DEEPAWALI CELEBRATION AT OFFICE

Today we had a deepawali celebration at office. Well…I didn’t expect much from it, but some how it was good.

I was really tempted to jump on the stage, but alas…the no. of years and kilos that I have put on, steals away most of the confidence and zeal.

Back in the college days, I remember, jumping on the stage with my friends while the junior was performing on the welcome day for the electricals. We danced the entire song off, while the junior who was originally performing ended up being a spectator herself.

I think I have done it all, all kinds of dancing, singing, a minuscule bit of acting too. But where is the confidence to perform among a thousand people now. I never shied away from the crowd before.

I saw quite a good number of people performing today, not all of them were good but at least they had the guts to come up on stage and give it a shot. A few were so free and absolutely unaware about the spectators, they clearly came to enjoy themselves. I sure believe I was a lot better than most of them, but that’s BOL BACHAN...the end of it, all that matters is, I didn’t have the courage to perform among so many people, which they did. Next time I am sure gonna try something.

And yes...before I forget…HAPPY DIWALI TO ALL OF YOU

The great wall street meltdown

Came accross a nice article on the US recession and the crisis in the finacial market explained in a very simple and interesting way. Have a look:

The great wall street meltdown

FLATTERED...

Off late a lot of people have been surprised to know my marital status. There have been three cases already where people gave me that Oh-you-are-married look to me. May be I am too young to be married…hmm…don’t think so. Then it must be MERI TWACHA SE MERI UMR KA PATA HI NAHIN CHALTA…
Too flattered…more so when Db has been creating a fuss over my steady weight gain all these days.

As happy and thrilled as I am, that doesn’t mean I am gonna forget about my pledge to lose weight. Who knows I might turn into a size zero figure aka Kareena dearest.

Midnight blog from Db's PDA

This infact is a little crazy test blog from Db's new PDA.
Don't know why...but its more fun than my office desktop and the lappie as well. And yes Db's got to watch it...l am already eying on it...muahhhhhhhhhhhhh

DETERMINED THIS TIME…

Every time I looked at the mirror before, it said I wasn’t putting on, Ahem…well…huh…okay…let’s say not too much. Not sure if mirrors lie, or I need to get my eyes checked.

But yes, I have put on…put on a little too much. None of my old dresses fit me anymore. It took me more than half an hour to dress up for office today…why??? Damn…none of my formals fit me. Gone are those days when I used to wear the trendiest of all clothes…now I will have to manage with anything which fits me. SOB SOB

Not really.

I am a Gemini…remember. Not the one to give up so soon.

I am hell determined to hit the gym daily now on. Being lucky enough to have a husband who doesn’t mind me wearing any damn thing on earth, I am not going to give up this luxury just because I couldn’t maintain my figure

So the agenda is:

I am not having food outside (including the home deliveries) more than 2 times a month.

Hit the gym daily for half an hour in the morning.

Suryanamaskar every morning.

No ice creams, and chocolates and pizzas…Db can’t coax me anymore.

No soft drinks either.

No mid-day munching on mixtures, cakes or cookies.

All said and done, I plan to get a weighing machine at home to put a constant check on my weight. If all goes well, I am determined to lose some good 5 kg in the next two months.

AMEN to that!!!

SCARED...WHO ME???

As a teenager I loved horror shows like QUILA, AAHAT and ZEE HORROR SHOW, all of which were telacasted late in the night. My Dad was strictly against watching horror, particularly in the night. He believed, it had some harmful impact on your brains, since some of our brain nerves would be tired and not actively functioning by late in the night. So I would wait for my parents to sleep and then sneak into the drawing room to watch the horror shows.
I remember watching RAAZ with my friends during my hostel days. When we entered the theater, we were 9 people and by the time the movie ended we were only two left in the theater.
We watched BHOOT at the middle of the night, I remember half the hostel slept in the same room with the lights on. I had a hearty laugh on them before I retired to my room. I slept with the lights off.

But last night I watched this movie 1920. When I saw the promos, I passed it off as a B grade horror movie that came from Bollywood in recent times. By word from mouth, I decided to give it a try, horror being one of my favorite genre. I got a DVD, and watched it last night soon after dinner.
This film is certainly not for the faint hearted. Man!!! There were a few breath taking scenes, which sent a chill down my spine. I could have never watched it in the theater.

More than just the horror, each frame in the movie looked like a painting. The movie is set during the year 1920. The locations in Yorkshire are captured very well. The first half is used only to build the platform for the second. Merely, the best part is where Lisa (Adah Sharma) is pulled into a Dark black hole of a room just before interval.
And the roller coaster begins when the girl is possessed by the spirit.
The scene where she is caught by her husband eating a dead cat was disgusting(more so since I am quite incapable of seeing blood).
The scene when she (rather the spirit) talks to the doctor when he is about to inject her.
The exorcism scene, when Lisa breaks loose and runs away.
The climax of the movie is just apt. Normally the horror movies in bollywood have rather funny climax(e.g. BHOOT).
The main protagonist Lisa, she looks like a entirely different person when posses. Brilliant debut. Normally girls look for a debutant film where they can showcase their beauty, dancing skills and sexuality. Its nice to find a debutant who can act.

Overall, its worth a watch.
And yes, after watching the movie, I did feel a little eerie when I entered the kitchen in the dark last night.

DRESSED TO KILL...

No...It wasn't me.

Its some lady at Db's office, the way she dresses up seems to have caught some attention from men. Not sure if its a deliberate attempt, I do know some girls love that kinda attention from men.

But Db is worried, since theirs is a small office with very few employees and he is bothered if she notices him looking at her assets and complains. He has been trying to avoid her by all means but whenever she does come across he cant keep his eyes off her.
He will sure be relieved when she is sent back to Pune, i.e. where she originally comes from, after her deputation is over.

Ah!!!Think of the ways a woman can scare the day lights out of men.

I AM TOP 100

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!
I am among the top 100 coders in my firm. I am so happy.

Well...I agree on some foul play. I accept that I answered a few questions by actually running them on eclipse. But then I am sure, everyone would have and why not, it’s a competition and all that matters is YOU GOTTA WIN!!!

And no matter what, I am a winner.

No stop, there are two more rounds to go, to reach the Top 10 coders and win myself a laptop. But I already feel like a winner. Being among top 100 coders in a firm of say 50000 employees, is a great deal too.

Yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee again!!!

I AM PLEASANTLY SURPRISED

I am at Db's office today.

On a weekend!!!!, as you might ask. Well...he was working, so I thought I will give him company and will get to see his office too. I always considered his office work culture to be a lot different than what I have normally seen. It’s a smaller firm with a strength of only 200 across Bangalore.

I have always worked for big companies, and branded clients like metLife, New York Times and JPMorgan Chase. Big brands have big policies and big headaches. For instance, I have never known to use yahoo talk and GTalk in office. In my current account, I cant use web mail either. I want to download I.E 1.8 and Google Chrome, to get a hand on the new software, but I can’t download them without the approval from my manager and the networking fellas. Downloading any freeware, mp3, songs, watching youTube, using webmails is all prohibited by my client and my employer. The cab I use, the tea/coffee I drink is all billed to my client. So my employer provides me with limited facilities so that they don’t have to produce never ending bills to their clients. Off late since we have seen the market going down after Lehman brothers and Merrill Lynch have filed for bankruptcy, I have even found toilet tissues disappearing :)

Now I am here since morning and this place has been constantly shocking me.

I am sitting in the ODC(Offshore Development Center) next to Db, blogging on his laptop while he is in talk with some team member, and all I had to do is sign in the Visitor’s Register, I am taken aback at the trust the company has on its employees here.

I look around and find that I have ready access to all the company resources(I just used the scanner) unlike my employer, who allows vistors only till the reception.

I moved to the pantry, I saw all kind of fresh juices, tea, coffee, milk, cornflakes, bread, Jam, soup, Cheese slices, butter, biscuits and whatnot lying just like that, unlike my workplace where you get a limited no. of tea/coffee cups per month, horrible food for lunch and nothing except water is free. I am amazed, to what level this company pampers its employees.

The cleaning guys here are quite friendly and don’t give that why-are-you-here kind of look.

People here don’t have cubicles, they just sit together in one stretch of a table, including all managers who are given no special rooms or dedicated phone lines, and everyone is at par. They ensure equality for all.

I also found sanitary napkins provided at the ladies restroom, not those cheap, tacky ones, but the hygienic and the most costly ones. These guys sure have an eye for the employee convenience and hygiene. The fact that the napkins are costlier ones only proves that they actually respect and care for the employees and don’t do things just for the sake of doing it.

There is a guitar, a basket ball and some little soft toys around to give you the feel at home kinda mood. I really wish somebody would pick up the guitar and play something here as Db says does happen here at times.

There is a pack of facial tissues, a huge pen stand with all necessary stuff that you might need. These are very little things, and I don’t think they need a lot of money to get them, but they do make the employees feel they are special to the firm and does add on to the employee satisfaction.

I guess that’s the advantage of working in small companies. You are as important to the company, as the company is to you. The feeling is quite mutual. I big companies, you are one of the tens of thousands of people, who cannot be given any special treatment, who cannot be trusted and cannot be pampered.

No wonder, they say TW is an incredible place to work.

हिम्मत करने वालों की हार नहीं होती

Man!!! I had been looking for this since long...

हिम्मत करने वालों की हार नहीं होती,
लहरों से डरकर नौका पार नहीं होती|

नन्ही चींटी जब दाना लेकर चलती है,
चढती दीवारों पर सौ बार फिसलती है,
मन का विश्वास रगों में साहस भरता है,
चढकर गिरना, गिरकर चढना ना अखरता है,
मेहनत उसकी बेकार हर बार नहीं होती,
कोशिश करने वालों की हार नहीं होती|

डुबकियां सिंधु में गोताखोर लगाता है,
जा जाकर खाली हाथ लॉट आता है,
मिलते ना सहज ही मोती पानी में,
बढता दूना उत्साह इसी हैरानी में,
मुट्ठी उसकी खाली हरबार नहीं होती,
हिम्मत करने वालों की हार नहीं होती|

असफलता एक चुनौती है स्वीकार करो,
क्या कमी रह गयी देखो और सुधार करो,
जब तक ना सफल हो नींद चैन की त्यागो तुम,
संघर्ष करो मैदान छोड़ मत भागो तुम,
कुछ किये बिना ही जयजयकार नहीं होती,
हिम्मत करने वालों की हार नहीं होती|

-सूर्यकांत त्रिपाठी निराला

Yawning off...

Testing stuff again today…**yawn**

Well…1 year back, I would look down on testing, dismiss it as something which is done by people who are not good enough for development job. But since last 1 year in this project, I have spent 75% percent of the time testing. So mindset is changing very quickly about testers.

But I would still stand by it that it’s a damn boring job. May be testers would say the same thing about development job. Somehow, I can’t make myself do it from my heart. Despite the fact that the module I am testing today is so damn complicated that I sympathize with the plight of my team member who has developed it, I don’t have half the motivation to test it. Even listing to my mp3 player doesn’t make it any better. After 5 cups of coffee and three rounds of walk on the terrace, I am still at the same place where I started, only 3 damn bugs, that’s all. I am sure a tester would have filled up the excel sheet with failed cases by now.

I desperately want the clock to strike 8 so that I rush back home. No, there is something more interesting today…Db is going for a get together with his friends, I am keen to join them. A nice chit chat with a café frappe with an extra scoop of ice cream, chocolate sauce and nuts sounds far more interesting for sure. BHAGOOOOOOO….

Almost an half an hour to go. Let me start winding up things, have a glass of water, do away with the restroom, close up all windows on my desktop, check my bag…that would kill some time

'A Wednesday' on a Sunday...

I got a chance to watch “A Wednesday” last night. I kinda loved this one for more reasons than one.

Firstly, it doesn’t waste a lot of your time, a riveting plot with duration of 100 minutes.

Secondly, it’s a no-nonsense movie. It’s an intelligent approach which made 100 minutes of complete sense.

Thirdly, the characters are all believable. The character of Naseeruddin Shah is someone with whom you can relate to. Not that you would do what he does, but sometime or the other you would have certainly fantasized something similar.

A common man who is tired of tolerating things going around him dares to make a difference.

He is a ‘common man’ who vents out his angst by taking on the system and trying to bring it down to its knees.

It somewhere echoes exactly we feel as common people…doesn’t it???

”Given a chance I could kill all the terrorists, given a chance I get a chance to meet the corrupt politicians and beat the shit out of them, given a chance I could make India a better place to live in”.

It’s something within us, the frustration, the fury, the anger for things which don’t go our way.

I have always been terribly irritated by the crowd that has no other job other than protesting on the street which leads to my office. This way has no parallels, no shortcuts, and one of the busiest roads of the city. And there are freaks who have nothing better in their life to do other than making a hue and cry for, God knows what, making life miserable for us. I get terribly frustrated each time I have to fight my way through the road when one of such protests is happening. I believe, Gandhi gave us this idea of protesting against injustice through mass gathering, but people today are misinterpreting and misusing this weapon. Gandhi, through his non-violent gatherings wanted to say it loud and clear that “You can’t make us do it your way, I am not willing to co-operate”. It did not mean “We are going to harm you”. But these days the protest means “We are going to cause inconvenience, we are going to harm and disrupt till our demands are met”.

The roads in Bangalore is also plays a big part in frustration. The road that leads to my house was dug up for the OFC work. Once they placed the pipes, they simply patched the road with mud, without caring about public inconvenience. Soon the rain came in, making life miserable for us. Every other day a car or an auto or a truck gets stuck in the road blocking the way altogether. And no municipality, no government bothers to give a damn.

So what else is expected out of a common man in such conditions???

Are we expected to be tolerant, and bear this all, since we are given to believe that we can’t make a difference, or do we take up the task of cleaning the mess on our own.

I wont be surprised, if some day I get down and pull out and beat the daylights out of the fellow driver honking at a red signal or a traffic jam.

That's exactly the message that the movie passes on.

Needless to say, a rare example of great cinema, coming from Bollywood.

THE ONSITE CALLING…

Well hard luck with that one.
The first time I had the chance to travel to the US, I opted for a transfer to Bangalore…foolish me!!! The second time I was supposed to travel to London, I opted to get married...I dont't regret it though, I got a better deal :). A few hours back I got the chance again to travel to the US, my VISA isn’t ready….ARGH!!!!

Man!!! I am quite unlucky with this one. My onsite co-cord at US has got something called I-92(God only knows what it is) expired, so he has to return in a month. So my manager wanted me to replace him, but hello, my VISA isn’t ready. DAMN!!!!

Well, to an extent I think it’s good, I don’t think I would have liked to travel now, leaving Db alone when its just 6 months to our marriage. I think I would prefer to be with him at the moment and enjoy the marital bliss. If my VISA would have been ready, I might have regretted it later, may be hold Db responsible too. But now I just have my manager and my VISA to blame…and this sounds a lot better.

I am sure, I will get plenty of chances later. It may happen yet again that, I will miss them, the same way I did the last three times, but for sure, I will hit it some day and hit it hard. Till then, the US has to wait.

RIGHTS are RIGHT???

This weekend I was watching a program on the TV, where in the hosts of the show moved across the city of Bangalore trying to find out if the youngsters knew what were their fundamental rights as Indians. I was shocking to find that they actually did not know. I tried to recall, I think I remembered only three: right to freedom of speech, expression, religion and peaceful mass gathering. I was hell bent that I would not google it and try to remember them on my own, I tried for two days but failed to remember anymore than the ones I listed.

I read the wikipedia here which doesn’t include any of the three except the right to freedom of religion. It says all three have been included under one called right to freedom. Bad, at least I should have known this being the educated mass of India. Shame shame shame!!!

There were some interesting questions too, like given a chance, which right would you like to add to the constitution. There were real whacky answers. Many of them said there has to be a right to party late night without parental interference…can you believe this!!!
But the one I loved the most was…the right to freedom of PDA. For people who don’t understand this…PDA is Public Display of Affection. Sometime or the other, you must have caught some young couple getting cozy, or smooching in a park or other places…yeah that one!!! Youngsters want it to be fundamental right. I wonder our ancestors must be turning in their graves :).

I would love to remove one desperately, the right to peaceful mass gathering. Because the right of one should no become inconvenience to another. Almost everyday for some or the other reasons, there is a group of people protesting on the road that goes to my office. It takes me fifteen minutes to cross the road which otherwise would take less than 2-3 minutes. I genuinely believe, for gathering in a public place, there should be some kind of permit required, so that people don’t gather here and there for any damn reasons causing inconvenience to hundreds of others.

I am not sure which one would I like to add though, yeah, may be one. Yes, I would like to add another provision to the right against exploitation, right against getting exploited by auto/taxi drivers who refuse to run on meters :).

CHEERS TO LIFE...

I got confirmed with my new employer this week. I completed 1 year.

I can’t help being happy. I has been a good hike, quite good in fact. My ratings say I am good beyond expectations. And the beat part is I have got better rating and hike than other counterparts in my team...he he he!!! I earn more than my PL now...

My team is a wonderful mix of people…we are all of similar work experience, and all of us have got recently married or going to tie the knot in a few months. Since we have a call with clients almost on a daily basis, around 7.30pm, we mutually agreed on coming late, so I reach office by what…12 noon…corresponding to which, I see off Db to office smiling lazily, I gladly avoid the morning traffic to office, get time to cook some lovely food for dinner before I start, my maid comes late by 9 so that I can catch some good sleep in the mornings, I get time for some yoga, speak to my Mom for half an hour, read newspaper while lazily sipping my coffee, paint if I feel like it.
I start from office around 8.30-9, a little more at times. Again I gladly avoid the evening traffic, Db gets some time of his own when his wife is not around (its good to have some space of your own), get greeted by Db with a 440 watts of smile, warm up of the food, have dinner, watch a good movie together, and sleep late.

HOR KI CHAEEDA???
I love my life.

I look back at life, I feel I have come a long way. A long way from my failures, anxieties and dissatisfaction. I am quite a content person today.
For sure, this won’t last too long, since life is all about new challenges, nahin toh it gets boring man!!! But let’s enjoy while the sun shines. And once I enjoy this break, I am gonna smile at life and ask...so whats next...wanna play!!!

WHAT A WASTE

Well…to start with, my PAISE BACHO ABHIYAAN is still on. But guess who has been the biggest opponent against my mission this month…the GOVERNMENT…yes.
How???
This month Db and me filed our tax returns. Both of us have switched job last year, so we were anyway expecting that we owe a good amount to SARKAAR. But when we actually calculated the amount, it scared the daylights out of us. A whooping 70K!!! God Damn it!!!

Reluctantly, we paid them off. While I was handling the cheque to the tax consultant, I felt like giving away blood and flesh to the government.

Why I feel more agitated is, the hard earned money that we pay as taxes, where does it all go. Any guesses!!! To the parliament of course, where do you think they got the money that they were generously waiving in the Lok Sabha during the trust vote?

I wouldn’t mind paying my taxes, if the government would in return provide better roads, better sanitation, security…if not these…at least they use it for orphanages, cancer patients, Old age homes or other needy people.

But it doesn’t go to any of the good purposes. It is used to bribe politicians to favor political parties, to provide TV, mangalsutras and rice to people in exchange for their votes, or as black money to the politicians.

What a bloody waste of our hard earned money.

WHEN DEATH AND RAPE ARE INEVITABLE, JUST LIE BACK AND ENJOY.

Well yes. Holds good doesn’t it. It’s sometimes better to avoid fighting than run the risk of injuries. I was discussing a few problems I had with my life and how I felt so helpless not being able to do anything to change its course. Wise words, I must say and of all people it came from a friend who I wouldn’t think is half as wise.

There a few things I would love to change…but I can’t. I know that somewhere somehow people are taking advantage of me, but I can do nothing to change it. May be I can, Oh no, for sure I can, but I cant get to make myself stoop so low. But the question is why, why O why do they want to take advantage of me. If I sit back and start thinking, if I would ever deliberately try to cause inconvenience to somebody else, the answer is no and a OF COURSE NO. Then what makes any body want to enjoy at the cost of my inconvenience. I read a blog here where in he tries to analyze what makes people evil or cause harm to others.

But then how does it matter, why someone is doing something. What matters is how it is going to affect you. And if it does what can you possibly do to stop it. If eventually you realize you can’t stop it from happening, just as well lie back and enjoy the fun while you see people snatching the apple from your mouth.

One fine day, we were on the verge of an evening chat. On a lighter note I asked Db, if I and his sister had an argument and he would have to choose between me and his sister, whom he would pick. He said it would be me.

WHY??? Even if you would know that it was my fault.
He said yes. Even if I would know it’s your fault, I would still stand by you.
WHY???
Because I have to spend my entire life with you and not with my sister. Standing by you would make life simpler for me.

I look at my SIL, and she visibly agreed with her brother. She gave me the obvious look and said Of course…what else.

I try to look within myself, would I do the same thing too. If Db and my Dad had a difference of opinion over something, who would I choose. What came as an obvious answer was, I would try to find out who is correct among the two and take his side. (Though I agree I am not half as assertive as DB or even my SIL, I am not sure how exactly would I behave when put into such a situation. Pray it never comes). Because I don’t want to HAVE TO spend my life with him, I’d want to LOVE TO do so.

To which Db says, this is why I keep saying you haven’t grown up. Idealism doesn’t help. In practical life, it has to be given a backseat if you really wanna stay happy. We know we have to spend say the next 60-70 years together, so why not try to keep each other happy and make it simpler. The key to happiness is, be selfish…when its about your family vs the rest of the world, your family comes first. But when its about you vs your family, YOU stand over everything else. You have to be a little selfish to be happy, or you end up giving everybody a chance to step over your happiness to reach theirs. Since you are my family now, you stand over everything and everybody else, because I want to be happy in my life. But when its either you or me, I would probably get selfish again for the same reason, and I expect you to do the same if situation arises.

It amuses me at times, when I claim I am an idealistic person.

May be its actually not idealism that I practice, its perhaps the immaturity, the innocence that I am holding back. May be I miss the practical approach towards life.
Many a times we know what is going on is not the correct thing to do, but you have no other go other than doing it, for the sake of peace, happiness or plain and simple SELFISHNESS.

So while people make you their trail to glory and you know you can’t or don’t want to stop them, then the only way you have is sit back and enjoy them pursue their happiness and their selfishness.

A RAINY EVENING...

As DB likes to do normally, he came to pick me up from office last evening. WHY???? Well...he wants me to have a lesson or two with my driving skills on the busy roads to my office. All seemed well when I started, but suddenly it started raining midway. We got down to wear the jackets, Db placed both his mobile in my hand bag and we shoved the bag into the helmet storage under my seat. I realized that my mobile (which is hardly 4-5 months old) is still in my jeans side pockets. But somehow it didn't bother me since I thought this rain would not last longer and wouldn't get any heavier. Well, mutually we agreed on Db taking over the bike.

And then we started, and midway it started raining cats and dogs. The rain droplets were fast and big and they hit me, it felt like these droplets whipping me across my face. Like a tamed tiger, given up to the whip, I sat quietly at the back, my face down to avoid the water and eyes tightly closed. I asked Db his state and he said he was fine with the helmet on, and asked me to keep my eyes closed. I obeyed since I had couldn't find a better option.

As we closed towards AUDOGODI, I realized that the jackets had already given up (no wonder) and both of us were skin wet. And as I open my eyes to the world, I saw my bike cutting through knee height of water. I screamed MERI NAYI GADDI KHARAB HO JAYEGI, to which Db calmly replied “Don’t even think about it now!!!”. Well he had a point. We need to reach home ASAP, since my SIL would also be waiting, worried. Suddenly I though of my mobile in my pocket. My jeans was all wet and I could already feel the water seeping into my skin. I somehow got scared to check the status of my mobile, didn't even dare to tell Db about it. I sat there giving a silent appreciation to Db, as in how smart he was to have shoved up his mobiles to a safe place and I was the dumbo of the first order.

We reached Kormangala and the downpour ebbed, but I could see leaves and braches all over the road. Quite obviously, the rain and the wind had been quite worse there and the water was skill knee deep. But the worse awaited us. As we started heading towards our home, as we normally avoid the sony world signal because of the huge traffic, we took our usual alternate way only to find a huge tree blocking the road. Db took a U turn and took another alternate route to find another trunk at the middle of the road. Oh Bad!!! A U turn again and the next alternate, another trunk. He got back to the main road, but there is no right turn from the Sony world, you need to go to the kormangala main road again which is another 2 kms and the traffic was getting worse now. Damn!!! “What do we do now?”. But Db is not the one to give up. He found another alternate route to find that a trunk had fallen there also. I never knew there were so many routes to my home. There was no light anywhere, and strings of vehicles lined up, trying to find there way home...so were we. I suddenly had an crazy feeling. A ANACONDA or may be a KING KONG has attacked the city and the city is all in chaos. And Db is my only savior trying to take me home to safety, lets say the TERMINATOR. I told him my crazy idea and poor thing couldn't even bang his head anywhere. Of course at times like this, you don't expect people to (try to ) be funny.

And a few more alternate routes and finally we managed to reached home.
As we entered the parking to the apartment, Db was as excited as he had won a new video game to the last level in the first attempt. He entered the parking lot shouting FU** F**K **CK.

As we got down, we looked like warriors, who won the battle against nature, traffic and time, all tired and spent, wet to the last layer of the skin, my feet swollen to the cold water. But we were winners at last.

I checked my mobile, its still running steady, GOD BLESS the Nokia guys, I am sure no other brand of phone could have survived this.

As we reached and dried and helped our self to a cup of ADRAK WAALI CHAI, the lights had already gone out. Thanks to the generator of the building which helped us with light and a few rushes of TASHAN. JHEL as the movie was and we couldn't find the courage to watch the entire movie, but we could catch KAREENA with her green bikini. Donno what people find so hot in her, she looks starved to me, ANOREXIC as many people said on the web.

This morning I read all over the newspaper the chaos over the city, thanks to the rain last night.
I wanted to post this article right away but the net isn't working here, thanks to the rain last night again.
I cant do it from office as well...WHY???
My client was not satisfied after blocking the chat windows, social networking sites, even web mails and the company’s internal sites...so they have blocked the blogspot also…sob sob sob!!!

So I need to wait till things are up that have been brought down by the rain last night, to post this

WEEKEND ACTIVITY...

Oh it’s been such a painful summer in Bangalore this time, also for the fact that the summers have just started, and it’s already got humiliating. And how much I hate working in the kitchen, it leaves you so tired and drained out. Much as I wonder why they don’t invent helmets with an inbuilt AC, I do wonder as well, why they can’t invent cooler kitchens and some arrangement which would let you cook being seated all the time. That would be such a relief to people like us, these exhaust fans and chimneys are good for nothing, utter hopeless.

Db loves it, when I sit with him, keep smiling and doing silly things all the time, paint or watch TV in the worst case (given a chance he would throw it out of the balcony someday, or donate it to some orphanage). But as soon as I head to the kitchen, he starts frowning. But cooking on the weekdays is a compulsion, but cooking on weekends is my interest. But when on weekends, as I start surfing the net for new recipes, he gives me looks as if he would tie me down so that I can’t move to the kitchen. Nevertheless, he failed to change my mind with SAAM DAAM DAND BHED as we say. He couldn’t cajole me to his arguments, neither a pizza nor his severe warnings would work. So he finally gave up and had to go through my painful PANEER KOFTA last night. Oh yes!!! They were painful koftas, the yogurt that I used had turned sour and I, the genius, didn’t check it before using. They ruined my koftas which eventually landed up in the dustbin . Boo hoo hoo!!!!

But sometimes he gets lucky to avoid my cooking.
This Saturday we managed to have a lunch outside. It was special since we went out for a lunch after almost 2 months. Have you guys had a chance to visit this place SERENGITI in the Total Mall (Madivala)? Apparently it’s named on some African jungle which is some 3000 kms long, which means “land that doesn’t end” (Db, the more intellient of the two, read it on the menu and told me, I didn’t bother to know what it meant). Loved the ambience. It’s a themed restaurant, which gives the feel of a jungle. It has got those little wooden bridges, water flowing beneath with a string of tortoises lined up. A little waterfall, crocodiles, elephants to give you a real feeling of a jungle. It has got a cave inside with lighted up MASHALs. On what I have seen in Bangalore, I would say this one is the best I have known. The food is essentially Lucknowi and Peshawari, and has exoctic desserts to match the rich food.

And also this needs a special mention this weekend.
I got a new diamond pendant the same day.
While we started looking to mend my broken MANGALSUTRA, I ended up with a diamond in my neck. No, I didn’t ask for it, Db insisted. Now that I have a diamond, the revered MANGALSUTRA can take a back seat…my apologies!!! :)

All these years I believed, I am not fond of jewelries. It made life tougher for Db, since he would not know what else to gift me…jewelries are such an obvious choice for women. But I couldn’t believe my smile with that stone in my neck and the worst of it all, when I look into the mirror, I feel the diamond is quiet small and I could have done with a bigger one. NOT ME, NOT ME at all. Since when have I started loving gold and diamonds, I thought they never mattered to me and all these years I had considered them to be wastage of good hard earned money. So now I know, somewhere at the bottom of our hearts, we all women love jewelries may be a few of us are more passionate about it, but more or less we all love them.

So as they say, in the first year of marriage you would just get to know each other better, I think I am still not done with knowing myself.

U Me Aur Hum...

A long weekend is so welcome after such a hard week. Especially when Db has been working so hard, which also included most of his weekends too, a long weekend came as a welcome puff of fresh air. I somehow wanted a nice movie, may be the new flick “U Me aur Hum”, staring two of my all time favorite actors. But the price of tickets were so disheartening, I couldn’t spend a thousand bucks on a movie.

Early Saturday morning, while I was having a lazy sleep, Db (the more active of the two), suddenly woke me up, and whispered, tickets are available for seventy, shall I book two or three. I couldn’t believe my smile…I said THREEEEEEEEEE.

Well…my SIL thought it was a bad idea. Why do you want to take the KABAAB MEIN HADDI WITH YOU? She said. That reminds me of a little incident. My friend, who had just started off in her affair, was so excited about he first date with her boyfriend. This guy, her boyfriend was a football player by hobby. They went to the theater to watch a movie together. On reaching the theater, he asked her how much cash she had, she said she had enough to buy tickets, almost five hundred. On which he gave a disappointed look,
Oh that won’t be enough for thirteen people.

She got furious,
Who is coming???

He said…
My football team.

Still furious…
How could you do this? I thought it was our date, why did you get your friends???

To which he replied innocently…
Why? What’s wrong? What could we have possibly done in a public theater which we wouldn’t be able to do among my friends? Instead of sitting with some unknown people, we would sit with some known faces.

Bloody Moron!!! You bet!!!

I found it the appropriate time to answer the same to my SIL, and she laughed it off too.

And what a movie it was!!! Somehow I like these actors turning directors, they have a very fresh and positive approach, as if they get the creative independence, which they don’t get being actors and being directed otherwise. It started with Amir Khan with TARE ZAMEEN PAR, an awesome effort and now Ajay Devgan with U ME AUR HUM which is quite close to the same.

Needless to say, path breaking performances, a very fresh looking canvas, amazing chemistry among the actors. The characters look truly believable and genuine. The story resembles 51 FIRST DATES and THE NOTEBOOK in some ways, but to sum up all, it’s a nice touching love story, you relate to, more so since it showcases a real life couple.

And I loved the songs on screen, especially the SALSA song JEE LE and the title track. And KAJOL looks so pretty on screen, can’t believe she is the same dark, creepy girl who debuted with BAAZIGAR.

The only thing that goes haywire is the punch line. SOMETIMES THE GREATEST DISTANCE IS THE DISTANCE BETWEEN TWO PEOPLE. I didn’t find it quite relevant to the story.