Red??

Oh!

So Wimbledon is tennis and more!

Loved this!

"They say red is the colour that proves that you're strong and you're confident so I'm happy with my red knickers."

Cheers!

Looking forward to...

1. Playing guitar again. Yes, ordered a new one from amazon.

2. Dabble in equity trading ..Got the new password of my trading account after loosing the old one 8 months back!

3. Watching India vs England at Lords!

Not bad Mr. Rathore.

Back to UK

Am back from my short, sweet and hot trip to India.

The temperatures back there in Delhi and Gwalior were touching 46 degrees thus making every minute as long as a day while the presence of the loved ones around me made sure that the day melted down in a minute. So,in the end,things neutralised and i enjoyed my 15 day trip.

Hope to resume regular blogging now...

Confessions online!

Screwed up something?

Now you can confess here online!

Dont forget to read some interesting confessions there.

Sample this

"I've had eating disorders since I was 13. I always felt that anorexia took everything away from me. Before I was a good student and athlete. I was healthy and pretty. By sophomore year my hair was falling out, my period stopped (and would not start again for years), I could not hold my bladder, I coudln't sleep, I couldn't play soccer. I knew my body was dying at age 15.I'm 23 now. I survived that epidsode, but I've never been the same. I've been bulimic ever since. In some ways it's worse now, not physically. But emotionally. I feel so disgusting, so alone. I isolate myself completely (to the point where i've moved a hemisphere away!). I've never dated since anorexia. I feel too fat. Too ugly. Unworthy of anybody. Undeserving of love."

Cheers!

PS: Read a few confessions today (23rd June)...Disturbing...

What to write?

Its really difficult to blog when you are abroad. More so when you are in UK. I mean in India, you have such vast amount of topics to write about. Right from hairy ears of Lalu to Mayawati's mimics, from Delhi's heat to Mumbai's Marine Drive and from Sachin's century to Kalam's haircut or something like this!. And if you realise that even this is not enough,just watch one interview of Rakhi Sawant or start watching Rajat Sharm's Channel 7. I bet,you will have plenty to write. Now compare this with the eternal dull face of Tony Blair or the forever injured Michael Vaughan. What to write about them?

Even the newspapers here don't have anything to write! Pick a 30 page tabloid. On 3 pages, you will have the photos of all sorts of soccer players. On 5 other pages,there will be half naked photos of the wives and girl friends of these soccer players. On page-3,there will be a nude model (the extravagant version of Mid-Day mate) followed up by many such beauties in the least of clothes in the following pages. Now guess what will be on page-1? There will be a sobbing women whose dog went missing last night and another will be a snap of a babe who is grim because she was kissed by 'only' three men during the last night out. The only time during the last 8 months of my stay in UK when these papers had something to write was when Jade Goody happened. Thanks to Shilpa!

Anyways,
I am busy packing my bags for my 15 day visit to India in June. So currently engrossed in deciding the type of chocolates to buy. I hope, once i am back, i will have plenty of stories and experiences to share. I am sure i will have a few words for Indian summer. A change from 10 to 45 degrees wont be pleasant!!
;-)

A Union Jack Doormat!

So this is what you can get in United Kingdom!

A Union Jack Doormat.

Poor Mandira.

Your choice

The last time when I updated this space was in March. It’s been a month and a half and lots of things happened during this duration. Now we know that the alternate professions of Member of Parliament includes smuggling women and kids to other countries (courtesy Mr. Babubhai Katara), we know that Mr Narayan Murthy is a terrorist (courtesy his Anthem statement), we know that Sachin Tendulkar is anti nationalist too (courtesy his cake cutting ceremony in WI) and we know that even Mandira Bedi is not a patriot either!! (This time her saree (and not the blouse) with the flags of all participant nations in WC).

Now we know that the next big thing in cricket are Ireland and Bangladesh. We know that the reasons behind Gilchrist brilliant innings of 149 in WC final were not his capabilities and potential but the squash balls inside his gloves and most importantly we know that we cannot get AIDS if we kiss a girl on stage who is not remotely HIV +ve (courtesy Mr Gere and Shilpa Shetty).

Probably the only thing we still don’t know is “Who killed Bob Woolmer?” Don’t worry; Jamaican police, Pakistani Police, Scotland Yard and London police, Mumbai Police, chinchpokli Police are investigating the issue.

And during all these days, I was badly missing updates on Rakhi Sawant. Finally I stumbled on a few video clips on Youtube where she appeared on Kofee with Karan. Poor chap was so nervous during the whole show! It was a welcome respite from all those sauve gentlemen and sophisticated ladies. The lady was shooting from the lip, from the hip and from whatever she was able to shoot! Her take on Mika was the best.

Not much updates from my side as the only thing that I am waiting for now is a 15 day visit to India in June. It’s been 8 months here now and its high time to recharge the batteries.

Anyways, I have got a new room mate here in UK. He is as close to Paresh Rawal in ‘Judai’ as you can get in real life. Remember his question marked forehead? Same is the case with this guy. Be it anything, from weather to cricket, from mayawati to balram jakhad , from cameras to laptops, for everything he has his questionnaire ready and suddenly you find yourself helpless in that barrage of questions.

On top of this, he doesn’t even breathe without looking for the auspicious occasion. Thanks to him, we have got that panchang wala calendar in our flat now. Although I already have 57 hilarious incidents in the last 15 days involving him,here is one which takes the cake.

He ordered a laptop from Amazon and got it on Thursday. Panchang was checked and it was declared that Sunday is the auspicious day to start the laptop. Next thing, he was found playing with his laptop just after 2 hours of that statement. I asked him whether any planet changed its position so drastically that Thursday has become auspicious now in a matter of 2 hours?

His reply was legendry…

“No, I am not logged in as ‘administrator’,I have logged in as a ‘guest user’. So,this login doesn’t count”

Talk about manipulations!!!

Cheers…

Winning and Loosing

Loosing a match is not a crime. Even loosing against Bangladesh is not a crime. After all it’s just a game and this is not the first time we surrendered to them. Even the mighty Australians were humiliated in a one day game by Bangladesh in their own backyard. So that way loosing a one day game is just a matter of one bad day on the field. I mean any day this Indian team is better than Bangladesh.

The painful part is the platform which they chose to perform badly or chose not to perform at all. World Cup is the ultimate test and recognition of any sport. History proves that the individuals and teams tend to raise their standard when it comes to world championships and Olympics. Be it any sport. An Oliver Kahn inspires whole of Germany to achieve the impossible by reaching Football world cup finals, A Mark Phelps breaks all the swimming records in world championships, then you see a free kick from the mid line crashing into the goal post by one Ronaldinho, again in WC Most athletes tends to save their best for the Olympics and give their best performance when it matters most. It’s a matter of raising the bar a little higher when it comes to the showpiece event.

Sadly India was never a team who realised this. Barring a 20 month period under the Ganguly era, Indian cricket team never looked threatening. It’s only us who are raising the bar of expectations whenever Indian team is playing and not the players. It’s only us who consider our team as a threat to others and not the opponents! Fact still remains the same. A bunch of naturally gifted and highly potential players loosing to a team whose wins can still be counted on fingers.

People have already started looking at 2011 WC. And remember, we have an edge there. We have got one extra month for preparation. The other teams are still fighting in the Super-8!!!

Come-on Ireland!

Why should we love Kabaddi?

I love Kabaddi. Since yesterday, I have started loving it more. There is no reason why I shouldn't. The game has its origin in India. For many years, we were the only ones who played the game and hence we were the best. Now there are few others, Timbuktu, Chinchpokli and Jhumritallaiya to name a few. With some internal fixing, we managed to put the game as a part of Asian games Menu in 1990. It's been 5 Asian games since then and we have collected 5 gold medals. 100% success rate. There are stronger reasons too.

1.Australians and South Africans don't play Kabaddi. Hence probability of our winning increases.

2.Apart from the Asian Games (which we win comfortably each time), there is hardly any tournament of note. Hence no disappointment every other day.

3.Even if they start organising tournaments for Kabaddi, they won't be telecast on TV (live or recorded). Hence saves our time and enhances the efficiency of the entire nation.

4.Kabaddi has to cover a lot of distance to entice match fixers/ Bookies. So, in those terms it promises to stay a clean game at least for the next 100 years.

5.No dope tainted individuals.

6.Nobody knows the name of out Kabaddi team's Captain and coach. Hence they are not answerable to anybody even if they loose.

7.Nobody knows the names or the faces of the players either. Hence, even if they loose to some country, they cannot be manhandled (as you need to recognise them to do that) and there wont be slogans against them (for that you need to know the name).

8.Their residences won't be gheroed as nobody knows where they reside.

9.Their restaurants won't be pelted as they don't own any.

10.New Zealanders and West Indians don't play kabaddi either!


Cheers!!

Time to deliver...

In a few minutes from now, India will be taking on Srilanka,in a do-or-die battle with their back firmly pasted to the wall.

A look at the Indian team on paper and you back yourself that this is the best one day outfit india can produce.Atleast i am not seeing better bunch of players in the next few years to come.

Apart from the rest, we have the big 3s. Ganguly, Dravid and first among equals,Sachin. All proven performers. Its next to impossible to find an adjective which is yet to be used for them. Still if you insist on using one, am sure you need to look beyond English language.

Time to justify atleast one-fourth of those. Time to deliver...

Cheers...

Bob Woolmer is dead...

Not sure about the quality and competitiveness but cricket touched the pinnacle today as far as tension and pressure is concerned. Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer is dead.

Minnows...who?

In a pre match interview between India and Bangladesh, an irritated Dave Whatmore,coach of Bangladesh,asked "I would like to know what's the meaning of minnows is in [the] Oxford Dictionary. We have secured important triumphs. But yes we are ninth in order so in that sense the other big teams are ahead of us. India is one of them and they are the first one we have to contend with..."

Here is the meaning of Minnows according to Dictionary.com

"a person or thing that is comparatively small or insignificant."

From 17th march onwards, either this word should be used more judiciously or should be banned at least from one day cricket lingo.

26...

...and i am stepping into wrong side of twenties today...

Cheers!!

My days...

Make no mistake. Life can be boring at times. Correction. Life of a bachelor can also be boring at times.

Ask me. Spent another monotonous weekend. My third in succession. I mean getting up at 11:30 indeed gives you immense pleasure and satisfaction, far more than da vinci might have experienced after painting Monalisa, but what follows after that makes you a dull boy.

As soon as I finished my morning/afternoon tea on Saturday, it was almost the time to prepare lunch. Although I am just a helping hand for my flatmate in such chores, still I feel enough sense of responsibility on my shoulders you know. My life these days can be divided in two parts in the ratio 75:25. Office: Cooking. I envy Sanjeev Kapoor. At least he is getting paid for whatever crap he cooks.

Anyways, after lunch, it was time for the customary visit to Sainsbury’s to bring weekly grocery. Now this is one place that I have visited most after coming to UK apart from my office and loo. Even if you blindfold me, I can pick things of my interest from the racks!

By the time I was back, it was time for tea. Then dinner. A little surfing on the net, few pages of “The Google story” and few small voice chats with friends completed the monotonous day. Its been the same story since past few weeks.

Writing about Sunday is almost like pulling my own pants down. It was holi on Sunday and guess what I was doing? I spent the day in office running between my office desk and Lab whole day. Bullshit.

But all is not dark and gloomy. I can see the silver lines in the cloudy sky. A paris trip in march end and a visit to Holland and Belgium in April first week is really something to look forward to.

Hurray…I will be alive again!

Cricket, Government and National interest!!

A few weeks back, Nimbus, which had bagged the four-year BCCI, telecast rights last year for $612 million, was asked to share cricket telecast with national broadcaster in the ‘interest of the nation’.

I couldn’t decide whether to be feel happy that the common man with no cable connection at home would be able to watch the men in blue playing World Cup or to question the decision of the government which is forcing a private company, who bought the rights to telecast the matches ‘exclusively’ in a multi-million bidding!

How fair it is on the part of the government in this open economy to force a private player that too by the way of an ordinance to share its business with government?

While surfing got hold of this article by Karan Thapar. A thought provoking conversation there.

An excerpt:

“And what about the right to food, education and healthcare? No one can deny that they are more important than cricket. So, now, is the government going to force restaurants to provide free food, hospitals to admit patients without charge and schools to waive their fees? In terms of the government’s logic that should have happened first!”

Cheers!!

My brush with Jade Goody...

Thursday was just another day for me. I started from the office to the bus stop from where I usually take route 66 bus. It was already dark and as soon as I boarded the bus I sank on my favorite last seat of the bus and immersed myself in the music filled in my ears by my mp3 player. 15 minutes later the bus stopped at one of its numerous stops along the route and a bunch of 5 boys aged not more than 14 got down from the bus. Nothing unusual! As the bus was about to leave from the stop, one of those boys came to the back of the bus and knocked the window to grab my attention. And what he did? I got the middle finger! Before I could react, the bus was on its way. This is just one of the milder incident with an Indian but my first brush with so called ‘racism’.


Not the gesture but the thing that baffled me was the age of the boy. I am sure, given a chance, he could not have pointed out where India is on the world map and surely he would not have any idea whether Asia is a continent or a Russian actress. But he somehow concluded that we (read Indians or Asians) are there on his land and are responsible for depriving some of the things that could have been his or his elder brother’s or for that matter his father’s!


The organization in which I am working here employ around 1000 Indians, all from different IT majors from India and at a place where total no. of employees is not more than 3000, it’s a big number. Since the time I have landed here, there have been two drives when the English contractors were laid off and were replaced by Indians. They are loosing their jobs with alarming regularity. Same is happening in other organizations too and in large numbers. This is the other side of the coin which we tend to miss while assessing their behavior towards us. In my view, their frustration is not entirely unjustified.


The buses here are crowed with Indians. Almost every day, they get packed at the first stop itself from where most of us board it. That leaves no option for the English guys to stand all along the route.


Think of the same scenario in Mumbai or Delhi. Foreigners all around you. Snatching your jobs overnight leaving you or your father jobless (Hunting for a new job at the age of 40 is not a feel which everybody look forward to). DTC or best buses full of them with you barely finding a place to stand. So, hows the thought?


I remember the time when I was a kid, a large no. of students from Africa (mainly Nigeria) flocked Gwalior (my home town). They were there to do some degree courses. And I remember each one from our colony used to see all of them with great suspicion.

So we should not be surprised when we are being watched by the same spects now in this alien land. More than the racism, I guess this is the sense of insecurity they have developed against us. A feeling that the hard working, weekend slogging breed of Indians will slowly throw them out of their jobs and would slowly stand with them on the podium of economic growth.

Cheers

Timepass...

A little cloudy day with the temperature hovering between a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 8 degrees. A perfect setting for sipping a ginger tea while watching a Chashme Buddoor or a Katha. Sadly, this 25 year old moron is sitting in his office supposedly giving support to some other teams in their testing. The fact that not a single representative of those teams have turned up till now to ask for support completes the misery. Mind you, it’s a Sunday!!

Welcome to the corporate world. The world in which you earn more than you deserve, you sleep less than you need, you save more than you think and in a nutshell, you live less than you wish. You will realise this when you miss the marriage of your close friends coz you are 4500 miles away from them.

(4th Feb. This is somebody’s anniversary in my family. Trying to recollect the couple’s name but failing. Murphy is playing with me again and I know as soon as the clock would strike 12 midnight and it would be 5th, I would have the names!)

Okie...4th Feb. Today I completed my 4 months stay in UK. Not comparing the life here with India, admittedly, its been easier here. Easier to the extent of being monotonous. Roads are so smooth and straight that you can actually finish a novel while driving before taking another turn. The gas cylinder would never finish at the odd time coz you have electric stove at your disposal. Even the trucks and buses would stop near the zebra crossing pleading you to cross the road first and there is no need to go to vegetable market after finishing you grocery shopping coz you have the ‘you-name-it-we-have-it stores’ like Sainsbury and TESCO!

Still the country is alien (no, I am not sympathising with Shilpa Shetty and I have not watched any of the Big Brother episodes). I mean, something is missing. Where is the excitement of penetrating the crowd all the way from platform 1 to platform 7 at Andheri station to catch 8:57 local? Where are those bumpy rides in Pune’s non existing roads? Where is the fun of running to neighbour’s house asking for the spare gas cylinder when yours is finished with half cooked curry on the burner? Where is the feeling of achievement when you bargain successfully and get kilo potatoes in Rs 9.50 instead of 10! What is the use of taste buds when you have all but tasty food in English restaurants! (My taste buds are all packed and locked in the drawer. Asking for the taste in English food is like demanding a six from Courtney Walsh).

All things are not bad either. Weather is something to die for. Although it’s a little fickle and too cold at times but personally I like winters no matter you are all packed with two sweaters and 3 jackets giving competition to Shammi Kapoor. And the place is just too beautiful to ignore. The folks are extra courteous and start the sentence with please and then stuff it with 253 sorrys and 562 thankus.

The analysis will continue…

A little conversation..

My room mate works in the same office as mine. A new girl joined her team a few days back. Yesterday, he shared a few thoughts with me in office on the Instant messenger. The conversation was brief and is produced verbatim below (I have done some formatting)


Friend (My room mate):
U know

Friend:
The new girl

Me:
Hmm…What about her?

Friend:
Her skill sets

Friend:
Huge smile

Friend:
Sweet talk

Friend:
Nice pleasant face

Me:
Hehehe!!

Friend:
Constant questions

Friend:
To keep ppl thinking she is not sleeping but involved

Friend:
One question 2 each

Friend:
Walk in a hurried way

Friend:
Needless run 2 collect printouts

Friend:
Results…

Friend:
No test case is being run so far

Friend:
No work is being done for last 5 days

Friend:
Forget to add

Friend:
One more skill set

Me:
What’s that?

Friend:
Laugh or at least smile for every joke played by all

Friend:
However bulshit it is

Friend:
Stupidest jokes 2 make ppl comfortable and warmth

Friend:
And 3 ppl r still assisting her to her questions and sorting things for her accommodation

Friend:
2 guys have brought lunch for her. List is endless!!


And he concluded the conversation a little later when we met in the evening:


Conclusion: A girl’s smile is equivalent to 4 days of a guy’s hard work!

Disclaimer :
The above conversation is a figment of our ( me and my friend's imagination). No such person exists on the face of the earth or for that matter, on Jupiter.
Even if the person in question identifies herself and comes back running to me, my above statement will hold good.

Cheers!!

The weekend..

After a 15 day respite from the cold weather when the temperature was 6-7 degrees (yes, this is termed as ‘respite’ in UK) the weather gods are again showing their colors. It’s been pretty cold since last three days and the next few days are not looking too great. Mercury is threatening to dip further and there is this BBC site to put an authentication stamp on mercury’s threats. During the next 5 days, maximum temperature is 5 degrees while the minimum is touching -2!

This weekend was eventful. Not that I climbed mount Everest and met Lalu Prasad Yadav but yeah,visited London for the third time and covered many places. There is a certain London eye, which looks like a replica giant wheel which I used to ride as a kid. It takes a whopping 45 minutes to cover one round! What a boring stuff.

Then there a London bridge which is famous by mistake. Actually parallel to London Bridge, there is Tower Bridge which opens up when a ship passes. Most of the people believe that this function is done by London Bridge. So London Bridge takes all the credit while Tower Bridge does the actual job. Similar instances can be seen in office when a guy and a girl work in the same team!

I had a chance to visit Greenwich on Sunday.We all know this place for GMT. I don’t know what excitement people get when they stand across a line claiming that they are standing with one foot in each hemisphere. The line is imaginary (latitude and longitude), hemispheres are imaginary even the whole concept is imaginary!!
Anyways, I proudly stood across the line and got my snap clicked.

In London, there are around 1,25,12,567 museums. The likes of Lord Curzon, Cornwallis and Wavell and their counterparts in many other countries Britishers ruled bought/stole so many things that they had to convert half of the London into museum to make place for these stuff. Need another life to see all the paintings in National Gallery at Trafalgar square.

All in all an entertaining weekend. Sadly the grind in office started today. Waiting for Saturday….

Cheers!!

Murphy and Me...

My life is full of incidents, accidents, situations and circumstances which can be faithfully explained only by Murphy’s laws. This guy is practically dictating my life.

Just a snapshot…

Whenever I watched any of my stock booming and decided in the night about selling it, the stock either crashed with the opening bell of the stock exchange next day or the entire set of bulls converted into wild bears over night converting my share into a penny stock.

Whenever I felt cramps on my body or had a disturbed sleep and I went to office praying for a ‘light’ day in office, I had entirely new set of loads to finish and I ended up doing donkey’s job.

If I target 8:55 bus in the morning and reach bus stop at 8:54, the bus will turn up at 9:15. Next day, if I target the same 8:55 bus and reach there at 8:56, it would have left at 8:54.

No matter how hard I search for the best deal in the market, after I buy something, it will definitely end up ‘on sale’ everywhere in a few days time. Take this, I bought my Sony cell phone after surfing many, for 130 pounds. Five days later, it was available in 99 all over!!

The probability that my shoe lace will open up is maximum when I am visiting a peak in Switzerland packed with all warm clothes and three set of hand gloves.

My camera roll will get exhausted at most obscure places at the time when I just find/experience the best location/sunset during the entire visit.

There are hundreds such incidents that happen with me….Atleast 2 a day!! Infact Murphy got pretty active during last few months so I thought of documenting these.

Am sure my life will continue to be governed by his laws, so more will follow.

Cheers..

Away from India...

I got a chance to read a conversation which I had with somebody more than a year back and it reminded of my days when I used to blog regularly. I have been posting with alarming irregularity now and infact the year 2006 was quite barren with 19 posts in all. This place seems more or less dead. But this is one place where I made numerous friends, got to know many wonderful human beings and agreed and disagreed on their thoughts, got their thoughts on mine and this place provided me a space where I vent out my feelings, be it personal life, political issues or my travels and now once again there is a burning desire to make this space lively. I know this is my umpteenth attempt and even this attempt does not guarantee a success!

The last time I updated my blog when I switched my company and when I uprooted myself from Bombay to settle in Pune. I was beginning to indulge myself in the pleasures which one can have only when he is on bench (read last post), I guess my project manager managed to get a picture of what I wrote. He decided to put an end to my honeymoon and packed me immediately to UK on some project. It’s been more than three months now.

Last 100 days were quite happening and I am pretty satisfied with the way things are shaping up here. I am quite content on the travel front. I visited Scotland, Switzerland a little of France and a city, Blackforest in Germany. Add to this list London and Cambridge and I can say that the traveler in me is highly satisfied. Switzerland is truly next to heaven and visiting a mountain peak in -10 degrees is an experience in itself.


Since the day I have landed here, more or less everybody is asking me one question. Are you missing something there? Now I am a sort of a guy who can be happy in almost all circumstances. I can spend time in Sahara desert thinking about Mallika Sheravat and can survive in Antarctica discussing the problem with Sehwag’s batting. But the two things that I can think of and can actually put into ‘missing’ list is the hard copy of Times of Times of India every morning and Rajat Sharma’s channel 7. Really missing all those Rakhi Savant’s scoops. So please keep me updated with every minute detail on that front and flood the comment box with the latest developments.

Hope the flow will continue…

Cheers…