Friday, December 17, 2010

Death of a Scribbler ?

I once remember mentioning that writing for me was just a means of escape from my reality. So, if I start enjoying or worse loving my reality, will I Stop writing? The inspiration behind any creation what-so-ever is basically some form of passion.  Can I ever be as passionate to any other emotions as I was to my desolation? But then, the origin of the word passion lies in endurance and suffering. So, is it that all creators are basically emotional masochists? Do they have to attract affliction even if there's no trace of it? Would we really put an effort to create something if the world around us is gregarious to our most unjust appeals? Don't the angels envy us the Earthians just because the trace of imperfection in our lives which makes us so colourful and unique? Why would one ever feel the need to articulate any of her feelings in any form of creation if she's too busy just absorbing and experiencing all the gifts nature can bestow upon her? If we're too busy caressing the time of our life we won’t really bother to reflect upon it or to document it. Thus we need emotional troughs as much as we need the crests (if not more!). Creations occur in those troughs when we've a hint of bereavement from those crests, when we can sit back and ponder upon the flow of apparent chaotic events and be thankful for what life had offered to us!

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Sunday night bakwas :



Who knew that the combo of coffee, chocolate and coldness could be a possible stimulant to a tsunami of senseless thoughts?  No, tsunami probably is not the right imagery here. At least this natural calamity has some pattern. My madcap thoughts ran like a sinister panic plan crafted by the Joker himself. They left me dumbfounded and vulnerable because I couldn’t foretell the nature of the next thought which might be generated from the unfathomable profundity of my subconscious. Thus, each of these thoughts had some new weapons to strike and pierce my terrorized territory of consciousness with. But then, I guess I needed this. Unless the archetypal villain comes to slaughter you, you’d never probably search for your superhero. And unless you turn on that distress sign,   years of non-action will turn your mighty superhero into a vestigial being. Soon, you'll start looking outside in search of a backup hero. But, no-one can know your villains better than your own hero. Cause your hero emerged from the same unknown alleys of your existence as these villains did. Only your own hero can help you win this guerrilla warfare and the outsourced heroes will be as helpless in places like this as American soldiers in the jungles of Vietnam. So, have faith in your hero, have faith in yourself. Never let your hero fade away into oblivion. Together, you can win any battle the world might pose to you ! 

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Random Thoughts

Thoughts keep on multiplying and after some days they just fade away in some murky dungeon of our memory where they are left to rot. I don't know if blogging will ever help me or my thoughts in any manner , but I guess i just don't care. I don't write for getting clarity or attracting audience or steering up a revolution (All these things will be nice perks though!! ) . After abstaining from blogging for too many day , my brain and my heart just start smelling like shit , thanks to those over crowded dungeons and I've no choices left but to let some of these prisoner out into the void . They all start screaming in joy in the sudden enthusiasm of experiencing freedom and thus create a chaos more powerful than the one created in the beginning of the universe !

Bottomline : I'm back to blogger's page after a long time and don't quite know what to write about . But let's try , nevertheless . 


The trip to my hometown , as i surmised , made me feel so uncomfortable that i was beaming with joy when i finally went onboard the flight back to my real home-town , Bangalore . But strangely enough , after the 20 days stay in the place where i spent my 1st 20 years of my life, my hostel which always made me feel so much at home just seemed like another hotel . And i wanted to hit the road again , i wanted to go back and finish the conversation i always wanted to have . But i just didn't know what exactly do i wanna talk about. But i needed some time . Those 20 days hadn't presented me with a single chance to do what i originally intended to do ... ie just talk nonsense with the hope that they'll make all the senses of the world. 

Thus, my enlightening trip to Mathura-Vrindavan  began ! On train i learnt , once again , not to judge people by their face values . Thus my pejorative lover co-passengers turned out to be quite nice and helpful individual and after a small adventure of jumping off a running train and walking in the bleak light of dawn with 40 male strangers and travelling with 9 of them in an auto , i finally found a bus to Delhi which dropped me at Chhotikara , a highway bus stop from where shared giant autos for Vrindaban is available for 5 bucks . 

The much needed 'talk' didn't take place in this tour as well but thankfully , the need itself was gone. It's miraculous how a hug can save the trouble of speaking 10,000 unnecessary words .

I'd come to Vrindavan twice before , 1st time was when i was in 6th standard ie on 1999 & 2nd time was when i just finished my 10th standard board exam ie on 2004 . Vrindavan has changed . It's charm was in the innocence of the Vrajbasis' smiles , in the warmth of their helpful voices and in the ever present wonderment in their wide open eyes. Now, all these has changed . You can't get a direction here without being chased by a pestilent guide for the next 40 minutes . You can't get a change of 50 bucks from any of the shops unless you buy something . And the ogle of the eyes does nothing but making a girl feel grossly underdressed !

But then the spirit of Vrindavan is still intact in the rural areas,  spared by the 'Hare Krishna' followers , where the blatantly wealth centric outlook has not eclipsed all that these people once hold close to (Ops , am i sounding like a lal jhandawali ? ) . 

As for me , some of my tangible traits have changed for sure . 7 years is a long time. 12 years is even more so. But one thing has not changed : the most memorable moments of even this tour came when i was talking solitary strides and lone hikes , lost in my own world . Previously some people will be there to physically escort me but they could never reach anywhere close to my ever drifting mind . Now , the distance is both physical and mental . The indignity inflicted upon solitude must be the conspiracy of a florist who wanted to sell a merit-less , thorn intensive , red flower to his customers. We can never actually  get rid of our so called loneliness thus it's time we had stopped trying and just be happy that at least our own thoughts are there to accompany us when we're watching a brilliant sunset from the Yamuna riverbanks.  Who know, we might suffer from Alzheimer's tomorrow and even this thought wont be there anymore . Only one matter of concern is there in the entire scenario and that comes in the form of clicking your own photos . I can't wait for the day when those Japanese scientists will come up with robot cams !! 

Hopefully i'll write a detailed travelogue of my Vrindavan tour soon , but not today . It's time to raise some other questions . Today is international children's day. And i wont talk about the obvious issues of child labor , child prostitution and infant trafficking. I'd leave you with you own conscience regarding whether or not you chose to employ an 14 year old to look after your 11 year old kid. I'll talk about us . The ever bulging middle part of the income pyramid : the little ones in our family and the little ones even present inside our own souls.  In my trip to WB , i met a kid after a gap of 7 years . The 5 year old child is on the verge of his teen-age now , and strangely enough i was still treating him as a 5 year old .I know i hated being treated that way as a child . But the same myopia is clouding my visions now.  I wonder if we ever ever really change from what we become in those formative adolescence years. To really know a human being even remotely , we must know take a trip through his childhood  memory .  Please take a closer look to your 11 year olds . With all your vigilance over her life many things might have escaped your senses numbed by adult pride. Thus , next time she wants to spend less time with her chachaji , rather than rebuking her for lack of socializing skills , ask why. Don't under-estimate the perceptiveness of that 9 yearite, he's more than capable of understanding your sarcastic comments . Please dont drive her to recitation classes when all she wants is to dance . The person in front of you in not an extension of yourself as genetic inheritance can never assure an intellectual inheritance as well. So, sometimes just let him be. Just like any other so called 'days' the concept of children's day is bogus . She is finding her own way in her own sweet time. Every day is her's . She just needs you to be there to console her if she falls , not to reprimand her or to show her every steps . Are we grown up enough to treat our kids in that way ? 

Friday, October 1, 2010

The One Question (Which led to(o) Many)

After a break of nearly 5 months ,it's time for me to once again appear for the test .. No. i am not talking about the trimester exam which , BTW, will start from this Monday . I couldn't have been less bothered about it, but then , that's evident from the fact that in-spite of having a deadline in submitting a 5000 word digital marketing assignment by eod , the only words that i've written so far was in form of writing this blog. I am actually worried about a more critical exam : The post-trimester-visit-home trip . And it's gonna be even tougher this time thanks to the fact that this trip is clashing with Durga Puja and I've scored a same side goal by handing them over a topic to verbally rape me with : My recent Exeter trip . Generally , in occasions  like this , I embrace the neutral energy of the universe by choosing to retreat from the battlefield and by far my two dearest friends have always helped me to find some escapeway (some lame excuses to be precise). But , this time I don't have them by my side . For the 1st time in these short twenty one years on Earth all (and that's a small number) of my friends are committed , distant and busy with their boyfriends with whom they'd spend the rest of the year anyway . So, i have to face my enemies and win the battle , all by myself , as Celine Dion would probably put it across. So, the million dollar ONE question is : " How am i gonna avoid my relatives' inappropriately inordinate eagerness to butt into my (non-existent) relationship stories ?"


I always hated some occasions : Valentine's day , New Year's day, Swaraswati Puja (that is, untill I left WB) & the most evil of them all : Durga puja . Now, i come from a jiant (that is a hybrid of  Joint & Giant) family and we've a 'pujo' of our own . In my childhood i'd wait eagerly for these 5 days & my new clothes but then since when I turned 10 & into an atheist , these 5days became intolerable .  Even after 11 years my mom has not quite been used to the fact that i don't participate in puspanjoli on Ashtomi. But, that's not the only reason why i feel; well, not myself during these puja days. See, Durga puja is a time when you're supposed to spend the daytime with your friends and the night with your boyfriend. Now don't get me wrong . I am sure most of the average bong couples have done nothing more adventurous than finding a quiet place behind the alter , frequented only by mosquitoes which followed by the girl realizing that her lipstick was not really smudge proof. But these silly couples who will probably not even last beyond the Laxmi puja had an amazing ability to make me feel depressed not to mention that the cobalt blue sky , small white pansy of clouds and the smell of 'Shiuli' flower made the case even worse. So, I'd spend my un-happening noons reading pujo sonkhya and avoiding irritating relatives and would go to bed by 11pm only to stay up all night eavesdropping to the faint sounds coming out my window facing the alleyway. 


All these can be tolerated when you know that amongst all those people out in the road , there is no one you know but this time at least two ,  amongst those millions of hands holding each other , will be of my two true  friends'. And i am happy for them but a bit sad for myself . And that led me to introspect a bit. I never really wanted to an officially committed relationship. I am way too much independent for that. Probably what i need now is a contract basis man whom i can be with for the 3 days and then just erase from my life . But the word ' no strings attached' is not really very famous in India. Alternatively I can search for my yon true love in 2 weeks and the chances of finding the one from so many out there in so less time is minuscule : 4.59*10^(-)8% ( & ever declining) to be precise ! 


But then , do i even need the one for myself ? or is it just like getting a new Mochi stiletto : pretty (OK! I'll be honest: TERRIBLY ) uncomfortable to wear but looks gr8 and people notice and praise . But, why do i need people & convention to validate me ? Why do i need a man by my side to see a beautiful sunset when the mellow voice of Norah Jones in my i-pod would be more than sufficient? He'd probably smoke , spit ,fart or say something dumb and destroy my mood altogether. Isn't it a tad too much to expect that a Knight in a shining armor will come & break that invisible wall around me when , my own parents couldn't even guess there is a wall? And also , wasn't the armor always more important than the knight itself?  I guess we're all just a bunch of armors ... we never take it off even when we're , pardon the phrase , butt naked and in deep shit . So , in this puja when my friends will be holding the hands of their beloveds , will i be able to hear the inaudible sound of a metallic clang ? 


One thing is for sure... The only Knight i am ever gonna meet up close personal with no armor , is , Myself . And i am pretty cool with that. But, that being said , it wouldn't be bad to show off some shining armor to my relatives this time ... After-all , All marketers are liars & All's fair in (fake) love and war (with clingy relatives )!!!


PS : I dont have an i-pod , just mentioned it to make this blog sound cool ;)

Thursday, September 16, 2010

* E* & the City !

U might tag this blog as the re-incarnation of the rebel . After surviving from an air pocket and an extended jet-lag , I thought of using this lucky holiday to document my experiences of the past 4 days as a form of a travelogue (or traveblog to be more precise ) but  a chance encounter to the FB status update of a friend changed it all. So, here i am using the nets of the virtual world to fish some junks out of the surface my not too deep sea of (sub?)consciousness. 1st thing 1st . Here comes the status update :


Abhinav Singh Thakur Two no holds barred nights in Mysore with a beautiful stranger, with the promise of never to meet again. Can life get any better ;-) "

Doesn't this immediately evoke the memory of ' Before sunrise / Before Sunset' series of movies to you? It did to me and i was horrified to realize how difficult it is to have some 'good time' in this country which is the proud origin of the greatest sexopedia ever and that too written some 1800 years ago. The reason of the 'starrified'  heading of this post is that the word 'sex' , even in this era of globalization , remains a tabooed word in India . Thus an innocent picture of  PDA uploaded by my friend in FB attracted much public ire. Now the entire issue of PDA remains controversial but is it really a sin to upload the picture of a smooch online when the media is flooded by the surfeit of pictures of death and destruction ? Somehow & somewhere along the 18 centuries between 200 AD and now , hypocrisy has become an inherent trait of Indians. Thus even though the young generation loves cracking 'non-veg' jokes ,they seldom participate in open (all pun intended) conversations & they still believe in the concept of retaining one's virginity till the wedding night (or pretends to at least ) . And it's worse for girls . 

What does the society [which consists of both the males & the females who have been imbibed with the male chauvinistic philosophy] expect from women?
1>A woman shall never show her sexual hankering. This rule may have an exception when the girl is a complete stranger or a mere acquaintance with whom the male partner has no intention of having any relation the moment the deed is done.


 2>Now comes the uber-cool Boyfriends . Even though they may have some 20 GB of hidden porn folders in the hard disc and have jerked off numerous times : they not only always expect their girlfriends or wives to be virgins but also they want them not to know the meaning of the word masturbation, forget about practicing it . The reason behind this apart from the hackneyed sentimental one is not tough to guess. Actually they are not quite sure about their sexual potential & thus feel insecure to try it out upon girls who are not that innocent.
3> here comes the inevitable “parent point”. Now I don’t have much idea about how hard they try to secure the virginity of their sons but in case of their daughters they do their best. Is it just because they are frightened that their innocent girls may unknowingly land into domains of problems like threats from bad boys, unwanted pregnancy, STD etcetera [the third predicament is pertinent to the boys as well, & the 1st one to our gay friends]. Or are there some more implicit intentions behind their vigilance? If they are so interested to ensure their daughter’s security then why don’t they give them some basic sex-educations? Every person tends to develop some sexual thirst after their puberty. But the parents keep a cautious blind eye towards all their questions about the sudden change in their body & mind ...  in Indian philosophy there is a tradition of neglecting perceptible things like the body & transmuting the total attention towards the invisible soul.

But the momentous point which we fail to understand is that the writers of such incandescent literary & philosophical works started to write them only when their life had already reached the stage of wrapping up. Most of these philosophers led an epicurean existence during the pinnacle of their youth. The evidence nestles in the walls of our ancient edifices. But we never had the habit of analyzing the so called ' values ' tough to us , let alone questioning them . Spending decades in mugging up during academia has not failed to leave its upshots. So we always present the unnecessarily glorified example of the self restraint of our ancestors towards our children. & we fail to realize the whole concept of self restraint was never a part of the culture of this country. Its origin lies the Victorian era & it was embedded upon us during the 200 years of colonial rule.


Now let's talk about the boys2men . One of my best friends has decided to get married to a girl he is not too sure if he loves just because the society is ruthless to people like him who are over 30 , single and don't have the intention or courage to go to brothels to satiate their need. And the worst part which this poor soul is not yet aware of is that marriage in India ( or in any nation i guess) is just the beginning of an unofficially official celibacy-hood ! For  those of my friends who are not so old and 'committed' , the commitment was mostly imposed than intentional because a casual ONS is unthinkable here. Aren't you suppose to kiss a few frogs before you find your prince / princess ? Apparently , NOT in the  birthplace of Kamasutra . Here you're supposed to get married to the 1st frog you meet , give birth to some hybrid children and make life a hell for them by fighting with your spouse for the rest of your life and yet refusing to file a divorce in fear of depriving the kids of a 'wholesome' life.

But then , i hope India is getting back to its roots ... If not in the real cities , in the e-city at least. The 'E'-xistence  has emerged as a means of liberation for us.  I just saw a glimpse of it in the FB status update of Mr X . I am proud of him . Just one suggestion as a microbiologist : ' be careful of the retroviruses'! 

Friday, August 13, 2010

Ode to a stranger

statutory warning: It's NOT a poem!


Sitting in the class on a dull Friday morn,
So many people around me...
Makes me feel even more lonely.
NO. ‘Lonely’ perhaps, is not the right word.
What is it that I am feeling?
OR, am I feeling at all?
It’s not rage, neither grief,
Nor the apprehension of a bleak future...
I’ve just turned into a fossilized tree!
I see them all around-
Laughing, loving, hating, mating;
Doing some substantial work...
Or the façade of it at least!
I don’t need to put on that mask again;
It has been embossed into my face, FOREVER.
The mask of careless sobriety, mask of a joker
I am lost underneath the mound of masks.
I feel sick of the suffocation they cause,
But I can’t evade them...
They are a part of my existence now!
I can’t even recall how I used to look like-
The fuel that I once had inside me,
Is turning into a debris of unused love.
I can see my life sinking every day, every moment
Sinking into the quicksand of it.

Give me a sparkle, light me up:
Let those fuels burn me down.
I want to scream in pain,
Smell the odour of my own burning skin
& when all is gone,
Only the ashes are left,
Will you not care to search for something?
Find my soul from under the piles of ash-
It’s waiting for so long,
It’s sinking for eternity...
For thy flame to come and show it its way.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Chalachitra O Chandalika

Now-a-days, the only thing on which I consistently spend at least 1/6 th part of a solar day  is : Watching movies . Thus on this blog I'll try and write my feedback on a few recently watched movies. Some of these movies are brand new and the others are pre-historic (to me at least , considering the fact that my personal history as a human being began at 1989!). And for the 1st time in my blogger life I've decided to KISS and thus none of these reviews would be the answer of a PG level history paper. So, let's start the journey with looking back at Indian Mythology.

Peter Brook's Mahabharata: The director has successfully turned this epic into a rather parochial skirmish sprinkled abundantly with venereal innuendos which, far from giving the film a erotic hue , restricts the true potential of the epic. Though at 1st I was elated to see the use of Rabindrasangeet in this movie , soon I realized , it's a half baked effort to try to give an "Indian" special effect to the otherwise bland movie. I wont be  a hypocrite and say that Mahabharata never had any sexual connotations, there were plenty of it throughout this (or any else) ancient scripture. But like a giant ultra complicated onion , this epic has many layers which are intricately entwined by erotica.  I was upset to see the way Achilles's relationship with his lover Patroclus was being ridiculously portrayed as mere camaraderie in the movie version of Homer's epic, but the portrayal of most characters of Brook's Mahabharata redefines the word 'ridiculous'. Final Opion : Except some of the actors' brilliant performance and the elegance and enchanting beauty of Draupadi, Brook had nothing much to offer and  it remains to be  "Peter Brook's" Mahabharata , merely an obscure shadow of the epic. 

Inception:-YES, Finally I've done it . I've watched the most talked about movie of this year . The revolutionary movie which  bridged the gap between  both critics and average movie goers and became the adam's apple of both of these species . Now , on a movie of this public esteem , it's almost impossible to say anything which has not been said before. But nevertheless, I'd try and commit the same sin I've committed while writing the review of '3 Idiots' . Yes, I am gonna be one of those few who has criticized this movie. 1st thing 1st. Whatever Inception might be, this hybrid between a heist and a science fiction is NOT an intellectually stimulating film. The dreams shown in this movie has not only been dreamt but also brought into existence in films like 'Solaris' (the original Andrei Tarkovsky version) and  Matrix series. So, in the end this movie is but the extension and redecoration of the Ocean's series with a few ideas extracted from some other maestros' dreams . And the worst part was the misuse of a brilliant actor like Marion Cotillard. Seems like she was cast in this movie only as a marketing gimmick , just to evoke the distant dreams of her brilliant performance as Edith Piaf , what else can explain the use of the song "Non, Je ne regrette rien" as the only song to wake up the dreamy thieves? Fianl word? Complete waste of my 220 bucks. Could've easily downloaded and watched it from P2P sites. 


Monday, June 28, 2010

@ PUNE: So Long,Fare well,Au revior,Alvida!!!

Finally I acquired the courage and sent the email to my mentor "intimating my last day as a trainee in this company" (Subject  courtesy and content editing : the one and only DRC) !!! 


So; here at the end of the month June; as the faint monsoon drips ward off those evil sweats from your skin and decorate the tip of ur pilus with the diamond like faint yet intricate droplets from the heaven above ; I do bid my adieus to my friends @ Pune, the plethora of new acquaintances I've made here, my colleagues , my room-mates of 2 months' and above all the city itself. I know I've mostly criticized this city through-out most of my blogs but let me take this emotion drenched farewell opportunity to say a few (a lot rather) good things about this city and why I'd  A-L-M-O-S-T considered the 2 summer months I've spent here to be my summer of ' 69.


These were my 1st proper 2 months completely , utterly , exclusively under the aegis of well, MYSELF. While for the 1st 2 weeks , I was too absorbed by the idea/ habit of being in a hostel (which eventually has turned out to be an extended family for me) life ; I began enjoying my stay alone in an unknown city once the miserable 1st 15 days were over. I knew the city pretty well  by the and of the 1st week itself, courtesy my habit of aimlessly loitering around the unknown streets :) 


So, here cometh the top five lists ( Author's gratitude to 'High Fidelity')  :- 


craziest things I've done in Pune:-
5> going to MTv stuntmania alone and and dancing to the tunes of AKON in-front of 1000 scandalized spectators !
4> The amazingly unplanned Thane trip 
3> The trip to Raigarh which, inspite of being a fun one, turned out to be rather DAMP(pun intended ) and left me completely sleepless for, hold ur breath , 42 hours !!!( I must also mention here that the ropeway journey through the clouds, the beauty on the way and the eerie moonlight mountain paths while coming back left me mesmerized.)
2> The all girl bike trip to Sinhagarh 
Anddd the top of the list , the unanimous winner obviously is 
1> The  DIVE_AGAR TURNED MURUD JANJIRA- ALIBAG TRIP.


Funtime I had here:-
5> The foodaholic(s)- Day out with Karan & Manpreet which used to mandatorily include "Cafe Good-Luck"
4> The ferris wheel trip at Manaranjor Nagar next to Deccan with 2 complete strangers who turned into friends in less than 5 minutes :)
3>The tour to Lonavla followed by mad chit-chat with Manisha (and I went to sinhagarh in the very next moring @ 6 after staying up till 2!)
2> The gregarious reception at Charu's place followed by my 1st lone hike to Lonavla

1> Mumbai- the friday-night (I guess I reached at 23.55 Hrs :) to Monday Afternoon Jam packed tour with all my dear friends




Breath-taking beauty:---
5> Chatursinghi Temple (It was a sunday I guess, and in-spite of the blazing heat, i loved that place but unfortunately Shanivarwada , where i ventured next, turned out to be quite disappointing though the stroll in Laxmi Rd was interesting and offer my eye with an unique yet diverse visual plater) 

The serendipitous discovery of a point ,located at the backyard of my PG , from where almost the entire Pune can be seen.
4> Up and Above , courtesy a very old virtual friend of mine
3> Parvati temple :- both the trips there
2> Nariman point :- both with only Manisha & with 2MP(Manisha , Mangu & Prasanna) ;amp
And the winner? 
1> Sunset from the Arabian sea , while coming back from Elephanta caves .




Pure Rush of Adrenaline :- 
5> the Water scooti ride in some beach (can't remember the name) near Alibag
4> Back-Stroke at the Arabian ocean : -in Murud Janjira
3>Sun and moon standing at 180* in terabethia, the magical mountain of A.R.A.I , a land which inevitably reminded me of LOTR series !


Can't find anything else to add to the list .. were these 2months so less thrilling that i couldn't find an winner ? !! neway let's proceed to the next list.




NEW F-R-I-E-N-D-S / A-C-Q-U-A-I-N-T-A-N-C-E-S:-
5>Puja(My Room-mate Shailaja's Sis, the potential supermodel)
4>Dr Abdullah
3>Manpreet Rajpal
2>Kalpita Kshirsagar
1>Devayani Khare




And aboveeeee all of these , the biggest gain of all ,,, the winner amongst all these was a real quality time with myself..I absorbed the elixir out of each moment (please take a  note: m NOT talking about my project or Professional life ) and i loved myself even more(if such a thing is indeed possible) for being capable of doing so!... I just hope to continue doing so after going back to B'lore as well provided it doesn't negatively affect by still nascent career tree.. So, 'BALANCE' is gonna be the keyword! 
So, good bye Pune. The last one month of my 20th year and 1st 1 month of my 21st year were truly special thank to you. This had no doubt been the 1st summer of '69 of my life so far , I thank thee for it and hope many such are yet to come!
.....................................................................................


PS:- Top five things I'd miss about Pune:-
1>The food- the aroma of the cold coffee, sensation of mastani (@ Meridian ),  taste of the Peshwari Paratha , tinge of the freshly made poha & the feel of the Bun Maska
2>Mountain in the backyard and breathtaking view from the terrace while swinging in the hammock 
3>Lack of Traffic J-A-M
4>All Fun & No Work scenario where any week-day could have been turned into an week-end in a moment's notice!
5> Uninterrupted freedom of doing crazy things 

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Worst Birthday Ever But... ... ...

So , it's official ... I've turned 21 and spent my worst birthday except probably for the day on which I actually was born . My umbilical cord conspired to strangle my throat and thus my entire birth process was not exactly what one would describe as hassle free. So, even before I was born , I started freaking out my kith and kin and probably I'd do the same even after my death ! 


Sometimes I do wonder why do we always wish the child ( that child might be 97 years old for all it matters) in her/ his birthday; don't u think that it's the mother who deserves the congratulations for her bravery to enter into a  relationship from which she can never break up or get a divorce? And then there's the physical pain and sacrifices on the front of career , enjoyment and addiction ! 


I missed her badly yesterday ... on my 1st birthday away from home ... Even though I was overwhelmed by all the calls I got from all my friends and near & dear ones ;  I Somehow felt a bit empty .. sometimes words are not enough .. I longed to see their faces , I longed to hug them and laugh at their PJs . The fact that there was no electricity in my PG and my cell was 90% discharged , even aggravated my blues ... But somehow I managed to sleep for an hour or so in-spite of the attack of  a fleet of mosquitoes and my room-mate's sudden urge to put on make up at 2am in the night (honest to God she did that and then she took a bath .. I was feeling like I'd been transported to some ghost story's set)  and I woke up fresher than a young green grass drenched with dew drops ! 


For the 1st time ever I went to office way earlier than the scheduled time and had  a rather nice day. The lunch was good except for the most dreadful pina colada and believe it or not i treated 2 of my colleagues ! The phone rang from time to time to brighten up the rather dull Wednesday afternoon with warm & vibrant wishes and I especially enjoyed the 2 hour long talk with Oindrila (over phone of course ) where we kept on talking about exotic foods and excellent films ! And then it was 6.30 and I was torn between the choices of accompanying the aforementioned 2 colleagues of mine to "Good-Luck Cafe" , one of my most favorite eating joints of Pune located at F C Road  and going to Pune station to meet a very old friend of mine. And I choose the later. I dont kno why . I guess i was feeling a bit like an emotional wreck, struck in  a  city I absolutely didn't yet became close to and a job I absolutely detested  . I needed to be somewhere or with some-one which/ who feels like home... Now, I've  a weird definition of home . I never considered it to be a place or a bunch of persons ... it always remained as an idea , something very vague and yet stunningly clear ... I am sure you've no idea of what i am talking about, neither do i! I guess i just wanted to spend the evening with someone i knew for quite some time and whom i considered to be not just a mere acquaintance , rather a friend . I am a single child and was always blessed with a huge number of friends. Most of them never forgot my birthday and never failed to make me crazy with all their enthusiastic plans to make the day special for me... I was missing them and even though I didn't expect anything remotely close to my normal birthdays , I just wished to be noticed . I was sick of being invisible ...


But that's exactly what happened ... I felt like as if i didn't exist .. i was feeling insulted and angry ... angry with myself for giving any1 the chance to ruin my special day. For all the readers of my blog , if u ever go to meet a  friend of urs on his or her birthday , please do carry at  least a small eclairs with u. No matter how indifferent and careless a person pretends to be, in some days of our lives we all long to be treated like a protagonist of the drama called life and we feel good to feel that our friends care for us ! I never miss  a chance to wish people in their birthdays. Even if they are mere strangers . I find this day to be very special , just imagine if by any celestial conspiracy , this day was erased from earth ? How would the world be if you were just not there? In truth , it would go on just the same . Maybe nothing will change but then , we all like to think it'd make a difference .. We love to imagine that WE can make a  difference ... So, i tried my best to play my part well .. ie , the part of a good samaritan, a perfect friend . I could understand the emotional upheaval this friend of mine was going through and i felt his need of having a media to vent them all out ... And i felt like a disposable coffee mug . Did u ever think how they might have felt ? those mugs? They feel the direct heat , the stain : actually all the bad things while they dont even get to or want to drink the coffee ... Actually , i was hungry .. I ate at 12.30 pm in the afternoon and it was almost 9pm and all I was doing was to try and maintain my poise ... I was too angry to even express my frustration . I was afraid that if i open up even a small lid of my heart , the accumulated depression which turned into rage , disgust and all the syndromes of  emotional nausea would just break the dam of my mind and sweep off everything ! 




When i was in the bus , i called my landlady to inform her that i was at a friend's place and i'd be a bit late and will reach by 11pm .She behaved extremely rudely and advised me to stay outside @ "that friend's place" and i felt like if I could turn my anger into energy then the entire universe would blow up ... but funnily enough , i was not angry with any1 else,,, i just hated myself and kept on scolding myself badly ... You've no idea how bad you'll feel to rebuke urself on your own birthday .. But then, if u r on the verge of crying,,u can at least prevent urself from the embarrassment of that by erasing ur emptiness with ur anger. And then I returned to my PG (w/o procuring any food as i didn't have time ) and thankfully  the exhaustion and hunger put me to sleep ...That was the best part of the day ..When i could feel the sleep fairy singing her lullaby to me!


I woke up at around 1am 2day by a call from that friend of mine who apologized for destroying my birthday..I wonder why they do that.. I mean u can never actually say : " yes u daft prick .. u did that , u were just not there when i needed you the most and i am disgusted that i ever let myself fall under the illusion that YOU could ever be a friend of mine "... so all I did was to smile and say :  "That's what friends are for!" ... Of course he didn't understand my sarcasm ... few actually does !






PS. the "But" part : It does feel good to have the illusion of sacrificing a very special evening of yours for people you care for ... In the end of the day , you yourself can make you happy or sad .. thus I again got a lesson I always knew but of late forgotten : "I am my best friend and worst enemy " .. so it's convenient to for me to chose to be the former and I'd do that from now on!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Murud Janjira

( Last post from a 20 year old Blogger : I am not quitting blogging, silly! This is a subtle hint just to remind u to wish me a grand Happy Birthday! :P )




CAUTION: It's NOT a Travelogue( check google if u want a Murud Janjira travel guide) : It's just a journal of my emotions!


So, In my last blog I told u about my intention of having a legendary week-end (Read the previous blog for details please :P ) and I HAD a LEGENDARY Week-end which stretched for 2nights and 3days (starting from Saturday morn )


I finally planned to go to Dive-agar with a friend of mine (and 2 other friends of his : I was not really looking forward to paint my week-end with any carnal hue, not at least when the source of that hue would be a PGDM class-mate of Welingkar .. HELL NOOOO!!! ) but they cancelled the plan in the last moment and even encouraged me to do the same and come to Bombay instead. So, I had to tell them about this horrible sprain in my left toe which aggravated me so much that the moment he hang up the call , I took my already packed rucksack and went straight to Swargate bus stop two hours ahead of the scheduled departure time of the  bus to Dive-agar.. I roamed around for 2.5 hours before it hit me that I've probably missed the bus and i would have if I didn't brake my own speed limit ( and insane-o-meter limit) when it comes to running in the middle of  a road buzzing with traffic ... !


The next 3 hours in the bus was rather mundane except for the breath-taking scenery outside the window .Then the bus stopped in a restaurant for lunch (or technically the driver did) and I got down to buy water and ended up buying a can of bear instead and torn between whether I should drink it in the bus (I didn't want to be thrown outside the bus in the mid-way!) or do something else, I chose the later and saved the can for my evening date with the sea . Instead, I started a conversation with a co-passenger which after a brief talk about how to dissect a human being (This person was an MBBS student in AFMC) led to a detailed discussion about a place called murud janjira and I actually left my bus with this stranger I've introduced myself to less than an hour ago! I can't even remember the name of the bus-stop where I got down , and Abdul actually turned out to be a real nice person (or not! ) as he waited for nearly an hour with me in the blazing sun light only to keep me company before the bus to Murud Janjira arrived.. He also suggested that either he should come with me to Murud abandoning his cousin's marriage or I should go attend that wedding and not roam around alone in an unknown place but then that's quite irrelevant in our present context ... Nevertheless, I'd like to state a view: It's weird how our society prompts us (ie women ) not to indulge in talks with strangers , especially when we actually remain as strangers even to the closest relatives & friends... I've found from my personal experience that a man derives enormous satisfaction by playing the role of " Knight in a shining armour" to a damsel in distress . And thus even if a stranger offers to help you out , he is not necessarily trying to take advantage of you all the time . He might as well want to pacify his innate thrust of bragger,self worth and to some extend : Male Chauvinism!


My bus journey to Murud , though crowded and smelly (of raw fish and human sweat) , tured out to be amazing as 30% of the road almost touched the sea waves and I was lucky enough to see the sun melt into the Arabian ocean from on-board a moving bus. . . And this was the amongst the very few instances in my life when i saw both sun-rise and sun set in a single day and that too both from places whose enchanting beauties can never be described by words. Oh.. I forgot to mention: on saturday morn, i went to my terabithia at around 4.30 am and I saw the Pune city sleeping peacefully like a sweet puppy under the mattress of the stress of an entire week ! And from that hill top I remained witness to a story unknown to the mankind. I was standing in a place where in my left hand side the sun was rising and the warmth of it's affection was melting the cold heart of the moon situated in my right hand side and the joy that was sprinkling from her was drenching the entire city and the magical touch of it inspired everyone to start afresh : "After-all , toDAY IS another day!"




Ok ok .. enough nonsense ! Back to my original story: I reached Murud at approx 8.30 pm and found out that there was no ATM there. Caution : All ya wannabe tourists : even though they are opening up  ATMs in every god-damn place on earth and soon they'll open up one in Mt. Everent ; they've NOT had the sense of keeping one in Murud. The nearest ATM was JUST 60 KM away in Alibag... So there I was, stranded in a place which looked rather ominous as the electricity was taking a nap when i reached ,  with just 1000 bucks in my pocket and NO MOBILE NETWORK . I didn't find any place to stay in any hotel. I contemplated spending the night in the beach but had to abandon the plan after the story of a rather thrilling robbery just an week ago! But in-spite of all these, i was not really feeling threatened and never for a second i regretted coming there. Finally, I told my saga to a velpuriwala who, through a chain of a few other middle  men , led me to a coconut water seller who lends his room for love birds eloping to this place in an hours notice and finding themselves in the same plight as I were then. That man's wife was sceptic about lending the room to a girl alone, a woman on her own always threatens everyone with her sheer audacity of showing the will to enjoy her life independently!  Or maybe, the lady  thought that i were a hooker... However, i convinced her to lend the room to me and was appalled to see the bed. Those who can actually sleep in that bed must indeed be BLIND in love..I took a horse nap that night . Besides the lack of any decent place to sleep , the reason contributing to my one night insomnia was that I couldn't refrain myself from the voyeuristic instinct of seeing the moon making love to the sea but then if a divine couple pronounce their love with such passionate roars , it's but obvious that a vain human like me wont have the abstinence to refuse the chance of beholding once in a lifetime show of such phantasmagoria...


 I love the sea.. If i had to chose a dream man from the nature , it'd be the sea... I love its salty smell which overflows with a frenzy fervency... And its call just sweeps off every other thought from my mind , i start running the moment i can hear it and the only thing i can think of is how soon will i be able to touch the waves and feel the tingle in my feet. And the best part is, as you look beyond the wildness of its surface u can see its depth, stillness and serenity and you wonder how can these contradictory traits exist in the same body! And every sea has its own charms. As of now I've met only 3 of them : Indian ocean , Bay of Bengali and Arabian sea and the last one is just PERFECT for me. I love its ever changing caprice : in morning it actually feeds my Electra complex by showing the maturity of an entity as old as the universe ( I actually swam backstroke in the sea on Sunday morning and thereby finally got my graduation degree in swimming!.. trust me it was amazing .. the pansy of clouds floating above my head and if I move my head  a bit right , i could see the Janjira fort and in my left side all the coconut trees were giving me a standing ovation ) . And in the early afternoon it behaves like an adolescent kid : always fighting and screaming ; i could barely stand against its revolting waves! And then in the evening it becomes the piper of Hamelin and makes u spellbound to the music it plays !




After nearly 2 hours of swimming followed by a brief tour in the horseback in the Sunday morn, i went to visit the Janjira fort at around 10 am. I bought a blue hat and was rather feeling like a 5 year old kid and every thing in the world was looking fresh and new to me... I was not even walking , my steps became so light that i felt like i was not a human being any more, that I was the wind . Now, after reaching the Murud port , I had to take a boat : a traditional sailing boat with a white sail . The fort itself is situated nearly 3km away from the shore and it's connected with the mainland with an underwater tunnel which, according to our guide,  is situated 60 feet under the bottom of the sea . Considering the fact that the fort is 900 years old, this fact simply astounded me. I wish I had an entire day to explore the fort and i could see the sun-set from there BUT I had only 45 mins thus I had to run after the completely unromantic guide and tolerate all his blabbering.. For all u future explorers, go with plenty of time in your hand ... Hire a private boat if u have to, you need an entire day to see this place . Doesn't it seem weird to be in a place like this ? I mean it used to be an ACTUAL fort , with a king who had the power to behead anyone with a movement of his tongue( I was referring to giving spoken orders by that but u can decipher the statement as you wish !)  ... There were real people here , with real hopes, dreams , desires , fears ... They slept in these rooms, they drank water from these ponds which are looking now like some mossy monster straight from a Calvin and Hobbes comics, they prayed in these mosques and temples . They saw the sunrise from the window in which I was sitting ... They had hidden from the prying eyes in this quite corner and kissed their beloved with only the rising moon as their witness. And now it all seem to be so implausible ... No one talks about these people ... History is written of the glory of the king and the brilliance of the architects who created such mighty palace and smooth doors and aesthetic windows and we forget us , the us who used to stay there 900 years ago!


After returning to mainland , I had my branch from a quiet cosy restaurant and then I took an auto and went to visit another palace nearby(whose name I've forgotten as usual, but it's  the shooting spot of some quasi-famous Bollywood movie) and I could write another blog about the weird auto driver who took me there and his family (a woman who is probably his wife but he claimed her to be his sister @@!!).


However I came back to Murud beach by 1 and I took another round of sea bathing and went to the bus stop only to discover that i didn't have enough money to pay for my tour back to Pune! so I went to Alibag instead ... 
...


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But this blog is already SUPER  long and I think for 2day I've tortured you enough! I'd be back soon with my next blog where I'd write about the phase 2 of my madcap week-end and upload some photos as well. Till then au-revoir ! 

Friday, May 28, 2010

Confessions and Confusions of a Narcissist !!!

Why do we say TGIF?? Why thanking only God? We should also thank Satan and all the creature in Hell Heaven and Earth, Horatio! With the dull Friday afternoon quickly coming to and end, another Week-end is approaching .. While for you, this weekend is another insignificant one in the march of many such other weekends, for me it's kinda special . You see , it's the last weekend of the 20th year of my nascent life. Now, I am the kind of person who loves to celebrate her birthday.. I am sure even when i'll turn 90 , I'd expect all my friends to arrange for a grand big cake for me and even if i suffer from diabetes mellitus and haven't left with a single teeth , I'd surely find out some ways to smuggle some portion of it inside my mouth!


Anyway , as i was saying , this week end is a bit special for me and thus I have no intention of spending it sleeping at my room , watching movies or brooding at some gothic looking bridge on the river Mutha. Whatever I do this weekend has to have a legendary flavour about it... But i dont wanna plan anything , cause my system has some rivalry with anything which is , well, systematic ! Thus, I'll start thinking about it only after Midnight ... May be , I'd just go to the station and be on board  a train w/o having any idea regarding where it goes to! But then even though it sounds interesting , somehow it ranks way beneath the legendary category : to be in that one, I need to come up with something insanely intriguing... I wish I just could go to the Pacific and swim with the dolphins where the water is as deep as forever.. But on the other hand i am not sure whether there is any dolphin in the pacific , especially post the BP oil leak ... And also it'd be prudent to come up with a more economic solution... I've already been invited to a friend's place this saturday to freak out and party all night ... But then, I met her only in the previous week in the parikrama concert I wrote about and thus I surmise I might trespass into her gregariousness if i accept her invitation .. but then i never thought much b4 doing something thus I might go but i dont want to ... Even if I end up doing the ordinary things this week-end, I wanna do them in an extra ordinary circumstances , ie even if i want to have a all night movie marathon , I just want it to be arranged in a spooky 17th century house instead of a normal modern day cage like flats... But enough blabbering about non existent plans.


Let me now tell me about a caprice of mine which led me to an Archies Gallery.  But before that I shamefully admit that I was again feeling low yesterday... I was missing my mom and yet when i called her , i could not articulate my feelings and the frustration thus generated bred into an altercation ... And after a long stretch of wandering alone underneath the Deccan Bridge ,  I was approached by a Lady and the conversation with her and her 2 kids was  a salvation for my soul.. Even though she talked to me in Marathi and I replied in English and my reply most probably didn't match her questions , I felt awfully good  about the mere flow of words with another human being despite the fact that she was a complete stranger. Next , I went to Cafe Good luck which being overcrowded, I consumed some pasta salad salad(which followed by a grand meal KFC an hour later, I must control my glutton in some way!)   in a cosy nice roadside cafe and while walking aimlessly in the road (as usual) , glanced upon this Archies Store and I immediately knew I needed to buy some cards... Now, some of you might argue against my predilection towards greeting cards.. "After all how can a mass produced line written by a stranger can be used as a greeting to some1 special ?" you'd say. You are right and maybe that's the reason why traditional cards are fighting a losing battle against customised ones (or even SMSes  !!!)  but yet sometimes we do feel like being subjugated by the bourgeois norms of the society. Thus I went inside the shop and searched for a card for my special one. Now, there were specially made cards for almost everyone: nephew, niece, brother, uncle, husband , wife , mom , dad, all the pet species starting from dog & fish to boyfriend , girlfriend &  fiancĂ©e and YET ; they somehow astoundingly forgot or ignored to keep / make cards for the most special person of any living soul's life. Yes . I am talking about the lack of cards you can dedicate to yourself . Why can't there be any cards like :" Dear ME, wish u a very happy 21st birthday !".. Why narcissism till now remains a rather tabooed trait in our society while most of us have our own share of it? Or are we too afraid to admit that we love ourselves in the fear of being considered as some poor lonely souls admired and loved by no1 else ! Isn't it the other way round? Doesn't  life become even more brighter for us when we learn to depend on ourselves ?




So, that's the food for thought for your week-end and with this I'd sign off for now .. Hopefully there'd be another post before I turn 21!


PS: I finally bought a normal 21st birthday wish kind of card ,,, will upload the snaps of it in this space once I've gifted it to myself adding a personal note underneath all the babbling written inside it!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Some Gibberish

Haven't written anything for quite a long time;  wouldn't have even written anything 2day hadn't one of my friends enquired about my blog...  Many news are pending from my side, including my Pune sightseeing which included tour to Parvati Temple & Chatursinghi Temple ; both of which are situated on top of hills and while exploring the 2nd one I actually climbed up the hill wearing a stiletto and I must admit it was heck of a task!!!  Then on this Sunday, post the chaturshinghi tour , I visited Shaniwarvada and simply hated the place. . . However , the Laxmi road tour followed by it was  quite interesting but all these are nothing compared to the monsoon of madness which flooded away my sanity on this Saturday. 


On Friday night , Manpreet gave me a lift at good-luck cafe and after she was gone, I was roaming around like a lost soul in the streets and a most miraculous thing happened . Some people probably took pity on me and handed over a concert ticket for Mtv Stuntmania Rockathon where the rock band named Parikrama was supposed to perform. So, Next day I went office at around 11.30 am (my reporting time is 9.30am ) and left for lunch at 1pm and after coming back went directly to the director's room to ask for an early leave.. Frankly speaking, i'd not have even done that hadn't my other sincere colleagues looked so scandalized at the mere thought of me eloping with my caprice w/o informing any1! The directer obviously  looked thunder struck when i informed me about the concert ( I could have come up with some other excuses but i was simply sick of all these insignificant lies) , and he said in an ominous voice :" Do as u wish." Now I interpreted that as :" Yes sure, you can leave" ( Afterall your job is just a mean to sustain in life .. What's the point of a job when is the "life" itself is missing from ur life?!) and I left immediately and for the 1st time met one gregarious Puneite. I merely asked this lady for the direction of Katraj and she actually gave me  a lift there. In the way we had  a rather amusing discussion about the matching sunshine of me and her 11 months old son and I must confess I never knew so much about my zodiac characteristics as I came to know from her in only 20 mins. And after reaching the venue I had this irresistible urge to embarrass myself and thus actually I got up in the stage in front of some 500 + boys and girls and danced with the tune of Akon. Then , four local rock bands came and made us write a paper on patience before finally Parikrama came on stage at around 8.30 pm (oh BTW, I'd reached there by 3 pm!)... I still wonder why they considered Led Zeppelin as the greatest psychedelic rock band ever , but the fusion that followed this statement was really awesome . I came back around 11.30 and when my land-lady asked the reasons for being late , I simply pointed out that the night was still young and left her dumbstruck.




Well enough of information .. Let's discuss some insights now. My life in pune has been a weird combination of emotional troughs& crests... I hate my job: My nature is that if i get frustrated with something , it becomes impossible for me to concentrate on that ... & i simply hate the method with which I've been asked to approach the project .. I simply hate the PG and the body-odour of my roommates. If I had to choose between a dumb brute and another who smells bad I'd probably chose the former. But I don't have much of  achoice . Coz , my room mates carry both these qualities! So, I basically run away from the PG in the morning and stay out as late as possible and sometimes I feel terribly lonely and then I become angry with myself for not being able to be self contained...  But then in some moments I feel so happy with my life, like for example in the concert, i felt like i was in the top of the world. I never really got much chances to be a normal 20 years old. In my home , I was surrounded by people far older than me. When i was 5, my best friend was a 17 year old young lady . Thus I grew up to be a rather precocious child. But on saturday night i just felt like shedding all that burden of maturity off and just indulge in the sheer spirit of youth and its insane enthusiasm . And i loved to be around people whom I'd hang out with in normal scenario ! It feels good if u just realize how young you are. You suddenly see a whole lot of possibility lying in front u. Remeber the famous dialogue from Shirley Valentine? "From now on whenever i'd look at the mirror , I'd never say : Oh God.. I am 45; instead I'd say : Oh Shirley , you are ONLY 45!"  


So, when i was standing at Deccan bus stop yesterday I did some really lght hearted thinking about my life. And I discovered that I can claim to have some dexterity in sketching , singing and even though I can never express what i actually think, I can at least give it a try. And I love listening to music , reading , swimming and contemplating . That leaves me with a world full of things I am either NOT good at or have not learnt to love. What's the point of wasting time in brooding over some incidents or some persons when u've so much to do with the limited time you have in hand. So, from now on whenever I feel like brooding , I'd rather do something crazy , this world is in dire need of some sincere madness and I'll try my best to provide my share :)




PS. I discovered the kingdom of Narnia at the backside of my PG. On sunday morn at around 5, I got too bugged with the cackling and racket of my room mates and thus I got out of the bed, put on my sneakers and hit the road w/o even bothering to brush my teeth or change my night suit! There is this slum in the backyard of our PG and it's located in a small hill (not exactly a hill but well, one might say that the slope of the place was a bit higher than the normal slop of plains) , I've no idea what whim drove me there but i went inside and after reaching the other side of the slum, I discovered a wonder land called Vetal hills (I didn't knew the name then though, i found it later from google maps !) which is far better than any of the conventional tourist spots simply by virtue of being unexplored by the hoi polloi and thus it is still now unscathed of the bane of  pollution and plastics. From now on whenever i'd feel like taking a short escape I know a wonderland which is just 18 mins away from the stinking PG of mine... So, in the end I guess all those room mates of mine whom i hate so much deserve a gregarious thanks from me. Hadn't it been for them, I'd never discover that secret wardrobe :) 

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Business of Life

Doesn't it seem like a dream job? 3.50 in the afternoon and I've nothing to do but to listen to music and write blogs .. I listened to hard rocks in YouTube throughout the pre lunch hours and now have decided to try a different platter: Blues. I love this woman : Norah , I mean .. It mesmerizes me how easily she expresses deepest of feelings . But I'd talk about music some other day . Today I've something else to talk about... Hold your breath girls and boys, women and men , humans and other animals, living and the deceased : cause, for the 1st time in my blog-life I m gonna talk about business. In my own sweet (!) way of course.




1st Scenario :
Location:- Jockey Outlet , MIT
Time:-8.45 pm , Tuesday
I went with my room-mate to help her buy a pair of jogging track-pants. I had no bloody idea which kind of help she was expecting from me and why on the 1st place she was buying one while she'd never go for jogging for sure but then again, I had nothing to do and besides; being a woman , I've an intrinsic knack towards shopping (or rather window shopping) so I accompanied her. Now, like any ignorant consumer, i was under the impression that store assistants are there only to assist , but clearly, in this store they were behaving like the Gestapo ! The key word in lingerie shopping is perhaps "Privacy", at least it is so in India . I don’t know about my room-mate but i clearly was feeling a bit uneasy when one of the shop ladies was literally breathing over my shoulder. But that at least was tolerable and can be blamed to their inability of trusting the power of CCTVs. But what the other lady did to my roommate was not only disgusting but also outright insulting ; when my room-mate had chosen a particular pair and wanted to try it out , she was told : "Ma'am (and that was pronounced as gum) , it wont suit you at all." And when even after that she was determined to try it out, the lady actually kept on insisting her to buy a large size when she was looking for medium and said ominously : " you might try out the medium size but It'd look really bad"! I was amazed at the will power of my roommate. I get easily instigated by even tiniest of trespassing in my privacy and i'd have probably sued the shop if i were at the receiving end of such comments, but my roommate actually chose to neglect them and bought not only the track pant but many other items much to the apparent dismay of the shop lady. Now, I had carefully chosen the word apparent . After all, all these shop attendants work in commission basis thus their interest is to make the browsing turn into shopping . Thus, the means taken doesn't matter at all. May be, the lady in that shop was a brilliant reader of consumer psyche and by neglecting all the CRM lessons of Kotler and other numerous marketing books she stood out to be a purple cow. Promoting sales by irking the consumer ? challenging them to try out things? You decide! I, in the meantime , will find out some other jockey showroom where the shop people wont turn out to be such as***les.


2nd Scenario:-
Location :- An insignificant nameless Beauty Parlor near MIT
Time:- 4.30 pm, Tuesday
Turn on any channel on your idiot box and the maximum number of personal care ads you'll come across will try to entice you to invest on the beatification of your face. Now I personally feel that my feet and not my face deserves maximum amount of my attention (Not that I give it what it deserves but then that is the story of my life, i preach things without practicing them). So, it's pretty natural that when i finally managed to get some time for myself yesterday(ie when i finally managed to move my lazy butt) , the 1st thing I decided to do was to get a Pedicure. I love to indulge into reading a delicious love story when someone else is pampering my feet. After all , at some point of our life , we all do like to be treated as princesses and not just another nameless entity in the hoi polloi being stampeded by boots and not even receiving any gesture of apology. Thus a fairy tale romance can only be appreciated in a such a scenario when the aroma of lavender pack and the titillating touch of rose petals veils the big bad world from your vision and creates the illusion of a land of happily ever after. However, in my case it was a pretty basic pedicure (ie w/o the rose petal and stuff) and actually i got a small cut in the process. Now, I am quite sturdy and not the kind who faints at the sign of RBC, but since i was paying for a service , i deliberately acted hypochondriac and ended up getting a 60% discount and a free massage. Now, the story ends here but there's an epilogue which is more important . Today , in the morning , i received a small sms which expressed concern about my cut (it was actually a scratch) and wished a quick recovery . So, they actually made use of my phone number and they didn't take it just for the heck of taking it. Result?  if I ever feel the necessity of going to parlor again within these 6 weeks , I'd definitely choose this place and moreover I almost did a free WOM (WOT?) publicity of the place before i decided to hide the name of the place. Moral of the story ? Pampering works for me






3rd Scenario:-
Location :- Roll Club near MIT
Time:- 10.30 pm, Tuesday
For all you Bengalis out there (or anyone with an entrepreneurial bend of mind) here's a man who can be your inspiration. This person started his career in Nizam , climbed up the career ladder and became the GM of some restaurant and then one fine day just quit his job to open this small fast food corner with his wife as the chief chef. Now, he sells egg rolls at Rs 45/ piece and though I don't have any idea how much money he is making after paying 18000Rs rent pm for that tiny place; his life is far better than the post VRS average Indian men's lives which mainly consist of watching cricket matches and criticizing the players...!


I'd wrap up with a rather sad news from my PG life. I tried washing my clothes yesterday . I.e. I dipped them in warm water and detergent at 7 pm and after coming back at around 11, I almost got a stroke. The water had disappeared from the bucket and instead the clothes were dipped in blood. Most of them died or got severely injured by then and even after ventilation and saline doses, I could not save them . Then I discovered the culprit who caused the blood-bath. It was the Hare Krishna T-Shirt my mom bought as a gift for me from Vrindavan, the ISKCON premises to be precise. The man (And I am talking about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu here) who preached non-violence throughout his life, ironically got associated with a massacre , courtesy me!