'BLOW' by 'BLOW'

5 Serial blasts in prime locations in Delhi. DAMN!!

Now the tone of lament in the last statement is not just this author expressing his despair at the repeated and seemingly unavoidable acts of fanaticism we are being subject to, but it is also because the author feels a tinge of jealousy creeping in.
Yes, thats right, i am jealous of the people living in the 'BLAST' affected cities. Consider this, living in pune i sort of like to think that i am living in one of the best/biggest/hippest cities in India. But now, after BANGy (pun intended), AH!medabad (again intended), Jaipur and Delhi (couldnt play around with those :( )...believe it or not we Puneites are feeling left out.
It seems to be like a status certification of sorts for cities.What better recognition can you have that you live in a very happening city, than series of blasts engineered by fanatics who claim to be killing their own people in the name of their own God? And in that city what if you live near a place that has witnessed the 'tragedy'! You gotta be counting your lucky stars! (i guess you must be seeing them stars clear enough considering the blast is still ringing in your ears!)I mean i can almost hear a Bangalorean realty broker on the phone saying "Saab ekdum mast area hain Saab, do mahine pehle hi blast hua tha, ekdum market area hain, sab cheez paas mein hain".
Yeah, yeah i know, the righteous ones among you are all, "You wouldnt be saying that if it was you getting you head blown off...." but thats my point exactly. How long can we brood, and fret,and live in fear and be 'alert for unidentified objects lying around public places?' Should one stop living out of the fear of dying? This thing is happening so often that it is as mundane as an AAJ TAK reporter saying "AAJ TAK ka sansani khez khulasa"...
The apathy shown by the government is apalling, 50 people dying in the capital of the country, and the authorities can only say "We suspect that Indian Mujahideen, the hard line faction of SIMI is behind this"....oh yeah right!! You suspect!?? Dude, they sent you an email TELLING YOU THAT...so what else have you got?...zilch..nada..nothing. The blasts are no doubt losing their impact and the shock element. Everytime a bomb went off it evoked an AH! of pity and horror...well, now its  an OH...of cognition and the next time....a YAWN...of "yeah yeah, whats new". After all "tolerance is a great virtue", isn't it?

'Colour' contrast

Holi - the festival of colours. Like all children holi was my favorite festival of the year as a child. I vividly remember those innocent days. We were not allowed to play with water as kids :( (something which i always revolted against). One packet of 'gulal' and maybe another of my favorite colour (back then mind you!) yellow, was all that i had to make it last the day. When i see the photos that my parents took of us after we were smeared in color, it brings a smile to my face and i cant help but laugh at the smallest kid (me) of the bunch. The intent look in those eyes, the nonchalant way in which he stood with the others who were 5-6 years his senior, he always believed he could hold his own amongst them. A look at his dishevelled state, showed clearly that it was a losing battle. The other guys always used to snatch my color and use it on me! he he he....those were the days eh? This was the beginning of a journey, i dont remember now, but i must've wondered back then, "How cool it will be to grow old!, nobody will forbid me from playing holi with water colors, nobody will snatch my color, hell i'll even let a coupla kids have it good from me if i feel like it!" I couldnt wait to get older!!

Things were going great, last year was by far the best holi i ever celebrated. It was the final year of college and there was no question that this being the last time (for all practical purposes) we were to celebrate together, it would be one helluva blast. And for sure it was! colours, mud, CLOTHES, and few other consumables (yeah right!!) which i cant mention here, were flying all around. It was a sight to see! It was sheer madness, and my pals from college will vouch that the frenzy and the insanity was out of this world. In fact it is impossible to describe the scenes out here without inviting the wrath of the narcotics department, if you know what i mean!

Well back to reality, the beautiful past is just that, it's past...history. Now fast forward to my holi circa 2008. I was oncall and i wouldve had to rush to office on a short notice anytime during the day. I said to myself, i have to be a professional out here and forgave my holi cravings and decided to stay indoors waiting for the inevitable call. I guessed in any case, nothing can top the celebrations of last year. I vowed not to play holi this year.

Well as luck would have it i did have to get to office, and stay there till 8pm. And guess what, it started raining cats and dogs about the same time i was gonna leave office. An hours wait for the rain to stop proved futile and i couldnt believe my rotten luck ( which i have lovingly been calling 'kutte ki kismat' lately), i mean since when did it start raining in may!!...and like this!!?? It all seemed a lost cause, i had no clue what to do...could i put up in the office for the night? Just then i dont know why...the childhood picture flashed in front of my eyes, the little child, the forlorn look, he wanted to play with water didnt he?...that was one reason why he thought it would be fun to be a grown up....

Well, atleast one of those incentives came true, a 20 mins ride on the bike to home, soaked in rain, and shivering with every splash of water, i kept muttering "Happy Holi" to myself for all of the 20 mins. Sure is cool to be growing up...isnt it?

A big THANKS to those who understand

Recently i was in another one of my contemplative moods, brooding over some silly incident with a friend of mine, when i thought....

"If only men (and women...oh yes!) worked like walkie-talkies!"...as in, if men were unable to speak whilst being spoken to, half the quarrels and fights of the world wouldnt have occured. I guess Pride, Jealousy, Prejudice, Arrogance...all these human traits that are so deeply ingrained in any human...just prevent man from calmly listening to someone else's point of view before hammering his own point home.

Why do we have this inate desire to prove ourselves right!?....I have been in contact with such people in my life that at times i felt it impossible to explain a situation to them. These people are so deeply absorbed by the quicksand of pride that they just fail to accept that they may be wrong!!...but then what makes me so sure that i was right in the first place!?...maybe i am no better myself...heck, i AM no better.

All i know is it is good to have friends that you dont have to explain yourself to, they understand, they hang around for you to explain, and even if you dont, they forgive...i am lucky i have a few of those...

Please dont comment(ary)....

Hey people...now that i am firmly into the corporate culture(yeah right!)...i thought it is time that i updated my blog and report that training has got over and my learning has begun...no no...that last line isnt erronous...its true...so anyway...to keep up with all the cubicle talk and not find myself lost out here...i am following the twenty20 world cup closely...well as closely as i can get to the tv in ccd...whilst standing outside....yeah... i stand outside the cafe on the street and watch the match...and yes i do that so that i dont have to order and i can save money...HOW cheap!! eh?...well if i get better tea at "Lakshmi chai tapri" than the crappy "Darjeeling Tea" which costs 30 odd bucks...and is essentially hot water served with milk and a tea-bag, i see no sense in it.

So as things were i got fed up of listening to shakira feat. beyonce - " beautiful liar" and what not while watching cricket. So for the India - Pak match i hauled my butt to a friends place to watch the match with full commentary and all. So here i am, all pumped up for this gotta-to-be-great match...and to my horror...the match was available on Star Cricket only, and with HINDI COMMENTARY....noooooooo!!....God save my ears from decay!

So to those of you who missed the torture....dont worry i will reproduce some of the finest moments of Arun Lal, Atul Wassan, Jimmy Amarnath...and group.

1) "aur yeh tez prahar yuvraj singh ka!! pakistan par!!" .... tez prahar!!??....What the...Where's the war raging mate?

2) "Yeh bahut hi karara shot...nishchit taur pe yeh chhakka hain....lekin...kintu...yeh yahan par catch out!!"...man could you eva be more on the wrong side....guffaws!!

moments later....

3) "Yeh dekhiye...bahut hi tez prahar kiya tha yuvraj ne...mujhe to laga tha ki yeh to chhakka jayega hi jayega...lekin ground thoda bada hain....hava bhi chal rahi hain"....blah blah blah....whateva mate...you screwed up!....

4) "ballebaaz theek se ball ke neeche nahi aa paye"....huh?...ball ke neeche?....whats that man?...i guess he was trying a word-to-word translation of 'getting under the ball to hit over the top'...man!!...more guffaws!

5) Now, Salman Butt (thats a joke right there huh?)...gave himself room and smashed it through covers for four...see the reaction of "Jimmy Amarnath" :
" Yeh bahut hi sundar shot....bas balle ko mod karke halke se bas disha si de di ball ko"....dude he literally wacked the cover off that one man!!

6) Now for the clincher....get ready for this guys :
One of the pakistani batsmen swings through the line and top-edges one from pathan...its a skier....our mate in the commentary box gets all excited....the blood flow to his brain increases so much that his skull gets flooded...he cannot think...he just blurts out what comes to his mind first :

"Aur yeh gaind hava mein!!....seedhi upar gayi hain!!....neeche aayegi zaroor." whoa!...that was unexpected!!....HA HA HA!!...(guffaws)....clutch-your-tummy-roll-on-the-floor-and-roar-with-laughter!!...

I thought of adding to the commentatores words as so...:
".....neeche aayegi zaroor.....mujhe Newton pe poora bharosa hain...woh bola hoga to theek hi bola hoga...."

he he he....feel free to add any of your own remembrances of these foolish clowns posing as comentators.....

Mujhe mil to jaye thoda paisa....

After a months hard work...(winks)...i received my first salary...wow what a feeling huh!?...actually speaking though, it wasnt much of a thrill...i was like...whats the difference...i used to draw cash from the ATM before and now i will do the same....difference?...the ATM's have changed....and also ive got to worry about investing, taxes, and controlling expenditure...ugh!...no matter how much you earn, you will always think.."Itna Kam...arey yaar maine to zyada socha tha..."....so ever since i have been thinking(yeah right i do that)...and i realized that I'll have to drum up some kind of a side business to supplement my salary and keep my head above water....so here are a few professions that are profitable (especially in Pune)...and can be taken up part-time...

1) First on the list is Rickshaw driver!....hey!...dont laugh!...am serious here!....see...you need some peersonal transport to take you to the office and back right?....buy an auto!...they come cheap...every day take three office colleagues with you and make them pay...you will save gas money...and may even earn some more!...on weekends...wanna go for a movie!?...go in your auto!...you are sure to find some movie goers in your locality...and think of how much you can charge to go back home at 1 am!....give it a thought!

2)Next best in my view is to become a vendor and start selling stuff that you get for free from your office....fruits, tea bags, styrofoam cups, pens!....everything can be sold! (hope no one from amdocs administration reads this!)...does any other business promise 100% profits!?...

3)The next profession is sheer brilliance!....the initial investment is one matchbox!...what you do is this....in every break rush to the smoking zone of you company...with a matchbox or a lighter(if you smoke you wont have to make the initial investment also!)...and offer to light peoples ciggarettes for 1 Re!...you will be amazed how many smokers come to office without lights!....i bet youll earn between 50-100 Rs a Day!....

4) Other lines of business i thought of include...become a dhobi...buy a washing machine and wash clothes...in pune with laundry charges as high as 15 bucks....you can make a fortune!...

5)Also when you have been searching for flats in a city like pune...you are on first name terms with most of the brokers...you have seen enough flats to become a broker yourself!....all you need to do is hang around the group of new joinees in your company and promise to introduce them to a 'good' broker who has this absolutely awesome place up for rent....for a small commission!....with the kind of people companies are recruiting these days!...it just might work!...he he he...

can you think of anymore!??.....