Thursday, March 30, 2006

Happy New Year!!

Wishing u all a very happy Gudhi Padava and happier coming year!

May all ur "dre@m$" come true!!

पुन्हा एक नवे वर्ष ....
पुन्हा एक नवी दिशा ..!
तुमच्या कर्तुत्वाला पुन्हा एक नवी दिशा ...
नवे स्वप्न - नवी क्षितिजे ....
सोबत गुढीपाडव्याच्या नव्याकोऱ्या शुभेच्छा!

Something interesting about this festival :

Importance - The Beginning Of The Hindu Calendar.
Special - A Mixture Made Of Tender Neem Leaves, Tamarind, Ajwain, Gram-Pulse And Jaggery
Gudhi Padwa heralds the advent of a prosperous new year and is considered as one of the most auspicious days by Hindus. The Hindu year begins on the first day, "shuddha pratipada", of the month of Chaitra (March-April). It is one of the 'Muhurat' amongst the three and a half Muhurats that occur in Hindu calendar year. The day is considered auspicious for building or entering a new house, putting a child to school, or starting a business. With this day begins the new season, the spring.

It is believed that on 'Gudi Padva' :

The Universe was created by Brahma.
Satyuga (The Age of Truth and Justice) began.
King Vali was killed by Rama.Shri Rama returned to Ayodhya victorious.
This is one of the 3 and a half days in the Hindu Lunar calendar, whose every moment is considered auspicious


It is a day of great festivity and rejoicing. People get up early and clean their houses, decorating them with intricate rangoli designs. New clothes are worn, and sweets made for the occasion include shrikhand, basundi, jalebis etc. Many homes also decorate the pots with coconuts, flowers and mango leaves, symbolizing nature's bounty to all.

On this day a pole named Gudhi is erected in front of the house. Padwa is another name for "Pratipada", the first day of the lunar month. A new cloth is tied on the Gudhi, a metal or silver vessel is put on to it and a garland of sweets is hung on it. People welcome the New Year with Gudhi worship and distribute Prasad comprising of tender Neem leaves, tamarind, Ajwain, gram-pulse and jaggery. The Neem paste is believed to purify the blood and build up immunity in the body against diseases.

(Thanks to first person who collected this information, I am just a copy cat!)

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Punishment!!!!

If u want to punish anybody, make him drive a two wheeler on the streets of Pune!!!

Thursday, March 23, 2006

How to lose the match effectively!

5 days and 14 dropped catches n' a missed stumping! Do you want to win after doing this??

No ... we didn't want to win this match. GOD only knows why!! (I am referring to Almighty here and not GOD of India cricket Mr. SRT)

Here are few experts from the interviews of Indian players after the match courtesy PNN. They have highlighted their skills which made us lose all important test. What a show!

Wasim Jaffer : I had made hundred at Nagpur and had played long enough for England team to understand my weakness. I am a bit weak at incoming delivery if I play it from the back foot. They bowled a bouncer at me in Mohali second innings and next one was incoming! After a bouncer I decided to be on back foot and played the incoming bowl with my pads as usual and got out. So in the final test at Mumbai, first I got out to the bouncer in the first innings as I knew I'll be gone to the next delivery which must be incoming. As I survived the bouncer in the second innings, I decided to fall to incoming delivery next up in the second inning! Still I guess I have cemented my place in the team.

Irfan Pathan : People are calling me all rounder. But I don't believe that! Just to prove me, I have slowed down my pace in the bowling. Also got out to the false shot in the first innings when it was crucial for me to stay at the wicket. I hate to open. So I dragged one full toss on to the stumps in the second innings. Good job you see!

Sachin Tendulkar : I think I should take some rest. No further comments!

Yuvraj Singh : Why am I always supposed to hit a century in a test match which we lose! It has happened 2 years back in Pak and they didn't take me in the team afterwards. This year also I hit a century in a match and we had lost it. So this time I decided to get out cheaply! Also I had a date with Kim in the evening!

Virender Sehwag : Back pain you see! Also my mother didn't call me when I was batting (?) urrr.. padding! I had dropped only one catch as I could not get more chance to drop them being not on the field most of the time in this test match. I wanted to get out on the first delivery in the second innings, so I offered pads straight away to the first delivery which I think was on the stumps. But Simon Taufel didn't think so. (Stupid man...why he wants to be correct all the time!) Then after padding 15 balls, Anderson managed to bowl one on the stumps and I immediately took it on my pads to get leg before decision. Thanks to my mother she didn't call me while I was on the field, else you would have seen a different result! So all credit goes to her!

Mahendra Singh Dhoni : I had dropped 5 catches and missed one stumping. My best performance so far behind the wicket! I played one non existing shot on the first ball and they dropped my catch. I thought they wanted to give me 6 chances. So I decided to play the same attacking shot on the slowing pitch in the same over. But this time, they cheated and grabbed that catch. I guess they will give me my remaining 5 chances in One days! (Laughs)

Harbhajan Singh : I have been performing pathetically for last 4-5 tests. I was thinking that I will be dumped for this test. But they took me in playing 11 instead of poor VVS. Now you know I am not in good form with bowl. So how can you expect me to get through England batting line up or bat like VVS? This is quite unfair to me! Also .... (blah blah blah )
When we told Bhajji that his time is up, he stopped talking instantaneously, without forgetting to conclude with two words : "Thank You!".

Rahul Dravid : 5 bowlers first mistake. Giving England batting second mistake. I guess I am still learning how to captain this side! But all credit goes to Fredie and his boys .... (Then all his diplomatic words for English Team.)

We tried to contact England team, but they were so busy with the celebrations that we could not get hold of them. PNN team heard that England guys have decided to visit West Bengal where people have already started a grand celebration!

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

My lady Luv!!!

Every time she meets me, she's like ,"Man ... you are not eating properly!" , "What have u done to urself?", "You have lost weight, r u skipping ur meals?" etc. I am used to this after being away from home for past 5 years. The only new dialogue that has been added is : "When are you going to cut your hairs?"

Yes... I am talking about my mother. I met her last weekend after a month or so. The first thing she started (as usual) was about food! I guess given her a chance; she will make me eat all the food in the world!!!

When I was at home for vacation for about a month, I had gained lot of weight just by consuming 'solid' things! (Generally I have an allergy to solid things and I always prefer liquid things!)All credit goes to her. The first thing in the morning that she wanted me to do was to eat!!! I used to eat like a pig and first time in my life span I crossed 70 Kgs!

But its not all about food, the list is ever-ending! The way she keeps everything simple, the way she accommodates everybody is simply amazing! She is the patience booster for me!! I wish I could tackle all my problems with all the cool n' calmness the way she does!

Just one of my previous posts which I had written for her : I miss you so much!

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Just another ....!

..All n' all its just, another Brick in the Wall!!

Heard this song quite a few times yeasterday night. I guess I have come to the cross road where I didn't want to come to ever in my life! I was never good at solving puzzles and life has thrown a little puzzle at me. I guess I should get used to solving puzzles now.

I know whatever I have written over here, is a crap. (Few people will go ahead and say that all of my blogs are crap ;)) But sometimes crap is so meaningful!

Anyways, one more brick has been added to the wall of my dreams. One more failure means one more 'experience'! (Read 'One night @ Call center' by Chetan Bhagat to understand how important it is to fail just as to taste gr8 success in future.)

I guess I should stop now. You see, I have a wall to build!!!

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

H@ppy B'day Aamir!!!

Wishing Aamir a very very happy birthday and (more) creative year ahead!

He has already rocked the nation again by "Loosing Control" with "Rang De Basanti". Eventually his first movie as a Hero was "Holi" in 1984.

I guess no body could have played the role of Akash in DCH. Check out his expressions here :

DilChahtaHai


Hats off to this amazingly talented star!

And not to forget ...

Wish U all Happy Holi!
May this Holi brings a lot of joy and happiness in our life.
&
Wish that your life becomes colorful as the colors of Holi


Tuesday, March 07, 2006

PuneGiri - Part II

Continued ....

After carefully observing me for 10-15 seconds, three of them left. I guess my looks scared them. I wished I could look scary enough to scare all of them! Damn... I need to work more on my looks to make them scarier.

"License Dikhavo", his yelling words woke me from my thoughts. I don't know why people start talking to me in Hindi instead of Marathi in Pune.
I gave him the license and started talking in Marathi," He ghya!" (Take this)
"So why did you come on this bridge with your motorcycle?", he had started his investigations. I was tempted to reply him back that I came on the motorcycle because my friend does not have car yet. But it was not time to irritate him. So I decided to be cool for a while.

"Sorry Sir. Actually I am not from Pune. So I didn't know that this bridge is meant only for non-two wheelers." Rickshaw was still going through my mind. What if person walks down the bridge: still 'non-two-wheeler' sounds good! I was happy with myself for finding that word. Still why do people construct two separate bridges: one for two wheeler and one for non-two wheelers?
Good that you decided not to run away", he again woke me up from my weird thoughts.
Did you observe something around you?" he asked while I was still fighting with my thoughts about 'non-two wheeler' bridge.
"No sir, what is it?" I responded calmly.
"Check on your right hand side", I twisted my neck to see the signal on my right. There was a camera hanging out there. Then he made me do my entire neck-exercise by telling me to look around in all possible directions. "Gosh ... he knew I had skipped my exercises today." I thought to myself. Somebody was definitely spying on me!!!
"Yeah sir, I can see cameras around", it was me off course.He gave me a victorious looks as if he had himself planted all those cameras.

He started, "You know what, if you would have run away, we would have sent a photo of yours to the address of the motor cycle owner. That too, one person from our department would have come to deliver the letter personally. You would have made to pay the fine as well as other expenses for the personal delivery. This all would have definitely costed you thousand bucks. Also ....blah blah....", he was talking something for next five minutes about fine, cameras and all, but I had already switched off my ears. Probably I think this is the best thing I can do in these kinds of situation. After attending hundreds of meeting in my life, especially related to quality and all other craps, I have become kind of perfectionist in switching on and off my ears!Probably he had stopped talking.

So I decided to switch on my ears as well as open my mouth.
"So what am I supposed to do now, sir?" I was trying to be over-polite!
"You will have to pay the fine."
"How much?"
"Hundred bucks."
"Is there anything that can be done?" I was trying to reduce the amount!
He thought for a while. I thought he will start his cassette number two. So I was all set to switch off my ears. But he replied blackly, "March end is coming close. I will give you receipt."

He opened his book and asked me name and address. While writing address, he started, "I would like to give you few tips while driving in Pune as you are new." I gave him money and he gave me receipt. I thought of the scene when my friend will see this receipt. He will definitely have good time tonight pulling my legs and what not!

The cop was still talking about tips and I was still thinking. The best tip, which off course he didn't give to me, but I thought of myself, was not to drive unless you have somebody living in Pune behind you! He had a great patience as he was going on and on about various do's and don'ts. I was doing the same thing which I used to do in college. Just "ya", "yes" in between and shaking head as if you are listening carefully.
"Bouy, this guy should teach in engineering college," I thought to myself.

Finally he finished off his last session and asked me, "Where are you planning to go?"
Now I was taken aback. This guy gave me neck exercise, gave tips for driving and still he wants to help me out by giving the directions. I guess he was trying to make up for the 100 Rs fine he took from me. But for me all this for 100 Rs was very costly deal!

I told him the address and he gave me the directions. This time also he was telling me all the minute details on my way to left and right. Seriously this guy should teach in a college. He was very elaborative and had loads of patience! Also he didn’t care if I was caring about what he was saying. He was just going on n' on!

I followed his directions. One the way, I came across one bridge. I took my bike to one side. Made sure that the two wheelers are going on the bridge and few of them are coming from other direction as well. After getting enough evidences, I decided to go on that bridge!

Food!!! After being at home for a continuous month, you don't want to eat food outside! I have to live with it on weekdays as there is no choice and I am too lazy to start cooking again! So I tried to eat as much as I can at my relative's place. Then we finished off one important work! My life seems to be on Roll nowadays!

Went to friend's place at that night, who took me for a ride for going on the bridge which he had already warned me of. I am used to being taken for a ride by him so didn't mind much!

Three and half hours of journey and back to work, waiting for yet another trip on the coming weekend!!!

Monday, March 06, 2006

PuneGiri - Part I

And that's the city where I am planning to settle after sometime! Still I don't like that city very much!

I am talking about Pune which was graced by my presence this weekend! 3 years in Mumbai and I am loving this place and given a choice I would like to settle at this place. I love the speed of life at this place, the life seems always energetic and they say that this city never sleeps! It may be 2 AM or 4 AM, you will still get Tea on almost every corner of this city. This is just an example. I don't mean to say that getting a Tea at any time makes this city better than others, but there are lots of other things as well! Neways, let me write something about my last week's "adventures" in Pune!

I reached Pune late. I meant "late" by this city's standards. I reached there at midnight, probably 11 45 PM or so. I had just come out of bus and all rickshaw-walas came running at me. When I told them where exactly I wanted to go, they told me the fare which was almost 4 times the normal fare. I guess after 11, charging more is okay, but this was height. (And the more height was the last time when I had visited Pune, I had actually paid that much fare and then all my friends had taken me for a ride!)

So I called up my friend and he came to pick me up in 10-15 min. I love drinking tea in the morning or in the afternoon or at night only! Mid-nights are made for drinking Tea anyways! So I thought of having a cup of tea, but could see only rickshaw-walas awake at that place. As there was no other option, I decided to wait for my friend helplessly while all rickshaw-walas enjoyed their time by looking at my hairs and passing some comments. I slightly heard Dhoni's name in their discussion! Probably I may not play as good cricket as Dhoni, but at least his hairstyle resembles mine. I tried to kill my time by laughing to myself at this thought and suddenly heard somebody calling my name!

The guy was the person whom I had made to wake up and come and pick me up from some 10-15 km long distance! As he is now going to get used to that, he didn't mind that. And I will never mind doing that again either!!

The next day, I took his bike and started going to my relative's place. I was going to his place 26
years after my birth, I mean first time in my life. I was driving first time on the wide (?) roads of Pune city with signals constructed by a 50-meters-apart rule! He guided me how to go and which turn is to be taken and which should not be taken. And I, as usual, listened that carefully and, as usual, couldn't exactly get the directions properly. So I decided to follow 'ask-n-proceed' policy. As I used to go to Pune quite regularly in the past, I knew one thing: If one road is One-Way on Sunday, from Monday it may become No-Entry. So I knew I had to be careful.

I was going fine, until I realised that I can sense a short cut at certain point. It all was based on
the logic I calculated based on the direction I was going. It was indeed a short cut. I was going on a bridge known as 'Lakadi Pool' at around 10 AM. Everything was right there; it was a green signal when I took the turn. Still immediately after I took a turn, one rickshaw-wala behind me started giving me a horn. I gave him a scary look. But as I had helmet on my head, he didn't look that scared or at least I thought that may be the reason him still smiling. I asked, "What?" in quite irritating tone. He was, "Saab, Pata nahi kya, es bridge par two wheelers allowed nahi hai!", still smiling.

And there I was, almost stoned. I realised that I had crossed almost half of bridge. There was no point in thinking that rickshaw-wala was just kidding as I could not see a single two wheeler on the bridge. I started, "S**t, how can there be a bridge only for non-two wheelers (rickshaw is three wheeler, I had started thinking immediately) and one for only two wheelers (I assumed there would be one, otherwise how, in the whole world, a two wheeler can go to the other side? Bouy, I had really started thinking!)

When you are in helpless condition, you can hardly do anything about it. I was doing nothing either! I could see people in cars looking back and giving me smiles. I couldn't do much about it, except smiling back!

I started my bike praying that there shouldn't be any traffic police at the end of the bridge. There is a certain thing about good people, whenever they prey with their hearts, HE does not listen to them. I was welcomed by not a single traffic police, but a small traffic police station having 4 police on duty. It is always good to see if they are on duty on time, but I thought if they could have come to their jobs on their "regular" times, I could have escaped. But no!! They decided to come on time today only. Had anyone told them that they are going to get one bakra today? Not sure, may be! Lot of people in this whole world do have knowledge of my plans!

There I was, amidst 4 Traffic Police staring at me as if I had come from other Planet! (This statement is enough to indicate that I had got rid of my helmet by them.)


to be continued...

Friday, March 03, 2006

Stay hungry, stay foolish !

Thanks to e-shal for this blog!

I liked it so much that I am getting into my copy-cat role again! (I have even stolen his blog title also!) One thing is for sure, the same thoughts are coming into my mind these days!! What he says is just so perfect about my life right now. I don't know what I am doing because I don't want to do what I am doing right now! And when I read this blog, I just could not stop sharing this with others. It is really important in one's life to understand what one wants from his/her life. At this juncture, though I am not sure ,if I know what I want, I am damn sure what I don't want and this is what I am doing, what I don't want to do. Anyways, lots of do's and don't's are confusing me now! In short I just need to come out of my Comfort Zone!! So read this :

"Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

-Steve Jobs , CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios.Commencement address at Standford delivered on June 12, 2005.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

GOA : DCH eShtyle.....!!

No words!!!


DCH

DCH2