June 13, 2009: 0525hrs
Hmmm… Why, why, why!! Why is this world turning upside down for me? Why is the feeling that I’m going to die a pauper becoming stronger? Why is my forgetfulness getting the better of me? No answers!
This time its Piyush’ portable hard drive - the one electronic upkaran that he really adored. The one device that held his movies in folders arranged according to the rating assigned by him over a long and careful period of time. Rajat, why did you have to give me the hard disk to hand it over to Piyush! Why did I have to leave the hard disk at Kranti’s desk before leaving for home? Why didn’t Kranti look over his desk before packing his bag and give me a glimmer of hope by saying that it was there when we left? No answers!
I know that Piyush is going to freak out in the morning (or whenever I can muster up the courage) when I tell him this. He has never been mad at me; the best he’s hurled at me is a scornful look and some abuses muttered under his breath for whacking him too hard on his back. I was insisting on a fight club some weeks back, I guess we are going to see one after dawn tomorrow. It has been a sleepless night for me, literally too.
Once I recalled that I had (mis) placed the hard disk at Kranti’s desk, I turned to ask him if there was anybody in office who could check. His friend did that for us, uneventfully however. Then I heard some movie scene playing in (Piyush) Mittal’s room, and I thought to myself “GOD PLEASE LET HIM HAVE FOUND THE HARD DISK”. Alas, he was playing some movie on youtube, ‘since the hard disk was with Rajat’ (boohoo) On top of that, India lost to Windies. Some start to a weekend!
I met my good friend Dushyant online on Facebook. Dushyant, Deloitte FAS, was in office. I was thinking whether or not to go to office to check for myself when Dushyant asked me to drop by. I thought, two reasons better than one, let’s go. Kranti was asleep, his bike came in handy. I sped off to office in his bike, and after reaching there, chappa chappa chhaan mara for the HD but to no avail.
Met Dushyant @ Barista. He was his usual chirpy self. Talked about how things were finally shaping up for him, and all the remaining bakar. Chit Chat Chit chat, then his work. Got a Frappe, gulped it down, chit chat, twas fun. We chilled for around 2 hours; his boss finally came back with some response to his email; he sent all his already drafted emails and we were on our way.
I dropped him to his place and was home in the next 10 minutes. Poor Mitesh, I had to wake him up to get the door open. I came into my room and find both Kranti and Piyush cuddled up in Madan’s bed and my bed respectively. Power cuts are a pain owing to the rains and here we were in one, because of which our inverter-ed room becomes hot property due to the fans :P I go to Piyush’ room to pen this down, since it has been an adventure. It has been 4 hours since I left to find his HD, and unsuccessful as I am, I still don’t know how I will tell him. I will have to reimburse the amount, how will I ever reimburse the emotional value attached to it.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
fRICKing out!
F’rick’ing out!
When my colleagues from office starting calling me motey (‘fat’ in Hindi), I decided to buy a bicycle to get rid of the flab that I’d acquired in my previous trip back home. However, the cycle is now a dusty still shiny piece of metalwork lying in one corner of the parking lot and I would go to call this one of my stupidest ideas to date; not because I knew for sure before buying the crooked thing that I would never take it out on my worked up weekdays and sleepy weekends, but because summer was just on its way. And when you know how hot it can get in Hyderabad, you DO NOT venture out from 7:30 in the morning to 6 in the evening (if you’re lucky) in your bicycle!
Coconuts cost 2 Rs more in the summer than any other time of the year, soft drink companies come up with new lime and lemon flavors and air conditioner sales touch record numbers. Apart from this, there is a different class of businessmen who try to bank on the summer time – rickshaw walas! It is the helplessness of the common Hyderabad junta that hands these rickshaw-walas their notoriety. Come a bad time, and you’d have these guys taking advantage of it. I had an encounter with one of them during my first monsoon in Hyderabad and trust me he quoted 100 bucks for less than 2 km. I couldn’t help but abuse him in the most non-Telugu manner (so as to not have him on my heels, in the rain that too) and storm off.
Hyderabad rickshaws are no work of art from the Montreal School of Design; they rock and rattle like a window in the storm and most of the time the seat comes out when you’re trying to sit. But you don’t have an option when you’re out in the searing sun and all you can think of is the Glucon-D ad where the sun’s trying to drink away all your fluids with a straw stuck to your head. You would like for the rickshaw drivers to turn on the meter when you’re out in such weather, but the more you sweat, the more they relent! Once a guy asked for 80 bucks to cross a flyover and take a small right turn. I asked him why I needed to pay him 80 bucks to travel to a place I can see standing there. He smirked and said “Kyunki sab utna hi maangenge” (Cos everybody’ll quote the same).
Not everybody is a villain of course, and sometimes when you do take the courage to ask if they would turn on the meter and if the distance seems considerable enough, they do reply back in the affirmative. Well, it is not everyday that you meet a guy like that, and during the journey you plan to bookmark this day in the calendar. Ah! A bit too soon I’d say, as the meter shows 18 km for a 13 km trip and you know that you’ve been had! You only find two types of meters here – ones that are tampered and ones that don’t work (“No batteries sir”). It’s been months since I have asked any of these guys to turn on the meter; at least if you negotiate on their number you can be assured of the shortest trip home.
All of this condemning for rickshaw drivers is because in Mumbai where I have lived all my life, you don’t find a rick driver with a quotation, they just want the destination and they decide whether to go or not, which most of the times they do, even though the decision lies not with them, but we don’t persist. Rickshaws are one a penny in Mumbai, and you don’t stay out long waiting for one. If only it was fair comparing Hyderabad to Mumbai, maybe I would have got the better of it. Currently, Mumbai losing their contest to Bangalore in the IPL; suddenly Hyderabad is a safer bet!
When my colleagues from office starting calling me motey (‘fat’ in Hindi), I decided to buy a bicycle to get rid of the flab that I’d acquired in my previous trip back home. However, the cycle is now a dusty still shiny piece of metalwork lying in one corner of the parking lot and I would go to call this one of my stupidest ideas to date; not because I knew for sure before buying the crooked thing that I would never take it out on my worked up weekdays and sleepy weekends, but because summer was just on its way. And when you know how hot it can get in Hyderabad, you DO NOT venture out from 7:30 in the morning to 6 in the evening (if you’re lucky) in your bicycle!
Coconuts cost 2 Rs more in the summer than any other time of the year, soft drink companies come up with new lime and lemon flavors and air conditioner sales touch record numbers. Apart from this, there is a different class of businessmen who try to bank on the summer time – rickshaw walas! It is the helplessness of the common Hyderabad junta that hands these rickshaw-walas their notoriety. Come a bad time, and you’d have these guys taking advantage of it. I had an encounter with one of them during my first monsoon in Hyderabad and trust me he quoted 100 bucks for less than 2 km. I couldn’t help but abuse him in the most non-Telugu manner (so as to not have him on my heels, in the rain that too) and storm off.
Hyderabad rickshaws are no work of art from the Montreal School of Design; they rock and rattle like a window in the storm and most of the time the seat comes out when you’re trying to sit. But you don’t have an option when you’re out in the searing sun and all you can think of is the Glucon-D ad where the sun’s trying to drink away all your fluids with a straw stuck to your head. You would like for the rickshaw drivers to turn on the meter when you’re out in such weather, but the more you sweat, the more they relent! Once a guy asked for 80 bucks to cross a flyover and take a small right turn. I asked him why I needed to pay him 80 bucks to travel to a place I can see standing there. He smirked and said “Kyunki sab utna hi maangenge” (Cos everybody’ll quote the same).
Not everybody is a villain of course, and sometimes when you do take the courage to ask if they would turn on the meter and if the distance seems considerable enough, they do reply back in the affirmative. Well, it is not everyday that you meet a guy like that, and during the journey you plan to bookmark this day in the calendar. Ah! A bit too soon I’d say, as the meter shows 18 km for a 13 km trip and you know that you’ve been had! You only find two types of meters here – ones that are tampered and ones that don’t work (“No batteries sir”). It’s been months since I have asked any of these guys to turn on the meter; at least if you negotiate on their number you can be assured of the shortest trip home.
All of this condemning for rickshaw drivers is because in Mumbai where I have lived all my life, you don’t find a rick driver with a quotation, they just want the destination and they decide whether to go or not, which most of the times they do, even though the decision lies not with them, but we don’t persist. Rickshaws are one a penny in Mumbai, and you don’t stay out long waiting for one. If only it was fair comparing Hyderabad to Mumbai, maybe I would have got the better of it. Currently, Mumbai losing their contest to Bangalore in the IPL; suddenly Hyderabad is a safer bet!
Monday, April 27, 2009
Cha
Change - Beautiful word. It can be used for any kind of situation (just like Osho’s use for the F word). Why I had to leave Bombay and come to Hyderabad, why I have to shift to a newer apartment every 4-5 months or why every country needs a new leader time and again – Change! I came to hate the word a lot, because it became clichéd. You never notice the changes when you’re young, and once you’re past that youth threshold, you never want some things to change drastically; even when they do, you look forward to an explanation which most of the time goes like this - “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it”.
I remember a conversation I had with my friend when we both had just joined Deloitte together. We were debating on change; I was against change and she was advocating why change was important. I guess we never came to a consensus (stubborn ass that I was), but before I went to sleep that night, all the important changes I’d undergone in my life just kept propping up. The biggest one has to be my moving to Hyderabad from Bombay to work for Deloitte. That was the first time I’d stayed away from home, and I’d taken it up coz’ I wanted to see how life was living away from your folks. Trust me, I did not like it one bit, and had it not been for the early days with my new friends in Hyderabad, I would have packed my ass back to Bombay. But I met people who had left their abode when they were in junior college, and why they knew leaving home was a good decision since it prepared them for the life that lay ahead. You always crib in the beginning, they said, and then ‘you get used to it’. I wasn’t in awe of that idea, but what they say, somehow, is always right! I’m having a ball of a time in Hyderabad now, and even though it can’t be compared to the Bombay life I had, it has given me three important things – love, friends (always welcome) and experience.
And there was that time when we’d shifted closer to my dad’s office for his convenience, but the thought of leaving the place I’d stayed all my life (16 years then) was just too much to bear. Leaving the place meant not seeing my friends every day, not sleeping in the same bed anymore and no cricket. But then you think about it, I made many more friends, we got a better bed (:P) and not only cricket, but other games like snooker, table tennis which I wouldn’t have got to play had I been there. There were many other instances (A lazy student to a workaholic, a brawny guy to a bulky mass, to name a few) which really made me chuckle the entire time that night. But I know now why change is necessary and why we must live with it.
Heraclitus once quoted, “Change is the only constant”. This one and “Change is inevitable” are sufficient to explain why we need change. And now the best part is, when change is around the corner, you won’t even notice!
I remember a conversation I had with my friend when we both had just joined Deloitte together. We were debating on change; I was against change and she was advocating why change was important. I guess we never came to a consensus (stubborn ass that I was), but before I went to sleep that night, all the important changes I’d undergone in my life just kept propping up. The biggest one has to be my moving to Hyderabad from Bombay to work for Deloitte. That was the first time I’d stayed away from home, and I’d taken it up coz’ I wanted to see how life was living away from your folks. Trust me, I did not like it one bit, and had it not been for the early days with my new friends in Hyderabad, I would have packed my ass back to Bombay. But I met people who had left their abode when they were in junior college, and why they knew leaving home was a good decision since it prepared them for the life that lay ahead. You always crib in the beginning, they said, and then ‘you get used to it’. I wasn’t in awe of that idea, but what they say, somehow, is always right! I’m having a ball of a time in Hyderabad now, and even though it can’t be compared to the Bombay life I had, it has given me three important things – love, friends (always welcome) and experience.
And there was that time when we’d shifted closer to my dad’s office for his convenience, but the thought of leaving the place I’d stayed all my life (16 years then) was just too much to bear. Leaving the place meant not seeing my friends every day, not sleeping in the same bed anymore and no cricket. But then you think about it, I made many more friends, we got a better bed (:P) and not only cricket, but other games like snooker, table tennis which I wouldn’t have got to play had I been there. There were many other instances (A lazy student to a workaholic, a brawny guy to a bulky mass, to name a few) which really made me chuckle the entire time that night. But I know now why change is necessary and why we must live with it.
Heraclitus once quoted, “Change is the only constant”. This one and “Change is inevitable” are sufficient to explain why we need change. And now the best part is, when change is around the corner, you won’t even notice!
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Random shit
Dumass better than a smartass anyday!!!
Man, those were the days... I used to like to write... I loved the fact that my life did not revolve around television, studies or peeling myself while playing cricket... And I did not have to write for someone (thats what I kept telling people initially, but actually you do imbibe a certain level of decency in your blogs once you find out others, especially girls, are reading your blogs), it was more of a word doc which I keep for the times when I wanted to read something that wasnt a text book or a magazine. But now, I've missed so many instances where I witnessed something amazing and wanted to pen it down then and there, but I was technologically under-equipped and had to let it pass. Life aint a Google labaratory, where new things come out of it everyday.
My love life was cut short by my arrogance and my workaholicism (is that a word, too lazy to check), even before it started. Man, she was perfect, and I cannot do justice by using any other word, she was just... perfect! But then life teaches you lessons, and how, so you never forget... I'm sure I wont... There are others who do forget, I will not... You need to respect a lot of things in a relationship... 1. Dont be a smartass 2. Respect time and other associated metrics, but mostly time 3. Be yourself 4. You cant always be right, and there is a chance you're never right, accept it 5. Dont write blogs (trust me on this one) 6. Be good friends for life
The asshole: Well, did you know that there is one person who becomes your asshole for the day? Now, not everything goes right everyday and you need to have somebody to blame it on. Maybe it was a small thing, but had it not been for this small thing, the day wudda been perfect, right!! So you need to have an AhOTD! The point I'm trying to make is not who becomes your AhOTD regularly - how many people actually consider you to be the AhOTD!!! I know I win it for quite a few people everyday (my team members, my immediate friends, etc etc), and its fun... zzzzzzzzzzzzz Sleep is getting the better of me, so buzz off allya... adios!
Man, those were the days... I used to like to write... I loved the fact that my life did not revolve around television, studies or peeling myself while playing cricket... And I did not have to write for someone (thats what I kept telling people initially, but actually you do imbibe a certain level of decency in your blogs once you find out others, especially girls, are reading your blogs), it was more of a word doc which I keep for the times when I wanted to read something that wasnt a text book or a magazine. But now, I've missed so many instances where I witnessed something amazing and wanted to pen it down then and there, but I was technologically under-equipped and had to let it pass. Life aint a Google labaratory, where new things come out of it everyday.
My love life was cut short by my arrogance and my workaholicism (is that a word, too lazy to check), even before it started. Man, she was perfect, and I cannot do justice by using any other word, she was just... perfect! But then life teaches you lessons, and how, so you never forget... I'm sure I wont... There are others who do forget, I will not... You need to respect a lot of things in a relationship... 1. Dont be a smartass 2. Respect time and other associated metrics, but mostly time 3. Be yourself 4. You cant always be right, and there is a chance you're never right, accept it 5. Dont write blogs (trust me on this one) 6. Be good friends for life
The asshole: Well, did you know that there is one person who becomes your asshole for the day? Now, not everything goes right everyday and you need to have somebody to blame it on. Maybe it was a small thing, but had it not been for this small thing, the day wudda been perfect, right!! So you need to have an AhOTD! The point I'm trying to make is not who becomes your AhOTD regularly - how many people actually consider you to be the AhOTD!!! I know I win it for quite a few people everyday (my team members, my immediate friends, etc etc), and its fun... zzzzzzzzzzzzz Sleep is getting the better of me, so buzz off allya... adios!
Boring ideas in(to) my mind!!!!
April 04, 2008 – 16:18
Bored (I guess if ‘bored’ is not how most of my blogs start, it at least appears once in the opening sentence) is what I was 2 hours back. I have come to hating the idea of staying at home and watching television. Chatting with a couple of friends from college, I had to let them go live their lives in Mumbai while I am grinding (hmm) in Hyderabad. Last night was amazing, the 3 of us just nearly relived every moment that we had placed in our ‘penseive’ while in college, and are gonna talk about I guess every time we meet for the rest of our lives. But I rue that it had to happen on a Friday night; the whole week I’ve been missing Mumbai like crazy, and last night’s call will just aggravate the ‘missing’. I’ve already planned to go home next weekend, and watch Fast and Furious, the movie which godknowswhy hasn’t released in Hyderabad.
So, there I was, in the living room half dead, when it struck that I could take Madan’s (room-e) bike and go places. The heat is a killer here, and even though you don’t sweat as much, the brain would have started simulating a sauna had it not been for the eyes! But then, IMAX was handing out free tickets with two 1.5 liter Coke© bottles, and I wanted to catch up “Kung Fu Panda” for a long time, so I headed out in the sun with my new shades on my dreamy eyes. Well, it wasn’t as sunny as I’d expected, but that just lasted till I took out the bike, after the fiery air started pricking my skin. Then I remembered that my ex roommate Sachin had called in the morning and I started out 18 kms towards Begumpet to meet him. Your resolve starts to weaken when it’s already weak in the first place and you start feeling like an idiot after you go over your idea again and again. I took a left from Hitec instead of the straight I was to take.
Well, did not feel so bad, ‘cause seriously, I had no idea what I was doing. I saw a nariyal pani wala who gave me nice refreshing (refreshing for 5 minutes) coconut water for 10 bucks. Then I rode ahead where I found this nariyal pani wala who was selling for 5 bucks, and I remembered the Murphy’s law I had read just yesterday – “Once you have bought something, you will find the same item being sold elsewhere at a cheaper rate.” Well, I obviously chuckled and went ahead with my mini-Hyderabad darshan. I reached JNTU, and I couldn’t help but pull over to view the amazing coalescing of two clouds to just block out the sunlight. I actually owe it to my Polaroids, else I would not have been able to view it properly. It also prevented me from crashing into a truck on the same way! I went to Talkie Town and got 4 “8x10 Tasveer” tickets for the night. Now I am back home, thinking of the heat that April and May have in stow for us, the dwindling amount of work in office and how I was gonna plan my next visit back home. Sachin will have to wait another mood-swing.
Sucks…
Bored (I guess if ‘bored’ is not how most of my blogs start, it at least appears once in the opening sentence) is what I was 2 hours back. I have come to hating the idea of staying at home and watching television. Chatting with a couple of friends from college, I had to let them go live their lives in Mumbai while I am grinding (hmm) in Hyderabad. Last night was amazing, the 3 of us just nearly relived every moment that we had placed in our ‘penseive’ while in college, and are gonna talk about I guess every time we meet for the rest of our lives. But I rue that it had to happen on a Friday night; the whole week I’ve been missing Mumbai like crazy, and last night’s call will just aggravate the ‘missing’. I’ve already planned to go home next weekend, and watch Fast and Furious, the movie which godknowswhy hasn’t released in Hyderabad.
So, there I was, in the living room half dead, when it struck that I could take Madan’s (room-e) bike and go places. The heat is a killer here, and even though you don’t sweat as much, the brain would have started simulating a sauna had it not been for the eyes! But then, IMAX was handing out free tickets with two 1.5 liter Coke© bottles, and I wanted to catch up “Kung Fu Panda” for a long time, so I headed out in the sun with my new shades on my dreamy eyes. Well, it wasn’t as sunny as I’d expected, but that just lasted till I took out the bike, after the fiery air started pricking my skin. Then I remembered that my ex roommate Sachin had called in the morning and I started out 18 kms towards Begumpet to meet him. Your resolve starts to weaken when it’s already weak in the first place and you start feeling like an idiot after you go over your idea again and again. I took a left from Hitec instead of the straight I was to take.
Well, did not feel so bad, ‘cause seriously, I had no idea what I was doing. I saw a nariyal pani wala who gave me nice refreshing (refreshing for 5 minutes) coconut water for 10 bucks. Then I rode ahead where I found this nariyal pani wala who was selling for 5 bucks, and I remembered the Murphy’s law I had read just yesterday – “Once you have bought something, you will find the same item being sold elsewhere at a cheaper rate.” Well, I obviously chuckled and went ahead with my mini-Hyderabad darshan. I reached JNTU, and I couldn’t help but pull over to view the amazing coalescing of two clouds to just block out the sunlight. I actually owe it to my Polaroids, else I would not have been able to view it properly. It also prevented me from crashing into a truck on the same way! I went to Talkie Town and got 4 “8x10 Tasveer” tickets for the night. Now I am back home, thinking of the heat that April and May have in stow for us, the dwindling amount of work in office and how I was gonna plan my next visit back home. Sachin will have to wait another mood-swing.
Sucks…
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Dev Darshan Devil Darshan
March 15, 2009: 0206 hours
Just 10 minutes into the movie, and I did not feel like watching it anymore. I’d been craving to watch it ever since I read in Bombay Times that the producer or some guy related to the movie was not happy with the way Dev D (too dark) had turned out and wanted it re-made though Kashyap was not budging, but still I wanted out of it. I still sat through the duration of the movie, dint wanna create a scene for a small mindfuck. Lied that I loved the movie, reminisced the good scenes and dialogues with others, and swallowed the fact that I need to see it again. Something did catch on, the dark nature of the movie combined with the harsh realities – love and hatred, ego and scorn, life and death. I do wanna look at all the characters closely again, maybe at home on a DVD.
I need to get out there and do something. I want to buy shades for myself. I wanna learn to play the guitar. I wanna buy a new phone, just for the heck of it. I wanna ride the cycle on the highway. I wanna fire a gun, if not shoot someone. I want to ask for forgiveness, and get rid of all the thoughts in my mind. I wanna forget numbers and start afresh. I wanna booze without realizing it. I wanna read and never forget. I wanna turn on the computer and not gmail/gtalk/facebook/orkut. I don’t wanna be Dev D – I wanna be d DEV!
Dj (demented)
Just 10 minutes into the movie, and I did not feel like watching it anymore. I’d been craving to watch it ever since I read in Bombay Times that the producer or some guy related to the movie was not happy with the way Dev D (too dark) had turned out and wanted it re-made though Kashyap was not budging, but still I wanted out of it. I still sat through the duration of the movie, dint wanna create a scene for a small mindfuck. Lied that I loved the movie, reminisced the good scenes and dialogues with others, and swallowed the fact that I need to see it again. Something did catch on, the dark nature of the movie combined with the harsh realities – love and hatred, ego and scorn, life and death. I do wanna look at all the characters closely again, maybe at home on a DVD.
I need to get out there and do something. I want to buy shades for myself. I wanna learn to play the guitar. I wanna buy a new phone, just for the heck of it. I wanna ride the cycle on the highway. I wanna fire a gun, if not shoot someone. I want to ask for forgiveness, and get rid of all the thoughts in my mind. I wanna forget numbers and start afresh. I wanna booze without realizing it. I wanna read and never forget. I wanna turn on the computer and not gmail/gtalk/facebook/orkut. I don’t wanna be Dev D – I wanna be d DEV!
Dj (demented)
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