Did you feel that ...

Whiff of fresh air,
the colour red.
Rekindles the ache,
Gold and Red.

Woozy body clock ..

No mornings ... no breakfast,
Bad Lunch and raindrops,
Pool and Chocolates,
Carbs at Dinner and midnight Icecream,
Stories of violence ... pre marital violence,
Basketball .. huh .. at this time,
Swaps, bid and offer,
Its too late to sleep and too early to get up !

music hardly ...

So I am the first in my room to get a shut eye ... even though its at 2:00 a.m. its still too early by the already set standards of the wild trio that I have as my roomies

Mornings get interesting though .. my conditioning with my cell phones snooze button gets me up at the right time ... the rest of my crew is usually still under covers ... their alarms are met with hands popping up from the cozy covers of the duvet and switching them off and disappearing beneath the covers ... and then the very last minute; the rush to freshen up !

3 alarms going up at the same time and with only me in the room is mighty irritating though !

Raindrops keep falling on my face ...

... and wish I was dancing in the rain rather than running away from it ..

Lunch, dessert and some pool .. I lost horribly ! and then getting wetter than a solitary olive in gin.

The next time it rains I wish I get some steaming hot Mal Puas or Jalebis !

A distant dream in Singapore though but well ... Sin is different.

.. Singapore days ... and the Singapore nights ...

The lights on Orchard Road, the energy of Bugis street, the corporate attire at CBD, the colourful China Town .. the list goes on ..

The colour that really stands out .. Green !

Green to me used to be the colour of envy .. the colour of money ... but nothing can be greener than the view from my window .. trees, shrubs, grass .. even the algae on the footpath ..

What a welcome change !

15 days just flew by ...

... and am now in rainy Singapore ... sunny side up :)

Reached Amritsar 3:30 am India Time ... now I didnt have a phone and had told Mom and Dad to pick me up at 5:30 am ... could have used the PCO to call them up, didnt want to wake them up !

Had 2 hours to kill, did what I do best - "people watch". Taxi and Auto Rickshaw wallahs asking you whether you need a ride, the excited relatives and friends being reunited, the "seen all that" look on the PCO and food stall guys and the sorrow on the face of the relatives of the departed soul whose mortal remains were being ferried from Dubai in a Coffin. And then the emptiness of the whole area after 30 minutes.

The joy on my parents face on seeing me after almost 6 months was worth the 2 hours.

Amritsar was a true holiday ... something that I had not had in ages ... maybe a decade. An average sleep of 10 - 12 hours, food ... no responsibilities and not having to worry about the laundry :)

A drive to Jallandhar and back ... and then Pathankot and back ... Indian Roads have not changed, neither has the road discipline. However getting into the drivers seat after so long was fun ... I could still drive !!

The obligatory trip to Delhi was for my tummy .. although the reason was slightly different.

Reach Delhi on Friday evening and direct to 360, leave my bag with the concierge and get into the zone ... the place was so packed that it seemed as if the whole city had landed up ... two beers, some sushi, loads of nuts ... even the edible variety ... was good to see Keith and Ram .. John was a pleasent surprise.

Post 360, it was YBR (Yellow Brick Road for the uninitiated) for dinner ... bad Thai Curry ... and even the Kheema Naan was bland, that was the only low point of the whole trip .. but nothing that a good nights sleep could not help forget ... Back to 360 for lunch and sushi again ... :)

The dinner was the best thing to happen ... Kareems at Jama Masjid with a late night Ice Cream at Def Col, Chettinand food for lunch at the Tamil Nadu house and back to Amritsar on the Shatabadi on a wait listed ticket.

Came back and back to my sleeping spree ... with some cooking in between ... I almost forgot that I had stuff to do .. things to buy ... foreign exchange ... and visiting GT !

Packing ! and then the good byes at the Airport ... 3 differnt levels of airport security and three diffent levels of good byes ... one at the entry point, the second inside the airport before the check in counter ... the last one .. had seen mom just walk inside the security check in counter of the domestic terminal once but never expected them to accompany me till the emmigration counter ! :)

Felt good !

Yol changes into IX Corps from a puny little Brigade ..

Sampls this ...

"For an effective operational preparedness in the western sector, in mid-2005 Indian Army raised a new corps at Yol Cantt in Kangra Valley of Himachal Pradesh. The new corps, christened 9 Corps / Rising Star, comprises 26 and 29 Infantry Divisions, which had previously been allocated to XVI Corps / Nagrota Corps, and a number of brigades"

So what is Yol all about ... the most exhaustive write up about Yol that I could lay my hands on was an article written by Rajendra Rajan in "The Tribune" ... which I am reproducing here ...

Yol: Once a haven for prisoners of war
By Rajendra Rajan

Once a tiny principality of a few hamlets. Yol today is a small township bustling with life. The old grey buildings with coloured rooftops provide a glimpse of the British style of architecture. The beautiful heritage can be seen protruding from the relatively dense green cover. The mighty and picturesque Dhauladhars in the backdrop lend an idyllic charm to the town.

Yol is situated at the foothills of the Dhauladhars and has attained a prestigious place in the annals of Indo-British history. The town is about 10 km from Dharamsala. The neat and clean environs of Yol are one of its most striking features. The Army formations, over the years, have preserved the pristine glory of the place.

A peep into the history of Yol will reveal that prior to 40s, the area surrounding the town was called Mujetha Ka Balla. In local parlance, it means a barren land where munj grass grew. The green pastures covering the foothills of the Dhauladhar range were used by local shepherds for grazing their cattle. The paths used by the shepherds for grazing cattle were known as jhoel. A small brook was called khol. When the Britishers lodged the Italian prisoners of war in Yol in 1942, the area started becoming popular. In addition to the Italian POWs, political and other prisoners were also lodged here. Italian POWs first used Yol as an abbreviation of Your Own Lines. Later, when the Army formations started making the place their base, it acquired a new name — Young Officers Leave Camp.

In olden times, Yol and its adjoining villages were called Papi Nagri. According to a legend, the king of the area fell in love with a damsel. The girl, however, did not want to marry him. He tried to abduct her, but she ran away and transformed herself into a rock near a temple at Narwana. Later, a huge landslide caused a lot of destruction in the area. A number of villages were destroyed by the landslide.

Yol has a strong connection with World War II. More than 11,000 Italian prisoners of war were brought and confined here by the British rulers. The POWs were captured by the British army from different parts of the world. Apart from soldiers, the prisoners included doctors, professors and writers. The camp was set up in 1942 on the slopes between Khas-Yol and Narwana villages. The barracks built for the POWs were spread over 770 acres. Mostly wood was used for the construction of these barracks. The camp was set up in a record time of six months. The construction work started in April 1941 and was completed in October in the same year. It was an ideal place for the POWs, as the Italians soon acclimatised to the cold climes of Yol.

Almost all the barracks and other buildings constructed during the 40s at Yol have withstood the onslaught of weather and time. The barracks at Yol are a legacy of the British rule in India. Today, these stand as a mute witness to the memories of thousands of POWs who spent over four years there. The entire stretch of about 10 km between Dharamsala and Yol is replete with numerous stories and legends about the lifestyle of Italian POWs. They were lodged in four camps and one of the commandants (appointed out of the POWs themselves) was Chachera Lavera. He used to exercise strict control over the movements of other prisoners. However, it is said that almost all prisoners of war, except the hardcore ones, had the full liberty to move around. They were free to roam around and could even walk miles together on the outskirsts of the camp. It is heartening to note that they ‘enjoyed’ their stay in India though they were thousands of miles away from their country.

Eightyeight-year-old Vidyawati Thapa, a resident of Dari village near Dharamsala, spoke of an Italian POW who got friendly with her husband, Ram Kishan Thapa. The Italian often visited their house and cooked food for himself in the courtyard of their house. He cooked in a makeshift hearth. "My husband developed gout in his right foot. The Italian brought medicine for him from the camp and soon my husband was cured. I have forgotten his name, but he had got close to our family. Despite the language problem, many a POW succeeded in developing good family relations with the locals. So much so that a few POWs got a piece of land leased out for themselves to grow vegetables, with only a verbal understanding. I have seen two Italians growing tomatoes in one of the fields at Dari village. I feel they were not happy with the food served to them in the camp."

Ninetytwo-year-old Brigadier (retd) Sher Jung Thapa has also closely watched the activities of POWs in Yol. He says, "I saw a few POWs selling their rugs to get Indian currency. They would even sell fruits given to them in ration. They reportedly even went to the extent of brewing local liquor within the four walls of their camp. Their frequent visits to the villages evoked a lot of anxiety and inquisitiveness among the locals. Mostly, I saw them in a holiday mood, as if they had come to India for a picnic. They behaved like tourists and resentment or remorse about their being away from their homeland eluded their faces. I remember that two POWs had deserted the camp and they crossed over to Tibet and one of them later wrote a book on Tibet."

It is believed that one of the prisoners tried to escape by jumping over the stockade. But he was soon shot dead by British soldiers. The dead Italian was buried outside the stockade and a stone slab was erected, with an inscription in Italian that said, "I fell here". The lone grave of the Italian POW can still be seen inside Yol cantonment.

While on the one hand it is said that POWs at Yol had freedom to roam around without fear, on the other hand separate barracks for hardcore prisoners were created within the camp. They were isolated and kept in enclosed barracks surrounded by a high wall, called stockade. A huge rock with iron chains inside the Army formation is still intact. It is believed that hardcore POWs and Indian political prisoners were tortured there.

One of the most notable remnants is a memorial erected by the POWs. It was raised with the help of locally available slates. No cement or mortar has been used to build the memorial. A pair of big slates atop symbolises the freedom that Italian prisoners kept yearning for. At the centre of the memorial there is an inscription written on a big grey slate and tied with chains. It states: "The rather uncommon stone relic was made by the Italian prisoners housed in the Yol POW camp from 1941 to 1946. The topmost pair of stones are symbolic of men’s unsatiated thirst for freedom, depicted here as a pair of wings of a bird, struggling to free itself from captivity. The rest of the structure represents prison walls.... This beautiful idea enshrines the tribute which this band of Italians, although captives, left behind this emblem of human spirit, for posterity to uphold and emulate.... To this day it stands undisturbed by fellow soldiers and spared even by the unforging fury of both nature and time."

The authorities at Yol Camp had also made arrangements for the entertainment of POWs. Sham Lal Maini, a leading industrialist, financer and distributor of Indian films in the forties, was instrumental in opening the first cinema hall at Yol Camp. Indian and Foreign films were shown to the POWs in batches as the capacity of the cinema hall was small and only 200 persons could be accommodated.

Another building of historical importance near Yol is "Phansighar" and is situated in Tokabani village. Today, Phansighar is in a dilapidated condition and has been encroached upon by villagers. They use it as a cowshed. Though locals call it Phansighar, it appears to be a dumping place for garbage. How this building, made from pucca bricks, came to be known as Phansighar remains a mystery.

Two Buys on the same day ..

Finally bought something I already had (story of my life !) ...

An I Pod Nano (8 GB) .. black aluminum casing with almost all 8 gigs filled up to the brim .. cost me around 1100 AED's .. compare this to the nameless MP3 player that I bought from Vancouver for around 200 Canadian Dollars .. but with 128 MB memory .. :)

A T 10 Sony Digital Still Camera .. light .. feels right ... nice pics .. 7.2 MP but its no SLR ! Compare this to the 2.1 MP Olympus C - something that still serves me well ..

Like I said .. somethings that I already had !

The wishlist becomes a little smaller and yet grows a lot bigger ... got onto a Yacht in the Dubai Marina ... and my next wish ..

A Motor Yacht ... :))

to buy or not to buy ..

.. that is the question ... handycam or digicam ... narrowed it down to Sony .. guess my Olympus 2 MP has become redundant .. out it goes.

Some more things got added to my wishlist ..

• Ipod shuffle the new clip on variety (wish it had a display like the Nano .. would have made it irresistible)

• Motorola A 1200 (Ming) ... sexiest cell phone that I have laid my eyes on

• The Harman Kardon Soundsticks .. small, powerful .. and interesting looking !

The only question left .. when .. where ..

AND

beg .. borrow or steal ??

:)

Get Indian

We are on a patriotic trip .. First it was Rang de basanti and now Lage Raho Munnabhai .. Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi on a trip again .. but with Mahatama Gandhi for company .. show the other cheek folks .. show the other cheek ..

Makes me want to put up my cell phone charger up too .. dude .. I dont need it ... since you have my cell phone .. this charger would be of help to you .. oh .. and you want some greens with that .. sure .. with a 100 dirham note by its side .. :) show the other cheek ..

The sequel (or was it a series) was actually more fun than the original .. maybe it was the Vidya Balan effect ... who was candy smooth .. and beautiful .. and then there was Boman Irani .. Lucky to the hilt ... right down to the fat wife and gorgeous daughter ...

No glitches .. tight script .. right moments and surprises (...Abhishek Bachchan !)

I liked it ... :)

Remember I said .. Time is luck ...

Parting words from an oriental (mysteriously enchanting aren't they ?) .. Gong Li in the movie to Colin Farrell .. Miami Vice .. all about drugs, power of money with a little Mojito and a bit of Cuba thrown in for good measures and a good gun battle.

Makes me think .. Time is Luck .. hmm .. Time IS Luck.

So would that mean that if you are patient enough you do get lucky .. and what can make you stay patient .. you yourself .. you have to work on it though .. right .. so the harder you work the luckier you get .. simple .. :) ... wish it was that simple ...

My time moves on .. watching human dynamics (haven't I seen them before somewhere !), different people different expectations (ha .. That's a old one) .. but time moves on ..

Another day another term paper .. you work on some .. and then you don't work on some .. remember time is luck ... :)

Two terms fly by ... and the count down begins .. 64 days more in Dubai ...

And then ... then what .. hmm .. gotta think again .. donno .. post Singapore and the Amritsar jaunt in between .. (perhaps a little bit of Dilli and Karim's thrown in .. ) what .. donno ..

Creative to the core ..

My lack of sleep and creativity seems to be inversely proportional .. the lesser I sleep .. the more ideas I seem to get .. maybe what most of the successful people talk about is true .. one can really do without 8 + hours of sleep. A max of 4 and 5 would do ..

butttttt .. would I be able to sleep if I have to put up with this ... :)

I still like my movies with Popcorn and Coke !

Soft Skills kill ...
but they do not fit my bill

Two and a half term papers ...
Make my attention taper

Now brain dead ...
Today please .. please ... lessen my dread !

Mood for the day ..

Hidden thoughts
Hidden fears

Darkness in broad daylight
Waiting for the calm of the night

Bud with Buds ...

The clubbing season is officially on ..

The customary Bud's and a LIT at the Kempinski - Mall of Emirates (MOE) .. with the ski slope (yes a full fledged ski slope in Dubai !) visible out of the window and the loungy feel to it .. felt like home again. And then the customary Intermingling session in the Villa .. another late night .. another late morning ..

Proof that you can sleep almost anywhere .. or you have people who can .. 1:30 a.m. at MOE .. safety in numbers ? I have a bed to sleep on .. I am truly blessed !

Finally feels better ...

I have always felt this way
Pain in my heart
Or is it just and ache that sways

My constant companion
My confidante
My own creation
My own fear

Days go by ..

Days go by...

days of learning,

days of yearning

and days without earning !!

Deliberate confinement in Dubai .. too hot to walk outside, to expensive to hire a cab and (I am guessing here) the food would be much better in a prison.

Work was so much easier, it was a rat race alright but at least I knew it was a race. You could be either a part of the race or a spectator, you could choose. As an active participant you got paid a lot better. But you were still a rat!

Academics; now that aint no rat race .. but compare it to a stream of air .. inside that stream you have particles in complete chaos, but somehow it reaches somewhere ..

And you get to study, study various books, people and relationships. Guess its to early for the fixtures to happen in Dubai yet !

I became poetic ..

... Its not Haiku .. but could have been (I wish !) ..

I think the additions to the poem just came from the heart .. my lines are in red.

College lectures - I never conquered

(Kamlesh Acharya)
I came.

I saw.

I heard.

I slept.
They quizzed,
I wept.

I am bumped off ..

.. I sneak back in !!

The usual stuff .. Murphy rules rule supreme in my life (pun intended). Just when you need money your name is bumped off the employee list .. and then some international phone calls (expensive !!) and I get back in ..

Down side .... first morsel of food for the day at around 3 p.m. !
Up side .... hot home cooked punjabi food !!

Twice in three days .. not bad for a guy who had not had home cooked food in ages in India and gets it easier in Dubai.

Also realized that I am not too bad in Quantitative Technique, a little brush up and some (some .. huh) midnight oil .. and I score well (lesson learnt .. no gain without pain)

La Bamba in Dubai - Spanish dancers and singers, the gentle sway of the sashes, the loud claps, the foot taps, the beautiful dancers in their white gowns, the typical guitar sound, the delicately held folding hand held fans, the dance with lighted candles, the colours, the energy .. and La Bamba (better than Los Lobos rendition .. maybe because of the live effect) ... I was dancing in my head !!

A clip of the song and lyrics to sing along with http://www.musicalspanish.com/bambasample.htm

Me against myself ..

Why do we hurt people we like the most ! I know I do .. and repent it later .. when the damage is done ..

Learning: never try to hard! If you dont make it you land down to hard !

Back to basics ..

... and back to knowing that I need to focus more .. imagine clicking on a wrong radio button on an online quiz ... imagine knowing what I am doing is right and ending up doing something wrong. Imagine scoring low after thinking that the quiz went of fine.

Work hard lazy bum .. the tiny voice inside me tells me ... go fish I say.

Tomorrow is another day and another quiz would come my way.
The quizzes I want to slay but still am not willing to pray.
Tomorrow is another day, today lets play !

I think I would retain my day job, I suck in poetry :)

Six Pins ...

Six down with fever .. wonder if the lord of KV is playing six pins .. and the Dubai solution to the fever problem .. an injection in your butt !

The experience continues to enrich me; good food (...yaa right!), quality sleep ( ...in my dreams!), bath water (...what was that smell again) and an excellent OB class ( ... need my anti-sleeping pills)

Lesson learnt - a sleep deprived brain refuses to acknowledge the smell of approx 2 years of chilling out ... hmmm .. or do we have a gold mine in hand .. a wonder room for Insomniacs .. get in the room, take a deep breath, inhale the bouquet of sensations, rest your head on the nearest available cushion/bag/body, close your eyes and bang you are asleep in no more than 20 seconds ... especially if there is a class running and you are "chilling out" to take a break.

Separate the men from the boys ...

One way uphill run from 12 noon onwards .... classes, quiz, group work and study till 1 a.m. and then it takes me exactly 30 seconds to lose myself in sleep from the instant I hit the bed.

Just the beginning, longer runs would separate the men from the boys ! and the wiser men would mix in their PRgiri (entry to my lexicon !), entertainment breaks and networking.

Post the display of the marks to junta this beginning to look like the rat race its supposed to be, would be more interesting when the relative ranking kicks in.

FA continues to be a pain in the ass. ME a bearable one.

Lessons learnt ..

1. Google Guru Zindabad ( ... flashback Newspaper quiz)
2. Two brains are better than one, multi brains are better than two ( .. MS Office)
3. Tolerance is sanity (... hair oil, smelly pickle, slamming doors)
4. 5 minutes can cost you 10 Dirhams (... especially in the mornings)
5. Sensex goes up and sensex goes down - you lose money !

Technology grows on you ..

Sushi at Yo Shushi ! .. another of the conveyor belts sushi bars .. finally found one in Dubai. Still have to figure out what it is about Jap food that makes me forget about the money that I might end up spending. But the Shushi didnt disappoint ... !

Barbeque, Beer and a Brazil world cup match .. the BBB combination didnt disappoint .. considering that I am in Dubai to study .. didnt disappoint at all !

Another biggie to end the day .. WLAN connectivity at the Villa's .. flashback to Mumbai 2003 with my broadband and I guess the late nights are back .. before my next technological hibernation.

Todays good deed for the day ; download DJ Sanj songs .. next in line an Ipod to store them.

Finally feels like a holiday ...

.. classes are on .. realize that I really need to study (40% in accounts being my wake up alarm !).

A combination of sleeping, classes, breaks, sharing food, cribs, canned drinks, heat, loo breaks, loss of concentration, sudden burst of mental activity and loads of laughter.

Realised that the biggest thing that I was missing on in my life was the laughter. How inane things can be so funny. The mix of "teri, teri, teri, teri ....." and "steffiiiiiiiii ... "

The ride back home I look forward to.

We got wet yesterday .. yes we all got wet .. call it group wetting .. :) .. see the pics !!

Heat and dust .. and my crappy cold !

Hot outside .. cold inside .. but crappy outside and crappy inside !! .. my cold has got worse .. I have a blocked nose too !!!! It just gets better and better !!

Big malls bigger wallets and a big entourage of wives that te sheiks have .. the eyes, the hands (the only things that you can see) proclaim loudly .. "I am beautiful ! and I know it ... you be damned"

Its like god being everywhere .. beautiful women everywhere .. so rightly conveyed by the comfort factor that a bro gave to his sis (or was he comforting himself .... hmm) coming to Dubai for the course "If its Dubai, no one would even give you a second glance" .. hmm .. I dont think so .. the inherent earthiness of the Indian woman is so much more special.

Sea change from having my own pad to sharing my room and the loo with 4 other guys .. including a kid who pees all over and misses the target all the time ... I gave it to him last night ... and got it right back in the morning .. my hair all over the loo .. Am I shedding :))

Dubai vs Mumbai .. Mumbai anyday !

A hostel in the middle of nowhere, Dirhams are actually called rupiyah here .. though they burn a hole in your pocket, 6 people in a room .. Calcutta Chummery days back again !!

The heat is killing. The driest heat that I have ever felt. Worse than that is the misplaced notion of a few kind individuals in the Villa's (that's what the hostel is .. work in progress) that if it aint chilling it aint a luxury !! Three nights and my system is upside down .. you get up in the morning and your nose, ears , mouth and your ar** is dry .. frigging dehydrating !! Inside you would die from the chill outside from the heat ! Welcome to Dubai !

The old boys network helps, got my titanium thinkpad, had home cooked food .. plus a couple of beers, sightseeing and cute little girl "pinni" .. and with her teddy bearish father .. Saurabh .. its good to have friends !! .. thank you god .. I am truly blessed.

Snow in Dubai .. imagine a ski run almost 500 mtrs in length inside off a mall !! Raw opulence .. naked gut wrenching opulence !!!

Last day at work

.. the last day actually seems like any other day .. the same old office, the same old collegues, the same old chairs and the same old coffee dispenser. The only difference being me not working :)

De-cluttered my life .. reduced my possessions .. off to a new adventure !!

It would all work out .. I guess !

Back to school

5 days in school .. back to classes .. back to the lectures .. back to the geeky front benchers and the "let me be" back benchers.

Good food at the mess , almost makes getting up in the morning worthwhile.

Getting up at 6 is becoming a pain, and what I hear ... its going to be a bigger pain in Dubai.

5 sessions in 5 days, including sundays ... standing up and doing a JAM .. never thought it could be so tough. Assignments, quizzes and presentations ..

Tommorow is another day !!

Mission possible

Think Tom Cruise .. think him trying to climb the cliff, spreadeagle trying to get to the next toe hold. Cut to Mumbai .. his Indian twin making his daily "make it to work on time" mission possible. More people smashed together than the much cliched "sardines in a can", the poor soul holding to the ledge of the bus by a single hand, toe hold on to the step, the other toe holding on to a hole in the buses iron armour and willpower to hold on...

What makes it possible ... us !! letting someone else stick on inside your "personal space" (thats what the Americans call it, right !), the skill of the much maligned toe through ill-fitting sandals to hold on to naked iron holes and magic indian phrase thoda adjust karo please .. only we can do that !

sunday here I come ...

... done my deeds for sat evening .. two of my weekend friends (are'nt they the only kind found in Mumbai) are of to Bangalore .. and A had some "personal" work in bandra .. so I coulnt hang around .. and people say I stand them up !!

So what exactly did I do .. got stuck in a traffic jam, caught up on the phone during the jam, caught up with Massi and off we go to Vile Parle beach .. but with two "always hungry" souls around not before we had some chaat, rajbhog, kaju katli et al .. we know how to stuff ourselves with stuff ... pun purely intended .. hee hee ..

Surprisingly clean beach with sparse local populace .. and a few good looking bunglows .. next stop - shoppers stop .. a whole lot of window shopping and I let myself loose on the book store .. cant find massi anywhere .. aah there she is right in the middle of the recipe books .. :))

Home and some fantastic home cooked fish .. I am truly blessed ! :)

Better late than never

Been in my car and in Mumbai for the last two and half years now .. and yes have been breaking some rules here and there .. missed out a lane, talking on the cell, jumped a light .. and yes the pandus have been stopping me. And my answer used to be a crisp note between our shaking hands or within the car papers. It had to catch up I guess and this time it surely did :))

Just after I had withdrawn money from an ATM and on my way to "Gagan Freight Carriers" (dumping two boxes off to Amritsar) and reading an SMS on Jyoti being blessed with a baby boy, a traffic cop on a bike makes me get to a side .. cites me using the phone (huh !!, is that a crime) and then wants to see my insurance (which expired last year .. hehe) and then realizes that he has a fat cat when he sees my PB 02 Y 2790 number plate ... oops I am in deep shit .. he would have to take my car away, he says; 2000/- fine for this 600/- fine for that and 1000/- fine for that .. he rattles off .. hmmm (my right legs shaking though !!)
saar .. puhleeze saar .. i am from Delhi .. no Chandigarh saar .. off to Pune saar.. see my Chandigarh visiting card (realize I don't have even a single one) .. see my pollution certificate saar .. (oops ... thats last years) .. lets do kuch yahan pe he .. puhleeze saar I am late for meeting sir .. (meeting my maker am I .. and my leg cant stop shaking) .. then the bargaining begins .. 1000/- nahi saab .. thoda kam karo .. 800/- nahi thoda aur .. 600/- .. saab 500/- me karke naki karo na .. there goes my lovely crisp new note ..

ok .. that was a transaction but whats so ironical about that !! huh !! ..

Two and a half years I drive on mumbai roads .. escape the floods .. escape a madwoman whose honda city I had just rear ended in the middle of the night .. flooring the accelerator and a ex US marine sitting next to me and shouting "you are the man !!" .. drunk was he .. :)) so was I .. a flat tyre on the first day at office, none after that .. two suspension works .. loud music ... and no panga with the khakee crowd ..

.. and the day I sell my car and am to deliver it .. they finally catch up .. better late than never !!

Weekend Redux ..

Thought would try something different this weekend .. sleep for a change ..

Saturday started well enough with me and two of my quasi Malyalee friends (are but arent Malu's). Got the first row tickets to "Being Cyrus" the 11:00 p.m. show, that left us with almost 4 hours to kill .. kill we did .. first some bugs in our tummy with beer at the good ole Mondy's (Cafe Mondegar to the uninitiated), some decent chilly beef and fries. Walk down to the quaint little New Martin's for some fantastic Pork Sorpotel and Onion Steak. Freak out on desserts at Theobroma .. Chocolate Overkill.

Stuffed to the brim and a movie to watch and the ride back home .. couldnt be fun post us being our gluttonous best.

Sunday was a different story, got up at seven and hit the mat back at 7:30. Get up again at 10:30 and finish off the lunch at Chakra and get back home to sleep yet again !!

And dont get up till 7 today morning .. didnt really know I could sleep that much !!

Another weekend ...

Another late lunch and getting yet another shirt dirty .. this time by paan stains, and no I would spend on another shirt again (do not have office on sundays !). With a red-ish patch on my white kurti get onto a bus to go to Huma Adlab, back to back movies - "Crash" an involving Oscar nominated flick about racial discrimination and the effects it has on the individual intertwined stories and "Malamal Weekly" mindless fun .. thank god I left my brains behind. Paresh Rawal at his best, bad teeth and the works ..

Ate food at "The food factory" decent pasta without the frills .. if all you want is cheesy pasta cooked Indiyan Shtyle you have it here .. Also slices of pizza .. wish they had thin crust !!

Cant wait for the next back to back movies next week ... NOT !!

Travel time ..

.. onto Chennai .. the day I was born .. ages ago. Couple of meetings .. and then onto Pune. The night was eventful just as my birthdays alwasy are, this time it was Zara, Tapas and Cocktails all the way. Next day on the flight was eventful too .. upgraded myself (the day next to my bday .. ofcourse I deserve the upgrade :)) .. Ranjeet Anand, in the same row as mine .. and we caught up after a year almost. He was coming back from Sri Lanka, with some Aviva goras. Post work and a long drawn painful meeting at Piaggio it was dinner at Nisorg .. new discovery .. one of those joints that I so like .. frquented by locals and tourists dont know they exist. Seafood at its best. Wish I knew Marathi to catch most of the jokes floating around.

Ever been without a single rupee and felt happy .. I did today. All ATM's in Pune suddenly thought of going kaput I check the last one at the Pune railway station but got the same blank screen there. Wishing that the ticket back to Mumbai is not more than the money I have in my pocket, I trudge to the ticket counter to find out (happily) that the ticket is rupees two hundred and not two fifty .. my wallet has two crisp hundred rupee notes and I get the ticket. I dig in deeper and get a tenner and two coins. Ask the nearest vendor for the water bottle and he quotes thirteen bucks, I look at him with disdain and walk off .. go to the nearest stall and he is selling it for the twelve that I have in my pocket. Okay, the waters taken care of .. the munching part .. taken care of by the Chiwada that I picked from my hotel room. My wallet is absolutely empty and I am happy ... nice ride .. nice person on the seat next to me .. water to drink and something to munch on .. what else could I ask for !! And the moment I get down at Mumbai, go to the ATM get some money out and order myself a Pizza, I splash mustard all over my shirt !! buy a cheap new shirt and move on to the office ... money sucks !!! :))

Leopold without the crowd ...

... succelent prawns, quite surrondings, woody loungy feel .. clean .. and open .. thats Cafe Universal for you. Couldnt find it listed on any web page though .. could spend hours at the joint. And beat this .. the most expensive item - item :) - is just 300 bucks ..

and cheese pieces for 10 bucks .. hehehe !

Saturday night was Taxi No. 9211 interesting movie .. a little bit of was it "collateral" .. the story line was a little familiar though ... and then the drive to Versova and a pep talk .. doing my good deed for the day .. night :))

Truckers Wit ..

Have seen a lot of wit on the roadside .. but never thought about the fuel tank (Bhojanalaya - Restaurant) the way this dude did .. on the LBS Marg .. in the terrific traffic jam which is more a norm than a rarity :)) Mumbai you have made me more patient (at least on the roads !!)

k .. am waiting for a table at Gajalee with Jaideep .. (reverse brain drain .. CPA and CS and heads back home from Toronto ... economy is rocking .. how long .. hmm .. remember the meltdown in south east asia a decade back ??!) .. ok back to the story .. out walks Nana Patekar .. gets into an Auto Rick .. with was-tha-this-wife-? .. guess he was practicing for his next movie "Cabbie in a Rick No.911"

MCP on Mumbai Roads ..

Mumbai is full of life .. driving down from Worli back to office get to see Jawed Akhtar reclining in his silver Sonata in a Pink Kurta .. A combination of Beamers / Mercs / the regular B segment cars and the rusty but trusty Black and Yellow Padmini Cabbies .. good licence plate though ... I am sure none of the liberated womem would be sitting in this particluar cab ... :))

Tommorow I tell you about my kitchen ... !

Rest on the weekend ..

.. a promise that I make and break all the time .. apart from 97.71 the rest of the day went off bad. I wish I had more time in the day. Something that I read yesterday night and it made a lot of sense - "Money is not the root of all evil, its the other way around - Evil is the root of all money !!"

How true ! but evil is good :))

Weekend on the run ..

Hate dressing up on a saturday .. had to .. another late night and setting up tiny details in the house .. sunday was made up of making my home opaque :) .. a good lunch at this Udipi "Sudarshan" and a better dinner at "Saibaa" .. quite a mix really .. Bombil / Prawns / Fish Curry in interesting green curry and Crabs .. polished off with some Kulfi .. !

"A" broke her nail .. the Crab bit back .. I said :))

Shantaram escapes Arthur Road .. and I escape to my sleep !

Remembring Khandala

I am jealous .. ! some time back was in Khandala .. had some time on my hands, went off for a run in the evening .. went to a shoe store to pick up a pair of slippers .. the store had a bevy of kids .. lil kids, smily kids, happy kids .. money cant buy you happiness !!

Frizzle Hair and the Motor Mouth !!

Been around with two individuals tied together in weird circumstances .. presenting the Frizzled Haired Youth (FHY) and Motor Mouth (MM)

Get on with it ...

From the sad surroundings of Saiwadi to the sad surroundings of Saki Naka .. the S factor follows me around ..

Teeming with people, cars, buses and trucks .. and me bumping into a pick up ! bang and I am still walking, blame it on the pandu which made the vehicle stop suddenly.

A little harder and I could have attained Nirvana :))