Count Down 00: The Last One..!!!!

The last blog from this place. In an hour I will leave for airport.

It was a great fun staying at UStay Alone for last 20 months. I will miss this place, will miss u all over here!

People in India were happy for last 20 months. Now they are in trouble as "M" is coming back!!!

Hooooooo YAAAAAAAA!

Count Down 03 : All Set!!

I woke up in morning and checked my mail box, just to find that there was no mail about my ticket. So I almost had prepared my mind that I will have to leave on 27th. I went to office and when I started my Laptop, I got the good news that my ticket was finally booked after lots of firefighting!

This Christmas means a lot to me! I am so happy now!

Then we had gone to fare well lunch and I got one nice gift from my Manager. This damn good T-Shift! Perfect for me :)



Then I got a Gift of Marvin's Magic Box Tricks from the team. I am "supposed to be" Magic Man on the team. Basically we have one pet name for each of us. Then people signed my gift. Here are the signatures from my team members :

D : "Thanks for your Magic"
J : "Best Wishes"
M : "Don't forget Blogs, will surely miss MVP" (MVP is My Video Parlor and M has most number of hits to my blog. He is a religious reader of all craps I write. Hats off to his patience and thanks!)
P : "Enjoy Buddy & Best of Luck" (I talk passionately with P about my "dre@m$")
R : "From a geek to a geek. All the best" (R is known as Geek on our team)
A : "Don't forget FILMS, u know who!" (Myself and A always dream about making a movie in future. May our dream come true!)
V : "Its a small world, we will surely catch you"
K : "Wishing u all the best"
V : "All the best"
K : "Shall miss ur cooking tips, ATB" (One of my "cooking" students :P This'll sound pretty hilarious comment if you have gone thr' my previous blogs!)
S : "Good Luck"
V : "ATB"
S : "All the best"
N : "Good Luck"

Here is a pic of this sweet gift!



M & T had given me my rare photo as a gift few days back. Though this does not look to be my photo, it IS my photo and I have taken photo of the photo and uploaded that here. Thanks a lot for such a nice gift!!!



Also I received a so many mails from the people with whom I have worked for last 20 months. Actually I have worked with different vendors. This mail is from the team leader of one of them. He is not from company, but from different company, but our works are interdependent as we are working for the same business. The italics suggests that I have changed the words to hide the identity!

Hi My_name,

The XYZ team at Company_name Limited has enjoyed working with you and you have really been cooperative and always helped us do our jobs better. We like your patience and persistence in getting the work done. We always felt like obliging your request more out of love and respect since you have exhibited utmost professionalism and understood our concerns here.

We wish a very best from bottom of our hearts both in personal and professional endeavors. Good luck.

Regards
Name

XYZ Team Lead
On behalf of the whole team.

That was quite a touching one. I had a very good chemistry with almost all the groups.

I'll surely miss this place, I'll surely miss my work here and I'll surely miss the people around me!

Hats off to you guys for making my stay memorable and thanks a lot for everything!!!

Finally ....!

Finally got the tkt which I wanted! So I'll be enjoying my chrismas in the Plane!

Ha ha hhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

And I am ....

And I have only two things on my mind : I am pissed off and I am totally pissed off!!!

Why do every one want to celebrate Chrismas in the plane???? I am not able to get a single ticket to Mumbai on 24th Dec due to this. I am still fighting hard to get one!!!

No tkts on 24, 25 and 26!!! Might travel on 27th. Guess I need to reset my count down counter :)

Count Down 06 : Dil Chahta Hai!

I'm feeling too Lazy to write my crap which I have been writing for last few days! So just pasting one of my old blogs over here ;)

I am not GUILTY ...
I am not INNOCENT ...
I am just trying to SURVIVE!

I am not STUPID ...
I am not LEGEND ...
I am just trying to LIVE with it!

I am not HATED ...
I am not LOVED ...
I am just trying to be MYSELF!

I am not DEAD ...
I am not ALIVE ...
I am just trying to BE!

About Dil Chahta Hai :
Do I really need to write anything about this movie? I know the answer is NO, still would like to give some inside information about this movie : Farhan Akhtar originally wrote the movie by casting Akshaye Khanna as Akash, Hrithik Roshan as Siddhart and Saif Ali Khan as Sameer. When Hrithik Roshan turn down the movie the role went to Abhishek Bachan. After Abhishek's withdrawal Farahn take Aamir Khan with a quick change in the previous cast, swapping Akshay Khanna as Siddhart and Aamir khan as Akash.

This movie takes me to my days at Trivandrum, where I had seen movie 6 times. Before that I had seen it once in my hometown along with 25 friends and then twice in Banglore. When I shifted to Mumbai, I purchased VCD! I carried that with me here in UStayAlone! Now I see this movie on demand!!!

My Favorite Dialogue :

SHALINI : "Akash, Kal hum vapas ja rahe hai. Kya tum aaj raat dinner ke liye aa sakate ho ?"
AKASH : "Pata nahi" (Drops the Phone. A pause and a wicked grin!)




Aamir rocks big time in most of the scenes in the End!

Count Down 07 : Dead Man Walking

Continued from last post ....

After staying in that apt over one year, I shifted to live with Mahesh and Vinayak. Vinu had just landed in UstayAlone while Mahesh’s wife had gone for vacation! We all were Marathi. So since I started living with them I started doing “Hindi ki Chindi”! I mean started using marathi words occasionally while speaking Hindi. Normally I do so when I am on cloud number 9! In fact I am not that good when it comes to speak. (That does not mean that I am good at writing, just a clarification for interested people!).

Vinu was a starter for cooking thingie and I wanted Mahesh to be a better cook by the time his wife would come back. So I gave both of them equal chance! But I don’t know what was Mahesh instructed by his wife, Tanuja, he started practicing cooking religiously. Everyday by the time I used to come back from office, he would have made some curry or Subzi and then he used to go to play tennis. So I decided to give Vinu the chance to cook on the weekends. Mahesh does not listen to songs. But I made him listen “Aksar” from Shaan, everyday at least 15 times. In fact I used to put this song and “Le chale” from ‘My Brother Nikhil’ in repeat mode and sleep peacefully! The outcome was obvious …he started sleeping in different room! He is hardcore Sasshin fan and AB fan! Vinu, being from Dadar - Shivaji Park, he is also Sasshin Fan! Most of my friends would be able to understand what I want to say!

Soon, we were kicked out (read ‘moved’) to adjacent apt and myself n’ Vinu joined Bhaskar and Sumit here! This was the last time I played the game of shifting! Lots of memorable things have happened in this apt. Firstly, there was outage of electricity for 52 hrs! Our restroom door used to get itself locked on demand. Once it happened in the morning and we had to call the maintenance guys at 6 AM in the morning!

Bhagwaan jab bhi deta hai Chhappar faad ke deta hai! So Bhagwaan blessed us. Actually when it started raining, out apt had a initially small leakage. Then the maintenance person came and kept a big bucket. As the bucket he had brought to keep under that small leakage was big, he made a bigger size hole in our Chhappar! In short hamara chhappar fata huva tha! These guys came after 1 and half months, replace the complete roof for our and all adjacent apts and then fixed the hole in our roof!

Neways, let’s get back to my roomies: Vinu, due to my substantial effort done on the weekends when we were staying with Mahesh, had become a very good cook. I call him “GooNi Baal” that means a very obedient child! Bhaskar used to be normal only if he had at least 2 beers on that day! He is a certain threat to myself and buddy for the title of “Laziest-moving-object” in the “Milky way Galaxy”. Sumit used to laugh a lot before I shifted to this place. After a month stay with me, no body has ever seen him laughing! I guess that tells the story! Just kidding guys!

So now Bhaskar and Sumit have left and we have been joined by Kishore. Now its my time to leave!!! I have already started boosting his cooking skills by most of the times eating the stuff he's preparing. My replacement, Karthik had arrived here today. Just wishing him best luck for his stay in US of A!

About Dead Man Walking :

A very good performance by Susan Sarandon n' Sean Penn. She got Oscars for this role. eSpecially, the scenes in the end ,when Sean is gonna executed, are very good. The first time he confesses all his crimes to her in the movie at that time. And she helps him to die peacefully!Liked the lyrics of the title song by Eddie Vedder With Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. A very good Song!




Hats off to this fabulous song!

We all walk the long road. Cannot stay...
There's no need to say goodbye...
All the friends and family
All the memories going round, round, round, round ...!

And I wished for so long, cannot stay...
All the precious moments, cannot stay...
It's not like wings have fallen, cannot stay...
But I feel something's missing, cannot say...

I will definitely miss all my days over here!

Count Down 08 : The Insider

Contined from last post ...

Then Chandan joined us for 3 months. He was my very good friend in India. So it was fun staying with him. He’s ever enthusiastic guy! We had a very good group with Bunty, Babli and PaPPu. We used to come together every weekend in the HillBrook Bar to celebrate each and every Friday. PaPPu makes awesome cocktails and he is great cook too. But by the time we got used to do regular fun, Chandan left this place.

Then Nagendra joined us. Nagendra was my bakra no1 as he used to forget to collect even his salary cheques. He used to forget things and I used to do “Chance pe Dance” forgetting our age difference. My favorite dialogue was “Kya be ek bachche ka baap ban gaya! Tu kab sudharega!” But he used to ignore my crap. Ask him for a help anytime and he’ll do it for you! He is too good at his heart to be real! I guess that sums up! He is also a good cook. Especially the rassum made by his is too good.

Soon Abhay, the Daku no 1, joined us for 15 days when he had a study break. By the time it had started snowing over here. So we all enjoyed snow here. Every body had their first snow over here. In fact myself, Abhay and Nagendra used to see 3 movies in a row every Friday and Saturday night! That was real fun! Abhay made sure that he takes revenge of all “PakavuGiri” which I used to do by calling him everyday!

Abhay left to continue his studies, and Ranga joined us. We still continue to watch movies on the weekend. In fact we started watching non-English, non-Marthi, non-Tamil, non-Telagu move on Satuday. We saw quite a few Foreign films.

Lets get back to Ranga’s cooking. Whenever we used to go for shopping, he used to run towards the chilies. First time I asked him why he was taking the chilies for a year in advance! But by next week, he had exhausted all of them. One day he was cooking and our dear friend Florino came. He is Romanian. Ranga was making Biryani. He was the no of chilies being used in the process. He had only one reaction : “I will die if I eat so much spice!”

Soon I decided to shift to some other place!
More later!

About The Insider :

Al Pacino plays Lowell Bergman, the 60 Minutes reporter while Russell Crowe plays Dr. Jeffrey Wigand who has been fired for questioning some of their potentially harmful research tactics his company has been using to produce cigarettes. Al Pacino, as usual, is terrific in showing aggression while making Russell Crowe to speak the truth. Russell Crowe is always at his best while showing depression and stress. He was nominated for Oscars for his role, but lost to another brilliant performer, Kevin Spacey in American Beauty.




Here are few of the dialogues from the movie :

Lowell Bergman: You'd better take a *good* look, because I'm getting two things: pissed off and curious.

Mike Wallace: And that's what cigarettes are for?
Jeffrey Wigand: A delivery device for nicotine.
Mike Wallace: A delivery device for nicotine. Put it in your mouth, lit it up and you're gonna get your fix?
Jeffrey Wigand: You're gonna get your fix.

Mike Wallace: Did I get you up?
Lowell Bergman: No, I usually sit around my hotel room dressed like this at 5:30 in the morning, sleepy look on my face!

Count Down 09 : Good Will Hunting!

This was gonna happen one day! I had to tell about the people around me who have been blessed by my presence around them. Yeah .. I am gonna talk about my roomies!

I landed into the Motel when I reached here. Kishor was my first friend there. Though we were not from the same company, we had a very good chemistry between us. My outings started with he, Deepak and myself going across all Malls in this area after office hours. Deepak wanted to buy headphones. So we used to visit Malls looking for it. Finally after one month of research, he tool headphones from Flee Market (A special Sunday sales at big open ground where people sell their new/old things) for 1 $. Anyways, headphone was just a reason to go out. We covered almost each and every mall in that period.

Soon I moved to the apartment. We had three forced bachelors (as their wives were yet to join them here) and two bachelors. We had divided our work equally. Married people will cook as they had a majority and we two will eat as we had a minority. I was not eating Non-veg food that frequently in India. But I started liking chicken and shrimp mostly because of Avijit. Being a perfect Bong, he used to love cooking shrimps/chicken and we used to love eating. Shrihari was a perfect example of intelligence with modesty. Though we had a lot of age difference, we never felt that way. Sharad was our Mr. Dependable. We used to call him wise man. It is always important how you learn from your past experiences and apply them to your current situations in your life. This man had tons of experience and he knew how to use it. In short, he was the man! The remaining “item” in our room was Sabari! He was the “Yo Man” in our apt. When you see this man first time, you’ll feel that this is just another guy trying to act smart. But he is really smart, and go to him for any help and he’ll do it without asking a single word no matter he knows you or not! He knows what he wants from his life and he makes sure that he’ll get it. His fundas about the life are clear …crystal clear!!!! He made me watch Tamil movies, after that I started enjoying the songs in the Tamil movies. I came to know about many Tamil Actresses. He was my regular company for “Paisa Wasool” parties. Probably he was my best friend over here as I could see reflection of my thoughts inside him! He is getting married soon and I wish him all the best for his life of togetherness!!

But as they say, good things come to an end. We had to depart soon and I joined Sandeep and Sanjay. Sandeep was quite shy sometimes. And he was as good cook as myself. So we used to do the work of eating while Sanjay used to cook for us. Sanjay was a good cook. Both of them were from Mumbai and we had good time together for 2 months. But then both of them had to leave this place and I was joined by Buddy!

Probably Buddy is my long-time-partner in UstayAlone. Well, better not to talk about our cooking abilities. If there is any competition on the “Milky way Galaxy” for the “Laziest-moving-object”, we both will contest each other in the finals. So we were perfect roomies. We used to see both Marathi Plays and Tamil movies together. He is always in his world and he enjoys doing that!

The next and final part of this story tomorrow!

About Good Will Hunting :

The most important thing about this movie is the writing. The Oscar Winning screenplay by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Equally well acted by Matt Damon and Robin Williams. Here are few of my favorite dialogues!

Sean: You're not perfect sport, and let me save you the suspense, this girl you've met she's not perfect either. But the question is whether or not you're perfect for each other.

Will: I didn't ask for this.
Sean: No, you were born with it. So don't cop out behind "I didn't ask for this".

Will: What the fuck do you want?
Lambeau: My name is Gerald Lambeau. The guy who you told to go fuck himself.
Will: Well, what the fuck do you want?

Will: I don't care if Helen of Troy walks in the room, that's game six!
Sean: Oh, Helen of Troy...
Will: Oh my God, and who are these friends of yours they let you get away with that?
Sean: Oh... They had to.
Will: W-w-w-what'd you say to them?
Sean: I just slid my ticket across the table and I said, "Sorry guys, I gotta see about a girl."
Will: I gotta go see about a girl?
Sean: Yeah.
Will: That's what you said? And they let you get away with that?
Sean: Oh yeah. They saw in my eyes that I meant it.
Will: You're kiddin' me.
Sean: No, I'm not kiddin' you, Will. That's why I'm not talkin' right now about some girl I saw at a bar twenty years ago and how I always regretted not going over and talking to her. I don't regret the 18 years I was married to Nancy. I don't regret the six years I had to give up counseling when she got sick. And I don't regret the last years when she got really sick. And I sure as hell don't regret missing the damn game. That's regret.
[pause]
Will: Wow... Woulda been nice to catch that game, though.
Sean: I didn't know Pudge was gonna hit a homer!

Sean: So what do you really want to do?
Will: I wanna be a shepherd.
Sean: Really??
Will: I wanna move up to Nashua, get a nice little spread, get some sheep and tend to them.
Sean: Maybe you should go do that.

I have not traits of Will inside me, still I would like to be a shepherd, the one in Alchemist! Just want to wonder across the globe, following my dre@m$ n' to achieve my treasure!

Count Down 10 : Forest Gump

This is what I had written when I had completed one year over here. Probably I was feeling very much alone here in UStayAlone. But then soon I came right on track, but still today I feel somewhat same :

I was a dre@mer then …
Always passionate to convert them into reality!
I am a dre@mer now …
With an empty soul with no trace of reality!

I was a total failure then …
NEVER succeeded to my potential!
I am trying HARD to fail now …
Without knowing my potential!

I used to adore instability …
Always wanted to be a volatile spirit!
Now I am getting scared with the stability …
Just succeeding to be more stable day by day!

Instability was backbone of my thirst …
Thirst for the unknown goals of my life!
Stability is pushing me to the comfort zone …
Making me unaware of my goals!

I always wanted to be part of the crowd then…
Just make the most of my LIFE!
I am trying to avoid the crowd now …
Just to figure out my LOST life!

They used to curse me for being extrovert …
‘Cause they always find me around!
Now they are cursing me for being introvert…
‘Cause I don’t want them to be around!

Trying to figure out what happened in one year …
Trying to find out what is gonna happen next year …
Just finishing in vain to find myself…
Trying to figure out what’s happening around now!

I am dreaming of instability now ...
Just to end up in stable reality!!

Just a note over here that this is not a pessimistic thought coming into my mind, but I was just trying to cope up with reality!

About Forest Gump :

I am always facinated towards the character of Forest Gump. Simple is always sweet and neat. Forest used to follow the simple things as told by his dear ones and that made him better than others in every field. Still he was the same old Forest Gump! I have seen this movie 10-15 times now! Here are my favorite dialogues from this movie :

Forrest Gump: "Momma always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."

Forrest Gump: "Stupid is as stupid does."

Bubba: "My given name is Benjamin Buford Blue, but people call me Bubba. Just like one of them ol' redneck boys. Can you believe that?"
Forrest Gump: "My name's Forrest Gump. People call me Forrest Gump"
Bubba: "Have you ever been on a shrimp boat?"
Forrest Gump: "No, but I've been on a real big boat."
Bubba: "Anyway, like I was sayin', shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That- that's about it."


Jenny Curran: "His name's Forrest."
Forrest Gump: "Like me."
Jenny Curran: "I named him after his daddy."
Forrest Gump: "He got a daddy named Forrest, too?"
Jenny Curran: "You're his daddy, Forrest"

Forrest Gump: "That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run. So I ran to the end of the road. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd run to the end of town. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd just run across Greenbow County. And I figured, since I run this far, maybe I'd just run across the great state of Alabama. And that's what I did. I ran clear across Alabama. For no particular reason I just kept on going. I ran clear to the ocean. And when I got there, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well turn around, just keep on going. When I got to another ocean, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well just turn back, keep right on going."

Bumper Sticker Guy: [running after Forrest] "Hey man! Hey listen, I was wondering if you might help me. 'Cause I'm in the bumper sticker business and I've been trying to think of a good slogan, and since you've been such a big inspiration to the people around here I thought you might be able to help me jump into - WOAH! Man, you just ran through a big pile of dog shit!"
Forrest Gump: "It happens."
Bumper Sticker guy: "What, shit?"
Forrest Gump: "Sometimes."

Jenny Curran: "Do you ever dream, Forrest, about who you're gonna be?"
Forrest Gump: "Who I'm gonna be?"
Jenny Curran: "Yeah."
Forrest Gump: "Aren't-aren't I going to be me? "




One day I want to see the world through the eyes of Forest Gump!!!

Count Down 11 : Apollo 13!

It all started last year when I landed here. Being here for more than a year now, I have definitely much to write about this place and the people around me. Hopefully I would write at least something every day till I leave this place. The name of the movie does not have any significance with the post!

To start with this count down series, let me share some highlights of my stay :

1) I had got habituated to lose quarters in the laundry. Sometimes, I used put coins in the washer which does not work and if by any chance if I put the coins in "working" washer, I used to put coin in a dryer and used to forget to press start! (Actually Washer starts working once u put coins, but for Dryer, even if you put coins, you need to press Start). So anyway I kept on losing quarters and my faith in washing!

The Outcome : I started going to Laundry once in two months. (Now ..don't call me Lazy :D)

2) My ex-roomie, N, is infamous for not collecting his salary cheque on time. Actually when our Manager sends mail that the cheques have arrived, everybody reaches his place in 5 mins. But this person goes there after 10-15 days, that too if he remembers it, most of the times he used to deposit it late in Bank too. I used to tease him on this. So at the start of month, he came to me and told me that he deposited his salary check in the account on the 3rd day of month. He was all excited. I just gave him a grin and asked which month's salary he had deposited. He thought for a moment and suddenly had a pale shade on this face. "ohh Shit .... I was one month late...that was my last month's salary!!!!"

3) Something, which happened very recently. My dear friend DL, was talking with a representative of Circuit city over phone. He was trying to explain her which camcorder he wanted to buy. The name was something like Sony DCR-DVD203. So she told him to spell it on phone. The way he explained it, we had laugh of our lives.

Just remember this is happening in US of A :

She : "Can you please spell out the model name again"
DL : "Yeah sure. D for Denzel (of Denzel Washington), C for Calcutta , R
for Russia "..and so on…

"C" for Calcutta was awesome. She must be wondering what the heck was that! After doing this phone saga, this person picked up the same model in the circuit city, after the buck-buck for 3 hours. By that time the other 3 people with him including yours faithfully were lingering over there like fools. I guess all the sales people over there had came to know that he wanted to purchase that particular handy cam. He didn't spare a single person over there! This is how everybody of them felt when we left the store!!



4) Recently I am pissed off with few words around me like "I will toke (read 'talk') to u", "hi Pole (real 'Paul')", "I already sented (read 'sent') u this document", "u know", "this Ourder (read 'order') is not present", "I understanded (read 'understood') it" and list is ever ending!!!

To add on, this happens everyday :(

About Apollo 13 :
This was one of the first movies I saw when I landed here in UStayAlone. Was very much touched by the performance of Tom Hanks. Here is my favorite dialogue from this movie :

This is the Last line, voice of Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks) :
"I sometimes catch myself looking up at the moon, remembering the changes of fortune in our long voyage, thinking of the thousands of people who worked to bring the three of us home. I look up at the moon, and wonder: When will we be going back? And who will that be? "

Probably I'll think of something like this when I'll see the map of this place :P

SNNOOOOWWWWW!

Soft n' Tender!
Cold n' Pleasant!
White n' Heavenly!

The time to enjoy holy smoke is back!
The wind, that sucks, is back!
The struggle to walk on ur own two feet is back!
The excuse to go late to office is back!!
The time to enjoy being at home is back!!!

My Winter Jacket is back on my body!!

My favorite thing in UStayAlone is back!!!
The heavenly time is back!!!

It has started snowing again!! I simply love this!!!!

Check out the scene from my apt!!!

PNN News!!!

I haven't posted news for a while. So here we go :

1) I purchased on more mp3 player. This one is 1 GB. So the count is 4, that too after being broke here . The same model I had bought in 100 $ three months back, this one I got in 70 after reaching Circuit city at 4 45 AM in the morning on Thanks-Giving Day. It was nice to see a crowd of 300 people, all of them standing in a queue so early in the morning on that day. I have never seen 400 people inside circuit city here!!

2) The Hillbrook bar has once again OPEN as Bunty is back from his vacation. Planning to visit it this weekend.

3) PaPPu is leaving for home tomorrow. Our internal sources reveal that the people in UStayAlone are going to celebrate tomorrow as "Freedom Day"! But when they got the news that PaPPu is coming back after a month (he is going on Vacation), they decided to celebrate each day as "Freedom Day", till the time he comes back!

4) V had a good deal in the hair cutting shop. He had his 6-month-old-hairs, cut at the expense of 1 month haircut cost! (I am looking for a better deal, mine are 8 months old now!!)

5) N has not boarded a plane till now after this . So no news on that front for time being.

6) One more Fortune Cookie which I got today .



I think this cookie sums up the news at my front!!!*