Contemplated Reminiscences

Gliding Center Pune: Instructions (UnOfficial!!)

2011-05-16T09:53:00.000-07:00

well... i will try and keep this one short and to the point ....

What is this post about?

read on if you wanna fly in the sky and enjoy the bird's eye view of Pune at an unbelievable price of Rs 187/- (One hundred and eighty seven only!! - that was not a typo!) - only at the Gliding Center, Hadapsar, Pune

wait...Gliding?? Para-Gliding?? Hand-Gliding??.. m confused...

this should clear your doubts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliding

When?

Center is open for general public on SUNDAYs only!! it closes

Can i book online?

a BIG NO!

Where is the center exactly??

just search with keywords 'gliding center pune' and it will show you the right place :) ...take the immediate right afterHadapsar Bus Depot on the solapur road which goes to Saswad .. after driving few meters .. you should see these boards on the right .. the gate between these boards leads to the registration office... dont worry if its locked..just park your bikes/car outside for now ..

Where do i register myself?

Once you enter that gate.. on your left after walking few steps you should see the Technical Area (image below)... this is the place where registrations for gliding are done on first come first served basis ... your target should be to reach before others (as long as you dont want to enjoy the hot winds blowing in the ground during noon!)

How early?

I would say be there by 7:00 am. People start coming by 7:30 ... when we had visited by 7:45 already 20 people had registered (thankfully we were the first ones ... and dont be relieved if you find just one person who came before you.... he might be representing 20 of his friends!!! welcome to india! .. so better reach before others!) ... if you are the first one to reach there ...carry a sheet of paper and pen .. and write down your name, phone number and time of arrival on that sheet. circulate that sheet among others who start arriving after you ... basically this sheet would be used when the center opens up at 9:30 and entries have to be made in the official register (we all know how much indians love jumping queues.... this unofficial process is to avoid any chaos during the official registration... make sure you explain this to whoever comes after you!) Note that a person has to be physically present when the entry is made in the official register ... so if you find a person entering 10 names of his friends .... and only two of them are there .. then the official register would have only two names the other eight names would be entered on their arrival (again, i am talkin about the official registration which begins at 9:30 am)

Gliding begins at 11:00 (as mentioned on site) .. so you would have few more hours of wait ..... by this time make sure to get your vehicles inside the ground as the runway is about a km away from the hangar ( btw.. the registration office is the hangar .. having atleast 5-6 gliders!)

What to carry along?

Rs 187/- , no dress code as such ... it would terribly hot as gliding time is 11:00 hrs to 16:00 hrs so dress accordingly... girls would have to take their usual hot weather precautions ... with changing times few guys are also included in this category :P ... carry lots of water (they have a water cooler inside ..just in case you run out of stock!) and some timepass food to eat ..... few people enjoyed their picnic sort of arrangement in the lawn which is in front of the technical area.. while others were enjoyed the cricket match between the locals... once the technical area opens up .. make sure you visit the neighbouring hangar as well.. there they had the workshop where they made the aero-modelling planes ... (the one that you can fly with remote)

Age/Weight limit?

10 yrs is the age limit ... better check with the office and confirm again.. i am not sure about max weight limit..

Can i click pictures from the glider?

of course you can! .. all the pilots are friendly and helpful and would provide you statistical information during flights .. (height, speed etc)...

Do they provide a parachute?

No!

More Questions??

bus re .. main kya enquiry counter khola hai idhar?? ..

just kiddin... let me know ..

hope this helps, enjoy your glide!

Question for all the Atheists out there ...

2010-06-11T15:42:00.000-07:00

If the Earth is attracted towards the Sun why does it not reach the Sun? What is holding Earth back?

[Answer from Internet]
The earth's orbit is a perpendicular motion to the gravitational force of the sun. If the earth slowed, it would fall towards the sun, if it slowed enough, it would fall into the sun. If it sped up, it would get more distant from the sun. If it sped up enough, it would have the escape velocity to escape the solar system.

Actually, both of these things happen... well, not the falling into the sun and the escaping orbit, but the earth's orbit is elliptical.

Kepler's Second Law tells us something about the speed of a planet and it's proximity to the sun. It goes faster when it is closer, and slower when it is farther. So, when the earth is farther away from the sun, it is orbiting more slowly, this slower movement results in the earth moving slightly closer to the sun. But as it gets closer, it gains momentum... which, in turn, makes it start to inch away. Perihelion (closest approach to the sun) for earth usually occurs on or around January 2, while aphelion (farthest distance from sun) is approximately around July 4.

The way our orbit system establishes the equilibrium really fascinates me. It gives me goosebumps.

How can we deny the existence of 'Superpower' when something like this is happening all by itself!

Question to the Atheists:

Why is the earth's orbit a perpendicular motion to the gravitational force of the sun?

Why is the equilibrium always established?

My advice: Stop living in denial!

On losing my wisdom ... teeth

2009-04-25T03:23:00.000-07:00

I got up one day to find out that my lower jaw was paining awfully; also I could not swallow anything without causing much trouble in my throat. I knew the reason for the latter but not for the former. It happens every winter. According to my observation, whenever I drink chilled water or anything icy, the next day I am definitely going to wake up with sore throat. The technically correct name: Pharyngitis. The pharynx swells up and in worse cases you will have trouble even while drinking water. But thats not it, this one is a package offer. You get many more offers along with the base offer of pharyngitis. The others are headache, fever and body ache. Imagine all this on the same day. I couldn’t have my lunch properly and as if that was not enough I started shivering on my desk. I knew it was time for doctor’s appointment but then that was two hours from then at 16:00 hrs. I was fighting with time and then I finally made it to the doc. He convinced me that all this was indeed because of pharyngitis and the reason is simply viral infection. And the dentist was to take care of my tooth ache.

After the general physician's appointment I rushed to the dentist who in less than a minute showed me the condition of my wisdom teeth. The one on the left upper jaw had made it appearance long back and it had grown in the wrong direction and the one on the left lower jaw was trying to tear out my gums to come into this world. Not only that, it was also trying to make room for itself by misaligning the formation of other teeth in the lower jaw. Picture three people sitting on the seat in the local train of Mumbai and how they make room for the fourth person. Well sometimes they don’t and the fourth person has to tell them a word or two and he makes his own room. The poor guy in the center and the one who just sat are the ones who suffers the most. It was the same condition with my lower jaw. The dentist gave me a prescription of some mouthwash to gargle everyday and I was to take an appointment soon to get the wisdom teeth removed.

My daily chores now involved medication along with two different gargles and one mouthwash. The mouthwash was for the wisdom teeth, the other prescribed by the physician for the pharynx and warm salt water (half a teaspoon of table salt dissolved in a glass of water) again for the pharynx but something which was tried and tested long back my me and I found it quite effective. From last 3-4 years I had not been to any physician for any sort of health related issues but the pharynx always reminded me of its presence every year and after its first visit I was always prepared for the next one. The pills worked as pain killers and my fever and body ache was gone by next day. The pharyngitis was cured in another day or two. Anything that I ate now was ambrosia for me as I could enjoy it like before. Eating with a smile I was a happy man until I took the next appointment from the dentist.

16:00 hrs, 27th February, 2009. I was at the dentist's clinic right on time. Workmates saw me leaving at 15:30 and gave me their best wishes when they came to know of the reason. My roommate had accompanied me to the clinic and it was his first visit. There was a room right in front of us and on its right side there was a passage of around 2.5 meters after which one could find entrance to another room. As we settled ourselves on the sofa, waiting for our turn, we saw lady with her daughter entering the first room. After few minutes of dead silence in that place, where I could hear nothing else but my heartbeat, we heard some moans from the other room. "Best of luck!” my friend wished me with that never ending smile on his face. I so badly wanted to hit him but at that very moment the lady and the daughter stepped out of the room. I knew it was my turn, so I got up and entered the first room. A female doctor was going through some of her patient’s papers when she looked at me and gave me a very unlikely expression of "Yes??” she asked as if not expecting me to be there."Uh.. I'm here for my wisdom tooth problem, have an appointment for that.", I said. I came out from that room; the embarrassment could be seen on my face. My friend noticed it but he thought thats for losing my teeth. "Wow...that was in seconds, how are you feeling?" he asked. "This was the gynaec, the dentist is in another room!", I said embarrassingly. Watching my friend's reaction, I understood why people use the ROFL (rolling on floor laughing) expression. We both bursted into laughter. Just then the intern at the dentist opened the door and asked my name. I knew it was my turn, she asked me to step in after checking the appointment list. "Don't worry", advised my friend. "Yeah, yeah ... ", I said not knowing whats gonna come next.

The dentist asked me to sit and relax on the dental chair. He asked me if I was nervous and afraid. "Yes", i confessed. "Don’t worry, I am too", he said and started laughing at his joke. I just gave him a smile and started praying that everything goes fine. He painted some gel on my gums."Just some skin numbing gel so that you don’t feel the injection" he said. I told him frankly that I haven’t been thorough any dental procedures apart from cleaning and something like this was totally new to me and unwanted. He asked me to relax and assured me that it won’t hurt. He was right, it didn’t but still I didn’t like that needle going deep inside my gums. You will know why when you check out this image which shows the injection that was used.

http://www.animated-teeth.com/wisdom_teeth/dental-injections.jpg

I raised my hands as if I was in excruciating pain when he applied the injection in the extreme left corner of my lower jaw. He stopped and asked me if I was in pain. I was not, it was just my psychological reaction to the injection and not physical. I was convinced that all injections hurt, and this type of mind set usually resulted in a self-fulfilling prophecy. Then he continued with another dose of local anesthetic injection to the upper one. After few minutes passed, i started feeling dizzy. Now I could not even see the clinics board which was hanging outside the window and was not far from my chair. When I told this to the dentist he said, "it’s because you are afraid. Relax!". He asked the intern to apply a cloth dipped in cold water on my forehead. I started feeling better when that was done. I had already started feeling the numbness on the entire left side of the upper and lower jaws including the lips. He asked me to let him know the moment I felt that he can go ahead with the extraction.

To be continued….

Taking Right Action

2009-04-07T07:10:00.001-07:00

The image below says:

If your 'AIMING" skills are not good please make sure your "CLEANING" skills are!!

Needless to say why I had to put up this notice. So which category do you belong to ?? .. aimers or cleaners? I can only pity on you if your answer is 'none of them'

Dubai: Free Shuttle Bus Service Schedule

2009-04-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

If you are in Dubai and haven't rented a car and you find it difficult to use the public transportation
then you don't need to worry anymore. The Dubai Mall provides free shuttle bus services which will pick you up and drop at the major hotels in the city. Please check out the attached files which has the route details. I wanted to write a lot about my visit there , something like a travel blog but then need loads of time in hand for that. For now see if this helps you in anyway. Keep visiting for more information.

Overview of the year 2008.

2008-12-31T05:42:00.000-08:00

What would you tell your grandchildren about 2008 if they asked you about it in, let's say, 20 years' time? If the answer to a quiz question was 2008, what would the question be? The year that markets collapsed, or perhaps the year that Obama became US president? Or the year Heath Ledger died? Well for all these events there is always wikinews, for now I would like to summarize the significant events of 2008 that affected me in one way or the other.

January: Cyprus adopted the currency of Euro as official currency with an exchange rate of 1.71 euro per Cypriot Pound. This had a huge impact on us as when the local currency was Cypriot pound we used to get paid in U.S. Dollars. The conversion to local currency with high commission rates was killing and to keep an account of income and expenses was a really arduous task. After the island adopted Euro as its official currency, we started getting our salaries in Euro which eased our life here.

February: I had a business trip to U.S. Although this was my second visit it was a very special one as this time I had spent weekends with two of my best friends. Everyone was busy in weekdays with work and hanging around in the night. But weekends were wild, we used to drive hundreds of mile every weekend to check-out new places. We went to New York, Washington D.C., Atlantic City etc.

March: I was supposed to return back to Cyprus in the first week but there were change in plans and my stay in U.S. was postponed for a month. My friends who were doing M.S. had a vacation of a week in the first week of March. This was the best time for me to take a vacation. Me and Monish left from Baltimore for Los Angeles while Sonu (DivyaKumar) was supposed to travel from San Francisco and meet us on the airport. L.A. was fun especially six flags where they have the craziest roller coasters one could not even imagine. We headed to Las Vegas after the L.A. I could write a new blog just for this entire trip of 2 months but may be some other time. After returning back to Philadelphia work continued on weekdays and so did our escapades which included driving more than 400 miles to Niagara Falls.

April: Coming back to Cyprus from U.S. was a feeling of coming back to home just that I miss my family and friends.

May: Luckily, few of my friends from Amdocs, India had a chance to visit us for a month. They were on a business trip. We used to show them the places around. The sea - water is usually very cold during these times but still we had dip.

June: Living on an island for a long time could get really boring if you don't know how to swim. I realized this after an entire year of just watching the people relaxing on the beaches after the swim. The turquoise waters of the island were very tempting and I could hardly resist them this year. I started to learn swimming. By the end of the month I was so comfortable that depth of the waters didn't matter anymore. Another blog post soon on this one.

July: After 20 months I visited my home. Just don't have any words right now to express the emotion. Drought hits Cyprus. Following a succession of droughts in Cyprus, water has become a rare luxury for many residents. Is the water being shipped from Greece enough to significantly tackle this problem? Check out the video for more info: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hxywr7l9mGc

August: Perfected swimming to such an extent that I jumped into the sea water from a cliff which was around 30-40 feet in height.

Witnessed live by at least 90,000 spectators and a million others on television screens, the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games was held at the National Stadium — nicknamed "Bird's Nest" — in Beijing China at 8:00 pm on 08/08/2008. The spectacular opening ceremony has already raised a high bar of expectation for London 2012 Olympics and questions were raised if ever Olympics were to be hosted India could it match China.

"With so many people saying it couldn't be done, all it takes is an imagination," said Phelps after realizing he had set the new medals record for the most gold medals won in one Olympic games by winning his eighth gold medal of the 2008 Olympic games, beating the previous world record of seven that was set by Mark Spitz in the 1972 Olympic Games, which took place in Munich, Germany.

September: By this time I know around five or more people who had suffered from the problem of slipped disk. But this time it was a very grave situation for me as this time it was my mother who had to undergo an operation for the same. These were one of those worst days of my life when I couldn't be with someone who needed me the most.

October: I don't remember any significant event in this month. That's shameful I guess.

November: Obama becomes the first African American to be elected President in U.S. His election campaign is what impressed me a lot. An older lesson learnt again, market a product well and it would definitely be a HIT!

Not to forget that this was the same month when the city of Mumbai was held at ransom by a handful of people. I was filled with anguish and anger because all I could do I sit helplessly and watch television praying moment after moment to ease of pain of the affected. Lesson learnt, it is not the time to say “The Spirit of Mumbai ” mourn the martyrs and the innocents and just move on with life with that “chalta hai” attitude. It’s time for CHANGE. More on this in my future posts.

December: An Iraqi journalist for an Egyptian Newspaper named Muntazer al-Zaidi was tackled by authorities after he threw his shoes at United States president George W. Bush during a press conference on Sunday in Baghdad. Before throwing his shoes at Bush, the reporter, Muntader al-Zaidi of Al-Baghdadia, a local television station, stood up and said, "This is a farewell kiss from the Iraqi people, dog!" The words were followed by the reporter's two shoes being thrown at Bush, who had to duck in order to avoid being hit with them. Shortly after each shoe flew within a few inches of Bush, authorities quickly neutralized the reporter and took him out of the room.

In Arabic culture, hitting or throwing shoes at someone so the soles hit them is considered a great insult. Now, this reporter should win the man of the year award because he is the first great Gandhian of the 21st century. He may not be a Gandhian by Indian ideals, but he is certainly one by Iraqi standards. If it's Gandhian, it must have a moral. There is one. A single alphabet separates 'shoe' and 'shot'. If al-Zaidi had aimed a bullet, he would have been vilified and his country could have been burdened with another decade of war and misery. A thousand cartoons celebrated the miracle of a shoe ripping up Bush's reputation with a thoroughness no arsenal could have achieved. A hundred American stand-up comics could not have asked for a better Christmas gift.

Sources: Times of India and WikiPedia

Our office had organized a Christmas Charity Bazaar in one of the local government schools. They had plans to have Indian dance along with other programs for the entertainment of the people. We were informed only requested to arrange something if possible. We agreed and had only 9 more days left with us. We were a group of 8 guys. Everyone worked very hard to get the steps right. The dance was of around 6 mins with five songs. The task was challenging but then everyone was enthu about it. The result: ROCKING! The crowd applauded and cheered everyone. More info. in future posts for now check out the video. I have a better one will upload it soon....

I had been to Israel last week for a vacation of five days. I will say it's a geographically diverse holy land. The people are very friendly especially towards Indians. In the span of five days we encountered deserts, sea, snow, waterfall and many such exotic natural beauties. More on this in future posts.

For now I wish you all very happy new year filled with good health, new hope and new beginnings!

I received this very well written poem in one of the mail forwards. I can relate to most of the lines may be thats the reason I liked it. Full credit goes to the original author.

2006, 2007 and 2008 was when.........

when we got a job.........

when we passed out of college....

when we made new amazing friends.....

when some of us moved to a new city.....

When some of us celebrated our 21st - 25th birthdays.....

When we waved good bye to our buddies leaving to the states for higher

studies...

when some of us fell in love........

when some of us fell out of love

when some of us got hurt

when some of your 'friends' screwed up your love life...

when some 'one' you liked, did not like 'you'....

when we would have made mistakes

when we made life decisions.......

when these decisions turned out to be a tragedy

when some of us felt lonely ....

when some of us made an amazing friends in a new city

when some of us would have learnt to be stronger.....

when some of us would have realized that everything happens for a

reason.....

when some of us let out our anger.....

when some of us never opened up to our friends about how we felt....

when some of us felt so glad and happy to be the way they are.....

when we go out every day and meet up with our friends...

when we had serious talks with our dad about our future.....

when we missed each other when we were at hometown...........

when we missed our mom here .....

when we cried for each other .......

When we celebrated our first Christmas with our friends ....

When we were jobless all the time in office ........

When we walked around the streets late in the night ......

When we put budget for the next month (but strictly not following it)

Last year has taken us through all our ups and downs we faced in our

life...

2009.......one more year.....A year to....

To find our life partner (might be)

to forget old crushes...

to smile........

to let people know how much u care...

to learn from our mistakes.......

to cry when we are feeling down.....

to follow our dreams.......

to fight against everything for our dreams to come true.....

to be more confident.........

to be more strong at heart and mind.....

to enrich our knowledge.........

to make others happy....

Let’s take each day as it comes........

Forget about the downs we came across in the past year........

And remember every lesson we learnt through them........

Let's Enjoy Life to the Fullest............

HAVE A WONDERFUL YEAR AHEAD - 2009 !!

Tu Raja ki raj dulaari.......

2008-12-17T06:31:00.000-08:00

One of my current favorite songs is “Tu raja ki raj dulaari .. ” from the movie Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye! Check it out here …

The general meaning of the song is that it tries to emulate the conversation between Shiv and Parvati when Parvati (a princess) proposed to Lord Shiva (a monk). He says that you are a princess whereas I am just a monk who is barely clothed, has no belongings, lives a harsh life, eats ash, has snakes on his shoulder etc. and she should look for someone else, someone rich.

There are several other popular songs that follow this conversation such as Bam Lehri (by Kailash Kher, latest album) and Maye ni Maye (Hum Apke Hain Kaun). I assume it must be a folk tradition to use this incident as an allegory for class difference among lovers

Heres the interpretation of the song:

1) Tu Raja Ki Raj Dulari, Main Sirf Langote.., Aala Su.. : The first half in this line is obvious, the rest half means “main woh hoon jo sirf langota pehenta hai…” aala is haryani of waala and su is similar to hoon.

2) Bhang Ragad Ke Piya Karu Main, Kundi Sote Aala Su: yahaan bhang ragad ke peene ki baat ho rahi hai, kundi ka matlab hai pathhar(stone) kaa bartan (bowl type) aur sotta is piece of wood. This is desi grinder used in haryana for making chuttney and all. You put the stuff you wanna grind in kundi and beat it with sotta. Try it sometimes, its fun! :P

3) Kis tariya dil Lage Tera, Satran Chaul Prakash Nahi: kis tarhe tera dil lagega sab taraf andhera he andhera hai……..

Rest all lines are pretty obvious ones we know that the context is the conversation between Shiv And Parvati.

Lyrics:

Tu Raja Ki Raj Dulari, Main Sirf Langote.., Aala Su.. ) - 2

Bhang Ragad Ke Piya Karu Main, Kundi Sote Aala Su

Tu Raja Ki Raj Dulari, Main Sirf Langote, Aala Su

Bhang Ragad Ke Piya Karu Main, ( Kundi Sote Aala Su ) - 2

Tu Raja Ki Chhori Se, Mhare Ek Bhi Daasi Daas Nahi

shawl dusale Odhan Aali, Mhare Kambal Tak Bhi Paas Nahi

Tu baagan Ki Koyal Se ,aade barf pade Hari Ghaas Nahi

Kis tariya dil Lage Tera, Satran Chaul Prakash Nahi

Kise Saahukar te Byah Karwale,Saahukar Ke Byah Karwale

Main Khaali sote Aala Su

Bhang Ragad Ke Piya Karu Main, Kundi Sote Aala Su

Tu Raja Ki Raj Dulari, Main Sirf Langote, Aala Su

Bhang Ragad Ke Piya Karu Main, ( Kundi Sote Aala Su ) - 2

Main dhuna me tapa karun, tu aag dekh ke darr jagi

Rakh ghol ke Piyaa Karu Mera, Bhag Dekh Ke Dar Jaagi

Sau Sau Saap pade reh gale me, Naag Dekh Ke Dar Jaagi

Taandav Naach kare ban me,Rang Raag dekh ke darr jagi.

Tane Julfan aala Chhora Chaiye, Julfan aala Chhora Chaiye

Main Lambe Chote aala Su

Bhangh Ragad Ke Piya Karu Main, Kundi Sote Aala Su

(Tu Raja Ki Raj Dulari, Main Sirf Langote, Aala Su

Bhangh Ragad Ke Piya Karu Main, Kundi Sote, Aala Su ) – 11

Questions?? :P

Freakanalysis!

2008-11-18T12:37:00.000-08:00

I am using xobni from quite some time. It is the Outlook plug-in that saves you time finding email conversations, contacts and attachments. After a quick install, I saw the new Xobni toolbar which appeared in Outlook - and suddenly information became much easier to find. When a new email arrives, the sender's full communication history appears in the Xobni sidebar, including past conversations, attachments and contact details. Xobni also includes a blazing fast email search tool.

Too many words for a company’s product that is not going to pay me for writing good things about them on my blog. But it is indeed a very handy tool that. I would leave it up to you to try it out.

It has a feature of e-mail analytics which displays rankings, graphs, and statistics detailing how you and your contacts use email. Today I make my statistics public. Well, it is up to you to accept them or not but what I have heard is – ‘There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics’

The above analysis shows the hourly average of the mail traffic over a period of 26 months. The trend clearly shows the email culture. The peak between 9:00 to 12:00 indicates the ‘productivity’ at these hours. The drop between 12 and 2 is the lunch time. People are active again after lunch time but only till 4 when they break for coffee and snacks. The curve starts going down along with the sun on the horizon. The activity between midnight and early morning is because of the colleagues working in US.

Yes we can.

2008-11-05T12:38:00.000-08:00

Barack Obama of the Democratic Party becomes the first African American to be elected President of the United States. Everyone awaited this moment. The world wanted to witness the 'Change'. I am not an American, still the acceptance speech which President Obama gave yesterday evening moved me, I can only imagine how his supporters might be feeling. Here is the best part of the speech. Watch this, if not for the the President's elect delivery, then for a succinct chronicling of the powerful events of the century.

For those who cannot access youtube, here is the transcript. But believe me, the video is worth a watch!

This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on my mind tonight is about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing - Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.

She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons - because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.

And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America - the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.

At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.

When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs and a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.

When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.

She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that "We Shall Overcome." Yes we can.

A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination. And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change. Yes we can.

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves - if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment. This is our time - to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American Dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth - that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people:

Yes We Can.

Important to have Friends

2008-11-04T10:23:00.000-08:00

Recently, I moved to my neighboring cubicle. The person who used to sit in that cubicle has left behind many gems. I would like to share one of them with you. He had the following comic strip on display in his cubicle:

True indeed.

The Chandrayaan Paradox

2008-10-30T08:49:00.000-07:00

Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. 22nd October. Morning 06.21.50. Countdown 10..9..8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1..0 and there it goes - Chandrayaan - 1. India's first mission to moon. The cliche in hindi films goes like this 'duniya chaand par pahuch gayi hai aur aap..' This statement is usually used to criticize someones narrow minded thinking. I guess this would be changed to 'ab toh Bharat bhi chaand par pahuch gaya.. aur aap!!'

We should really applaud the efforts of ISRO for the successful launch. The budget for this mission was around 80 million US Dollars. ISRO has many missions planned for future which include few more unmanned missions to Moon, unmanned mission to Mars and the day I am waiting for - Manned mission to Moon.

But in midst of all this success lets have a reality check.

One-third of India's population (roughly equivalent to the entire population of the United States) lives below the poverty line and India is home to one-third of the world's poor people.
According to the new World Bank's estimates on poverty based on 2005 data, India has 456 million people, 41.6% of its population, living below the new international poverty line of $1.25 (PPP) per day.
The World Bank further estimates that 33% of the global poor now reside in India. Moreover, India also has 828 million people, or 75.6% of the population living below $2 a day, compared to 72.2% for Sub-Saharan Africa. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_India

On the news channel you could see farmers outside the space centre of Sriharikota cultivating a piece of land.This is the place where cultures of centuries blend together. The very idea of this post was supposed to give everyone a thoughton the 'Development' of the nation. What kind of development are we expecting? Do we want to spend millions of dollars and reach space which wouldonly create a foundation for the generation next to go one step ahead in finding out the mystries of universe OR work on planet EARTH to resolve the grass root level problems of the nation.

Not that India is not trying. If poverty has decreased the population has also increased which keeps on affecting the figures. A study by the McKinsey Global Institute found that extreme rural poverty has declined from 94% in 1985 to 61% in 2005, and they project that it will drop to 26% by 2025. Report concludes that India's economic reforms and the increased growth that has resulted have been the most successful anti-poverty programmes in the country.

Anyways, there will always be a tradeoff between socio-economical development and technological advancements for a country. What shocked me more is the amount spent by ISRO. Well, the expense in itself might be enormous but when compared to other expenses (not by the govt) will really seem insignificant. You will, in fact, give a standing ovation to what ISRO has achieved. Here is some trivia about it:

India's mission to moon has cost less than one-tenth of the amount which was paid by SET(Sony entertainment television) to get the rights of IPL(Indian Premier League).
The amount is about half the price of a Jumbo Jet.
The IPL deal of about Rs 5,000 crore or $1 billion is equivalent to Isro's entire annual budget, while NASA's is 20 times as much.
Chandrayaan-2. Deadline: 2010. The cost: Rs 500 crore. That is still only one-tenth of IPL rights.

Lately, I stopped watching cricket. In fact, after reading this it makes me hate it even more.

What is the solution out of this?

- Stop marketing through cricket? Of course, not!

- Put a full stop on our space odyssey? A big NO!

And there are many more questions which need some answers. You may comment on few such QnAs.

For now, as Mahatma Gandhi rightly said - We need to be the change that we wish to see in the world.

Think about it.

Russel Peters in Mumbai!

2008-10-17T23:58:00.000-07:00

Guys, rrrusssssel is back! I am sure you don't want to miss him this time. He is hilarious and the best part is the ethnic jokes. His parents are Indian he was born in Mumbai and brought up Canada. Perhaps thats why most of his shows focus largely around his Canadian upbringing and racial stereotypes. Much of his material explores the cultural divides between many different ethnicities and upbringings in a way that includes many impressions.

I have seen the last two of his shows on DVD, first on ebing 'Russell Peters: Outsourced' and the second on 'Russell Peters: Red, White and Brown'. Both of these are a must watch for anyone who needs a dose of laughter.

This time Russel Peters is on his India Tour. While on his tour he is going to perform at Mumbai, Kolkata, Bagalore and Delhi. In Mumbai , the show would be held on 27th October'08 at Shanmukhananda Hall, Kings Circle,Matunga. This reminds me that when I was in 1st standard, I had participated in annual function of my school. I was supposed to play on of the characters of Ramayan. The fuction was supposed to be held at the same hall in Matunga. However, for some reason we reached late and when we reached there we saw that hall was taken up by a distratous fire. It was devastating and took around 8 years for the committee to renovate and bring the hall back to life and what a LIFE I must say! Because its none other than Russel Peters.

Please hurry up and and buy the tickets before they are all sold out! Show details and ticket could be bought from the following website:

http://www.ticketpro.in/UpcomingEvents/russell_peter.html

For those of you who have never heard of him, please check out the following videos. I bet you will just rush for tickets after watching them ( Not sure even after knowing that the ticket price is Rs.1500! .. we 'cheap indians' as Russel says it :P)

45 mins of non-stop hilarious moments!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24Ryj1ywoqw

Be a man!... lolz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qtrAMK7_Qk

!xombile
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEf2kUAwxZk

By now, you must have learned how to use the related videos section of youtube. Keep youtubing!

Fariyaad

2008-10-15T11:59:00.000-07:00

meri tamanna hai ke dil ke dabe raaz
aapko sunaau
haalat kyaa hoti hai ishq mein ye
aapko batlaau

aap se kyaa sharmaana
aap sab ho mere apne
toh sunaata hoon kaise
dil ki baat kehne par
tut jaate hai sapne

ek din mujhse raha nahi jaa raha tha
dil ke armaano ko dabaa nahi paa raha tha
dil ki baat kaa humein izhaar karna tha
humein usse pyaar hai bus itnaa kehna tha

ladki kunwaari hai yeh humne suppose kiya
aur sidha uske ghar jaake use propose kiya

lekin mera time thoda kharab chal raha tha
jo kabhi socha na tha woh aaj sach ho raha tha

mere saamne dekhta hoon toh kyaa
ladki ki god bharai chal rahi thi
aur uski poori family bhi wahin khadi thi

mujhe lagaa mujhse yeh bhool kaise ho gai
kambakht zabaan bhi sabke saame dil ki baat keh gai

phir hona kyaa tha ,
uski family ne mere prastaav ko oppose kiya
aur hameshaa ke liye mujhe dispose kar diya

lekin mere dil kaa fuse tab bhi jal raha tha
kisi ke pyaar ke liye maano tadap raha tha

aur yeh gaana bhi gaa raha tha ke
"tu nahi toh koi aur sahi
koi aur nahi toh koi aur sahi"

mere din guzar rahe the kuch aise hi
mujhe kyaa hua tha pataa nahin

maine socha main phir kabhi pyaar nahi karungaa
kaanton se bhare is raaaste par kabhi naa chalunga

lekin har baar hum uski or khiche chale jaate hai
jaane kyon kaamdev apna teer hum hi pe chalaatein hai

is baar phir hum ishq ke nashe mein doob gaye
aur jis par itni der se nazar tiki thi us se apni dil ki baat keh gaye

lekin usne mujhe seriously nahi liya , use lagaa
usne din mein hi sapnaa dekh liya, maine kaha

"sapna nahi haqiqat hai ,
mujhe sirf tujhi se mohabbat hai"

woh boli, "kyaa musibat hai, ab yeh kaisi aafat hai "

maine phir kaha
"tumhaari taaarif mein ek nazraana pesh karta hoon
ijaazat ho toh ek sher arz karta hoon"

shaayad use bhi mujhe karnaa tha aabaad
is liye usne bhi keh diya irshaad irshaad

maine kaha
"tu hi meri nisha hai
tu hi mera nasha hai "
mujhe bich mein hi tok ke woh boli
"shakal aaine mein dekh kar aa
tu hi balbeer paasha hai!!"

main toh chala tha hone aabaad
par usne mujhe kar diya barbaad

jab apna hi sikka khota ho
toh kis se karoon main fariyaad
kis se karoon main fariyaad ...

toh janaab, aapko bhi agar aisi koi fariyaad hai toh bejijhak humein bataayiye ... aakhir ghum baatne se halka hota hai :P

Vibrant Navratri @ DVCC!

2008-10-13T23:06:00.000-07:00

Colors. Music. Movements. On 11th October 2008 if you would have been to Panikos Dimitris park you could smell a sense of happiness in the air. As I saw people circling in their traditional attire dancing, the spirit of life took a triumphant turn. It was the time to celebrate the very spirit of life at none other than the ASC Garba’08 event. Navratri basically means "Nine Nights" ("Nav" meaning nine and "Ratri" meaning nights). These nights are devoted to the reverence of Goddess Durga (Maa Durga). Though the season had already ended with Dassera being celebrated all over the world on 9th, the festival was celebrated here with complete devotion, love and fervour.

The event started off with everyone arriving in their colorful and traditional attire. Few of them arrived with their decorated aarti thaalis(see picture). Most of them were teamed beautifully with all the required pooja essentials for the occasion. Then a wonderful heart and soul touching and cleansing Aartis were sung in praise of the goddess. Following the aarti was the ‘Garba’ where people were dancing in a circle clapping rhythmically. At every step they gracefully bend sideways, the arms coming together in sweeping gestures, up and down, left and right, each movement ending in clap resulting in a highly energetic dance. The garba event lasted for an hour after which there was a break for refreshments. The trademark of the Navaratri festival is the dandiya dance – where men and women join a dance circle, holding small polished sticks or dandiyas. As Amdocsians whirled to the music, they striked the dandiyas in rhythm.

“When I was young, I used to dance on the nine nights. There was so much excitement. Navratri is the time to celebrate. This is a festival which brings in so much of colour. Girls dress up in their traditional dress. Everybody is in a festive mood. When I was a student, we used to do garba together at the campus. I have very fond memories of those days. It was a community affair.”, said one of the enthusiastic players. “Navratri is a vibrant festival. There is so much of colour, music and spirit associated with this festival. Everyone seems to enjoy this festival. I am proud to see that even though we are distant from our country we are not distant from our culture and traditions.”, added another. “I enjoyed it a lot. I tried my best but sometimes I got the beat wrong but it was lots of fun.”, said a participant of non – Indian origin.

The whole atmosphere was very joyful. Some people enjoyed by playing while others participated from a distance as they were watching others playing garba. The colorful dresses and jovial mood during the revelry was a big motivation to the localites as even they joined into the celebrations. The following prizes were given on the night: Best Aarti Thaali, Best Dressed Male, Best Dressed Female, Best Dancer Male and Best Dancer Female.

I would like to thank the judges and all the organizers and volunteers from Amdocs Social Club, here at DVCC, to have organized an event which managed to incorporate veneration along with commemoration by means of song and dance.

Bus ka "Safar"/suffer

2008-09-23T23:03:00.000-07:00

Ehsaan Quereshi - I liked this guy's style. The way he narrates his writings is something which I appreciate. His poems give you an experience of roller coaster, not that you will get an adrenalin rush, but it takes you up somewhere and then with some slapstick humor brings you down(even the intonation follows this principle). I have tried to write something which could be narrated in his style. If you plainly read the following lines then you will enjoy it but if you read it in Ehsaan bhai's style then i bet you will LOVE it!

Bus ka "Safar"/suffer
ek din main bus mein jaa raha tha
bus kaa driver bhi gajab dhaa raha tha
najaane kyon baar baar brake dabaa raha tha

main badi mushkil se sambhal paa raha tha
mera haath bhi handle se fislaa jaa raha tha

mera haath bhi kyaa kahun badaa shaitaaan hai
jo sambhaale naa sambhaltaa hai
jo nahi karna chahiye wahi kartaa hai

phir kyaa tha ,
bus handle se mera haath fisla , aur

ganje ki khopdi par jaake tehraa
ganje ne gusse se mujhe kiya ishaara
maine bhi chup chaap apna haath
uski khopdi se diya utaara , aur phir
maine liya handle kaa sahara , lekin

handle kaa mujhse shayaad puraana naata tha
use bhi mera saara hisaab aaj hi chukta karna tha

usne phir mujhe dhoka de diya , aur
maine haath phir usi ganje ki khopdi par rakh diya

is baar toh ganje kaa bhi chadh gaya paara
turunt hi khadaa ho gaya bechara

aur mujhse kaha , "baith , aa mere sar pe baith !!!"
maine kaha , "baith toh jaaun, par kyaa mujhe sambhaal paoge ?"
usne pucha , "kyon ?"
maine kaha , "itni chikni khopdi hai , kahin main vahaan se bhi fisal gaya toh ?"

public ko lagaa dum meri baat mein bhi tha , kyon ki
ganje ki khopdi pe tel zara bhi kum naa tha

ganje ne meri baat ko seriously nahi liya
aur jahaan baitha ta vahin chup chaap baith gaya

waise upar ki do panktiyon ke beech vaali ek ghatna
maine aapko nahi hai sunaai , kyon ki
hinsa se mujhe sakt nafrat hai mere bhai

aap samajh hi gaye honge mere haal kyaa hua hoga
aage jo hua woh aapke saamne hai aur
meri sujhi hui aankh bhi ab thik hone ko hai

is haadse ke baad main bus mein thoda aur aage badhaa
aur ladies seat ke paas jaakar hua khadaa

aurtein svabaav se naram hoti hai , par saavdhan
andar se kaafi garam hoti hai

yehi khayaal mere man mein aa raha tha , ke

tabhi driver ne phir brake dabaaya aur
mera haath bagal waali ladki ki kamar sair kar aaya
shaayad use yeh pasand nahi aaya , isliye
usne mujhe do kheench ke lagaaya

thappad kaa asar itna gehra tha
shaayad main vahin ho gaya behraa tha

woh boli , " yeh kyaa karte ho , jahaan ladki dekhi wahaan chance maarte ho ?"
main bola , "chance toh kyaa , dance bhi nahi kartaa
apni biwi ke alaava kisi aur ke saath romance nahi karta

meri mat hi gai thi maari , ke main is bus mein aakar tha chadhaa
aur baaki rahaa toh tumhaare paas aakar mein hua khadhaa

ab kabhi naa main bus mein savaari karunga
naa kisi ladki ki bagal mein jaakar khada rahunga

aise anubhav karne se behtar hai
main umr bhar paidal chalunga ......
main umr bhar paidal chalunga ......

Please do share some of your such 'anubhavs'!

You’ve got SPAM!

2008-09-16T01:17:00.000-07:00

I arrive at the office and head straight to the pantry to have some breakfast. Co-workers meet up and we talk everything from the Large-Hadron-Collider to “Large-Hadron-Collider”;) . The wink should explain it all but if you are still dumb enough and don't understand what guys talk about then this post should help you out. After all the daily rituals, finally, I realize that it is time to do some work. Yes I do work when people are not watching me. Part of my work involves checking my e-mails. I get mails of different kinds everyday which range from daily tasks from my managers to some funny forwards from my friends. So I open my mailbox and check the first one. It says, “Make the small man in you stand strong and proud with our simple remedy ”. For a minute I sat there in stunned silence. I thought, “What was my manager even thinking before sending me such a mail, I mean what kind of task is this!!”. To my relief when I scrutinized the mail I found out that it was yet another SPAM!

What I don’t understand is that how on earth, for SPAM, someone comes up with a different subject everytime! I get SPAM wherein the subject says - Get hard lightning fast, Britney drops top at mall, watch her suck off, Reach so needed measurement, She'll beg for more, We offer you happiness, More pleasure wit less efforts, Get her in the mood every night, Take her in many different ways, but always deep!! and many, many more which makes the list endless.

Now, back to my work place. I go through my to do list. Start working on one of them and there it comes - another mail pop-up. This time it says “Pamela Anderson stunning porno dvd.” Get another one after that which says “Drew Barrymore Nu de. She's been known to take her top off for just about anyone. See her n'ked!” I am not sure what the spammers wanted to proove. Were they trying to say that, “Yes, we do SPAM about things other than your genitals!”? I like the content of the SPAM which I receive because tt is written very “articulately”. Now that is some skill which I would like to learn. Of course, not to market these products (but that's only for now, the IT industry may be in crisis anytime!) . They use words such as “rod”, “pole”, “gun”, “monster” and not the acutal words which may sound quite "indecent". Sometimes I do wonder if these spammers are actually some teenage girls!

Co-incidence is what I want to believe in. We talk about the news where a kid uses a gun in school to shoot his fellow classmates. Later, I see a spam which says “When your lassie sees your new big love gun, she'll be beside herself with excitement!Take a step towards pure male power!” I wonder why the kid did not use his "love gun" instead of a real gun. Atleast there would have been some peace!

Let me throw in few more from the ones which I have received today:

“Powerful help for boosting your libido and stimulate your girl to a new high.”

“Watch her writh in ecstasy from your longer length”

“Make your man rod thick and strong with our natural herbs. It worked for thousands of men worldwide. Now it’s yours."

“Drive her crazy with desire and lust once she sees your monster”

“She is crazy for you, and she will keep craving for you every night”

“Celebrate independence day in bed with your wife”

“Photos of your wife cheating you Video”

Quite innovative innit?

They are celebrating “Innovation Week” at my work place. Here they talk what innovation is all about and how to be innovative at your work place. Ironically, I started receving the most innovative spam during this time period!

Power of One

2008-08-15T09:32:00.000-07:00

I came across this advertisement in the newspaper today. Click here to check it out. It says 'I' can make a difference. Further down it says 'Believe in the Power of One'. This is when I remembered that long back i had actually written few lines on this punchline. Here they are:

Power of One
lets be one
lets drop all our guns
fighting with friends
will profit none
& lest we stop
killing mothers & sons
this earth will burn
like scorching sun
burning the hearts
of everyone
but before that happens
to anyone
lets be one
with my efforts
i have almost done
but for the rest
i need your help
will i get some?
if some day i do get some
that day i will show you
the 'power of one'

61 years of Independence?? Really?? - Give it a thought!

An Unusual Gift.

2008-08-11T15:21:00.000-07:00

Two weeks before my home leave I started doing some shopping. One weekend I was roaming around the Flea Market to find something unusual for my friends or relatives. The market looks something like the image on the left except for the fact that the stalls in this market do not have their name boards while the one which I visited had them. Not that there are not many gifts shops around but I guess this kind of market offers you a very good alternative to find some unusual things under one roof.

While I was roaming around and checking out different stalls, I came across one which had several chains on display. As I approached the stall I noticed that the lady at the stall didn’t seem to be interested in selling them. I had noticed how on approaching other stalls the stall owners had started greeting me. They ask you all sort of questions like, “What are you looking for?”, “How may I help you?” Or at least they don’t forget to mention about the best deals they have for ex: “Buy 3 for five euros only!” Not the way a pitchman does but in a polite manner. And this lady at the stall did not even greet. She was an English lady. I could say this because of her looks. After spending one and a half year on this island I guess anyone can distinguish between a Cypriot, an English and Russian lady just by a glimpse of her. Ahem! I will talk in detail but sometimes later on that topic. Back to our stall, the chains which were on display looked somewhat like the ones in the picture below.

I took one of them in my hand and started thinking. You know the typical act people do when they are doing some shopping. They will hold the thing they want to buy view it from different angles and while they are doing that there are various questions going on in the head like “Will she like it?”, “Worth it?”, “hmm okay” and other crap like that. I was doing the same – the self talk. “What kind of chain is this? Not sure if they are to be worn around neck or is just a bracelet. Anyways who cares, girls might be knowing it. I just have to gift it; rest will be taken care by them. But then is this a right place to buy jewellery? I guess not, the mall has better quality. No harm in asking the price. Arghg … racist lady .. why is she staring at me?? God forgive her, she knows not what she is doing. ” Then I asked her the price. The prices were not appealing as her. Also, the way she mentioned the price clearly showed away her enthusiasm to sell them! I simply moved ahead.

The stalls at this market were big. The name boards of these stalls were almost above 9 feet. This way if you are standing under a stall you won’t be able to read the name of the stall at which you are standing. You will have to move two or three steps backwards to do that. After few minutes of checking out other stuff and buying few things it was time to go home. As I turned, I saw the stall with chains and the lady. This time I could read its name. It read “Bra Straps”. At that point I was like “Ohhhh myyy goddd!!! ” I was very embarrassed for a minute but then started laughing hysterically after recollecting the entire incidence. Now, how the hell am I supposed to know what those chains, actually, were? Gifting them to my friends, sister or worst case mother would have been even more embarrassing. This would be difficult to understand for people who are not from India. Actually, I have never seen anyone using bra straps in my family. Not even anyone in my locality. We just see them on television. It is an accessory which girls from my place might have taken notice of but not me! Only after reading the name of the stall did the actual purpose of the chains dawned on me. Thank God I did not buy one of them otherwise it would have really been an ‘Unusual Gift!’

Umeed se Dugna

2008-08-07T14:23:00.000-07:00

Amitabh Bachhan. The name itself is enough. I believe it is his personality and character that make him superior and not his acting skills. I started admiring him after learning about his ups and downs of life. The way he came back after failure of the ABCL corp was simply commendable. He had been a superstar for almost 20 years but what happened after that? People just did not accept his films. Imagine what kind of turmoil he must have been through and also his audience. Jokes apart, we all know his success story and that is what makes everyone appreciate this guy. Well, who does not? Ah , wait a second I don't, actually NOW I don't to be precise. I was talking to my friend the other day and here is the piece of conversation that we had. "Amitabh is an over hyped personality." was my comment. "Come on, do you really mean there are many people who can act like him?", my friend defended. "I am not talking about acting skills but about the current status which he holds, the kind of impact he can make on people is tremendous and he never made the right use of it. At this stage of life he could do something good for the nation. If ever there are millions of people who would admire me, I would never be doing a world tour. I would rather concentrate on issues that would help me make a difference in the society. Of course, he his building colleges, donating money to charitable organizations and many other things but who doesn't do that? Its high time and he should start learning something from Aamir Khan. I guess you got my point." Awestruck, my friend ended the conversation at that point.

Things were different few years back. Back in my school days I always wanted to participate in KBC. I was under eighteen when the first season was being telecasted. By the time of second season I was eighteen. The promos of the second season were in full swing. I dialed the numbers everyday trying to answer the question of the day and hoping to get a call from the studio. In the second season the show was known as 'KBC-Dwitiya' and the punch line said 'Umeed se Dugna'. Almost all the participants who made it to the show were really excited about this unforgettable rendezvous with Mr. Big B. For the entertainment of the audience, the participants use to request him to say a dialogue or sing a song and sometimes the participants even read out poems written by them. I also wrote one. I never made it to the show to read this out to Mr. Bachhan himself so it goes here in my blog.

Umeed se Dugna

socha tha kabhi hum milenge aapse
magar hum mil naa sake
waise galti aapki bhi nahi thi , yeh toh kambakth computer thaa
jis wajah se aap humein bulaa naa sake

magar ek din pappu paas ho gaya
aur computerji kaa phone aa gaya

kaha , KBC mein aao aur
Umeed se Dugna paao

magar humne bhi kah diya ke ,
"naa chahein hum Umeed se Dugna
naa chahein hum Umeed se Tiguna
hum toh chahein bus Amitji se Milna"

akhir aaj sach ho gaya sapna
aur yeh ab toh humien bhi padega kehna , ke
vakai yahin milta hai Umeed se Dugna!

Flying High!

2008-08-04T12:07:00.001-07:00

Captured this one at Parsik Hill. This is one place where we love spending our time. Colors, expressions and last but not the least timing are the main assets of this photograph. What do you say? ;)

Another one :)

A 'Moving' Truth!

2008-08-02T11:25:00.000-07:00

Few days back, in one of the articles named 'ChatRoom' of the The Economic Times, I read the following line submitted by one of the readers:

"HERE is a slogan painted on a LPG gas tanker: HIGHLY INFLAMMABLE MERA BHARAT MAHAN - A ‘moving’ truth!" - ANIL P. BAGARKA

Well... Mr Anil, hats off to your observation and creativity and thanks for putting that down for us. I know that the recent incidents of Bangalore and Ahmadabad make you write this statement. Actually we can categorize the regions of India as to how much inflammable they are.
Few regions just need a spark somewhere in the country on sensitive issues and boom .. you see riots and mobs on the road the very next second. While there are areas which simply don't get affected. If we can maintain peace in one region what will it take to create same conditions through out the nation? Of course, it is not an easy job. There are many social elements we need to take care of. All we need is just to be little less 'INFLAMMABLE'!

By the way I am not very good at playing with words but I mentioned this to one of my cousins when she said she was dieting,"I would rather 'Die-eating' than 'Dieting'!". Now go ahead and give me some of your lines.

Now a song by me....

2008-07-03T10:30:00.000-07:00

After two Hindi poems, now its time for something in English. I mentioned in my earlier post about the reason for writing poems. It was not just writing, I also added music and melody to them. I love music. I also have the so called musical intelligence. If you do a Google for musical intelligence, one of the definition says "People who have strong musical intelligence don't just remember music easily - they can't get it out of their minds, it's so omnipresent." No one can better explain you this than my roommates or people who "really" know me. I never like songs, I LOVE them. So if I give my ear to some music and fall in love with it then for next few weeks be prepared to listen to it at least 10 times in a day. Moreover, it is not just that song but you will also have to bear ME singing and humming it; day in and day out! More about my passion for music in later blogs, for now, here is a poem which I have sung, mixed it with some random DJ music. Don't hesitate to provide some valuable comments.

Someone who cares ...

listen dear , it all happens here
all you need is not to fear
fear for what ? , envy for what ?
hold my hands and be my near
are you searching for me here and there ?
but you will find me everywhere
so smile for now and be aware
there is someone who loves you
someone who cares ....

Mp3 available @ : http://music.cooltoad.com/music/download.php?id=226698

As the current trend goes, each song is followed by a remix. I have a remix too, nothing great about it though, I just increased the tempo of the song. Feels good to be rapper (I hope I haven't raped it instead of rapping it..lol) , no harm in experimenting things, right?

Remix Mp3 available @ : http://music.cooltoad.com/music/song.php?id=231017

P.S.: Hats off to the technology in 21st century, otherwise I could have never been able to write a blog in the present situation. I say this because, right now I am at Bahrain airport on my way to Mumbai (keep looking this space to read more about this :) )

B.E.[I.T.] Rocks!!

2008-07-02T11:56:00.000-07:00

I believe every one of us has a story to say. When I meet someone, I would love them to tell me their story. Life is too short baby, you need to learn from other peoples mistakes. Jokes apart, part of the story of my life is the three wonderful years of engineering. Keep looking in this space for to find out the story in detail, but for now, heres a tribute to all my classmates of B.E.[I.T.]

B.E.[I.T.] Rocks!!

jis class mein hameshaa khushi hai lehraati
woh class hai mera B.E.[I.T.]
"Hum kisi se kum nahin" yeh kehte hai sabse
abhi inkaa parichay karvaa detaa hoon aapse

agar main thoda jyaada bol jaaon
samajh lena ise meri nadaani
toh shuru kartaa hoon ab main B.E.[I.T.] ki kahaani

Percentage ke maamle mein sabko yaad dila deta hai naani
class ka yeh topper hai ye,
naam hai iska Ravinder Singh Ajmani

sushil ise kehtaa hai "kamaal ki kudi , oye kudi nahin
yeh toh hai zeher di pudi" ,
naam hai iska Sharon Bethaupudi

gusse mein jab aa jaaye sabko kehti hai "chal hut"
yeh soonna chahein "no if , no but",
naam hai iska Shiveta Bhat

ladkiyon se yeh kehta hai
"apni zulfein yun naa jhatak
zulfon mein jaaunga bhatak
fir naa kehna mujhe chal hut
warna mar jaayega yeh tera ..Rajiv Bhatt!!"
kehne ki zaroorat nahi hai isika naam hai Rajiv Bhatt

jise sab kehte hai yeda , lekin woh sabko
yeda bana kar khaata hai peda
naam hai iska Jimmy Bheda

Deepak ne jise rose diye , pataa nahin kitne
aasmaan mein taarein hai shaayad utne
naam hai iska Kajal Chikhale

Ravinder ko exam ke waqt ye hai daraati
jaise bakri ko daraata hai bhediyaa
naam hai iska Tanvi Dedhia

class ka ye neta hai , yehi hai sipai
Ravinder aur Tanvi kaa record todegaa bankar kasaai
naam hai iska Nirav Desai

handwriting iski niraali hai , aur yeh bhi niraala
sabse shaant rehta hai yeh chora matwaala
naam hai iska Sachin Gala

pataa nahin kise dekh kar yeh kehtaa hai afreen afreen , lekin
dance kartaa hai aisa ke iske saamne jhuk jaaye Javed Jafferi
naam hai iska Jaseem Jafferi

doston kaa yeh dost , dushmano kaa dushman ,
har ladki ko hai yeh kehta, "mujhe apni bahon mein lele"
naam hai iska Oscar Kale

svabhaav hai jiska sabse udaar
class mein yeh sota hai baar baar lagaataar
naam hai iska Pinank Kamdar

pyaar se hum ise bulaatein hai killer
har kaam karta hai yeh daud daud kar
naam hai iska Swapneel Killekar

Kajal ise keh de pyaar se ek baar jo "Pyaare"
khushi ke maare aasmaan se woh saare tod laaye taare
naam hai iska Deepak Khumbhare

citi bajaane mein timing hai iski ekdum thik
ladkiyon se yeh kehtaa hai "Mere dil ke icon par , kabhi toh kiya karo click"
naam hai iska Ganesh Mandlik

Hrithik se bhi badhiya kartaa hai yeh dance
chinise logo se bhi accha banaata hai Schezwaan
naam hai iska Naik Rizwaan

guitar bajaakar kehta hai , "Main nahin hoon liar , mujhe
do ladkiyon ne fasaaya hai , Manju aur Priya Nair"
naam hai iska Vimal Nair

jab ye drawing karti hai pencil haath mein lekar
M.F. Hussain bhi maafi maangta hai haath jodkar , yeh kehkar
"mujhe barbaad mat karo , mere pet pe laat maarkar"
naam hai iska Dipti Naarkar

naa koi tha naa koi hoga is se badhiya speaker
har marz ki davaa iske paas hai , A1 hai ye astrologer
naam hai iska Mithun Ovalekar

Ameya ko roz tension aa jaata hai , jab sunita se yeh kehta hai
"dil chahiye toh mera dil lele, dil nahin toh meri jaan hi lele"
naam hai iska Nikhil Pakale

ek hasinaa ne iske dil ko kiya hai ghaayal
yeh usi ko maanta hai apne man kaa meet
naam hai iska Parekh Amit

ghatkopar se ye hai aata , acn subject ise khub hai bhaata
kuch naa samajh mein aaye toh ye samjhaa deta hai arthaath
naam hai iska Parekh Siddharth

class mein pranks yehi hai play karta , iske gajab hai khel
baatein ghuma firaa ke kartaa hai jaise banaa raha ho bhel
naam hai iska Dighant Patel

pj maar maar kar ye sabko deta hai sazaa
har ladki se hai ye kehta "tu meri raani , main tera raja"
naam hai iska Nishant Pilinjaa

biju ne diya hai ise apna dil, kyon ki
use bhaa gayi iski adaayen kaatil
naam hai iska Pooja Patil

height mein is se choti hai pooja batra
birthday bumps ke bahaane banaata hai sabko bakraa
naam hai iska Ajit Patra

kise pe joke aisa maare ke bina haath lagaayen hi ho jaaye dhulaai
apne sense of humour se isne itni taarifen kamaai
naam hai iska Vimal Pillai

college ke pehle din sabko lagaa , ye hai ghoda
har labz iska jaise ek hathoda
naam hai iska Rakesh Pitroda

pj maroon sagyaan na khup radavle ,
programming chya competition madhye experts hyalaa baghun dhaavle
naam hai iska Nishant Ravle

vargaat sarvaat shaant hi buste , kadhi yete kadhi zaate
thaukch naste kunaala sudhaa
naam hai iska Dhanashree Sahastrabuddha

proffesor jab bajaata hai khatre ki bell ,
yeh kehti hai unse "i am not feeling well"
bahaane iske aise sab keh dete "bhai wah"
naam hai iska Pankti Shah

sabhi ise chidhaate hai baniya kehkar , ye sabka mooh
band kar deta hai unke raaz kholkar
naam hai iska Ravi Shekhar

har ladki mein ise dikhti hai Shilpa Shetty , par
ladkiyon ke bhai se ye dartaa hai , kyon ki
sab hai villain jaise Sunil Shetty
naam hai iska Sushil Shetty

jahaan ladki dikhi wahaan yeh teeno gaanaa gayen Ding Dong Ding
koi agar bich mein aa jaayen toh khatarnaak ho jaaye scene
naam hai inka Ajay Singh , Ravi Singh , Rohit Singh

proffesors asks him to attend all his lectures but he never would
right from his childhood , he plays guitar whenever he could
he plays it well and he always should
naam hai iska Varun Sood

assignment time pe complete karne kaa ise chadha hai bukhaar
pyaar se baat naa karo toh ban jaata hai khunkaar
naam hai iska Umesh Thumar

jisne class ki shobha ko savaanra
aisa class mein ek hi hai heera
naam hai iska Mihir Veera

PIIT idol hai ye , gaana gaata hai ek dum hatkar
sunita se kehtaa hai ye din raat "mujhe pyaar kar , mujhe pyaar kar"
naam hai iska Ameya Walawalkar

meri kahin bhool ho jaaye toh mujhe maaf kar dena
yeh padh kar agar tumhen thodi si bhi haseen aaye toh mujhe abhinandan kar dena
kahin kuch boora lage toh dil pe mat lena
mooh mein lena , mera naam aur bus thook dena
meri fir bhi yehi hai salaah
apne is anmol dost ko kabhi naa khona...

Lets get it started.....

2008-06-28T09:57:00.000-07:00

A new post after long time. People might be wondering where was I all this time. I had many things in my mind but was waiting for the right time. By the way this is still not the right time, and there is a reason as to why I decided to write this post. Yesterday evening I had a chat with one of my friends, we studied together in college. He introduced me to his blog. I also referred him mine (why would I miss the opportunity!). He went through my blog. I expected some comments about the content on my blog, I got few but it was after hearing this comment, "Write your poems in the blog!" that it dawned on me why the didn't I ever think of this. So lets get it started....

Few words of caution before reading my poems. It is human tendency to think as to what might have inspired the author to write the poem. I don't blame anyone of you for thinking the same. All the poems were written during my seventh semester of engineering. Most of them during the PL(preparation leave). Everyone at my home used to sleep by 11 pm and it was me alone burning the night oil to study. I had a habit of studying while watching television. Yes, book in one hand and the remote in another. Those days there was a television show "Wah, Wah!" , an episode of this show was broadcasted everyday at 11:30 pm. The show was excellent with people from all over the country showing their talents in writing. Of course like any other show they also displayed the talents of the professional poets but what I liked about the show was the simple use of language by some poets. After watching some episodes I thought of giving it a try. All I had to do was think of some theme and some rhyming words which I would use at end of each line. And there it was, just after few minutes of brainstorming, my first piece of writing. I do not recollect, at this moment, which was my first piece but here I will start with the one which I like the most.

DISCLAIMER: George Lucas never went to one of those far, far galaxies to make star wars. Similarly I haven't been through these experiences, just picked up some random thoughts from "galaxies" far, far away....

Socha tha kya aur Paaya hai kya...

mere samne jab woh khadi thi
dekh rahi apni ghadi thi
is baar phir mujhe lagaa
hum pehle kahin mile hain kyaa ??

lekin humne toh
socha tha kyaa aur paaya hai kyaa........

usse nazrein milne hi waali thi
aankhon hi aankhon mein baat hone hi waali thi
tabhi usne keh diya
bhaiyyaa zara bataana, waqt hua hai kyaa ??
humne toh socha tha kyaa aur paaya hai kyaa
yeh kyaa keh gayi , daiyya re daiyya
jise banana tha saiyyaan use hi bana gai bhaiyya

parantu agle hi din hum unki or phir chal diye
kyon ki dil mein jal rahe the pyaar ke diye
humse sahi nahi jaa rahi thi judaai
bus kisi tarah humne himmat jutaai
aur unse aakhir pooch hi liya
mujhse shaadi karogi kyaa ??

turant hi woh boli
ek safal aadmi ban ke dikha sakte ho kyaa ??

uski baat mein toh dum tha
akal se main bhi thoda kum tha
socha bus ek baar jivan mein safal holu
phir jivan bhar ke liye uska saath palun

bus, yun hi thode varsh beet gaye
ant mein hum safal ho gaye
hamare kadam phir unki or chal diye

aaj bhi woh wahin khadi thi
haath mein wahi puraani ghadi thi
par god mein kisi ki bachhi thi
humein pataa nahin kiski thi

khair humein us se kyaa
humne toh aaj phir pooch liya
janaab humein pehchana kyaa ??

phir toh jis tarah woh muskuraai
us muskurahat ne ek umeed jagaai
bacchi ko usne humse milwaaya yeh kehkar
ale ale beta , mama ke paas jaoge kyaa ??

sunte hi jaise humein current lag gaya
bhaukhlaake humnein bhi us se poocha liya
yeh tumhaari beti hai kyaa ??
turant hi usne keh diya
haan , iske papa bhi yahin hai , miloge kyaa ??

humne toh socha tha kyaa aur paaya hai kyaa
aaj bhi jab uski yaad aati hai
dil se ek aah nikalti jaati hai

are o uparwaale
yehi din dikhaane mujhe dharti pe laaya tha kyaa ??

Troublesome Terpsichore!

2008-01-07T23:19:00.000-08:00

Not many people knew that one of my passions is DANCE, until they saw me dancing at the Ganesh Visarjan, my cousins wedding or the parties thrown at our college. I do not specialize in any particular genre of dance, by the way there is no specialization required to dance at the places which I just mentioned. ‘Dance like nobody is watching you’ – this is the mantra I follow at these places. Of course, this mantra helps me and is only a problem for people around me. But then there are places where you cannot follow this mantra for example Raas Garba at Navaratri. Being a Gujarati no wonder the craze for Garba flows into my blood but then I was a master at it only till I was fifteen. After that my exams clashed with the festival , not that I was a bookworm, the number of movies which I have seen and the novels which I have read during my exam days might easily outcross the figures of the regular days. But then we had changed locality, there was no company and bullshit like that in which I know you are not interested. So while I was away from the festival the steps kept evolving and for me the struggle begins to catch up with it.

Being in Cyprus, I cannot expect Navaratri festival to be celebrated for 10 days where I can catch up with my dance experience but as they say there is always a room for improvement and here it was for Ballroom Dance. In February 2007 the Ballroom Dance session for beginners were conducted in our office premises. A beautiful Greek lady worked hard to get our steps, posture and rhythm right. The experience was unforgettable, and after the sessions were over I simply could not wait for the intermediate sessions. Not hearing anything about the intermediate sessions and after a few months of patience I started looking up in the local newspapers for some dance academy where I could continue with my passion. And my search ended when I found The Panicos Charaloumbus Dance School (name changed!) right near my office. I called up the number, and a lady answered the phone. I enquired about the sessions and was fortunate enough as they were planning to start sessions for beginners in one or two weeks of time. Then she asked me my date of birth. I understood from her later that it was required so that she could pair me up with students of appropriate age. Having done with all the formalities I could not wait for the sessions to start. The first session was on Wednesday 5:30pm-7:30pm. Our ‘official’ office timings are till 6:30pm, but I had already got the permission to leave early on that day. After the meeting, which we managed to finish off by 5:30pm, I rushed to the school. I didn’t want everyone at the school to think of me who follows I.S.T. (Indian Stretchable Time). It is important because what I believe is that when you are staying away from your country in a foreign land; you not only represent yourself but also your country.

When I was there the school did not totally appear as a school from outside. In fact it wasn’t, it was typical bungalow with a small garden around the house and a board saying the name of the school. I confirmed with the lady watering the plants if I was at the right place. After her affirmation I managed to get on the first floor where after a series a right turns and left turns I was in a big hall with big mirrors on one side and a group of girls facing it and doing some warm up. With some hesitance I entered the hall but then had a thought that may be I am in a wrong class and should check out the other classes in the school. But the school had only one class. Then I thought may be the sessions which I had to attend must be on a different day and not Wednesday. What amazes me is the speed at which your mind thinks and the thoughts which you process. All this just in a flick of a second and I turned back and was moving out of the class when I heard someone call me.

‘Rajiv? Is that you?’ – questioned me someone from the class. When I turned back and replied ‘uhh, yes … I had registered for the Ballroom Classes , but may be I missed my sessions or I am in a wrong class’ . Then she told me that I had not missed any of the session and I was at the right place. She was the dance instructor and requested me to join them for the warm up after which she had plans to proceed with the session. I swallowed a gulp of air and placed my bag down as I started the warm up session with group of nine girls and me being the only boy. The dance instructor was the only person who understood and spoke English rest all only Greek. I know that at this point of time many of you must already be envy of me and wish to be in my position. Who wouldn’t like to have some warm up sessions and one hour of ballroom dance with beautiful Cypriot girls? But for now I was not at all comfortable and the only thing I could do is to try and resist my laughter. Yes I had to laugh because except for my dance instructor the tallest girl in that group did not even reach my shoulders. Yeah, they were all school girls from the age of 9-12.To dance with these school going toddlers was the toughest job ever. They don’t speak and understand your language and just want to drag you all around the room. They were divided into two groups with one group to do the rehearsals with me and the other one with the instructor. And the song went ‘perhaps perhaps perhaps’ – such a beautiful song but it was quite unpleasant experience to dance with these kids because of the height mismatch and many other things. But then we heard some footsteps, someone climbing up the stairs to reach the class. I prayed for it to be someone of my age or at least a guy so that he could share part of my suffering. But alas, there she was another 8 year old sweet cute little girl. I could have continued dancing with them as a mentor but then I was a student myself and had to learn many things. Also with no guy around, I did not want to end up dancing like a girl. So I made an excuse about my work and was out from there in few minutes.

With my hysteric laughter I ran out of the school while the lady still watering the plants noticed me and was obviously shocked with such expressions of mine. This was one of the most unforgettable moments. The intermediate sessions have now started at our office premises and unquestionably I was the first one to register. It was Rumba that we had to practice today and the song went ‘perhaps perhaps perhaps’. This reminded me of the dance school incidence and I had a big smile while my dance partner was confused about the reason for my smile and we continued dancing. Dancing with those kids was perhaps more like singing a lullaby to a child sleeping in the cradle while you are swinging it. Moreover it was I believe it was a LIVE joke performed by GOD almighty with his friends around laughing at me. Even I enjoyed his joke on me which will always make me, and whoever I narrate this to, smile in future.

The many names of ME!

2007-10-23T02:36:00.001-07:00

It was William Shakespeare who wrote ‘What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.’ I am not here to defeat the literary genius on this point. A name is something which distinguishes one from another. However, this so called something – ‘name’ is not what I want to discuss here but names that express affection. Yes, pet names.

Speaking of me, few people know that I am known by many names. To begin with, my childhood pet name was one of the most common Gujarati pet names – ‘Laaloo’. For people who are not aware that this name is a common Gujarati pet name, they often confuse it for Laaloo Prasad Yadav and wonder why any parent would call their kid affectionately with such a name. Basically, ‘Laalo’ is how few people refer to Lord Shree Krishna. So when people see cute little children, playing around the house, messing up things they name them with different versions of Laalo. Yes different versions of same name. Like at different stages in my life I was called up as – Laaloo, Laalo, Laala and even Laali sometimes when my mom was in a very affectionate mood. Oh I am sorry I forgot to mention you the Marathi version of that name, it is – ‘Laalya’. My neighbors were Maharastrian and they found this name much more preferable over the other names which I mentioned. I am sure reading those names sounds nothing more than a nursery rhyme or humming out a lullaby, but for me they will always be words of motherly affection.

I was born in 1985. Few months before my birth a squadron leader and pilot with the Indian Air Force embarked on the historic mission in 1984 as part of a joint space program between the Indian Space Research Organization and the Soviet Intercosmos space program and spent eight days in space. His name was Rakesh Sharma and my Grandfather was very much impressed with this man. My grandfather (father’s father) had big dreams for me and named me – ‘Rakesh’. I was too young when he rested in peace. In fact, I was so young that because of not having an understanding of what, actually, has happened - I could not even cry on his funeral. May be this is what he wanted, he did not want me to cry but he wanted me to smile forever and to fly and touch the skies. Of course, I am not an astronaut today to go in space but I am an optimist. News flashed few days back which said ‘Now you can easily travel in space – just need 125 crores INR’. Needless to say I switched back to the channel of reality – the channel of life.

I am not a silly person to say that by mentioning grandfather I, actually, meant my father’s father but there is a reason for this. Though it was him who named me ‘Rakesh’, none of the relatives from my father’s side called me with this name. For them I was always laaloo or laaloo bhai for my cousins. But few relatives from my mother’s side they still call me by this name. This aroused a lot of confusion in my mind as confused as you are now while reading this. What I could never understand is that why people from same house called me with different names. Like my mothers brother, his wife and their son they all call me Rakesh but their daughter she calls me – ‘Gopal’. Yet another name added to my list, I had no objections and questions to this.

For people like us (me and my friends!) the definition of pet name varies from person to person. Affection might not be the only reason, sometimes the reason might originate from the place a person belongs to, like my friend ‘Chuna’ who actually stays at Chunabhatti. It was not just Chuna, there were many others like Virus, Chimni, Bachha, Mowgli, Gud, Mankhurd and the funniest being ‘Babloo Blousepiece’. I would have liked to share the story behind that name but I have another one which is about my friend ‘Vasu’ (obviously his real name is not Vasu!). In college days we used pair up most of our friends with a girl or two. This way you can easily harass both the girls and boys. So this guy was paired up with a girl named Sapna. One day, someone mentioned that he saw a movie named ‘Ek duje ke liye’ which was basically love story and the name of the couple in the movie was ‘Vasu-Sapna’. Till this day we call this guy Vasu and he gets frustrated with that. For this poor guy one name was not enough. A professor of ours, in one of the lectures, noticed my friend talking with his bench mates. Now I don't know what made him so furious that he actually threw a duster at my friend. My friend had to take three stitches and there you go, he got his new name – ‘Takya’.

Going back to college, where we paired up vasu and sapna, why would everyone spare me? They paired up me with this girl whom every called ‘Rock’. At many occasions she was noticed raising her one eyebrow quite like what Rock the wrestler did. So they aptly named her Rock. Now poor girl was already much irritated with the new name and because my friends could no longer call her with this name they named me Rock. They used to shout this name till they died with satisfaction that she was harassed. But whatever might me the reason to keep a name for a person other than his actual name, sooner or later this reason vanishes. What remains is just the name. Even today when I refer to my friend as Vasu it is not because I actually rethink the whole story behind that name but because it reminds me of the days we spent together. And today on phone when I talk to my friend, who is in US, he still calls me Rocky not because he wants to irk that girl, but over a period of time this is what we got used to. It is like if you are used to referring someone as Chirounjilaal you just cannot start calling him Salman from next day. By the way, for the curious souls, let me tell you that the girl is happily married.

BHAPIE – this is one absurd name given to me. During our submissions in my final year engineering I had my project report in my hand. The font spacing on the report cover was not accurate and it made the double T in my surname to appear as ? (pie). My friend actually read it as a pie and derived this Bhapie. Adding a few more usual ones derived directly from my name – Raj, Raju, Raju-Kaju and Rajib. Not to forget the ‘Mote’, as there was a time when I was healthy enough for people to call me a fatty. Trust me, you can figure out the affection when someone calls you ‘Aye Mote’. Gone are the days when I was referred as the fatty, the motu. They no longer call me laaloo. While few still continue referring me with other names.

My name gives me an identity. It gives identity to my deeds. The names which I mentioned earlier are all different ways of affection of my friends and family towards me.Not that I do not know the meaning of my name. My actual name means Lotus flower. But just to improve your general knowledge I performed a search on Google for the meaning of my name and what I found is this – “Your name means ‘lotus flower’, derived from the Sanskrit origin meaning ‘striped.’ There was a prominent Indian politician with your name who was assassinated in 1991.” On that hysteric note I present you my name – Rajiv.

Idiosyncratic Confession - Part 2

2007-10-09T05:57:00.001-07:00

(... continued from first Post. )

‘ah la la la’l…life is beautiful... ah la la la’l life goes full circle’ went the song which the two guitarist, in front of me, were trying to rehearse. And I thought how true it was. Life always goes in full circles, there are situations when you just feel that this moment, this very moment should pass away, you struggle every moment hoping so that you can rest in peace only to find out later in life that life has really gone in full circle!. When the guy plucked the first string of guitar, I thought that for me learning guitar is a much better alternative when compared to piano. Few days back my roommate had asked me if we could join the piano lessons.Although music is food for my soul, I still resisted.But now after listening to the acoustic guitar, I decided to add up this activity to my wishlist and to try and find out a tutor from any corner of this island.On our way back home from office,we were humming to old melodic songs. My roommate(the one who talked about getting piano lessons) wondered aloud that it was in these moments that he felt one should know how to play atleast one musical instrument, I agreed with him. True that I do not know about any musical instrument “uh .. may be, that’s why I sing??” was my reply. “But you do not even know how to sing!” . Because I could not beat him on that point I simply pressed on the gas, took a left turn and we were there – home.Actually, home away from home.

Natasha(name changed!) was the name of my trainer. I do not know how and why now this name came to my mind but not yesterday while I am also still trying to remember the lady’s name from Sampoorna office.I had to appear for the test on Thursday ,however, because of such short notice I was very nervous. No matter how much time the sun shines in the sky it has to set, it never complains or gets nervous before going down the horizon.The sun never complains about short notices then why should I? Back then I did complain and I still appeared for the test giving the most common excuse – ‘Not feeling well’. People like me have so made these words a cliché; the extent to which one can no longer use these words even when he is actually not feeling well!. When I returned home after the test,I had ramdom thoughts in my mind. The kind of thoughts one usually gets when he knows that something wrong was done knowingly. I was wondering what conclusions Ms. Trainer must have derived from the most frequently used cliché. Next day, things weren’t that bad she asked me how was I feeling, and gave us some call center sorta assignment(in which I peformed well!), then I had a relaxing weekend.Monday morning the people in the city had to face torrential rainfall. Neither the clouds were tired to pour down water from the skies nor I to wait for the call regarding my performance in the test. This week we were supposed to work in a 2pm-11pm shift.And in the relaxing weekend I forgot to prepare for the assignment which we were supposed to submit on Monday. The call center cab came at around 12:30 near Nerul railway station. Only between 9pm-7am they give a ‘pickup and drop from home’ facility, all other times we need to go to the nearest checkpoint.I was there in the cab waiting for another employee to join in. The cab driver went to have a pan and asked me to honk when the other guy arrives. Just when he reached the pan shop my phone rang. Renita(name changed!) told me that I had cleared the first round and had to attend tomorrow interview next day morning 10:30pm sharp in Pune.Finally, yes Renita was the lady’s name from the Sampoorna office! But hey Pune?? tomorrow? Such a short notice .. not again!! I jumped out of my seat and headed straight towards home. By the way I had tried hard to recollect her name but thanks to Rediff. The cab driver, with pan in his mouth, saw me leaving his cab. He raised his hand and tried to call me. He was finding it difficult to pronounce words because of the pan in his mouth. I looked back and waved him off with a smile on my face.

After the expressway was open to all, Pune was just a 2-3 hours drive from nerul. I had planned to catch a bus, from the Nerul highway to Pune , at six in the morning. I had to wait more than a hour for the bus which is not the usual case.Entered Pune city at wrong time – peak hours. Traffic choked all the arteries of the city and there I was sitting in the bus swearing at the traffic around just because I was late for my interview!. After I got off the bus, the first thing I had to do was to inform Renita that I was late for the interview. I did that and was comforted by her when she told me to talk to the HR guy in Pune and explain him the situation. It was 3pm when I reached the I.T. firm. Instead of asking an explanation for my late arrival I was asked to have a lunch in the cafeteria. After this I was totally relaxed, cleared all the rounds of interview and after around 3 hours I was done with all formalities which asked me to join the firm in Pune from next Monday. While signing the contract papers I could see myselves turning back and waving off to the cab driver. Then I realized that it was not the cab driver whom I waved off but it was the call center job.

I no longer needed the call center job. It was one which I had taken up to spent my idle time in vacations. But vacation was about to end. I had to wrap up everything by that weekend so that next week onwards my life could move on from Pune.I did not turn up for the call center job for the next two days. I went there on Friday morning and submitted my resignation papers. Perhaps if you did not notice that italicised morning in the previous sentence indicates the absence of Natasha from office in the early hours. When asked for the reason to leave the call center job I told them about my Post graduation plans. Almost every day after final year results someone or the other was talking about Post graduation plans so it did not take much time for me to come up with the reason for leaving the job.The seniors in the office offered their best but I couldn’t tell them the simple truth of life that ‘fate’s calling’ instead I lied.That evening Natasha gave me a call and asked me about my disappearance from the office. I told her the entire story and also about my resignation.At that point of time, I felt, she overreacted.After laughing off at her reaction I simply forgot her. But how could I forget that she was my trainer in other words ‘guru’. Since childhood I have been taught ‘Guru brahma, guru Vishnu, guru devo maheshwara; guru sakshat parabrahma tasmay shree guruvey namah’ meaning – ‘The guru is the creator, the guru is the preserver, and the guru is the destroyer. The guru is the Absolute. I bow before you. ’ Today I confess. I am sorry Natasha. Natasha was my guru because she taught me the hard way that a graceful exit is a sign of maturity, something which I lacked at that moment.

Idiosyncratic Confession - Part 1

2007-10-02T01:43:00.000-07:00

So it has been almost a year that I have been working here in Cyprus. But before I begin let me take a deep sigh. A sigh is usually taken when you get a feeling of relief or some kind of sorrow but this one was for neither of them. This one was for all the moments which I have missed sharing with my friends and family and not knowing how many more I am going to. First thought I had in mind before writing this blog is that I will not write it from the beginning but I would rather interweave it. You will get to see what is going on in the present with some flashbacks of past, shedding light on unknown things, and may be some bits and pieces of future.

Today it is 1st of October, the Independence Day of Cyprus, a public holiday here but not for me. Not that I was not given a chance to take a holiday but it was me who decided to come to office and work which was much more preferable compared to what I do on holidays. The day was just not like the usual ones had many ups and downs (downs more!) moreover I almost had a war but life goes on. Cyprus has always been a war land - 'yudhbhumi', where everyone has always been on a war, sometimes it is the Greek v/s the Egyptians, sometimes it is the Turks v/s the Greeks and sometimes it might be you on a war with yourselves. War against your past, your present and future. Not every war demands blood, some demand sacrifice and patience. Not every war is fought to become independent; sometimes it is fought because you have to become dependent on the situations around you and get used to it. Not every war is fought to win; sometimes it is fought to lose. Right now, even I am on a war to finish off this blog, similarly I see that people around me and every single person - everyone is on a war.

Everything started off like a dream. It was after my exams of final year engineering in Information Technology. I was already recruited by a renowned I.T. firm and hence I was enjoying my time back home with friends and family. I do not exactly recollect, since when, but my father always told my mom to get used to stay alone because he knew that I was going to leave them soon after my final year. We always laughed off his comments but not anymore. One evening, one of my friends gave me call and told me that off campus interviews are being conducted by an I.T. placement firm for an I.T. MNC from Pune and if I was interested I should call them. The criterion to appear for the test was to have secured 60% in all your semesters. Now out of the six semesters which I gave for my engineering there was one, the very first one, in which I had not secured 60%.I called up Sampoorna (the placement firm) and explained them about the situation. While still writing this blog, I am trying to remember the lady's name who picked up the phone at Sampoorna's office (I also performed a search in my Rediff mailbox for this!).I tried my best to convince her that I was eligible for the aptitude test, and the reply that I got was the usual one. I don’t mean 'yes' or 'no' by using the phrase 'usual one' here. But it indicates ones willingness to help, but cannot under the present circumstances. Then I hung up the phone hoping for her to call back again. Suddenly I realized that it is only hope that we can hold on to. And it is only because of hope that these wars go on. By the way I forgot to mention that in the mean while I was also busy with my call center job. After two days I got a call, asking me to appear for the aptitude test at the Don Bosco College of engineering on Thursday. So there begins a war.

I started with all my preparation while continuing with this call center job. I had not started taking calls yet, was just undergoing classroom training. It was a good experience, got to know about the culture in call center industry. About how it helps one become independent, how it can get you into wrong things, how it make you pronounce mate as 'maite' and today as 'to-die’. The best part was my working hours, 10:30pm-7:30am.Again a friend of mine had given me a reference for this job. I did not face any problem clearing this interview at least did not screw up as badly as I had when I went for my first call center interview three years back. I passed out from my diploma in computer technology in 2003.The admission procedure for engineering was about to change and was taking hell lot of time and I just could not waste all that time back home warming the chair in front of my computer. 'You have convincing skills but you need to improve upon your communication skills' - these were the words of the interviewer which was my first ever interview for an International Outbound call center job. After three years, I was back to square one, again in same situation just that the company was different and I am not trying to flatter my selves but even I was rather in a very good situation. ‘You are in' - were the words of the interviewer this time. It took roughly around thirty minutes to complete all the formalities and there I was - another victim of the call center boom.

I am getting very bad with names is my complaint. Usually I am not that bad.I,actually, try and remember a persons name because I believe people usually do not like it when others forget their names or even if they do not care, but at least if you remember their names it shows interest. I am trying hard to recollect the trainer’s name who was giving us the training on Australian accent, culture and English vocabulary and grammar. This time I cannot even search for her name in my rediff mailbox because I never e-mailed her. She actually did not fit in there as a trainer but rather appeared a lady who is in her early thirties, trying to prove everyone how much independent and confident she was. I do not intend to write much about her but it is what I did to her that makes me feel sorry.

To be continued … :)