ensured that I get top ranks in 9 out of 11 examinations I gave!!! It was amazing…. missed the first two, but after that every result brought only a smile to my face and a potential future to my life!!!
Thank you TB6 🙂
So I am a monkey… or a Chimpanzee I guess
Why????
Because…
~ Maya Didi is very very sure that I am one…
~ I think I am one…
~ I like climbing trees…
~ I crave for attention.. and make strange noises about it at times 🙂
~ and when I don’t get it… I can throw stones or whatever I can lay my hands on… running around my cage like a crazy.. umm Chimp…
~ I don’t like being caged too 🙂 and i keep pulling at the bars to get out…
~ Some Chimps oops… friends call me Cute.. though I don’t see a reason why someone has to call me cute… ugh.. i am NOT CUTE….
~ I can be as silent as I can be, at times when you least expected it…
~ I can make a lot of noise when you really don’t want to hear anything…
~ I can sing and dance like a Chimp too, though my hands don’t really reach my knees 🙂
oh…
and more often than not… I am happy with a few nice people around me… I don’t need a lot of chimps to make me happy 🙂 I want my chimp friends to be around…
and this is how I can be when I am at my chimpiest besht :
Anger : Out… get out… just get the fkk out !!!
In fact I wonder if these people are worth anytime, but unfortunately we meet and walk a distance with folks who leave a deep impact on our lives, on our thinking and on our behavior… all in the name of life…
Fortunately, I have had people I have laughed my lungs out with… and I have had people who made me cry till I could not breathe anymore…
Extreme pain, access sadness,
Blank Thoughts, insane madness,
….
Have been feeling a li’il low for the past couple of days.. happens all the time whenever I am back from an amazing trip !!! I guess I need to write about the trip soon and read it myself to get back to life 🙂
the formula works and I know it by experience… because I now have a new set of friends…
Bimal Kumar… called Kaliya… has a chai ki dukaan near the Khari Bawli T point, Fatehpuri Masjid, Chandni chawk..
Kishan, the cool dude who handles the shoes at the Shani Dev mandir near the Metro Station, Chandni Chawk…
Bitto… who sells fruits near the Tpoint as mentioned above…
Munna, the pan wala, who knows that me and Aro do not want the hard supari in our Meetha Pan…
Anil Yadav, who sells flowers in the Chandni Chawk Phool Mandi… and looking for a job outside…
And Munna, told someone who asked what and who we were… that we are writers and photographers, and thats our line… and that we are writing a book… and we are thinking that we should actually…
Photos coming soon…
and if you think you are a foodie, i might make you rethink about it…
10 people
3 People…
Arobindo Sanjit Gaurav…
On our way back from McLeodganj…
Argued on India and various situations for over 3 hours… non stop… stopped only when the throats started hurting of speaking…
5 people…
On the banks of Pangong Tso… high up in the mountains… looking at water, hills, mountains and nothing at the same time… walking around doing nothing and all by ourselves…
Subbu, Me, Pondy, Gupta and Deepu… in Ladakh…
4 people…
Uttarakhand…
Drove around the state for 4 days… almost 12 hours everyday… with minimum words spoken…
Friday worked hard… started driving in the evening… and drove almost continuously till 0800 hrs next morning… over 12 hours again…
Met Ankur for the first time… and Neitya and Nidhi and uncle and aunty for the first time too…
Salt Lake to Korunamui to Hawrah to Belur Math to Dokkhineshwar to Harwah to BBD Bag to Esplanade to Park Street to Robindro Shodon on a richshaw, bus, boat, bus, ferry, and my tired legs…
alone…
My date with Kolkata…
Thanks Aro for keeping me company on the phone and helping with directions…
4 people… adventurous…
trying to climb up a hill top the difficult way…
realizing that they have done something really stupid when they found out that it was no defined path… and they made their own way through rocks, stones, cactus plants, and no spaces and vertical falls…
Welcome to a different Pushkar with Me, Gupta, Adi and Shubhi… oh… and how can I forget reaching Pushkar in a li’il less than 6 hours? top speek 160kmph… vehicle : the rocking Petra !!!
Flight to Banaras… and an overnight sleeper class to Ambikapur… humidity, rattling seats and dust…
Boat ride in the Ganges
Aarti from the top of a boat…
Disgusting commercialization of the temple…
Delhi – Rishikesh – Chamba – Dhanaulti – Dehradun – Delhi…
one tank full in my Palio…
first long drive
Loads of Buransh all around
Sunset and sunrise in the hills
Telling a German friend about India… so loads of talks and drive and silence all around… with Aro, and Martina
About 15 hours of drive…
about 4 hours of trek…
Snow and Snow all around…
White gets a new definition…
and Snowfalls gets a new viewer…
Tungnath… with Tushar, Deepu, Aseem, Subbu and a few more…
Cab full of people…
Raft full of people…
My favorite Left front seat…
Water all around… water all over… every Rapid like never before… Three Blind Mice, Return to Sender, Good Morning, and many more…
Flowing in water…. sleeping on the sand…
Fun, Team, Cheers, Loudness…Tushar, Me and a few more… many times…
I have
when I traveled…
Did i say I have also taken a few pictures when I traveled? 🙂
p.s. If you want to read about my travel tales… look for the link on the top of the page called “I Travel I Tell” and if you are interested in having a look at the pictures, check out the column on the right with links to all the photo trips… Enjoy…
And I thought it was only fair to have a few pictures in this post too 🙂 so here we go…
On my way back from Hemkund (near Valley of Flowers)
Early morning in Rishikesh… for my favorite sport… Rafting…
From a drive to Uttaranchal…. 4 days… 12 hours everyday…
Triund… top of the hill… greenest of green grass…
We almost got stuck here because of how the trek path was… somehow managed to cross without falling off the hill… This is Tushar…
Corbett Falls… about 45 minutes from the Jim Corbett…
Golu Devta Temple @ Chitai… somewhere in Uttaranchal… from the same drive as I mentioned above…
Lansdowne… Me Deepak and Aseem… long drive that was… from Delhi to Lansdowne to Haridwar and Rishikesh… all in one day…
One of my favorites pictures EVER… from McLeodganj… Me Aro Gaurav and Sanjit went on a drive…
After the trek in the to VoF and Hemkunt… 4 days in the hills… and these were brand new shoes before i started…
One of the many times I went Rafting… love it love it love it..
Amiad from Israel… who rafted with us once… 
On my way back from Bhakra Nangal… This is called Painting the Town Red 🙂 Jai Radha 🙂
Bharatpur… bird sanctuary… 
On my way back from Tungnath…