Last week was hectic and with all those work.. we all were at the verge of nervouse breakdown... okay I am exagerrating a bit but then

Roadies is Back... What a relief to the TV Boredom

Beat your boredom watch Roadies. Its been a habit since the start of roadies that I look forward to this time of the year. Not that it is the only thing that makes me do so, but then of course it is one of those shows that I like so much that I have been watching it for last five years and can literally remember each and every Roady. The meaness of the characters and the group dynamism. I mean the reality show thing is taken to an altogether new heights. I know I am going over the board but I can’t help it.

So the show is back and I am more than happy about it. I am certainly gonna be the most ardent follower as always. Although this weekend I am gonna miss it as I would be going for Monika and Sudhanshu’s wedding. Its moving down under.

But whatever it is my weekends gonna be slightly less boring than the usual.
So this is to the Roadies Down Under!!!

Last Sunday of Nov...

Its been like a fixture, I mean every weekend we have a new player for badminton and then he/she doesn’t return. That just goes to show the standard of our game. I mean at times it plummets to the level of earthworm. I mean if they are able to lift the badminton racquet even they might believe that they can defeat us.
This is time it was another new face: Shobha, an ex-imrbite and Sumita’s friend.

Sumita was in her best form as she beat every other pair on the court left right and centre. Richa and me just managed to sneak in a win and then again the story continued. I have a complain I mean, its been quite a while since the team has munched on the calorie-enhancing diets (junk food) together. I stay back alone to do the honors of replenishing my lost calories.

The Sunday was boring, I mean I don’t hate going to work on Sunday but then this Sunday somehow I felt that I was harassed I mean I was so very much in love with my sleep(probably for the first time in my life), that I kept delaying the time to reach office. Atlast I did drag myself to the office and then when I reached, Ankur and Vivek had already been there. We had our lunch, almost a seven course meal for three of us, and dispersed. Okay the work part, I didn’t miss it, it just didn’t happen. I mean we talked what to do and what not but we ended up not doing anything. That’s the best part about the corporate world that all you do is meetings.

So post the work thing I got back home. Did see a few re runs, now these TV guys have not yet been out of their slumbers, the strike is still on.

Revenge at last!!!

Khuda ke ghar mein der hai par andher nahin, at times the inverter takes sometime to get charged up. So it was one winter evening that I decided to take the revenge. For those who have missed the first part of this revenge thingy: I was conned by the Devil who doesn’t wear Prada (Richa). And thus I decided that I need to take revenge. She told me about a meeting that was never there and I had to wear formals on Friday and look fool, when everyone around was in most casual form.
So it thus happened that yesterday I called her up and told her that there is a meeting knowing that she would think it to be a prank where as there was a meeting scheduled. So that’s what she did and when she walked into the office blissfully for the no-meeting day, there it was the meeting. I don’t think this to be an apt reply but then a good one to console my bruised ego for sometime, till something better crops up in my mind….

...and there was blood: The Mumbai Attack

Every countries’ worst fear, breach of its security, putting the public in serious threat of life: a National Security situation and that was exactly what we saw, when Mumbai was attacked by a handful of terrorists. As they took, Nariman Building, Obeori, Trident and Taj hostage and sprayed bullets across the city killing 184 people and leaving more than 200 injured, India experienced its most horrifying terrorist attacks on 26th Nov '08, that lasted over 59 hours. Some of the brightest police officers of Mumbai police force and NSG reached martyrdom while trying to rescue the innocents.
It was the worst thing that could have happened to any democracy. The Govt definitely has failed and as we heard a greatly perturbed Shobha De on the national television we could hear the voice of many Mumbaikars, who were highly disturbed and interrupted. For once the city that never stops was brought to a halt. For once the indefatigable spirit of Mumbai was not the talk of the town, something has definitely made the people think, enough is enough. Politicians acted late and there was a lot of Faux Pas in everything that they did and they say. So when Dr. Manmohan Singh came on National TV to make an inspiring speech to the nation that needed it the most, all he could do was sound mechanical and politically correct. Shivraj Patil, Home Minister, must have been used to making speeches that go into the “Don’ts” of good speech book. I mean he did it when there was attacks in Delhi, Gujrat and now in Mumbai. So when the Politicians were caught on the wrong foot, the saving grace were the men in uniform. The army took up the charge to rescue the hostages and clear the city of the terrorists.

Richa SMSed the other day saying that Sabina Sehgal (Good Food Guide fame) passed away and she had been one of those who followed her columns regularly, she was of course very hurt and disturbed. I understood one thing that the attack was not on Mumbai alone but on every single Indian, telling us that it can strike us anywhere anytime. Tomorrow celebrities/politticians would carry a candle march to some strategic point in the city, say some non sense praising the valiant effort of our soldiers and making themselves and their party heard more than anything else, and the next day we all would go back to our daily routine. And then, are we gonna wait for another blast to rock us, wake us up from our sleeps. Probably the time has come for us to stand up to the terrorists, counter the same. They have the audacity to break into our homes and sabotage it. We burn a few candles, make a few sound bytes and then go back home. Why can't we have our own Munich, our own Mumbai. “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”, is what Mahatma Gandhi said but I think at times its an eye for an eye that helps to save the whole world from being blind.

’84, ’93, ’08 – three major dates of dark history of terror attacks in India. The faults lies in us, we never took our politicians to task. They were never made accountable. Ain’t we at fault too.
At the same time I think all the politicians should understand that terrorism is a matter of national security and should not be politicized. We are not done in by terrorists but our very own politicians and those cowards who call them our leaders.
It will take time to find the real culprit but right all the fingers are pointing across the border and this is time to be a bit more stern and leave the cross border friendship for some other time.
Let’s pray for the souls of those departed and show our gratitude towards the people who restored the peace. And hope that this time we stand up to the dark hands behind this inhuman act and for a change take the attack to the other side. We were always been disappointed and hurt but this is the time to be more, to make the angst grow into something bigger and something that would be definitive.

So let’s get together to make a difference, coz we are the difference.

My Wish Comes True....

It was Praneesh’s wedding, I had already missed his engagement and missing his wedding would mean that I would be crucified. So I took a bus from Bikaner House to Jaipur.The bus reached Jaipur around 5 pm, ths sun was setting down behind the hills. The whole scene was picture perfect. As the Sun’s rays outlined the hills, the silhouette of Amber fort was as if somebody has carved the outlines of the fort with golden ink. The setting Sun made the whole surrounding so very romantic, something that cannot be captured in any camera, it can only be felt. It was a wonderful trip to Jaipur, and the icing on the cake was the scenic beauty of the silhouetted Amber fort on the top of the hills.
I reached Praneesh’s place at around 8 pm and then got a bit of scolding from Didi and Praneesh for being late. Then I had my dinner, must say I had the best of vegetarian dishes and the sweets were really out of this world. I mean I really loved them like anything. I gorged on the food and by the time I was over I needed a crane to carry me. Next day was to begin early and that’s why we decided to sleep early. Though the India Vs England cricket match kept us awake till the end but as soon as the match got over we decided to call it a day. The next day we got ready to leave early but then as always the deadline happened to be the same old Indian Stretchable Time and we neednot stretch ourselves. Yogesh reached at 10 am. I had some company. I mean earlier also there were people around but then you cannot be comfortable with new acquaintances, so Yogesh saved me from the situation. We left for Alwar(Bride’s hometown). It was another beautiful car drive to Alwar, with hills and forest on either sides. We also chanced upon a couple of Barasinghas on our way.
We reached Alwar by 5 pm, the baraat left at 9 pm and the phera got over at 2 am, I am rushing thru these details coz I think most of us know what happens in between. Okay now for the inquisitive one’s specially the Bajaj kind, there were girls and of course beautiful ones. The Sali sahiba was really beautiful and being an air hostess she definitely was hot. The ususal chhed chhad, and all those stuffs made the wedding even more interesting. So as we returned to Jaipur, Yogesh said right before dozing off “It was great”, he meant the wedding. I couldn’t agree more.

Seeing a friend getting married, losing his freedom and still smiling is something that I think not many of us can do. I mean who else can smile at the face of a storm.

All said and done, I am sure Aarti and Praneesh are going to make a wonderful couple and I pray for their blissfully wedded life. God bless both of you…

One More wicket falls!!!

It was Praneesh’s wedding, I had already missed his engagement and missing his wedding would mean that I would be crucified. So I took a bus from Bikaner House to Jaipur.The bus reached Jaipur around 5 pm, ths sun was setting down behind the hills. The whole scene was picture perfect. As the Sun’s rays outlined the hills, the silhouette of Amber fort was as if somebody has carved the outlines of the fort with golden ink. The setting Sun made the whole surrounding so very romantic, something that cannot be captured in any camera, it can only be felt. It was a wonderful trip to Jaipur, and the icing on the cake was the scenic beauty of the silhouetted Amber fort on the top of the hills.
I reached Praneesh’s place at around 8 pm and then got a bit of scolding from Didi and Praneesh for being late. Then I had my dinner, must say I had the best of vegetarian dishes and the sweets were really out of this world. I mean I really loved them like anything. I gorged on the food and by the time I was over I needed a crane to carry me. Next day was to begin early and that’s why we decided to sleep early. Though the India Vs England cricket match kept us awake till the end but as soon as the match got over we decided to call it a day. The next day we got ready to leave early but then as always the deadline happened to be the same old Indian Stretchable Time and we neednot stretch ourselves. Yogesh reached at 10 am. I had some company. I mean earlier also there were people around but then you cannot be comfortable with new acquaintances, so Yogesh saved me from the situation. We left for Alwar(Bride’s hometown). It was another beautiful car drive to Alwar, with hills and forest on either sides. We also chanced upon a couple of Barasinghas on our way.
We reached Alwar by 5 pm, the baraat left at 9 pm and the phera got over at 2 am, I am rushing thru these details coz I think most of us know what happens in between. Okay now for the inquisitive one’s specially the Bajaj kind, there were girls and of course beautiful ones. The Sali sahiba was really beautiful and being an air hostess she definitely was hot. The ususal chhed chhad, and all those stuffs made the wedding even more interesting. So as we returned to Jaipur, Yogesh said right before dozing off “It was great”, he meant the wedding. I couldn’t agree more.

Seeing a friend getting married, losing his freedom and still smiling is something that I think not many of us can do. I mean who else can smile at the face of a storm.

All said and done, I am sure Aarti and Praneesh are going to make a wonderful couple and I pray for their blissfully wedded life. God bless both of you…