Love is in the Air

By some coincidence, I got this article lying somewhere in my old mails of 2004. Yeah! I like to keep things saved as a history. I have not written this, but some author has narrated this in a very nice way. After reading this all I could feel is "Love is in the Air". You made my day Dude

> It was a lovely December morning in the hottest city in the world. All
> right, so that was a little unfair. Chennai is not the hottest city in the
> world. But it certainly is the city with the most uncomfortable weather
> among the cities that I have lived in. And I've been around. But I
> digress.
>
> I was in the company bus on my way to work, as usual trying to catch up
> with my sleep. On this particular day, a girl got on the bus, came to my
> seat and sat down. "Good Morning," she said. I looked back at her through
> half closed eyes, replied "Good Night," and then proceeded to return to my
> half hour nap before the bus reached the office. Unfortunately, I was
> woken up by a punch in the arm.
>
> "Wake up, bozo!" She was looking at me with a big smile on her face. "I'm
> not sitting next to you to listen to you snore."
>
> Half-heartedly, I opened my eyes and turned to her. "What's up?" I asked.
>
>
> Preeti Mehra was tall, good-looking and slightly tomboyish. She was also
> my best buddy. "Come on," she said. "Don't look so disappointed. You'd
> rather sleep than talk to me?"
>
> "I talk to you everyday, Preeti."
>
> "You also sleep everyday."
>
> "It's not enough."
>
> "So you've had enough of talking to me, eh?"
>
> You can't argue with a statement like that, so I had to give up. I grinned
> and said, "OK, sweetheart. What's on your mind?"
>
> "I wanted to tell you what happened yesterday. Can you guess?"
>
> "Anurag called you last night."
>
> "How did you know?" She was stunned.
>
> "Oh, he asked me for your number yesterday."
>
> "And you gave it to him?"
>
> "What else could I do? And stop complaining. You've been drooling over him
> for weeks now. He must have thought he had a chance."
>
> Preeti was the kind of girl who would openly ogle at every other guy she
> saw. And yet, she would not respond to any advances of a romantic nature.
> She'd happily join a group of boys to go to a cricket match, but if asked
> out to a movie, dinner, or even coffee, she'd never say yes. She defined
> 'Hard-To-Get'.
>
> "You like putting me in these situations, don't you?" she said.
>
> "No. That's not true. I love putting you in these situations!"
>
> That invited another punch in the arm.
>
> I had known Preeti for a year. We'd tell each other about our joys and our
> sorrows, our victories and our defeats. I'd tell her about all my crushes
> and she'd scold me for being silly. She'd drag me to classical music
> concerts and I'd add them to the list of things she 'owed me' for.
>
> And though I never let it show, I must say that she punched pretty hard.
>
>
> ~*~
> It was 12:00 am and my phone was ringing. "Hello," I said, as I picked it
> up.
>
> "Happy Birthday!" It was she.
>
> "You're supposed to throw me a surprise party, sweetheart. Not just call
> to say Happy Birthday."
>
> "Well then open your door, dumbo!"
>
> So I did and found her, cell-phone in hand, at my doorstep -- with what
> seemed like half the population of my company. My roommates were supposed
> to be working late that night. Now I knew why.
>
> I blew a lot of candles (seemed like much more than 25), cut my cake, got
> kicked in the behind, and got painted with the cake's icing. If Preeti had
> had her way, she'd probably have preferred to use a paintbrush and a can
> of paint. But I bribed her with a copy of the book "Lord of the Rings".
> She'd borrowed it from me three times already. I thought it was about time
> I gave her a copy for herself.
>
> We chatted for an hour after everyone had gone. "I think it's time I
> left," she said finally, trying to stifle a yawn. I nodded. I dropped her
> home in my roommate's car. As she was getting out of the car, I stopped
> her.
>
> "Hey, Preeti."
>
> "What?"
>
> "Thanks."
>
> "Hey, don't get senti on me now!" she smiled. "Are you trying to worm out
> of that gift you promised me?"
>
> "You know, it's interesting how I'm getting you a gift on my birthday."
>
> "That's just because you're stupid," she grinned. "And you better get me
> that book, or I won't return your copy."
>
> "Hey, that copy was a gift to me from my dear friend Preeti Mehra. I can't
> let you keep that."
>
> She wasn't falling for that. "Your dear friend? And what about me? Am I
> not dear to you?"
>
> "Very smart. That won't work with me. I'm not one of your Love Crazy
> suitors. Why do you need the book anyway? You've read it umpteen times
> already."
>
> "That is besides the point. You are getting me the book. We both know
> that." She smiled that wide confident smile of hers. "Good night." And she
> got out of the car.
>
> I sat there for some time, just thinking. Our conversations were always
> like this - a little joking, a little teasing and a lot of demanding. But
> somehow, I felt that something had changed since the moment she had turned
> up at my door that night. I was still in my reverie when a paper ball
> landed on the windshield. I craned my neck out of the window and looked
> up. She was standing in her balcony.
>
> "What are you still doing there?" she whispered loudly.
>
> "Waiting for you to start a paper-ball fight," I whispered back.
>
> "We can do that tomorrow. Go home now. It's way past your bedtime!"
>
> "Ok, mommy," I grinned back. "I'm going home now!"
>
>
> ~*~
> I'm an extravagant gift-giver, and it is definitely going to be my
> downfall some day. I made her wait for it, but finally bought her the
> book. That, and half-a-dozen other omnibus collections of various authors,
> including a copy each of `The Complete Works of Shakespeare' and `The
> Complete Short Stories of Charles Dickens'. All I got for it was an "I
> told you so."
>
> I started spending a lot of time at her place after that. Mostly because I
> wanted to read all those books, and she wouldn't lend them to me.
>
> "I'm not as stupid as you, ape-man. I'm not falling into the same trap I
> laid for you. Plus, you dog-ear your books. You're not doing that to these
> masterpieces. So if you want to read them, you read them here. And if you
> want to mark your place, use a bookmark."
>
> So that's what I did. She'd even make me wash my hands before I touched
> the books. It was as if they were sacred.
>
> "Need I remind you that it was me that bought you the books in the first
> place? For my birthday!"
>
> "So? They're mine now."
>
> "Well, then. I've been meaning to ask you this for a long time. Where
> exactly is my birthday gift?"
>
> "It was in your tummy at one point of time. It's probably been washed into
> the sea by now."
>
> "Huh?"
>
> "Remember the cake I baked you on your birthday?"
>
> "You what? You can't bake cakes!" That was a mistake. She looked hurt.
> "You baked me a cake?" She didn't say a word. She just shrugged.
>
> I was stunned. "But you never told me."
>
> "You didn't ask." That was typical of her.
>
> "It was fantastic! And you wasted most of the icing on me!"
>
> "The cake was for you, dumbo."
>
> "How long did it take you to make the whole thing?" It had been a
> two-layered vanilla-chocolate cake with three flavors of very creamy
> icing. She had done all that!
>
> "Well, the chocolate cake took an hour and fifteen minutes, and so did the
> vanilla. Then cutting them up and putting them together took another 15
> minutes. Each flavor of icing took 20 minutes for preparation, and then
> putting it on the cake took another half hour. Cleaning up the mess took
> an hour."
>
> She seldom claimed the credit for anything, but once she started bragging,
> there was no stopping her. However, I wasn't thinking about that right
> then.
>
> "You spent over five hours on that cake?"
>
> "A little over four hours preparing it, and an hour cleaning up. Yes."
>
> I was speechless. I didn't know how to react. She hated cooking.
>
> "I forgot to mention," she continued, "the hours I spent the week before
> that, practicing. Even the birds wouldn't touch the first three cakes!"
>
> I couldn't help but ask. "Why?"
>
> "Because the first one got burnt, the second one was only half cooked, and
> in the third one, I forgot to add sugar."
>
> It was just like her, to try to divert the conversation. "I mean why did
> you spend so much time on baking me a cake?"
>
> She looked at me like I'd asked her why the sun rises in the east. "For
> your birthday, stupid. Of course, I also wanted to beat every gift you've
> ever got me. Try beating this one." She was grinning like she'd won the
> world championship.
>
> As far as I was concerned, she had. I'd never spent a week making her
> anything. I'd never even spent an hour making her anything. Getting her a
> gift normally involved me taking her to the store, letting her choose and
> use my credit card. Suddenly, I felt cheap. "Thanks," was the only thing I
> could say. "Thanks a lot."
>
> "Hey. Are you getting senti on me again?"
>
> I was.
>
>
> ~*~
> I was still mulling over my feelings for Preeti the next day at work when
> my boss asked to speak to me.
>
> I went over to his cabin and he started with the usual greetings, asking
> how work was going and whether I was comfortable. He then told me that the
> company wanted to send me to New York for a couple of years. Normally,
> this wouldn't have made much of a difference to me. I could work anywhere
> and didn't have too much love for visiting places foreign. But right then,
> the first thought that came to me was that I'd be away from Preeti for two
> whole years. Twenty-four hours before, I'd have been disappointed to lose
> her company. But right then, I was devastated. That was when I knew I was
> in love with her. I'd had crushes before. Lots of them. But this was
> different.
>
> "Do you have any problem in going?" my boss asked, since I hadn't
> responded.
>
> "Not really," I replied. What else could I say? That I was in love, and
> couldn't bear the separation?
>
> "When do I have to leave?"
>
> I had a month.
>
>
> ~*~
> "Wow! New York! Great! I've heard it's a fantastic city! Did you know it
> snows there in winter?" Preeti was obviously very excited about my going.
> She didn't seem to share my disappointment on what I now saw as
> 'separation'.
>
> I had not decided then if I was going to tell her how I felt. We'd known
> each other for a little over a year, and we were very close, but beyond
> some mild flirting, the relationship had never got even close to romantic.
> That was, of course, until I found out she had spent a week baking me a
> cake. It's funny how small things seem to make such a big difference.
>
> "What happened?" she asked. "You don't seem very happy."
>
> "Oh," I replied, "it's just that it's so sudden, that's all. And you know
> I was never all that interested in going to America."
>
> "What an idiot. Go see the place. I've heard the women there are amazingly
> beautiful." She had a sly smile on her face. I wanted to tell her I didn't
> care if I laid my eyes on another woman again, if she wasn't with me. But
> I didn't.
>
> I realized that I only had another month with her. She'd rejected every
> guy who'd asked her out ever since I'd known her. I didn't want the same
> to happen to me, and I didn't want to make it awkward between us. I didn't
> want to risk that month. I wanted it to be the best time I had ever spent
> with her. After I came back from the US, I might not even get to meet her
> again. Two years was a long time.
>
> We ate out almost every night. We visited some of the best restaurants in
> the city. She also helped me shop for warm clothes, formalwear, shoes,
> toothpaste and a million things I'd never have thought of on my own.
>
> "You need to buy a nail-cutter." My roommates and I shared one.
>
> "I've prepared a list of must-have medicines that you should carry."
>
> "Your iron won't work in the US. No point buying one here as you need one
> that works at a hundred and ten volts and has flat pins. You can buy one
> at a K-Mart or Wal-Mart as soon as you get there."
>
> "You need at least two pairs of formal shoes and at least ten pairs of
> dark socks. The East Coast has a formal dress code. And you won't do your
> laundry more than once a week or two."
>
> "How many ties do you have? And which trousers do your blazers go with?"
>
> "Better get a haircut before you leave from here. Knowing you, you'll
> postpone the first haircut for too long."
>
> She'd call me up at one in the morning to tell me to add 'one more item'
> to my list.
>
> And with every passing day, I was falling more deeply in love with her.
>
> The month swept by quickly. The day I was supposed to leave, I asked her
> to come with me to the airport. "Of course, dumbo. You think I'd let you
> go just like that, or what?"
>
> After packing my bags for me and checking the lists for the hundredth
> time, she finally pronounced me "Good to go."
>
> We reached the airport four hours early to beat the rush, because it was
> an international flight. She got a visitor's pass to sit in the waiting
> area while I went ahead and checked-in my bags. Preeti had got a spring
> balance from somewhere and so we knew my bags were well within the weight
> limit. I finished the formalities and came to sit with her. We had only a
> few hours before I had to go for my security-check. We decided to get
> something to eat at the food court. And all the time, the one thing that
> was going through my head was that, after this, I wouldn't see her for at
> least another two years.
>
> "Hey, Champ. Why so glum?" She saved 'Champ' for special days. Normally,
> it was just 'dumbo', 'bozo', 'ape-man', 'matchstick man', 'weirdo', or if
> she was very irritated with me, 'nutcase'.
>
> "I don't want to go," I said.
>
> "I don't want you to go either."
>
> "No, you don't understand." I couldn't hold it in any longer. "I can't
> stand the thought of living without you by my side."
>
> She stared at me. There was a strange look in her eyes. I couldn't read
> it.
>
> "I am madly in love with you, Preeti."
>
> At this, a sound escaped her lips that sounded like a cross between a sob
> and a laugh. "Well, dumbo, you've picked an absolutely fabulous time to
> tell me about it!"
>
> A tear escaped her eyes. It was all I could do to stop myself from wiping
> it off her cheeks.
>
> "How long have you felt this way?" She seemed amused, though she was
> definitely crying. I didn't know what to make of it.
>
> "From the day I found out you had baked me a cake."
>
> She laughed. "That's all it took? Well, bozo, I guess a way to a man's
> heart is certainly through his stomach! Hold it. A month? You waited a
> month? You were the one who kept saying that if you really liked a girl
> you wouldn't waste a day in telling her!" She was smiling widely now. It
> looked funny, with her eyes all wet.
>
> "Well, I was confused. How did I know how you'd react? In fact, I still
> don't understand your reaction. I thought it would change things between
> us. You've rejected every guy who ever proposed to you!"
>
> "That's because I'm in love with you, you overgrown idiot!"
>
> "What?" Somehow, I'd never expected her to say that. She was in love with
> me? "How long have you been in love with me?"
>
> "Ever since the day you offered to carry my suitcase for me."
>
> "But that was the first day I met you!"
>
> "I guess I was always a sucker for chivalry."
>
> "All this time you've been in love with me and you never said anything!
> Then you go and complain that I waited a month!"
>
> "You guys are so bad at reading a girl's mind."
>
> "You women are so good at keeping your thoughts a secret! Even Einstein
> couldn't figure you out."
>
> "Einstein was a nerd. Casanova, on the other hand, understood us very
> well."
>
> "I love you."
>
> "I know."
>
> That moment, my dear friends, was magic. I looked into her eyes and took
> her hands in mine. Physical contact for us had been limited, until then,
> to a punch in the arm, a slap on the back of the head, or giving each
> other a 'high five'.
>
> "You realize, don't you," she said, "that this is our first date?" Leave
> it to her to notice the little things.
>
> "I really don't want to go." I'd always maintained that love is a
> bucketful of emotions. I wasn't exactly delighted to be proved right.
>
> "Don't worry. I'm coming there in a couple of months."
>
> "How? On a dependent visa?"
>
> She laughed. "For that, I'll have to wait, won't I? I've got a project in
> New Jersey."
>
> I couldn't believe my ears. "What? When did that happen? You never even
> told me!"
>
> "Well, I wasn't sure you'd propose before you left. And I couldn't exactly
> sacrifice you to those New York women, could I? I had to watch out for
> myself. So I went on a project-hunting spree. There is an opportunity
> coming up for a project in about two months. Someone is coming back to
> India, so I'll be taking his place. They want me there for a little less
> than two years." She was beaming. "I realized I had struck gold!"
>
> "And if I'd not told you how I felt? When were you planning on telling me
> about it?"
>
> "Around a month before I reached there. I had to make it look natural. Or
> you'd think I was desperate."
>
> "Well, you are desperate!" This was incredible. All I'd done in the past
> month had been to mope around, listen to sad songs and write her letters
> that I never intended her to read. "You've been scheming all this while!
> How come you didn't lay a trap for me a year ago?"
>
> "I tried giving you hints, dumbo, but you just wouldn't pay attention!"
> She was laughing. "You're the only guy I ever spent any time with. Wasn't
> that a big enough hint?"
>
> That was true. She would happily join a group of boys to go to a cricket
> match, but I now realized, only if I was one of them.
>
> "What if I had rejected you?" I was extremely flattered that she'd been
> crazy about me for a year. My ego was swelling.
>
> "You must be kidding!" she was clearly amused. "I get proposed to every
> few days. You are the one who's been rejected more times in the last year
> than I can count on two pairs of hands!"
>
> She really knew how to burst my bubble.
>
> "Hey," she said softly, "don't look so dejected. I said 'Yes', didn't I?"
>
> I grinned. "Yes, you did. And you've made me a very happy man. But you
> know what would make me even happier?"
>
> "What?"
>
> "If you learn to cook as good as you bake cakes."
>
> So she punched me in the arm again.

Age vs State of Mind

I was reading a book in which I was introduced this term state of mind. What is the state of mind? It is state in which mind is on a particular day, on a particular moment, on a particular month or a particular timeline. I am also read that you get or achieve anything based on the state of mind you have. Now there are so many influences that happen to get to a state of mind. Lets say I am happy now, there might be something that has caused this, because of which I am in this state of mind. People say or some of these self help books say that you can choose your mood. I don’t know if I agree with that. If I am sad or bored, for a while no matter what I do I would carry this state of mind. I will be sad even if I try to do something different to change it. Anyway now comes the age part of it, which is where there is something like a base level state of mind. I don’t know if it is called the state of mind, but the behaviour of that particular age. Who programmed this particular behaviour it is so true that no matter who it is in general any human being goes through the same stages of behaviour. I am not saying it is exactly the similar kind of behaviour.

For instance when I was at the age of 10-12 the only thing that was running in my mind was to play. I played almost all kinds of games, you name it I have played it. Gilli danda, cricket, marbles, football, TT, local games, street games, running, chess, carrom, badminton, video games so many of them that I just can’t believe it how much time I spent on that. I used to love riding bicycle and some Jyothishi had told me not to ride any bicycle, so until I was 8th standard I didn’t get a bicycel. Before that I used to always ask for a ride from my friend’s cycle or just keep dreaming about it. I remember it was Aug 15th 1995; Independence Day all of my family Dad, Mom & brother we went to a cycle shop and bought a black Hero Ranger cycle. I enjoyed riding the bicycle. I had a study at that age, but still sports was the major distraction. I was not bad at studies but I always used to be in top 5 but never topper.

Then age of Teens, my God by far this is the best age that’s why it is called sweet sixteen. The most delicate age, the mind is so volatile that any thoughts easily get influenced. Many get spoilt at this age. I don’t know what gets in to mind to go beyond the boundaries layed by parents or society. Suddenly freedom surrmounts and I will go on my own and don’t feel like listening to anybody and then those tender love stories of having crush on somebody or secretly following someone or wishing for some miracles to happen without having much guts to face any of it. Any movie just strucks in mind and bells keep ringing in mind. At this age itself we will have the life decider exams like 10th standard, PUC, CET and that is where a career would form to get a shape and a direction. Anything down at this time would screw the whole career. No matter what it is only of the guys or gals of this age know what goes on in their minds, it is hard for any 40 aged person to figure out that. But to get to 40 you would have to cross 16. What I like the most is the way in the nature that these things happen and at 40 you really can’t get the thinking of what you get at 16 or 18.

As your grow older and older things change. At the time of graduation even though lot of friends are around you will be a worried about job or career and where I am going to land up. But everyone will have lot of big dreams and the mindset is very optimistic. But when we get introduced to the real world then again it is a bit of disappointment. I thought so much different my life would be at job. Welcome to the reality Dude! Then at job hikes, promotions, feeling of loser and no time to have fun. At time in college there will be lot of time & lot of friends and but no money, so you will tend to think may be when I start earning I will have more fun and spend lavishly, but when you are at job you will have money but not much of time or friend’s time to really do anything that you had thought before. This is the irony of life. But not everybody’s life is like the way I am put forth above. Some 1% of the population really get what they want in life and they live in a high style.

There is this is age “forget all about this dude, I need a companion of my life”, then the girl hunt. After that the life of a kids. Then some thing on a hardcore career at the age of 35. Then car, house, and other big investments. Then the retirement plans and then dada dadi feeling and then the detachment………. goes on man!

PS: You would envy the age of the people in the poster.

Good Morning

Morning time is such a wonderful time, that’s why people wish Good Morning, because morning is so good. Today I had to go home early, so I made a plan let me come to office as early as 7:30AM. So I got up at 6:30 AM got ready by 7:10 and left to office on my Pulsar. The weather is so pleasant, it just cool not too chill (it’s hot Summer ofcourse), no traffic, a slow feel of cool breeze (no wind actually, just that my bike is moving fast and feeling the stand still air), freshness everywhere. Ah! ha its nice.

I am a big late latif! Part of it is I am not a morning person. I don’t know how this terminology – morning person, night person came in to picture; I have heard a lot in hollywood movies. Always let it be engineering, PUC or work life, I can stay awake and late till any time, but getting up early in the morning is such a mountaineering task. Once in a while like today are exceptions. Night life is altogether a different story. Night has its own character of its own just like the morning now.

When Sun sets in the evening with turning the bright blue sky to yellow, orange, crimson red and finally from dark to black, lot of this things happen around. There is so much happiness to see the Sun – Sets and Sun Rise, it is so beautiful. I have seen more sun sets than sun rises and off late neither of them, why!; I will be in still on bed in the morning and office in the evening. Life has become so un-natural sitting in this boxed glassed building with a box called laptop. When I was young (10-20) seldom times we used to visit Juhu beach and watch the sunset. Its sad that Bangalore is not having a beach, else I would have turned to a morning person and jog on the beach everyday and watch the sun-rise. Right now the only sun rise I see is the coffee powder sunrise in my kitchen.

Once I had to drop my Mom to Railway station at 5:30 AM and then I planned to drive to Manipal hospital on Airport Road to collect a report. So I drove very fast from Railway station to Airport road. It was spring time, all the tree where so prolific with their fresh green leaves, some trees with no leaves, but just the beautiful fresh flowers, that too different colours yellow, voilet, pink, & white. They would shower the flowers if you walk below them, so godly right! That time I realized why Bangalore is or was called Garden City and the city is fantastic. Surprisingly all roads also looked so wide. These roads just get narrower with the traffic I guess. This was some 3 years ago, so there was no metro construction also.

The deal is I have to get up now on early everyday. 8 bache utna nahi chelaga. Office timing is going to change for the coming week. It is now 8:15 to 5:15, so I have to be in office by 8AM. Although till now the office timing was from 9:15 to 6:15 but I used to come by 10:30 or 11 and be in office till 8:30PM, 9 or 10AM. Now on I strickly want to follow this new office timing. I also have some life dude! I will see more sun rises and sun sets now on…..

Uff teri Ada

I like this song a lot, I don't know why. There is not much of dance in this song, but the song is all about dance. The best thing I liked is Deepika has really danced very freely and naturally and the lyrics also means the same. The sequence of imaginary rope and action is very beautiful

Jogi Nach Le, Rang Raj De... (2)
Lehraake Balkhaake Tu Duniya Bhulaake Naach
Dhun Koyi Gun Gunaale Gaale Tu Gaake Naach
Ranginiyon Mein Kho Ja, Pike Pilaake Naach
Madbhare Naino Se Tu Naina Milaake Naach

Uff Teri Ada, I Like The Way You Move
Uff Tera Badan, I Like To See You Groove
Uff Teri Najar, It Says I Wanna Dance With You... (2)

Sun Le Saaheba, Tu Hai Ik Nasha
Hosh Hai Mera Saara Kho Gaya

Hosh Gawa Deewaane Hosh Gawaake Naach
Paas Tu Aa Deewaane Paas Tu Aake Naach
Dil Mein Hai Armaan Jaane Saare Jagaake Naach
Tan Mein Badan Mein Jaise Aag Lagaake Naach

Uff Teri Ada, I Like The Way You Move
Uff Tera Badan, I Like To See You Groove
Uff Teri Najar, It Says I Wanna Dance With You... (2)

Dekhake Bhi Nahi Ho Yakin
Itani Kyun Hai Bata Tu Haseen
Tere Husn Se Jindagi Haseen
Tere Husn Ke Aage Koyi Haseen Na Kuchh Bhi Nahi
Aankhon Mein Mere Saare Sapane Sajaake Naach
Mujhako Tu Dil Mein Rakh Le, Dil Ko Dhadkaake Naach
Pyaar Agar Hai Mujhase Pyaar Jagaake Naach
Jaan-O-Dil Hai Jo Tere Mujhape Lutaake Naach

Uff Teri Ada, I Like The Way You Move
Uff Tera Badan, I Like To See You Groove
Uff Teri Najar, It Says I Wanna Dance With You... (2)

I want to dance now!

Monsoon Wedding

It’s 7 PM Thursday, still got a mail from Ravi to our group list. Ah! for a moment relieved to see I am not a only one still at office. Rushed to Home & then rushed to Railway station packing a wrong shoe pair by 8:25 PM, thinking the train leaves at 8:30 PM. You know what our Mr.Organiser Jagga always gives 1/2 an hour early deadline to real deadline. The first thing to see there was who all had what all sizes of luggages and the second thing was to take these baggages to settle them in a single compartment. Out of S4, S6, S7 I felt some compartment was labeled as “couples only” like in some pubs & discos . We, hungry chaps were desperately waiting for the Mysore station, why! A delicious food was awaiting us for our ambush – Courtesy Karishma or Ravi oh! I am confused.

Early morning Mangalore welcomed us with its thick green canopy drenched in a heavy rain. The weather there was so much similar to the characteristic of that of a girl; so volatile, so unpredictable, swinging to the extremes in matter of seconds. Rowen had done all the arrangement of the room and thanks to Mangalore buns too. It was looking really cool, home like feeling, the short walk from railway station Kankanadi to Samrudhi lodge in a drizzling rain was quite tranquilizing. Thank God it was Friday, so we decided to get freshen up by 10:30 and start exploring gloomy Mangalore. By the way Nishant had already arrived with his special friend Sarika. Ah! it is big group now 17+2 in number. After having a breakfast we went to Someshawara Beach. To our surprise the beach was not all that romantic & quiet, it was roaring with high tides, gushing with force on rock & little bit left out shore. Our Professional Photographer Mr. Pari took some amazing shots & trying out some experiments on the timing of waves hitting the rock and goggles. We spent almost an hour on the rock witnessing the power of nature just to realize how insignificant we stand infront of it. Anyway the best part was we were on a trip after a long time in a group of this size, meeting some of my class-mates nearly after 6 years (Kishore), recalling old memories about our college, checkpost, canteen, dialogues, giggling around with jokes and events that happened in the past. Now along with it we were adding to our memories like all standing & showing our back to camera, witnessing sweet quarrels of the newly wedded friends, chips, smelly bhel on that paper cone, walking & travelling in the bus, chit chat. Somehow we had identified Ideal Ice-cream parlour as our hang-out place. Food for lunch was substituted by ice-creams, cutlets & samosas. The day ended with dinner in Dolphins & poker game.

July 11th 2009, Saturday – A big day for Rowen & Zita. We all got up and dressed up with suits & marriage attires and had a bunch of photo sessions(I think Vogue or Maxim can sponsor us for such events). We the great timekeepers entered the church late. Rowen & Zita were already at the centre and the ceremony had begun. The whole set up was so extravagant & grand, we could feel delight of it everywhere. What impressed me the most was solemn ritualistic addressing by Fathers of the Church. Although some part of it was in Konkani, with a bit of Marathi background some meaning could be made out of it. The whole marriage stands on the foundation of love, faith, trust, mutual respect. Some of verses made so much of sense like the one standing together in health and sickness, abiding by love, forgiveness, living in harmony, honouring eachother to live together for eternity, pervading peace, instilling love in hearts of not only the newly marrying couple but also people present in the hall. Chalo yaar funde se fun part par ab mudenge. There was a orchestra, a lovely decorated podium, a 3 level cake and a enthusiastic anchor. Everything was so organized say it a toast, or couple walk, or dance, or speech by Rowen(Did you win first prize in speech competition when you were in school), food, best man & maid of honor dance (Ajay good job man! ). The evening party was so much fun and was very casual in nature. Man! everybody in Rowen’s or Zita’s family are talented. Almost everyone are good singers, guitarist, dancers, musician in one way or the other. Our Best Man turned out to a Bar Man (Ajay! got so well mingled with us, I am getting a feeling that we studied engineering together). There were so many games too. We also started with song antaskari and dance. I was amazed by the incredible energy of Grandma(I feel old at this age), Rowen’s Dad, brother for that matter everyone there.

We didn’t want the party to end, so with that influence we continued our party at Room 315. We made two group on-bed & off-bed and played a hour long antaskhari. So many songs kept on playing, playing, it was 94.3 non-stop hits. Then the most interesting game started, the dumb charadas. Everyone one us were pulled on to the test of acting skills. The most daring & amusing actor award goes to our Busa (MC). Man! it was so much fun. Damn it! didn’t wanted to end that either, but the clock was ticking 3:30 AM. So half the crowd left to take some rest after a long day. The other half continued with Poker. We were now playing with more and more coins and we got the hang of the game now after the initial orientation by Nishant. It was already morning 4 or 5AM.

Poker was not just over there, the gambling continued, along with it came up with so many imaginative ideas, “Why don’t we book a room and play poker, why don’t we meet everyday in Majestic to play. Even in the early morning 11 AM people started the day with poker. After all the party and marriage not all were with the same energy, so some wanted to stay at the lodge, some wanted to visit Panambur beach and some wanted to do shopping. We paid visit to Ideal Icecream again for lunch. Panambur beach is just beside the Mangalore port. The whole area was filled with trucks, Indian oil, railway track. Even just soil over there was purple in colour rich with iron and manganese I guess. I wish if it was all gold . This beach was like a normal beach – nice shore, lot of people, lot of eatable stalls. Got wet, did lot of jumping, lot of photo snaps and rain made to us to run away back to lodge. One thing Murgi & Jaya always used to join us where ever we use to go. Well! The trip was almost coming to an end, packed our luggages and back to railway station. Luckily this time we all got seats in the same bogie and were badly waiting for TC so that we could grab packed food specially packed and brought by Karthik (lambu) & CR. Slowly it started to sink in our minds that trip is now over, we have to get back to our work. Seriously I had forgot all about it for 3 days. We were Bangalore station well before the time. The final roll call – attendants of the weddings: Jagga, Pari, Ravi & Karishma, Nagaraj MC & Spoorthi, Murgi & Jaya, Nishant & Sarika, Srinivas, Srinivas CR, Karthik Lambu, Karthik Gurugalu, Kishore, Magesh, Babu, Zubair, Ajay, Cletus.

The question is whose will be the next wedding out of Bangalore and when will we have some trip like this again. Oh! no the better question can be why can’t we just go for another trip to some good place sometime? What do you say people….

Tension Matt Ley

After nearly 6 months I am back to my own blog. What was happening all these days. Well! There was a lot happening and I couldn’t hold to many things. I enjoyed writing blogs before but now a kind of resistance had developed towards it. This would be a temporary phase.

At office I enjoyed working on one project which was going on for a such a long time and this was the peak moment. We worked day night to cover up so many tasks that were lying around. Did 3 months of night shifts too. Finally we completed 95% of the work from our group side, there was still some more left out by other team and it was scrapped. This somehow was the effect of my last blog. Yeah! the famous word used now a days called “recession”. Everybody just keeps on talking about this. In all the news channels, in all the newspapers, in cafeteria, in shops, in relatives’ house, in cutting saloon, in meetings, in shabji mandi, in coffee house, every freaking place. Somehow this is a psychological thing or a real thing I don’t know has effected every industry. So I decided one thing I won’t think about or use the word recession. By the way I have more projects than before in hand now, even if one got scrapped .

I don’t know I kind of have a grave confidence that nothing will happen. Stay calm and take it easy. This is just one part of the whole process. You know I heard this saying as Death is also a part of Life, I guess in Forest Gump. What a movie man. For him nothing really mattered, he just did everything and attained the peak in everything without even knowing what he did. I like that movie a lot, one of the classic movie I guess. There are so many such statements which can be easy taken as saying. Like “Shit Happens” yeah very true. In the whole world or in the economy sometimes Shit happens. Tension matt ley! Jo hoga vo dekha jayega. So I really don’t care about it. In fact now things are changing or improving I guess. Anyway again who cares.

Financial Crisis...A Summary

Something went wrong. The whole world economy is just shaky now, rather at a downfall. There is total chaos in the financial world. With this the tremors are spreading to every domain now. Slow down, recession, economy crisis, bail outs, bankruptcy; these are the every day news.

Actually I wasn't following anything of this and I was just too happy in my world. Slowly I started reading all about it. How it started and how things are getting worse day by day. I used to hear in US that real estate market is down and US economy is not doing well. But as a common man the repercussion to day today activity was not that high. I don't know somehow I getting the feel of it mentally.

Just in 5 weeks there was a financial turmoil. How it started, here it goes in simple terms a company of worth some x billion borrowed 25 times its net worth creates funds to lend and invest. In 2005-2007 the real estate market was on a steep growth and it was assumed that this will continue forever. Mortgage lenders became lenient in their lending standards with the greed of making more money without worry much about the repayment as this can be recouped with the property itself. Now the property bubble burst lead to steep depreciation in the property prices. People could not repay their loan on time and repayment defaults kept increasing leading to those huge chunks of toxic mortgages. These investment banks purchased the mortgages from banks thus freeing them to lend more money. Investment Bankers used these as assets and sold them to various institutional investors like hedge funds, pension funds, mutual funds, and banks in all parts of the globe including Europe and Asia. The real risky mortgages were charged with very high interest rates. Overall approximately $1 trillion was invested in securities thinking they get huge returns later. As the tide turned down, all institutional investor suddenly faced this erosion of the capital. This big chunk of money was all sold and chained through the whole financial system and then there was no real value in those mortgages at all. Now there is no real money with these financial institutes at all. Suddenly everything started falling with huge deficiency in the liquidity and every major company started declaring as bankrupt. Now the government had to come to rescue the whole economy by bailouts and buying the banks the financial institutes.


The two hedge funds owned by Bear Sterns collapsed. The Federal Reserve staved off a Bear Sterns bankruptcy by assuming $30 billion in liabilities and engineering sale to JP Morgan Chase for a price that was less than worth of Bear's Manhattan skyscraper. The biggest American lending companies, which I consider them as the main cause for all of this, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were in big trouble with their stock prices falling out. On September 7th the Treasury Department took over them for some $200 billion. One of biggest investment banker Lehman Brothers was totally wrecked and it filed bankruptcy. Merrill Lynch which is again one more big icon of investment banking sold off itself to Bank of America to avoid similar fate of Lehman Brothers. Washington Mutual was down; Barclay Capital bought bits and pieces of Lehman Brothers. On September 16th American International Group, AIG an insurance giant was on the verge of failure which was bailed out by Fed again for $85 billion. The $700 billion bail out plan which was rejected was finally passed. How much this would rescue the economy is not really known. The Dow Jones has fell to 9200 odd points, BSE yesterday had gone below 11000 mark. Strange it has reached to roaring 20,000 points but now down to this level. European markets are down, Asian markets are down. There are many financial institutes in bankruptcy in Europe. Yesterday Kamal Mehta and P.Chidambaram were giving repeated press conferences to build the confidence in the investor and Indian Economy is very much in convergence with the Financial Institutions and we are in a growing economy and we won't face such a situation.

Bus yaar! Yeh saab hogaya. Finance ke bahut sare funde bol raha huun. If you don’t understand anything of the above I conduct special classes on the weekends. Special rates available if you call within the next 24 hours… ;)

Chal abhi aramse chai peeta huun.

What are you searching...

I had a life in Kansas for long time. So many things happened in past two years that my life has stirred up completely. I could really see ups and downs of a life, good and bad things of life, personal life, professional life. I did meet lot of new people at a new level and they did share their life stories. I am not 65 years old and the people I met were not even 50. But for the first time I was seeing with vision of life as a whole. I don't know, optimistic person like me, was turned to a pessimistic person. My faith was shook, the principles and fundas were questioned again in my mind and suddenly nothing was meaningful. This whole thing was a big confusion. What was I searching all along, I don't know...

Anyway this crap philosophy and all doesn't work. Life is rude to you sometimes. Time up boss! Get your ass out of here. So what all I had till now, had to packed in my just 2 suitcases. Damn! I was doing this packing past last 2 weeks still I couldn't finish it till the last minute. I did one thing though, everyday I paid visit to each of the places in which I had spent my past time. That was a amazing recap. Actually this time I was not feeling sorry to leave the city. I felt good. Change is always good. Change always bring about a new excitement and new colour to life. But certainly the experiences and learning that I had would always remain etched in my mind.

Now coming back to my room was such a Ah Ha feeling. I got access back to all my good old stuff. In many cases, I felt India or Bangalore is far more advanced. I have so much better options here. Suddenly I am back in the crowd, among the people who love me, who care about me, all this just makes you feel wonderful. Things started getting clear in my mind. Although the confusion is not totally washed away, but work is under progress. While I was cleaning some of the stuff on my book shelf, my sight fell on this good old book "The Alchemist". I have read this before and it is amazing. This is a magical fable written in such a incredible way which makes to glued to the book and at the same rate it keeps on telling you life fundas. I have started reading it again and even if I have read it before, even though I know the whole story, still I am able to relate myself much better. When I read it before I was in a different phase of life and now I am in a different phase, so view point have changed a little bit and this book is teaching me new things now.

It is all about following and realizing a dream. It is a matter of a destiny how ones path of life gets decided. These are some excerpts from this book.

"Destiny is what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young know what their destiny is. At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives. But, as time passes, a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realize their destiny. It's a force that appears to be negative, but actually shows you how to realize your destiny. It prepares your spirit and your will, because there is one great truth on this planet: whoever you are or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, it's because that desire originated in the soul of the universe. It's your mission on earth" Courtesy Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist.

Airport

One of the most interesting place that I have come across is the Airport. Well! It is quite strange, only for past few years I am getting this opportunity to see this family of place more often, before that it was always either bus stands or the railway stations. Although my first flight in plane was on January 1st 2000, what a beginning! that was the first day after the millennium celebration.I still remember I was in Engineering first sem, I was made to sleep early and we were awake by 3 AM and watching the millennium celebration happening all around the world in TV. My first flight on plane was to Chennai on the way to Andaman Nicobar Islands. Probably that is a different topic altogether by itself.

After staying in Kansas for nearly 2 years, I had almost become a host over there. I used to come to airport on numerous occasions to drop-off so many of my friends. Saying Alvida to so many was always painful. Certainly Life is Big, and I am sure I will bump in with all my real friends again. Finally I had to probably make my final trip to Kansas Airport ( I am not sure if that was the final one, for this year at least ). The strange part is I was always there to send off all of them, but no one comes to send me off. That's fine!

Airport is such a heterogeneous mixture of all kinds of people, from all countries. There is certain smell or should I call it as fragrance in every airport that is kind of very different. Is it the smell of the toilets, phenol or the mixture perfumes of so many people, or air by itself in which we all fly. I hate waiting anywhere, however in airports that is the only best work to do. So my best time pass is to observe people around. All these business people with their formal wears, suit boat show off so much of a class look that as if they are the only people who are making the world to work. Always stressed with their laptops, blackberry, hi fi mobiles holding a first class ticket, which is more of booked at the company expense. Then there are these young teenager who prefer to sit at some corner on the floor instead of the chair which their gizmos connected to power slot. Girls often with a pink ipod, pink laptop, chewing a gum, looking very serious around (Oh! God this pink obsession). Then the young hunks with some sporty shoes, with haphazard bags, caps, some junk style, raw look with some food in hand. There are our desi people too. What do they do, they just stare at the other desis. I don't know whatz up with this staring business. There are some families with kids with their own mini-DVD players, video games. So much of electronic stuff in airport myan! Then these rollers in between for the babies. These rollers are so much of a mess, they are annoying to others too, they always take so much space and are always parked on the way, with the babies and some even grown ones sitting happily in it. Probably I will not understand the use of this now, but I feel it is a big irritating luggage (of course I am not referring the baby). There is other category of people too, these hippies, some art guys, or the music guys, they are always in a different world. Oh! yeah these airport or airline people too, with their uniforms, remove that remove this uuff this security checking, so much of a hassle. Sometimes I feel these guys are still going to school, because they still wear uniforms. Anyway this above sentence is silly. It happens like this because waiting and watching kind of develops a boredom. Finally with boarding call, that be as per the zone, we finally get to enter the plane. First 10-15 mins is all about fitting the big lug gages inside those boxes. Now the excitement of who will be your neighbour, you know it what it turns out always.

Till now I have seen Chennai, Port Blair, Hyderabad, Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Frankfurt, Paris, New York, New Jersey, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Chicago and Kansas Airport. Of all I like the Paris Airport, why it is stylish and fashionable as per its city. Although this time the toilet was bad. May be that particular one. Anyway it is damn good. I haven't seen the whole world there is a separate ranking available for airports based on many criteria. In fact I expected more out of the new Bangalore International airport. It is of course big and good, but to the international standards, it should have been more a lot more different.

Anyway that's it, I am feeling less interested to write more on this topic, but it is quite fascinating on how the directors have managed to make a movie "Terminal" Tom Hanks on it. Really a good movie. Well! All the way on this travel back I was tired tired tired. The very first leg from Kansas to Atlanta made me feel such a long flight. Then Atlanta to Paris and Paris to Bangalore, back home and then slept like a log. End of the story.

Funny and True ;)

Couple of days back I got this set of sentences as a forward. Found it really cool!

Relationship between eyes

The best relation ever is between two eyes,
"They blink together, move together, cry together, see together and sleep together".
STILL they never see directly each other.
But when they see a girl, one will blink and the other will not.

Moral of the story: " Girls can break all kind of relationships ".