POST IT? OK

Okay, this is going to be a considerably useless post than the previous ramblings. Whatever.

So here I was, an over-worked creature, cuddled up in front of my laptop which has the not-so-enviable task of seeing my mug for a large part of the day. In bits and pieces, through an ingenious invention called GTalk, and a horrendous little application called Outlook Express (yes, the same 'Please, sir... Not more than 2 MB, or I'll die!' ), along with a propensity on my part to try and engage myself in a lot of activities at one go, came the realisation that my memory was as dependable as a George Bushian promise to sign the Kyoto Protocol.

Anyway, with the failing of my cranium to regurgitate chronological happenings with the efficiency with which they were encrypted in the first place, came a realisation. A dawning, if you will. And the answer, came in those cute li'l yellow adhesive notes... Post-Its. So then I cleaned up side of the cupboard overlooking my table and whenever an event, deadline or anything of the sort was supposed to be committed to memory, I religiously noted it down on them little jaundiced squares. And stuck 'em to the cupboard wall. Now things went on just about well. I had presentations, to-calls, mails to be send, proposals to be made et al nicely noted out. I felt this strange sense of pride, these post-its were my way of feeling organized. Surreal.

And then, lo and behold. Along came electronic post-its, which you could put up on your desktop. Initially, I was thrilled. I could edit them in whatever way I wanted, copy-paste, and save on the physical ones. It seemed to good to be true. It was. I ended up fiddling with the goddamn things so much that I never got any of the work done. I had ambitious plans of using the calendar function to alarm me on birthdays. Failed miserably, I only remember birthdays when a cousin or a frnd calls me and says "Have you wished him/her" and my usual reply is "Yaar, I was just about to do that", sadly many a times this call comes too late.

I even realised I could change the colour! Blue post-its! No, really! And hell, I had all the reminders I needed without having to lug my cupboard along! Woohoo!The more I used them, the more I realised they were a pain, rather than a convenience.

I needed the physicality of the manual post-its. The scribbling over things I did was far more orgasmic, than a simple "DELETE" that gave me no hormonal pleasure whatsoever :The handwriting in various fonts that no Font Creator can replicate. And moreoever, the electronic things cluttered my clean desktop!

So the decision was quite easy to take. Uninstall, go back to manual.

And things have been great, since. Sometimes, some things are best left traditional.

'Make Blog entry' ... Scribble over! :D

Problem

There are enuf..... problems when you move to a new city. The one that comes-up everytime I get an party invite is damn depressing.

It is detailed below:

The single guy/girl is supposed to ask out any frnd aquintance for the big night and the my situation is described as a CASE STUDY

a) Objective: Find HOT date for the Party

b) Problem Statement:1. Don’t know too many chicks in mumbai
2. The good ones are already booked

c) Alternatives: 1. Network with colleagues begging them to introduce us to their nice friends
2. Hang around the cafeteria or canteen, eyes wondering desperately trying to
spot somebody pleasant (not applicable in my case)
3. Frenzied phone calls to strangers only to find out that they have already been
booked
4. Go back to elimination list (alternative 2) in sheer desperation and randomly
choose people the night before D-day, only to get a smug reply, “I am sorry,
but I am going with So-and-So”.

d) Implementation Plan: Go stag with your best friends and have the time of your life!

Things My Mom Taught Me

I recieved this Email from friend - one of those chain mails that gets forwarded to everybody in the list. But this one was good, so good that I had to post it on my blog.
.
.
.
.
was thinking of how a mom can shape a number of attributes of a person.....

i think a number of us cud relate to examples mentioned in the incidents
This is how my mom taugh things to me...

"Things My Mom Taught Me"

My Mom taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE।
"If you're going to kill each other, do it outside। I just finished cleaning!"

My Mom taught me about INDIVIDUALISM।"
I bet if all your friends jumped off a bridge, you would too!

My Mom taught me RELIGION।
"You better pray that stain will come out of the carpet।"

My Mom taught me about BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION।
"Stop acting like your father!"

My Mom taught me LOGIC
"Because I said so, that's why।"

My Mom taught me FORESIGHT।
"Make sure you wear clean underwear, incase you're in an accident।"

My Mom taught me about HYPOCRISY।
"If I've told you once, I've toldyou a million times - Don't exaggerate!!!"

My Mom taught me IRONY।
"Keep crying and I'll *give* you something to cry about!"

My Mom taught me THE CIRCLE OF LIFE.
"I brought you into this world,and I can take you out."

My Mom taught me about the science of OSMOSIS.
"Shut your mouth and eat your supper!"

My Mom taught me about CONTORTIONISM.
"Will you *look* at the dirt on the back of your neck!"

My Mom taught me about ENVY.
"There are millions of less fortunatechildren in this world who don't have wonderful parents like you do!"

My Mom taught me about STAMINA.
"You'll sit there until all that spinach is finished."

My Mom taught me how to solve PHYSICS PROBLEMS.
"If I yelled because I saw a meteor coming toward you;would you listen then?"

My Mom taught me about WEATHER
."It looks like a tornado swept through your room!"

IT AIN'T FUN

So, I met her again.

All this while, I kept thinking of words to say to her, I kept thinking of finally saying it. But thats it. As soon as I see her these words just hide in my mind, I talk bout the world, bout everything there is to talk, except, what I wanted to talk. And all talks seem so small. They end as soon as they begin.

You don't know, if you should say it, if you should ever say it, if she feels the same way you do, and if you say it - would it be all over.

And the only way to find out is to say it. But you can't say it.

I am going back to Mumbai tomorrow, without saying it. Don't know when will I see her next, Don't know, if I would ever see her next. Seems like God's playing games with me...... for the nth time now.

My heart says the fire burns on the other side as well, but the mind says otherwise. I know I ll have to say it once, the sooner the better.

Next time for sure............

Coasting along ...

Quite some time since I posted, so what have I been up to –

1) Serving out my notice period.

2) Handing over stuff that I was doing at workplace and KT (knowledge transfer – One thing I still cannot get myself to believe is that I actually have knowledge to transfer. But then, if people want to labor under that illusion, don’t blame me)

3) Orkutting.

4) Reading up some stuff – trying to get back into the student mode. Working (in my case at least) has reduced my ability to sit in a place and read any printed material. At best I just skim through it and move on to something else. I have been spending the last few weeks trying to get back my studying habits.

5) Getting in touch with friends and renewing acquaintances. It struck me, a few days back that I was losing contact with my friends and I started a conscious effort to keep in touch with them. Happy to note that they do remember me :)

6) Started getting together stuff that would be required for my stay in Mumbai.

7) Calling up future workmates and cribbing about life in general and Mumbai in particular.

8) Finally coming to Mumbai and settling down (Will elaborate it later - its 3am and the alarm is set to 7am)

Pretty dull post, eh? But that’s the way life has been for the past few weeks.

Materialistic Me.

There are people who say that being materialistic wouldnt lead to salvation...... Ediots ..... they havent played Dearth Vaider on PS3 ..... thats as close to salvation as it gets

All this far I have refrained myself frm ... writing on devices..... I am emotions personified (girls u listenin) .... but recently there have been a couple of products that would manage to get even the most serious sage out of his ... dhyan .... or watever else it is called ..... for example the choice of gaming console ... XBOX, WII and mah favourite PS3 ... its the best gaming console mankind has ever seen .... the gaming consols have been around for almost two decades, but never was there such a fanfare and enthusiasm for the release of something that makes you play boxing with just moving your fingers.

PS3 ... has got 120 gigs of memory ... thats more than enuf to save all u ever liked.... best gameplaying graphics .... of course we in India wouldnt knw the first thing about high defination graphics... we are so used to getting distorted pictures from out local cablewala that we buy LCD's just by lookin how good they look and not their picture quality. Yes. On a standard TV you wont be able to tell the difference between the graphics you see on your comp. and those of PS3.

Rob a bank! buy a HDMI Plasma ... hook it on to your PS3 and enjoy the rest of your life. That is ... rest of your life before you land in jail.

Then there are the mobile phones of the century. I ll tell you a story. There is a company from Finland called Nokia... it gave us phones that neither had wires nor needed a briefcase to carry them .... they were called mobile phones. Then one day it got tired of making mobile phones and made N 95. Yes thats the dream phone... Saying that a man dosent dream of N95 is like saying he dosent dream of being alone on a deserted island with Yana gupta .

The day I saw the ad ... i fell in love with this thing ... the ad says it all .... and its so awesome ....
and not like the lousy hritik's Sony Erricson dump ... oh sorry thats called Thump....

The phone has everything u ll ever require in your life and beyond... its got a 3.2 inch LCD screen ... 5MP Carl Zeiss lens..... yes you heard it right .... 5MP .... auto focus .... it has GPS and its 3.5G ... nevermind the fact that we in India have still not adapted 3G

Where was I? Much about this phone feels almost illegally satisfying. The satnav looks fantastic, swooping in, Google Earth-style, from planet to park bench, as long as you have an active internet connection.

its got all the connectivity options ... infrared, bluethooth is passe .... its got Network GSM/3G/HSDPA, UPnP Wi-Fi .... I dont know what most of them mean but dont you like the sound of it.

It has a two way slider... a turn into a music phone by just a slide.... Though on a downside ... it has no touch screen and hence no stylus... though you would need that only if you get over looking that phone.

N95 costs above 30,000 bucks and deserves every penny spent.... most importantly this thing feels right ... it feels heavenly to have the damn thing in your pocket.... but then thirty thousand

The other phone is LG Prada ... one look and you know why vivek, salman, abhishek and a billion others were fighting ..... its called BEAUTY man....I'm sure the designers got into a pact with The Devil to make something as good looking as this...

Beating the iPhone by over three months, this is the world’s first completely touchscreen mobile. Er, except it’s not. There are actually eight buttons around the three-inch screen, including power, call-answer, and a keypad lock. Having to use them is a bit like being shown a really cool motorbike, then being told you’re in the sidecar.

I dont know whats inside the phone ... nor what it does.... but thats the thing about beauty ... You wanna know whats inside but you cant (No pun intended) .... LG prada will release in India in about a month's time and is expected to be around Rs 40,000 ... but then dreams are free.

The third product is a mean machine its called Mahindra Classic ...

It a 4X4 ... and an open jeep ... no better than the ones available .... but it looks far better than all other things put aside (though not as good as Yana Gupta) .... To me its Attitude personified... Man just dreaming of how wud I look on the damn thing with mah new Aviator serious glasses (PS: i havent bought the glasses yet)

If the losses don't get you...

If you've been on a turbulent flight, you know how I feel.

I've been dribbling (think leaky faucet, not Beckham), its hard dribbling a house-shift (its harder if you are doing it for the first time-like I am), a volatile stock market and a break-up to top that all.

I can live with the first two things, but a break-up, two months ago - it was something that happens to others. But then things started getting bad and both of us had too much ego to correct the course. Both were too busy when the other wanted to meet. One thing led to another, small issues suddenly became big. And you know when you are down with something as bad as this - everything else seems bad.

Leaving a house, where I had literally spent all my life, 10 yrs to be precise. I still remember the day I moved in, the first cricket match I played in the park in front. I can still remember how it smelled and no it dosent always smell the same. A month ago, I wasn't ready to spent a single more day here. But today I wish if I could stay for some more time, if I could live those days again. I have both good and bad memories of this house, but as we move out, i can be proud that good memories far out-number the bad ones.

Same is with breaking-up, you spend hours thinking of those days, the first time we met, the first time we met alone, those memories make me laugh and cry at the same time. The hours we spent on phone, and the minutes we spent without speaking, just absorbing the moment. If I had put the phone down at that time even my Dad wud have enjoyed a couple of moments without fretting over the phone bills.

Neways, thats history now, it was as amicable as it gets, I had seen it comming two months ago, but had every hope that 'this too shall pass', like everything else had in these two years. But then all these are memories now.

Today, as I write, the market's up. If my (notional) losses don't get me, the volatility will. Nevertheless, we intend to stay the course and dribble away.

Confession: So I am a Recluse

If you think I am 'too serious' or regard me as aloof, arrogant, rude. Well, here is one truth: I dont like you either.

I know. My name is Daljeet, and I am a Recluse.

Oh, for years this was something only I knew, and considering the number of people that read this blog, I am still the only one who knows this, but i have to get this off my chest. After all, I believe I have good social skills. I am not morose or misanthropic. Usually, I love long conversations that explore intimate thoughts or passionate interests.

Extroverts are energized by people, and wilt or fade when alone. They often seem bored by themselves, in both senses of the expression. Leave an extrovert alone for two minutes and he will reach for his cell phone. In contrast, after an hour or two of being socially "on," we introverts need to turn off and recharge. My own formula is roughly one hour alone for every hour of socializing. This isn't antisocial. It isn't a sign of depression. It does not call for medication. For introverts, to be alone with our thoughts is as restorative as sleeping, as nourishing as eating.

I asked a friend of mine who has masters degree in psycology and human physics, and also happens to be very good looking. Beauty with brains, now thats one helluva combination. Ah! we are deviating from the topic. So, I asked her as to how many people are recluse or introverts, and kinda marvel at her answer. She replied -"a minority in the regular population but a majority in the gifted population."

Extroverts are easy for introverts to understand, because extroverts spend so much of their time working out who they are in voluble, and frequently inescapable, interaction with other people. They are as inscrutable as puppy dogs. But the street does not run both ways. Extroverts have little or no grasp of introversion. They assume that company, especially their own, is always welcome. They cannot imagine why someone would need to be alone; indeed, they often take umbrage at the suggestion. As often as I have tried to explain the matter to extroverts, I have never sensed that any of them really understood. They listen for a moment and then go back to barking and yipping.

Extroverts therefore dominate public life. This is a pity. If we introverts ran the world, it would no doubt be a calmer, saner, more peaceful sort of place. As Coolidge is supposed to have said, "Don't you know that four fifths of all our troubles in this life would disappear if we would just sit down and keep still?" (He is also supposed to have said, "If you don't say anything, you won't be called on to repeat it.")

The worst of it is that extroverts have no idea of the torment they put us through. Sometimes, as we gasp for air amid the fog of their 98-percent-content-free talk, we wonder if extroverts even bother to listen to themselves. Still, we endure it all, because the etiquette books—written, no doubt, by extroverts—regard declining to banter as rude and gaps in conversation as awkward. We can only dream that someday, when our condition is more widely understood, when perhaps an Introverts' Rights movement has blossomed and borne fruit, it will not be impolite to say "I'm an introvert. You are a wonderful person and I like you. But now please shush."

It is not that I dont like to talk to people, I love meeting new persons, talking to them, knowing them, letting them know me, making new friends. I just love it all, but there is a limit, I love meeting people but I simply adore quiet time with myself, cuddled up reading a book, or just sitting in the verandah doing nothing.

I like eating, but one thing that I like more than eating is..... eating alone. Not that I dont go to dinners, almost every weekend I am out with frnds or cousins or someone else. Rather I would like to do it everyday. But as I said earlier for every hour out i need one hour by myself. So, my time with myself is the most important thing. The next time you call me and ask what am I doing and I reply back saying 'I am doing NOTHING'. Remember thats the most important thing I can ever do.

The Village Marriage - part 2 (The Suffering)

As soon as I entered the village, my first sight was a pond, I dont know what else to call it, the water was black in colour, and had black buffalows in it, which were hardly distinguishable. The houses were of brick only and had no paint on them, the first good thing of the day happened here. We asked two village boys, exactly the same age as ours, about Pragat's house, both of them didn't tell us the way, instead they walked 2 kms. with us till the house, knocked on the door and told pritpal's mother that we have brought your guests, and then they went back as quietly. That stuff was awe-inspiring. Being from a city where if I ask someone the way, he would not stop for a second to tell me that, this stuff was amazing. i now had a feeling as to why my dad wanted to come to the village.

We entered the house and sat inside a room that had a cooler and the latest DVD system with 5.1 music system. wtf... why the hell wont they spend half of it to get the the house painted. Nevermind, there came pragat with a glass full of tea. now the glass was twice the size of the biggest glass i had ever seen. He said to me that boy beacuse you are from delhi i have brought you tea, else we here drink lassi. I mean this much tea would have been consumed in next 10 days had it been in a thermos, but it was in a glass or a jug as it would have been called in delhi.

Then, her slder sister came with a plate full of sweets. and the eating continued for the rest of the day. i was not used to this kind of a welcome. and i was ready to stay there as long as they served me like this. Man I felt like a king. In the evening there were a few celebrations. I must mention that my friend pragat singh whos getting married is a preacher of sikh teachings, this is his full time job. The marriage was expected to be simple but what came ahead baffled me. We were told to sit in a line on the cots in the verandah and fed sweet rice with sweet curd. thats it. I thought that were starters and I kept thinking but nothing else came, except another round of the same. I asked randeep about the dinner and he told me to shutup and eat it and thats what I did.

Then we went to take a walk around the village fields while the sun was setting. The sight was too good. There was deafning silence everywhere, now at this time i am used to hear horns and all kinds of noises, but the silence was so calm. Within next 20 minutes there was darkness and of course no street lights. We went back to pritpal's place. There in the verandah they were setting a DJ what the @#$%^*@#$ Man they could have certainly given us good food. The DJ, pragat later told me was set up by his cousins without telling him and that led to a lotta disturbance in the house, he wanted to keep the marriage as simple as it goes.

Anyways I saw a lotta bhangra and did a bit myself too. then while we were leaving the village gals came up to the stage for giddah, everyone still kept going and to my amazement no one looked back, may be they had seen it a lot too often or they were not supposed to and did not, I still managed to steal a few glances. and also identified the ones i need to look at tommorow morning !!):

there I was heart broken and dead tired and we were told to sleep in veerandah, i was given a cot beacuse I was a delhiwala and wont be able to sleep on the floor, I made meagre noises and even offered my cot to someone else to show my generosity. But i didnt ask much or they would have gotten a feeling that i genunily dont want it. Then I would have cursed myself to death. The guys started having heated discussions on a couple of topics, they werent interested in my opinion bcoz i was a delhiwala, but i still managed to make quite a few meaningful interjections and was able to convince them of my intelligence, atleast thats what i still think.


Next day morning I woke up with sun shining on my head, i thought i had missed the marriage when i saw everyone sitting near me and drinking tea, even pragat was there. I looked at the watch and it was 7 am. I was offered tea but i wanted to brush my teath. i was given a mug and was told to go to the handpump. wtf. I should have backed out of this trip. but again i had no choice i went to handpump in the fields. straight out of bed. While i was comming back i saw a bunch of girls passing as soon as they saw me they started laughing. what the hell. have they not seen a dude before. At least i had my teeth all brushed. the girls, I must mentioned consisted of the bunch i had marked out yesterday. Murphy GOD.

Next task was to relieve myself. I am not too sure if I should be saying this but man I require a clean toilet. I just require it. What i was given instead was something that had turned black with dirt and had walls the height of my waist. Did i mention that it was in the middle of where buffalows reside. I am sure it was made for them. I some how manage to survive what felt like eternity. I went back for the bath at the handpump. That was a difficult task. i need to tell all this to my dad and am sure he wouldnt talk bout a village ever again. and i aint comming back.

The marriage was as simple as Pradeep wanted, after the marriage, while i was checking out the food the same bunch of girls came and started talking to me, they were also laughing for no reason. i was about to drop dead. I manage to sneak out of the conversation that centered around me. The food was good. Infact simple but good.

We all meet with the couple, laughed a lot. And then came back to the rooms where we had kept out luggage. We packed it as we were about to leave. We left the village at around 5 pm and took a bus for Amritsar. We spent a day at Amritsar and from there Pritpal and icchpal went back to delhi, as they had to rejoin their respective offices. We roamed different parts of punjab i.e Jullandhar, Ludhiana, Taran Taaran for the next three days, but we never stayed at a hotel, randeep would manage to find a relative or a friend in every city of punjab and they were all more than happy to let us in for the night.

The last four days we were to spend in randeep's village in Patiala. We stayed the night of our sixth day at one of randeep's relatives in the patiala city. When we took a bus to randeep's village in the morning. the state transport bus had a television and luxury seats it dropped us a kilometer before village. and we walked the entire klometer.

Contd...

The Village Marriage - Part 1

Now it was 10 days before the holi of 2006 .... a distant friend of another distant frnd was getting married and he happened to call me in passing ..... now those who have read my previous posts must be aware that there are prerequisites for calling me to a marriage ... a AC hall is one of em .... and i had doubts they wud have a fan in their entire village ... but then i thought that this can be an all expense paid for extreme adventure trip ..... so i said YES.

Also my father had mentioned it once that he wud like to retire to farming in a small village where everyone knows everyone else unlike our city..... although my father have gotten used to luxuries of life .... i still thought he was a bit serious ...... rather i didnt give it much thought untill this trip.

The day before we were to leave .... my frnds came to spend the nite at my place coz it was a 6 50 am train ....yup 6 50 am as in morning .... too damn eraly morning ...... icchpal .... jaspreet and pritpal ... ... randeep was to meet us at the station ..... he didnt want to bother me ... how thoughtful .... whn wud others learn ...... now my concern was the 6 50 train and i was havin nitemares form the time we bought the tickets .....

We have this Peculiarity at our place .... my dad is so punctual of time that u can match the watch by his moves .... if he has to reach somewhere at 6 in the mornin ... he still wont be late !!!! now that can only happen with me i dont sleep for the whole nite .... and thats wat i decided

we chatted till 3 am and as always i had so much more to say ...but they all fell asleep .... and no it wasnt my talk ... they were just plain tired ..... i had no other chance but to fall asleep .. knowing fully well that if i do so there was no way i culd wake up in mornin and be on time ..... but still......

now icchpal woke me up at 5 and by that time everyone else was up ..... i kinda envy ppl who can wake up on time without the intervention of any outside force like mothers ....... i have to say sleepin on the floor of my own room wasnt a gud experience and i was already cursing myself for aggreeing for the trip ..... i was not too sure how i culd spend the next 10 dayz .... neways i left my bathroom on their mercy ..... and went to my parent's room with plans of taking a bath myself ..... i saw a nicely made bed with no one sleepin ..... what a waste .... so i thought to untidy it by relaxing it for 15 more mins ... whn my mom came to wake me up again i had made my mind not to go on this trip ... hell i dont even need frnds ..... just let me sleep ...... but as usual i was dragged out of the bed by THE MOTHER .....

Everyone had finished with their breakfast went i came frm bathroom .... jaspreet went to fetch an auto .... as soon as i sat on the table jaspreet came running and announced that auto is standing outside and meter is running ...... did i mention i dont like ppl ....... neways i grabed a sandwich .... and ran .... everyone was worried we mite miss the train .... and we had to meet randeep ....... never mind i wasnt worried .... i was secretly hoping i miss the train and go back home to sleep some more .... neways the auto driver was sent by the devil .... cruised like he had the same genes as michel schummaker .....we reached on time ...... a first for me ....

Randeep was already standing on the platform and we had no problem finding the 6ft sardar
We occupied our berths .... the ones that were alloted to us .... and i went out scouting for food ... now it isnt everyday that i see 6 50 am written on the watch ... and feeling hungry at that time was a sure first .... neways i grabbed a cuppa tea .... and paid .... as soon as i entered the train i saw an aunty sitting on my seat with three kids ..... i had the shock of my life .... that was a seat that i bought frm my dads hard earned money booked the tickets early to get a reservation and now someone else was sitting on it .... but i thought i shud first finish my tea .... or else i may have to share that too ... did i mention i dont like ppl .


After an hour of my standing near the seat looking at the kids dirtying my seat and seeing my dads hard earned cash going down the drain .... aunty offered me some space .... i thought she was mocking me ..... it was made for three ppl .... and it already had six .... i shud have backed out of this trip a long time ago ..... after another hour that felt like eternity .... aunty and her army of three got out of the train ..... and i finally had the seat .... bought by my dad's hard earned cash ..... anyhow after an hour of trying to sleep .... i thought of passing the time with my soulmates the buks ... i looked around my seat and saw two old uncles .... and thought here goes my readin ... i stood and offered em my seat .... icchpal also stood and offered the other uncle his ..... i looked at jaspreet for him to offer his to me but he was fast asleep by the window .....

then suddenly at a station before amritsar (our destination) pritpal said that if we get down at this station it wud be much closer to our destination village .... this station was called Dera Beas ...... and i had my doubts even if railway ppl call it a station coz our train didnt stopped there... it just slowed down to a crawl but never stopped .... we jumped out with our belongings ..... first jaspreet than icchpal then pritpal ..... and when it was my turn ...the train suddenly seemed so fast .... now i believe whenever anything can go wrong it can go wrong with me ..... but i wasnt about to back out ..... i had no option infact ..... so i jumped from a moving train ....another first ......

As soon as we got out of the station .... i thought we call for an auto to drop us at our destination ..... but hell thee were no autos ... infact out of the station i culdnot see a single rickshaw and thought how cud this place stay aloof frm the hordes of biharis ....seemed immpossible .... neways after an hour of waiting we saw a truck passing and waved ... he stopped and icchpal and pritpal went to talk .... i was too mesmerised by the site ....

The truckwala dropped us at the nearest crossing from the Jaboval village ... the nearest was infact 3 kilometers away .... i was cursing myself ..... we stated walkin ...... i dont know how much time it takes to walk three kilometers ...coz i had never done that ...... and i was dead tired in 20 mins ... my bag seemed like dead weight .... and i thought of calling my dad ...and asking him to come take me home .. but i didnt stop or slowed .... my prestige and pride was at stake ..... i ve heard people saying walking is good for health but i thought i could be the first man to die of walking ... nehow after what seemed like eternity we reached the village ..... i was seeing a village up close and personal for the first time ....

contd...

The Ideal Budget

It’s been three days since the budget was presented, and all major media vehicles took the pains of analyzing it and presenting it to their semi-literate audience that can hardly realize the difference between a CAT and a VAT, it seems futile, for the budget didn’t had anything worth explaining. Taking a note of the fact that this was one of the worst budgets ever presented in Indian parliament, I sat down to think what an ideal budget would be?

Would it be the one where the prices of human food are reduced, instead of dog food? Or will it be the one which as an exception reduces the taxes. Any of it, would do, but then they may be idealistic for the country, not for me. Because, for one I buy neither pet food, nor human one, that’s taken care of for me. And I don’t pay taxes, and have no plans of doing so for next couple of years. So, I start dwelling upon the question of ideal budget for me and I am not going to talk like the idealist who have not seen any poverty in their lives but would still make claims and decide for the poor. I will be what I am, and I represent hundreds of thousands of MTV watching, Coke drinking youngsters like me.

I believe, it should have, as a matter of policy, scrapped any taxes on fast food (I have no clue if there are any), well, Mr. Finance Minister, we have to pay for it from the meager pocket money that we get. So, while I visit McDonalds, I have to return with a VegSurprise and sometimes a small coke, if I am blessed, and that defeats the sole purpose of going to McDonalds. I would also like to include that from the perspective of the pocket money, I can easily be included among the poorest of poor. Also, there should be a subsidy for computer games, which the government must consider, keeps the kids off the streets and out of the harms ways. This keeps the supply of work force constant and hence, keeps the economy booming. Therefore, ideally the CD’s and DVD’s should be provided free of cost, if not that then there should be a huge subsidy on them.

The third, thing that I expect from an ideal budget is rationing of designer goods. This would lead to boosting the confidence of those who can not afford it and would also eliminate the disparities in the society. This budget also saw an increase in the duty on importing cars into India. This means Amithab Bacchan would have to spend a little more change when he decides to gift his son another Bentley or Porsche, for a change. But not an ideal budget, not at all, that would subsidize imported cars, for the simple reason that they produce less smoke and would lead to reducing pollution in the air, which would increase the health of the population and would lead to a better economy. Push and Pull economics Mr. Finance Minister.

Well, I would sum up my description of ideal budget, by saying that the ideal budget should be ideal for all quarters of society and hence for people like me too. The description may lead to the so called idealist cribbing, but then as I say, these are my views, and it may not necessarily match yours, if they don’t, get one thing, you are wrong.


E&OE

WEEDING WOES

I recently went to a wedding of a my friend's brother.

Now I go only to weddings which have either A/c halls, Parking, and a North Indian Buffet. Cause if you don't have them attributes, your not worth my time. After all my time is more precious than yours.

I always want to know something. Does one take the wedding invitation to the wedding? I mean AFAIK, my family has never taken one to any wedding they have been too. I first thought that this was another small quirk running in the Ravichandar's.So I decided to see if this was reality. I waited outside the hall entrance the my keen eye I observed the family from the car that pulled up behind me. If anyone will have the invite it wont be the Man of the family. Cause he has to pretend to look important and VIP like. Not the woman as she has to see that the damn kids she gave birth too are behaving themselves(and curiously only 10 yr olds are seen in weddings I never know why, that too the crying and bawling ones like you see in the movies). And there is the odd oldie who has to get out once in a while, they are the best bet, make some use of 'em..Nada!So..No one who comes to the wedding brings the Wedding invitations. I don't get it. Do you have any idea how much it takes to print those? Like 30-50 bucks a card with all that gold decoration and a double fold that opens out like a majestic swan in spring. I always have the feeling as I enter the hall that there's gonna be sudden check buy a polite yet sharp guy asking me for my invite. Nothing. But Im not so lucky when it comes to Tailor guys, Photo Dev guys and of course the worst Ticket Checkin on trains -.- who all insist No ticket, No Service. In the last case it gets a lot worse.essentially, the only place you can just walk in without any such ID is a wedding hall. I still feel like Im gatecrashing the place.


Then as I walk into the entrance of the hall, I get sprayed with some scented liquid and sugar by three giggly females, probably friends of the bride/groom. I dunno what custom that Is, but I took a bath so don't insult me. So can the spray sista

.Now since I don't know the bride or groom, the highlight of the evening for me would be the dinner. When/Where/What. Before that happens you have to sit somewhere and not look like you just came here to stuff your fat self. All eyes on the stage as we see the parents and friends of the couple running around across to each others room conveying updates. Could be- 'who came?', 'Is he/she done with saree/suit' etc. Ahhh..So sad. The pressure on them would be huge seeing so many people turn up. And for the 1st time being the spotlight with 500 ppl facing only on you. Thought you dodged the ppt presentations @ college in front of a huge audience? lol your dead now.As they make their appearance on stage, you can hear the screech of chairs and the shuffle of feet and the jostling of people trying to make it on stage being the 1st to give the happy couple their wedding gift, aka, compensation for stuffing themselves silly. Then I see the couple standing up, the girl in her 39483290432 rs saree(40% of the wedding budget) and the guy in his 3 kg Tux suit which is made of some wierd polyester that makes you sweat like crazy. A

s all the losers go and give the gift to the guy/girl, it is then handed over a small guy behind him the (probably the evil scheming cousin/loser who wanted to have some responsibility/someone good at counting in binary) . Reminds me of politicians go give flowers to the CM, then CM gives the garland to another guy. Both losers.

Anyway, the couple have to be on their feet for atleast 1 hr, pretend to know everyone who comes on stage with a smart nod and chit chat for the VIPs. What a pity. Add to that the intense 1000 watt light beaming straight at you from 3 strategically places cameras. The girl has to hope that her make up job don't melt in the heat. If the guy sees here as she really is he'd beat it in a heartbeat.

Now that the formality is over, all of them head out to the dining room. As expected the food was delicious. And people are eating like the plane was going down. Your not gonna believe this, but there was a separate chat section, serving bhel and pani puri! Is it ok to have second helping at weddings? If its a buffet style I mean, can u go back in line and ask for seconds? I mean the French fries were really good!So I ditch this paper plate, get a new one and I stealthily cut in line and tried look like a first timer. The server gives me a "Havent-I-seen-you-before-here-you-fatso' look as I come to him. What the hell dude?!The server guy thinks its his family jewels on line?! I get my seconds! Diminishing returns tho :( not as good as batch #1.

I see the sweets area as a 90 yr old dude is like loading 7 rasagullas into a steel container 5x7 made specially for this hit and run. Guess he wants to eat them in private and his nagging wife don't want him to die of diabetes type II.Finally as the crowd exits completing its rampage, they are all given a 'thambulam' or a bag having 2 coconuts, another custom. Hmm..if I were the guy footing this marriage, I wouldn't be handing them the bags, probably use it as a club and clonk the heads of every blood suckin tick that walked through my door.