Some days are just perfect!

December 3rd, 2006~

Magu: Sunday, 10th Dec, Wet 'n' Wild Resort...
Me: Cool...But it's gettin colder every day...And spending the whole day in water...Don't you wanna rethink?
Magu: That's the fun...No more discussions...We are goin'!
Me: Okay...As you say!

A couple of days later~

Me: Meghad, I happened to bathe with cold water today...And trust me, it wasn't fun at all!
Magu: He He :-D Suggest some other place to go then...
Me: Let's go to Neemrana Fort...I've heard a lot about it.
Magu: We were once planning to go there but it never materialised...We can think about it. Get me all the details.
Me: Yeah, I'll do that.

Next day~

Me: Neemrana Fort Palace...Delhi-Jaipur highway...180 Kms!
Magu: Suits me! I'll ask the rest.
Me: Who'll arrange for the transport?
Magu: Shweta will.
Me: Alright then...Confirm with everyone 'n' lemme know!

Later in the day~

Magu: Everyone's cool about it...Let's go!
Me: Did you enquire about the taxi?
Magu: Yeah...Rs.9/km for the Qualis and Rs.11/km for the Innova.
Me: Too much!
Magu: I know...You check out with the one near your house.
Me: I'll do that.

Minutes later~

Me: Rs.7/km for a Qualis/Tavera and Rs.10/km for the Innova + Rs.100 & the meals for the driver!
Magu: Super! Get it done!
Me: Okies!
And the next day, I booked the cab that would take us to the Neemrana Fort Palace the following day.

A cold Sunday morning...Had to get up at 6.15 A.M...Seemed no better than a regular weekday, but the hope for a perfect weekend getaway! The cab arrived at my house at 6.45 A.M., a bit earlier than I had expected. I was getting late with every passing minute and with every failed attempt to wake Megha up! Finally, I started from my place at 7.30 A.M., an acceptable half hour later than we had planned.

I was so sleepy, I couldn't stop yawning till we reached Venkateshwara College to pick up Megha. We had to wait for 10 minutes at that place before I could see the "baby ali", dressed in all pink, knocking at one of the car doors, waiting to get in! We went on to pick up Shweta, Bose and finally Shuchi from Gurgaon!

We were on the Delhi-Jaipur highway at around 10 A.M., heading to our destination point! I settled comfortably in the designated "activity seat" with Shuchi 'n' Megha, and Shweta 'n' Bose were happy in each other's company in the "lovers' seat";-)
The journey was marked by the usual chit-chatting, munching on chips 'n' biscuits & clicking a lot of bizarre photographs.

Somewhere around the mid way, we made a long 1 hour halt to have breakfast and tea in a dhaba. The place had a number of tables and chairs laid out in a wide, open area, alongwith a small section, covered on the top by a shed made of straw. We got a table set up for us in there.
Hot gobhi 'n' aloo paranthas, cut into pieces which resembled slices of a pizza, with butter, they looked so delicious, it was hard to resist!
A few rounds of these great Indian delicacies, alongwith cardamom tea, good times started rollin'.

But as soon as we started from that place, we were faced with something so likely to happen on a road trip...a busted tyre! It took 15 minutes for the driver to replace it with a spare one kept under the backseat of the car. And we set off again...

After a smooth run for about 10 minutes, I saw the driver slowing down. I called out for him to enquire, and he smiled...One more time!
It was worse. There wasn't any other backup, so this one had to be repaired. The surroundings were full of small open kiosks, selling fruits, peanuts, biscuits and soft drinks. With nothing better to while away time with, we started clicking some random photographs. Everyone around must be wondering if it was our first trip to India...After about 40 odd minutes, we left that place, hoping to reach without any more hassles.

Finally, at 1 P.M., we were right in front of the huge entrance to the Neemrana Fort Palace, gazing at that enormous structure, dating back to the 15th century! An entry ticket of 200 bucks each entitled us to roam around in the fort, for a couple of hours.
Just at the entrance, there was a cart, which reminded me of similar ones shown in the movie Umrao Jaan. So peculiar, I'm still wondering why it was there!



After walking up for a while, we came across an open area, in the shape of a dial of a huge clock. All around this place, were beautiful flowers in colours of pink, orange and white. Shuchi went crazy seeing them and got so many pictures clicked with all of them.

A bit further, was the reception, which led to the five star rooms, ranging from 3-17 grand! We went further up to a corridor, which opened to an area where the lunch was laid out. It had been a long time since we had had the breakfast and everyone was starving for another meal. It was a lavish buffet for 750 bucks, a bit too expensive to suit our budget!
So we headed to the snack bar, just a few metres away. We were just about to settle down on a couch nearby, when Megha saw a staircase going up to a small terrace.

At that point of time, no one would have thought that it was where we would spend the rest of our day! The weather was just perfect. The sun wasn't too bright; a cool breeze once in a while kept brushing against our faces, leaving a queer twinge around the nose. It was simply awesome!
For a moment, I stood there, with arms wide open, taking a deep breath, wanting to absorb all that beauty around or maybe allowing myself to be absorbed in that picture, becoming an unseperable part of it all!

We ordered for cheese omlettes, a grilled sandwich, vegetable pakoras and french fries, accompanied by red wine, courtesy Shweta and Shuchi. I shared a beer with Bose. The food was decent, not great though, except for the cheese omlettes, which were absolutely scrummy!

We spent about 4 hours at that terrace before we decided to check out the local market. The sun was about to set, hiding behind the clouds. We moved out of the fort, heading for the nearby village.

Megha wanted some Rajasthani junk jewellery, something by the name of hasli! Weird name!
As we walked through those streets searching for them, a group of kids and shady men
kept following us. Any shop that we stopped at, they would gather there and stare at us as if we were from some other country or maybe a different planet altogether! The gals in the group kinda liked the unwanted attention. They felt like celebrities!
After spending about an hour, searching for something to take back home, all that we got were a few pieces of some 'hard as a stone', 'filthy looking' barfi that Bose bought from a sweets shop.

It was time to go back now...It was dark. From a distance, we could see the fort lit up with lights all over. It was a beautiful sight. With a desire in our hearts to visit that place again, we left for Delhi.

As we hit the highway, a milestone read: Delhi, 118 kms. And not 180 kms, as I had wrongly heard when I enquired about the place. :-)

The song of the trip was "Tere Bina", from the movie Guru; listened to it endlessly till Megha's phone battery finally gave out!
Shuchi's exclamatory "Bose ki Barfi" still sounds funny!
All in all, one of the best Sundays for me in recent times. A day to savour!
One must pay a visit to this place. With friends or family, you are bound to have a rocking time!
Cheers!

Estranged~

Lying on the bed
He has a hell lot runnin' through his head
He wants to vent it out
But he doesn't know what to talk about

He picks up a paper and a pen
And suddenly, there's a message from his friend
"Hey, how are you? It's been a long time!"
And he says, "All's well; I'm doin' just fine!"

He's happy, but he's sad too
What's this feeling, even he doesn't have a clue
He wants to smile and he wants to cry
Lookin' back at all that's come 'n' gone by

"Enough of it!", he says to himself
He doesn't care if he doesn't get the best
Live each day as it comes, they say
You never know if it was or it may
Fuck fear and drink chilled beer
And life gets goin' in the top gear!

I'm on the Outside...I'm lookin' in.

A cluster of random, disparate thoughts in my head:

• No matter how good you are, you aren't good enough!
• Ankur-Rohit-Sughosh : they rock!
• I created My Own Prison...I wanna sing as good as Scott Stapp does!
• I'm craving for a chocolate cake!
• I wanna sleep...for a week!
• P.S. by Filmschool is addictive...I can hear it loud in my head!
• I hate the IT industry!
• I hate professionalism. It makes you inhuman!
• Why the hell did Liverpool lose to Everton last night?
• I miss my iPod.
• Will it ever rain in Delhi?
• Why did God create irritating people?

It's funny how silence speaks sometimes when you're alone...

Punjabi by Nature!

Last night I went to this restaurant, Pind Balluchi with my mom and my younger brother.
I had been there before and faintly remembered that the food served is good. But that's all to the memories I had of that place!
This time things were to be a bit different...

After waiting for about 5 minutes, we were given a table. It was furnished with 4 steel glasses, accompanied by a set of 3 bowls bearing achaar, sirke wale pyaaz and hari chutney and a glass half filled with water, and stuffed with green chillies up to the rim!

The decor of the restaurant was true to its name, ethnic Punjabi ishtyle!
As my eyes moved around the place, trying to assimilate what it had to offer, a waiter, dressed in a pathani kurta pyajama, with a jacket over it, came over to take the order.

"We'll have Dal Makhani, Butter Paneer Masala and Aloo Gobhi, with Pudina Parantha and Butter Naan, and lachha pyaaz!", I said.
A minute later, another waiter, in a similar attire, laid out huge steel thalis with 3 steel katoris in each, on our table.

As we sat there waiting for the food, people all around, were chit chatting, not very loud though, but enough to enliven the surroundings.
We could hear a collection of Punjabi songs, with the likes of "Gur nalon ishq mitha" n "Dhol jageeron da", playing in the background. I have never really enjoyed listening to such songs, except when they are played in the weddings or in the parties otherwise, but that very moment, I found myself in rapture!
I smiled and looked towards my brother; he smiled back too! Apparently, he felt the same...

For a while, I thought I was there, in the land of 5 rivers. I could smell that earth.
I felt as if there is a group of people at some distance, dancing to the tunes of those songs. I wanted to stand up and shake a leg with them.


Just then, the waiter came back with the food that we had ordered. The food was yum!
It tasted better than the last time. Mum 'n' bro were pleased too!
Once we had eaten to our hearts full, the waiter got us some gur 'n' saunf. That amazing feeling continued to surround me...
We paid the bill with a handsome tip!

As soon as we stepped out of the restaurant, my brother started speaking in Punjabi, not very fluent though, but at least it helped to keep that feeling alive.
We drove to Giani's for an ice-cream on our way back home, to add on to the "being-punjabi" feeling that we were smitten over by!

An awesome night with my favourite people around and that special feeling throughout, I had the time of my life!
Haddippaaa!!! :D

On A Day Like Today...

Budged by the buzz of the alarm, he tries to open his eyes to welcome another day.
It's 5.45 am on the clock, so he opts for a short nap...15 minutes past, another alarm, loud enough to wake him up; it's his mom standing beside his bed...

His back's hurting, eye-lids defying to succumb to such an early start, he doesn't wanna get up, but he got no option! He finishes with his ablutions and is ready to move out in time, only just! He runs to board his office cab, tryin' his best not to offend the annoying cab driver, who always has an eye on the watch and is on the look out for a moment to nag! But alas, he fails again!

He settles comfortably in the backseat, the driver switches on the a.c., and off they go!
The cab stops at regular intervals for a few more colleagues to board. In the meantime, he has his iPod on, and in no time, he dozes off...
Half an hour later, a long halt... He wakes to realise that he's reached his workplace!
He gets off the cab, walks up the staircase to the first floor, flashes his access card at the door and enters what is going to be his world for the next 9 hours!

After a series of exchanges of "Hi's" and "How are you?'s", he heads for his cubicle, switches on his PC, logs in to all sorts of messengers, community websites and email accounts, except for the Microsoft Outlook, which he tends to forget, more often than not, and which unfortunately happens to be the most important one in any office! (in his too!)

His empty stomach calls for a feed, so he, alongwith a couple of friends, marches towards the cafeteria for breakfast. The menu is dull enough to kill half his appetite, still he picks up a sandwich for the moment and a cup of tea to go with it. After about 40-odd minutes there, he is back on his chair, all set to start with the day's work.

But then, he doesn't know what to do. As a matter of fact, there isn't anything to do!
So he traverses the list of friends on all the messengers to search for someone who's as idle as he is. Here he is fortunate enough to have a pool of "resources" to choose from!

After whiling away a lot of time in this activity, he overhears some people talking about some company news which he isn't aware of and after brooding over it for a while, he realises that he hasn't yet opened the all too important Microsoft Outlook on his machine!
In the midst of overwhelmingly large number of crappy forwarded mails sent by almost every member of the software engineers' community, he finds the desperately sought-after piece of information!

Alongwith these, he happens to find a mail from his client, quite important to say the least!
But just then, he sees the right bottom corner of the screen which says 1 p.m. - lunch time!
And so the client shall wait...atleast for an hour!
Another trip to the cafeteria, another disappointment; the lunch menu gets worse every day! But atleast he manges to eat up another 60 minutes!

Back again, he's too lazy to start working right away. He decides to play some good music to keep him alive. Some Creed, Pearl Jam and Zero to revive his senses!
Now he's ready to work again, but then there is no work. Oh no, there's a client mail to reply to, but it can wait again; the client is in US, so it doesn't matter if he replies now or two hours later; he won't be appreciated for a prompt reply anyway!

So he starts writing a new post on his blog; a relatively new interest that he has developed, and is enjoying it for the very fact that atleast something's keeping him busy!

Done with that, he still has about 90 minutes to piddle away! Tired of being in the small enclosure for so long now, he moves out for a stroll. After disturbing some people here 'n' there, he buys a cup of noodles from the cafeteria and is back to his seat, for the last 30 minutes of the business day!

Finally, a click on the "Reply" tab, 3-4 lines of gratifying crap for the client, with a glaze wrapper of "thanks n regards", there goes the mail! It's time to wind up for the day!
A series of "Goodbye's" all around, a flash of the card at the door, he heads for his cab, waiting in the parking lot. The first sight of the pale white Tata Sumo pisses him off; the front seat is already occupied! Left with no option, he settles in the backseat, waiting for the others.

After a 75 minute journey, through the crests 'n' troughs spread all over the city roads and a shitty long stoppage at a railway crossing, he's home again!

Physically deformed and mentally exhausted, he collapses on the bed.
The concerned mother gets him something to eat, which he happily hogs on! He switches on the television to find that there's nothing that interests him, except for glimpses of a few hot females in some music videos.(Rakhi Sawant isn't one of them!)

He soon gets bored and turns off the TV. He's tired. The day is almost over.
He lays still on the bed, eyes half open, thinking about the day gone by.
What did he do? What could he have done? And more importantly, what should he have done?
Following a serious introspection, he dozes off to dream about a better tomorrow, a day that will not be the same as today, a day to remember, a day of no remorse...

A buzz of the alarm wakes him to reality... He remembers what he had dreamt of.
He wants his dream to be real, but he couldn't break the routine! The same set of activities to start the day, turns him off. He gives in. And the hope for a better day fades away...

He's listening to Pink Floyd on his iPod... He has become comfortably numb!

Yun Hota To Kya Hota...

Rarely do I get excited about movies, but I really couldn't have thought of missing out on this one. The day I saw the rushes of the film for the first time on the television, the wait for its release had begun... The biggest reason being the name under the director's column - the ever so classy, Naseeruddin Shah!

I've always admired him as an actor ; the ease with which he plays his part in all his movies - so effortless, yet so perfect! Now he emerges as more or less a consummate director, and strives to take his achievements, a step further.

A couple of days back, I was watching a special feature on the movie, where he talked about the mentations behind the film and the selection of the cast, and when I watched the movie, I was amazed at the perfection with which those thoughts were executed on screen!

The director is so clear about where to end, and he is on the right track throughout. It is so easy to lose way in between while handling four different stories in parallel, but when it's Mr. Naseeruddin Shah, there's a little chance of things going awry!

The last quarter of the movie leaves you dumbstruck! It took me a long time to sink in, the way all of it had come to a close, with the question ringing loud enough in the head :: What if?...

The title song alone forms the background score of the movie, which very well captures the essence of the plot and the different situations being portrayed.

All in all, a great movie by a great man!
A must watch...

Out Of Exile!

Finally, after 3 days of blacking out of the blogs in India, following an insane act of "blanket blocking" by the ISPs, things are back to normal again!

It's such a relief for me, having been a part of the blogosphere for only a few weeks and being faced up with something like this!
Though there were workarounds to bypass the ban, but it wasn't at all comfortable to access your own web space through an alternative route; it simply ceases to be what one calls, My Space!
An attack on a possession, be it as small as a 20-day old web space, hurts still...

But now it's back to happy times for this newbie blogger!
Happy reading... :-)

Light A Candle

More than 200 people killed...Hundreds of others seriously injured!
Let's do our wee bit for those who succumbed in the terror's darkness...

http://clients.ibnlive.com/features/mumatt/index.php

Please light a candle.

The Memory Remains...

One fine day, in a land of jaded souls, a mutineer(well quite literally), managed to find something that would bring about weeks of much needed solace for us.
It was the famous, Condition Zero : Counter Strike!!!




I still remember the 2 weeks of "Fun @ InterraIT" (well that's precisely one of the things that my company wants us to do, didn't they say so at the time of induction?)... ;)

Planning strategies...Implementing them unsuccessfully...Managing to win a few times by killing the opponents or diffusing those bombs (I must confess, I made a mess of it when I had to diffuse one myself for the first time!)... That's all that our timesheets consisted of!
The only times when we got our asses off our chairs was to eat or to hit the loo...Revival! :D

Thanks to the partners in crime, "Seabiscuit", "Sher-e-Punjab", "Nightmare", "Newbie Prashant" and the boss, "Abyss"!
I surely was having the time of my life, but it wasn't to last for long...

And as all good things come to an end, this too, unfortunately, was destined to!

Seabiscuit & Sher-e-Punjab got another project, they had to shift to new cubicles, on the "highway", as they call it!
Newbie decided to move on in life and left the company.
Nightmare too has some jazzy mobile application work now!
And the man who started it all, Abyss, he too moved out just yesterday!

And here I am, all alone, no work(well that's official) and nothing else to indulge in too.
Lookin' back, I miss those days...Hoping the "disposable heroes" will be back in action...Soon!

-- Indian Superhero Krrish! ;)

Campioni Del Mondo

9th July saw the curtains being pulled down on the best show on Earth that spreads its frenzy across masses, young and old alike, every 4 years!

This time, it was the battle of Asterix vs The Gladiators at Berlin.
I was at the Shangri-La Hotel, with the crowd of 100 odd people, wearing the colors of the teams they were supporting, drinking and smoking, chanting the names of their favourite players... just about the perfect setting to watch what promises to be the bestest 90 minutes that this beautiful game of football has to offer!

But as the gods wanted, it had to go on to 30 minutes of extra time and was eventually decided on penalties!

The Italian supporters went into ruptures as Grosso drilled in the last one! They were goin' wild shouting out rhythmic chants of "Italia" n "Azzurri", jumping in joy, punching fists in air and sharing hugs with unknown people who had just one thing in common, the support for the winning team; I was one of them!:)

Amidst these scenes of jubiliation, was a set of French supporters, in tears, shattered; they started moving out like a herd of sheep being taken back from the green pastures, to where they belong! A sad sight... I know how it feels; had a similar experience when England crashed out of the tourney!

But the history remembers only the winners, and after one of the best world cup finals in the footballing history, it was Italy who were crowned the "Champions of the World"!

Hail Azzurri

And the bastards lose...

4 days of groaning following England's defeat in the world cup quarters...

It needed something really good to get over the lamentable chapter - what better way than to watch the Portugese bastards lose to France in the semis!



Ecstatic I am while I tag this pic alongwith...Who deserves these tears more than him!

Now really looking forward to the 3rd place match to watch Germany kick ass, and the dickheads goin' back home with NOTHING!

Let's get the ball rolling!

Yet again, bad luck struck its blow ; but I still keep hoping...just another 4 years to go!

1st July '06, the day when England registered yet another penalty shootout exit from a world cup! after 120 minutes of hard fought battle, it took just 15 more minutes to confirm that their dream of lifting the prestigious trophy will remain a dream, atleast for another 4 years! we just did not deserve this...

dejected...crestfallen...i've mulled over it enough!
my world cup's over...don't have words...don't even feel like cursing anyone for the defeat...it hurts! a hell lot!

still can't believe it has actually happened! haven't been able to snap out of it!



but the fact doesn't change...so close yet so far!
can't get boged down...as they say "there's always a next time!"

we'll be back, even stronger...the countdown begins...just another 4 years to go!