I am in love...

Just 4 points...

* Watched Swades Yesterday...Those who think that its a documentory, just DARE to comment..
* Hats off to Ashutosh Gowarikar and his team...
* One ques..Why girls look so graceful and elegant in Salwar-Kameez and sarees??
* And i m in love with somebody named Gayatri Joshi...

Oo what a trip!! --2nd and final part

The shadows of a roofless night was looming large on three of us..i mean it was ok for our ‘bird’ but we were mere flesh pieces!! It was not that we were not prepared for any adventure but this was something beyond our expectations. We started out next operation i.e. “Operation Hotel”. Wherever we asked, a big NO was written on the face of receptionist (and to add to my misery..all receptionist were male!!)They were looking at us as if we have asked for a pound of their flesh and not a room!!After searching about 10-12 hotels and lodges and guest houses and dharamshalas, from the best to the worst, we spotted and decided to sleep in the verandah of a hanuman temple in case the worst happens!! But we continued our search. When we were returning from the 18th place (or the figure was high?; Anurag..pls confirm..) lady luck smiled and a couple came to our rescue. They saw our long faces and realized that the adventure was getting too much for us, they took us to their aunt who readily permitted us to stay in her house ..in her drawing room. She was very nice.. and that was a big relief..After finding a place to keep the back straight, we headed for the beach once again..and there we just rested our backs on the rocks with the sea water touching them. It was a full moon night..or atleast the moon was shining at 80% of its total capacity which was making the mood all the more relaxing. We had our dinner at a beach side ‘thela’ sitting on a ‘chatai’ on the beach!!

Returned to our ‘palace’ at 11:30 pm and then slept like a maharaja till 6:00AM. Clicked a few snaps with Aunty , exchanged the phone nos. and we were ready to hit the road again..but is that possible without a cup of tea? Had tea at a road side stall which was more like a sugar syrup and then at 7:00 AM,we embarked on our journey again..

Enroute to Murud, we went off road atleast twice..one was amazing 4 feet wide kaccha road with coconut trees on both sides and another was an untouched shore…Clicked some beautiful snaps there ..thanks to the timer in the camera which permitted both of us to be in the same frame!!Reached Kashid beach at 9:00AM..It is the only white sand beach in maharashtra apart from ganpatiphule…and as we were a little too early, we felt as if it was our private beach as nobody was there apart from two of us!!Had a round of Bhurji, omlette, coke and PAV (I just hate PAV!!). Spent the best time of the journey on that beach and then we again started for the original destination…Murud and Janzira…Skipped the Murud beach as it was too crowded and went straight to Janzira…Sailed in the boat for a kilometer to reach Janzira fort…it was a fort which remained unconquered throughout the history..later it was conquered by Govt of India!!

Kashid beach, Janzira fort, boat sail and the two off road site seeing made our trip a memorable one…started our backward trip at 2:30 pm as we wanted to be in bombay by 5:30..Although sun was glowing at its full capacity, still we managed to click snaps of ‘ruins of something’ at one place and of a fundoo palace at other...Driving through the sea side road again through alibagh, pen and panvel we touched Vashi at around 5:15…
The distance meter was showing a reading of 312 Kms…and we were as fresh as a lily!!
Decided to watch ‘Swades’ but probably the lady luck was 'dating' someone else at that time and the show was houseful…Had Coffee at ‘Qwicky’s’ , developed the snaps and we were back to “flat-sweet-flat (I hate to call it home-sweet-home) at 10:00 PM…

That was the end of a sweet little memorable adventurous trip..Thoroughly enjoyed it and I just hope its just the beginning of our journey…

Oo what a trip !!!

Hmmm…So after making and breaking umpteenth plans of an adventurous trip, this one finally materialized. Athough I can go on writing about this little trip still I wud like to be as brief as possible. This was a trip to remember and I just hope there are many to come…
Why did we decided to go to Murud Janzira? No, more than the Murud beach and the janzira fort , we were excited about the route as we have heard a lot about the scenic road which runs parallely to the sea and sometimes to the konkan railway..All in all, we were pretty excited to embark on our journey.We were three..Yours truly, My buddy Anurag and most importantly “ThunderBird”. I must say this ‘bird’ is really ‘Royal’ !!
It all started at 2:00 pm on Saturday when Anurag called me up saying he is waiting at my office gate. At that time I was still finishing my work and simultaneously thinking of a brilliant idea to skip the rest of the day. I called up my boss saying that I m leaving for the day to receive my relatives from VT and as I lied with full sincerety, he readily agreed! Then we were off to my flat from where I had to pick my belongings and soon both of us realized that we were short of many necessary items including cash!! Did the shopping in a jiffy, which included a helmet (for Anurag), a nice bag (for me) and most importantly cash from ATM!!
We hit the road at exactly 4:00pm and reset the distance meter of the bike. Our first destination was Panvel MacD..Yeah,we soon realized that we were surviving on just 2 cups of coffee each!! Reached Panvel at 4:30 and a quick round of Burgers , French fries and coke followed…We were on road again at 4:55pm moving towards Pen. The drive was not something like “beach side road” or “Greenery all around” but yeah the setting sun was giving the nature a touch that was not lesser by any means. After half an hour , something from my bag itched me..oh , it was my camera which was biting me to click a photograph or two. I yelled at anurag which was at good enough decibels to wake him from his thoughts(He has a knack of going into his own zone while driving!!). He bowed to my wish and we halted on a bridge and all three of us posed in all the angles that were “possible on road” to please the camera. Camera was happy so we moved ahead. We reached Pen and we were horribly wrong in our assumption that we were on time…So we continued at our pace to Alibagh..Reached there at around 7:00. Now let me admit this to u that the route from Mumbai to Alibagh is not something very classy..but the excitement of our trip, kept our adrenaline flowing. Sun was well beyond horizon when we touched Alibagh and we went straight to the beach. Fuelled our stomach again with all sort of beach specials like Pav bhaji and pani poori…Now here we took a wise decision.We didn’t want to miss the excitement of traveling a sea side road by traveling in night. So we decided to stay at Alibagh for that night. We were so engrossed in gulping pani pooris and pav bhajis that we didn’t realized that it was 25th dec and who the hell in this world will have a place in hotels or lodges on that day!! We were in for a surprise!!When we realized this..it was a little too late and the chances of my first roofless night started to increase many folds with each passing minute….Rest in next…Till then…

Cheers…

Same story from Anurag’s perspective is available at www.thirdrockfromthesun.blogspot.com

Here is the break...

It’s the time to take a break…After REFLECTING on the way my life is going, in the last post..it’s the time to ABSORB some of the energy from life..After feeling some sort of vacuum..it’s the time to fill the void…No No..i m not getting engaged or marrying some girl…I still want to breath peacefully!! ;-)
I will be out for the shortest trip possible. Along with one of my friend, Anurag, I am going to Murud/Janjira. Those from Bombay must be familiar with these names.

Historically: Murud was the capital of a small Janjira kingdom. Janjira is a Marathi corruption of the Arab word “Jazirah” meaning island. Their stronghold, a fortress now called Janjira, is an island 3 kms. from Murud.

Geographically:Murud is located 160 kms. down the coast from Mumbai.

Attractions: (a) A beautiful clean water beach and (b) The Janjira Fort

Gentrywise This I need to check!! ;-)

Best Part: We will be covering the entire distance on my friends bike i.e. Royal Enfield “Thunder Bird”!! And this visit will just serve as a dress rehersal for another adventure journey whose curtains will be unfolded most probably in my next post…


Now, Obviously I am going to enjoy this little trip like anything but this will have a direct effect on two important things…
1. The TO DO list will only have more additions…and my plan to bring it to 10 items will remain a distant dream…
2. And my clothes will continue to be unwashed for one more week which clearly indicates that my deodorant will have to perform at its best!!

Zindagi...kaisi hai paheli !!!

Nothing notable is happening these days. The days are just starting at 8:30 and are ending at 2:00 AM. Apart from spending 9 hrs at workplace, hours and days are just evaporating. Its not that i m feeling low or getting sentimental. Its just that i am feeling a sort of vacuum around me. Its a feeling that i am not making my days count. I have always felt that there are many more things in life than what a person can squeeze in a "24hr a day" routine. Still, i feel i am just doing the naukri stuff and nothing else...will have to sort out the things soon...or is it just a passing phase?? Probably i am writing this stuff bcause i got the time to reflect on my life last night and probably life will continue to melt in this fashion only!! Leave it...

A bunch of books are lying in my flat. Some unfinished, some untouched...To kill a mocking bird, eleven minutes, Jack Welch, No full stops in india to name a few...What the hell am i doing till 2:00 AM?? TV is killing my time or to say the truth...I am killing my time on TV!!!

I haven't touched my guitar for the last 20 days or so. It was producing weird sounds. So i changed all the strings two days back ..still its making "hissing" sound...Guess it requires medication....

The "To Do" list that i prepared on sunday contained 16 items. It still contains 16!! Its not that i haven't done anything..I finished 4 items and added 4 new!! Somehow the list is not going below 15...This is life!! A vicious circle of " TO DO's". I just hope to bring it to 10 by the end of this week and i know i will be unsuccessful!!

Any answers...!!!

1. Software industry is 8 years old while telecom is barely 4-5 years...and i guess 70% of the engg .(age grp 22-30) are absorbed in these two industries...Any idea what the indian youth was doing before the emergence of these two fields??

2. America has decided to go ahead with its plans of selling F-16 to Pakistan. The reason...to counter terrorism!!
When the hell Pakistan started using F-16 to counter terrorism???

Cheers!!

A sad pillow story...

Its 11:15 PM and I m sitting in office at this odd time. Fisrt of all, what I am doing in office, at this time, when I left it at 7:30. Answer is..i came back an hour before and the reason behind this “odd-time-adventure” is my master memory!! Yes.. it ditched me again. Actually I bought a pillow, spending full 158 bucks (there was some sort of offer from recron pillows in office) and I forgot it on my desk. I came back to office only to find that its not there. I was managing without a pillow for the last 8 months..just because I was too lazy to buy one and when I bought this one, some f****** soul is sleeping on it!! I mean stealing is ok but how somebody can come up with this brilliant idea of stealing a pillow!! He just didn’t think of this poor soul who didn’t have this privilege of keeping his head on soft lap for the last 8 months!!

Two days back, I had the privilege of listening to ghazal maestro Jagjit Singh live!! That was one of the memorable experience and a night to remember. It was the first time I was there for his live performance.He was at his usual best and rendered some of his beautiful and eternal compositions. The program stared with “ Kaun kehta hai mohabbat ki zubaan hoti hai” followed by ghazal from “Sarfarosh” and “ Hum toh hain pardes main, des main nikla hoga chand”. And the icing was provided by “ Mainoo tera shabab laye baitha hoon, rang gora gulab laye baitha hoon” and “ Ye daulat bhi le lo”.
For the Punjabi flavour , he sang “ dhai din na jawani nal chaldi kurti mal mal di” which literally lifted the audience from their seats. Auditorium was jam packed and he made everybody’s evening a memorable one. All in all, an unforgettable experience.

Its Sunday tomorrow. Swades plan is cancelled now. Will watch it on some weekday. So now I am planning to sleep till Monday morning!!

Happy weekend..

PS: Just made a "TO DO" list and it contains an amazing 16 items!!i never knew so many things were pending!!

Reservations in private sector..Is this move justified?

I was busy, doing my work day before yesterday when I got this mail saying Govt. is trying to build consensus on giving reservation to scheduled castes in jobs in private sector also and if you are opposing this step sign on petitiononline.com. I don’t know the authenticity of petitiononline.com or the affect that this petition will create and neither I signed it, still it excited and provoked my thinking buds to grind my opinions on this issue.

Do we really need to provide reservation to SC/ST’s or OBC’s in education or services? Do they really need reservation? Will it improve their condition socially and economically and will this reservation policy bring them out of the tag of “deprived class”? I have tried to find out the answers and more appropriately I have tried to through some light on futility of this policy.

1. In my opinion, first and the foremost thing is, the term “reservation” is totally against a very basic right of every citizen that is given in the constitution i.e. “Right to Equality”. According to this, every citizen is equal and is entitled for all the opportunities and according to which no discrimination can be made on the basis of caste, creed, color, region or religion. This provision of reservation kills the basic idea of this right and is against the spirits of constitution. So first of all we need to delete this trivial right of ours.



2. Those advocating this reservation policy vehemently give this reason for this quota system “ They are the deprived class”. So, does that mean only SC/ST’s are deprived and all the others come under the creamy layer of the society?? Caste has nothing to do with the economic status of a person. A Brahmin may be in tatters and a harijan may be in all the luxuries and still, if the govt. is hell bent on giving reservations, then economic status should be the criteria and not the caste.


3. 80% of the “deprived” schedules caste population lives in rural areas, which is also deprived economically and academically. The basic aim of providing reservations is to bring these rural scheduled population to the main stream, which is deprived in real sense and to empower them by giving them jobs and by protecting them through reservation. While on the other hand what is required in Private sector is education and skills. The rural scheduled caste population has neither of them. So these posts will be absorbed by the their urban counterparts which are any way well-to-do and some are even living life of luxury. So the basic idea of providing reservation dies another death here.


4. Now, here is an eye opener for all those who are for reservation in Private sector. There is a phenomenal backlog of vacant posts in Govt. sector that are reserved for scheduled castes and even after trying hard, govt. is finding it difficult to fill these posts. Has anyone pondered over this issue before starting advocating reservation in Private sector? The reason for this backlog is, they are not fulfilling the bare minimum criteria of education. They are not educated, a condition which can directly be attributed to their economic background. They are below poverty line (so as other high castes people also, although their no. might be less). Instead of striking at the root cause of the problem i.e. poverty and illiteracy, we are pushing for reservations which only deprives suitable and more deserving candidates. And if I m wrong and if there are deserving candidates in scheduled castes that’s straightaway means that govt has failed to identify them and failed to provide jobs that are ear marked for them and if govt. is not finding suitable candidates how can we expect private sector to fill the posts for them successfully??

Strangely enough, there has not been any demand for this sort of reservation from the public but the government is trying to build the consensus on this issue. (If there was demand, I haven’t heard any!!) For me, it seems to be another political stunt. This time by UPA govt. It seems they just want to cement their place in govt till eternity by providing this illogical and mind boggling reservation in private sector!

This vicious circle of giving and taking reservations will continue to grow and would become grim even more in future. This is the time we need to sincerely bend our backs and work sincerely towards providing education and improving economic conditions of the poor population of our country. Providing reservations on the name of giving equal opportunity sounds similar to an Ostrich who dump its head in sand when it sees a danger coming towards it, thinking that it has evaded the danger….

Strange Tears...

A very strange thing happened to me yesterday evening…I was watching super singer on Channel V and the program was full of typical I-am-the-best thingie while most were true duds. It was mostly college crowd, which gathered to show their talent. Most were just entertaining themselves, some were happy as they were on camera while some were serious participants too.
Suddenly a small boy of 12-13 years of age appeared on the screen. He was accompanied by his aunt (Bua). He was there to showcase his talent. His father was preparing him for the competition as soon as he heard about this competition. He died exactly a week before the audition and this little boy was there to fulfill his father’s dream. He sang in front of Adnan Sámi. Although his voice was not polished and all but he was singing from his heart and was singing on pretty high pitch (which I m sure is difficult even for adults to emulate). The boy was looking completely sad and lost. Probably he was totally immersed in his song or he was paying a homage of sorts to his late father. His voice had all the depth of the world. He even cleared the first round and returned again for the second . Gave another touching performance. Channel V gave him special gifts and although he could not make it to the third round, he paid true tribute to his father. Hats off to him..

Now..why am I narrating this to u?? After his spirited performance, my eyes literally shed two tears. I don’t know where this boy touched my chord? Don’t know where I relate myself to him? I don’t know why I felt for him and become emotional !!!

Probably the 30th point of my last post (WHO AM I?) justified itself in the strangest of manner!!

WHO AM I ??

1. An Atheist
2. A teetotaler
3. A vegetarian by choice
4. Tea addict
5. A guitar player; intermediate stage
6. Electronics engineer
7. A telecom professional
8. An avid reader, be it newspapers, magazines or novels but hates fiction.
9. A very casual guy in his approach
10. Loves to travel and explore new places.
11. Loves adventure
12. Don’t love pets!!!
13. Lazy guy by nature
14. Hates washing clothes
15. Loves to write but most of the times his laziness scores over the writer inside him!!
16. Wants to have all the clothes in this world in his wardrobe.
17. Budding interests includes photography.
18. Ex- district level cricket player
19. A future social activist
20. Non believer in astrology
21. Non believer in superstitions
22. “NOT SO BAD” cook
23. Not a party animal
24. Loves solitude
25. Music lover
26. Loves to walk aimlessly on road
27. goes to bed not before 2:00 AM.
28. Loves to work at night
29. Special interests included history and Politics!!
30. Emotional at times

I guess some of u can add to this list...i would like to see that!!!

Laws of life...!!

Sorry, couldn’t write anything during these days…actually am too busy these days…this office is grinding me like anything for the past 4-5 days and I was working like a donkey even on Sunday..

Got some nice laws of life thru a fwd….so for the time being am just doing the cut paste job and posting this…enjoy…


Lorenz's Law of Mechanical Repair:
After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch.

Anthony's Law of the Workshop:
Any tool, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible corner.

Kovac's Conundrum:
When you dial a wrong number, you never get an engaged one.

Cannon's Karmic Law:
If you tell the boss you were late for work because you had a flat tire,
the next morning you will have a flat tire.

O'Brien's Variation Law:
If you change queues, the one you have left will start to move faster than
the one you are in now.

Bell's Theorem :
When the body is immersed in water, the telephone rings.

Ruby's Principle of Close Encounters :
The probability of meeting someone you know increases when you are with
someone you don't want to be seen with.

Willoughby's Law :
When you try to prove to someone that a machine won't work, it will.

Zadra's Law of Biomechanics :
The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.

Breda's Rule :
At any event, the people whose seats are furthest from the aisle arrive
last.

Owen's Law :
As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to
do something which will last until the coffee is cold.

Howden's Law :
You remember you have to mail a letter only when you're near the mailbox.

Cheers...