Two Years of ... ...

Sunday 28^th October’07, we again had a party after a long-long time…

We never had parties without reasons (just kidding, we don’t need reasons for parties instead we only need venues), so we had one reason for this one too: - We all will be completing two years in our company on 7^th November, 2007. Hence, there should be a party…

Frankly speaking, this party wasn’t to celebrate the two year stay but this was to celebrate two years of knowing each other and two years of our Friendship…

The initiative or the idea for the party was suggested by Bhavana; she suggested that we should have a party before Diwali as most of us won’t be there in Mumbai on the Anniversary day, that is, on Wednesday 7^th Novemeber’07… Instead of postponing further, Niraj & I decided to have the party on Sunday else there wasn’t a day, for next two months, on which everyone was free… (You know, these days how busy we all are???)

Any guesses about the venue this time?

What “Pop-Tates”… No, this time it wasn’t the Pop-Tates (PT)…

The venue for this special party was “Happy Singh (HS)”, it’s a sister concern of Pop-Tates and is just next to it… The difference between the two is that HS serves only the Indian cuisine and waiting time is zero…

So the party began with our usual masti & bakar over the drinks… The bakar was in full flow for more than three hours… In middle of all this, we were joined by our special guest from Japan, Narayanan (this was also a reason to have party on that day since he was also in town...)

Just like our every party, one special bakar happened in this too… Atleast it was special for Ankur and me, we got 19 & 18 out of 20 respectively for our decency level… Actually it started when Niraj, in his words, “wanted to expose me in front of all the ladies…” Then I asked both of them present there, to rate me for my decency between 1 and 10, 1 being the lowest… To my surprise, I got 9 out of 10 from both Sakshi & Bhavana while Ankur got 10 from Sakshi & 9 from Bhavana… Although there is no competition with anyone but then I’m happy to get 9 on an average… (Point to remember: Anyone who is interested in giving me more than 9 marks is welcome…)

Later we had dinner and the lot of masti… We surely missed our other batchmates (Anshul Sharma, Rakhi, Rohit & Tammy), who all were here last year when we celebrated our 1st Anniversary…

I was Happy in Happy Singh… I mean, WE all were Happy in Happy Singh…

PS: Today is our 2nd Anniversary, for which we had the party… Congratz to all my Batchmates for acquiring atleast 2+ years of IT experience… And Thanks to them for being such good Frndz...

Political Marketing

I’m back from the state of hibernation, which lasted for more than two months and now onwards I’ll try to write more frequently…

Last month, Mumbai celebrated the Ganpati Festival. Actually this festival was celebrated all over the country but it has a special place in the lives and hearts of all Mumbaikars…

Ganpati Festival - is celebrated in one of the most grandiose manner’s in Mumbai… What I’ve felt in the past two years was that many people actually wait for the whole year, just for Ganpati to return back… People celebrate this festival at their own homes or in common pandals…

One may find lot of Ganpati pandals of all sizes and statures, everywhere… These pandals are open for common public and organized by a committee / team of people. They manage everything by the help of the sponsorship and also the donation they get from various political parties, residents and shopkeepers of the adjoining area and also from the devotees…

Outside most of these pandals you’ll find a big board or hoarding with the name of the Ganpati’s Pandal name, etc. Out of which, most of them will also have the name, flag and the photos of the leaders of these communalist secular political parties… I truly don’t understand that what Bal Thackeray, Udbhav Thackeray, Raj Thackeray or for that matter any other local leader’s photo is doing on these Ganpati pandal’s hoarding??? Is this a festival or some political gathering???

According to Marketing Principles, if some individual or company sponsors some event then they may like to see their name and logo on the hoardings… I agree that if we can have the name of “Reliance Communication” or “Airtel” on any Ganpati pandal hoarding, then why not the name of any political party; they have also donated money from their accounts but is it justified to cover the 75-80% of the hoarding by sponsor related details? Some of these hoardings have photos of these leaders, which are bigger than actual size of that leader… I’ve even seen few hoardings where these photos covered almost 90% of the area and the Ganpati picture was merely covering 5-7% of the hoarding… Till date, I may not have seen many events or such festivals but from what I’ve seen, I always found that not more than 10-20% of the total space of the main hoardings or backdrops was covered by the sponsors…

During this festive season if you go out anywhere in Mumbai (I’m not talking about any other city because I’ve not see the Ganpati Festival there), you’ll always find lot of such hoardings on roadside and actually they help you to locate the Ganpati pandals… When I came to Mumbai first time, it was Ganpati time; initially I thought that some sort of elections must be round the corner that’s why so many political hoardings are present everywhere… But on close observation, I realized that these were not the political hoardings but they were the Ganpati Pandals’ hoardings… This is what I call “Political Marketing…”

INDIA - World Twenty20 Champions...

Congratulations to Team INDIA for becoming the first ever World Twenty20 Champions !!!





Three Cheers for Team INDIA
Hip Hip Hurray...
Hip Hip Hurray...
Hip Hip Hurray...


Chak De INDIA !!!

Thought For The Day – “Virginity”

Few days ago, read Thought For The Day – “Virginity” on Sakshi’s Blog; It stated that:
“Virginity is not dignity…not security…or not a sign of purity…It is simply lack of opportunity…”

First of all let’s see that what does this word “Virginity” means for a common man: according to Wikipedia and Dictionary.com, “Virginity means the state or condition of being pure.”

These days, lots of people have been influenced by the Western Culture and they may think Virginity as a lack of opportunity but I definitely don’t believe in this logic… Some people might even say “Virginity? It’s a big issue over a small tissue...”

I don’t see any benefits in losing one’s virginity because some people think it as a happening thing or because they believe that one hasn’t got an opportunity to do so… For me, it’s one’s own life and one should decide accordingly, what they should do and shouldn’t decide on the basis of what others think…

The coin always has two sides: One group will say it’s good to experience such a thing like losing virginity but the other side will always be firm in saying that one should wait for the right time i.e. till their marriage…

But I would like to mention one thing, especially for the people who aren’t Virgins themselves that kindly don’t expect your partners to be Virgins when you are not one… I simply mean to say that people who have slept or continue sleeping with others shouldn’t expect that their spouses to be pure and also that they shouldn’t slept with others… Generally we find men sleeping with other women but at the same time they can’t tolerate their wives having a relationship with someone else…

At the moment, Virginity is not that big issue, to have a debate or fight over it but then too it’s an issue related to oneself, one’s culture, traditions and belief’s… I’m not saying that Virginity is good or bad; but I’m just trying to make a point that before taking any step, do think on your own and not on the fact that what others have to say about you…

Tryst with Nature: Trip to Lonavala

Mumbai witnessed the heaviest rainfall of the season on 30^th June; everyone compared it with the rainfall which Mumbaikars’ witnessed on 26^th July’05. But don’t worry; I was far away from this trouble.

When the people around the city were being troubled by those rains, we were enjoying them in the Ghats of Lonavala… I know it’s bad to put things like this; but actually I’m happy about the fact that I wasn’t in Mumbai else I wouldn’t have got anything to eat, had to live without electricity for the whole day and would have faced many other such problems… Anyways jokes apart, I felt bad too for the people who faced such difficulties due to the rains…

After six long months of Alibaug Trip, we had another trip… Trip to Lonavala. This time Tammy was our event manager and I really liked the last line of his invitation cum registration mail “NOTE: No end time cancellations will be entertained :D”.

Eight of us (Anshul S, Bhavana, Rakhi, Niraj, Nishant, Smita, Tammy & I) packed our bags and were filled with loads of excitement & enthusiasm to enjoy the trip. This time we managed to leave on time…

I forgot to mentioned, on this trip Ms. Rakhi appointed me as her PA… (For all those who don’t know the meaning of PA, it means Personal Assistant.) My duty was to open the car door, hold her umbrella and take care of her bag… But till date I haven’t received the remuneration for the same… All the readers, kindly request her to pay my wages soon… :)

I was surprised to know that Niraj had made Bread – Omlette for everyone before coming and it was really very delicious… He also brought other readymade snacks but no one seemed interested in them… After coming back from the trip, Tammy and I decided that the title “Husband Material” suits Niraj perfectly…

On the way to our destination, we halted at Food Plaza to have some refreshments and also clicked a few snaps there… As we moved ahead, waterfalls were visible everywhere… After reaching Lonavala, we went up to the gates of the Amby Valley City…

On our way back from there, we stopped at one of the points; it was damn cold there… Heavy rains were accompanied by chilly and gusty winds, so we all were shivering from cold… All of us stood in a circle, with all the five umbrellas in such a position so that they cover each one of us; it was a similar scene, where Greek warriors cover themselves with their Shields so as to protect themselves from the enemies’ arrows… Later after having tea and bhajiya, we (only the guys) even danced in the rain… It was fabulous dancing there and then I understood the meaning of the saying, “Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain...”

From there we moved to another point. Actually we never asked the names of these points since we were busy in enjoying… That place was something sort of a dam or a reservoir (there was a wall, which was around 15 feet high and water was falling from it), you may call it anything but it was amazing… We had a lovely time under the waterfall… We sat on the river side, had some cold drink there…;) Later we climbed to the top of that wall and came down, that too in one piece. Then came the most memorable moment of the trip… We stood in the space between that wall and falling water… Trying to get there was also an exercise; the force of water which I felt on my body wasn’t less than 100 or 200 KgF (Kilogram Force). Once I went inside, I never wanted to come out; when we shouted something there, we were able to hear to our own resonating voice… Actually it’s impossible to describe the feelings which I had then… It was an experience of the lifetime…

After this we moved towards Bushy Dam, but our hard luck due to rains we weren’t able to enjoy much there… Even though our own Fantasy Man & Fantasy Woman went up to the dam and came back. Then we came back to Lonavala and had lunch there… There only we came to know that it’s raining heavily in Mumbai and water had logged in many parts of the city…

Finally we left Lonavala around 6 in the evening, with lot of memories to carry along, for the lifetime…

Some Random Facts (About Me)...

Sakshi tagged me on “Some Random Facts (About Me)”. This is the first I’ve been tagged and I actually thought for some time before writing these random things about me… To me, this appears to be one of the toughest tags ever… Anyways, I will try my best to tell new things about me… So here come 8 random facts about me

1. I'm a Dreamer by nature...
   
2. Always wanted to join Indian Army as an officer; tried once but wasn’t successful… :(
3. My mother and aunt like the “Pulaav” cooked by me…
4. I keep the movie tickets after watching the movie. On some of them, I’ve also written the name of the friends’ with whom I watched that movie…
5. I am passionate about Bollywood and its movies. Can talk and discuss about them continuously for hours. Due to this my friends here also call me “Glamour Lala”… ;)
6. Apart from Blogging, I’ve also written two short stories…
7. The compliment which I get most often is “Looks are deceptive”… Although it’s full of sarcasm but I take this as a compliment… ;)
8. Usually like beautiful girls who have a hair cut and wear spects, but exceptions are always there… ;)

Rules of the game:

• Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.
• People who are tagged, write a blog post about their own 8 random things, and post these rules.
• At the end of your post you need to tag 8 people and include their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment and tell them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.
• If you fail to do this within eight hours, you will not reach Third Series or attain your most precious goals for at least two more lifetimes :)

As per the rules of the game, I tag the following 8 bloggers: I.D., Poddy Bhaiya, Narayanan, Neha, Niraj, Rohit, Shruti & Tammy.

Amitabh Bachchan in a Sasur-Bahu saga?

Yesterday Mumbai Mirror posted a story by the title, “Amitabh Bachchan in a sasur-bahu saga?” That article was mainly about that Senior Bachchan may soon return to TV and act in a non-fiction or in some fiction serial. As the title suggests he may be doing some Sasur-Bahu saga or some type of K-serial, as we call them in our daily life.

I always appreciate the experimental movies & the exceptional characters which Mr. Bachchan plays in his movies. I liked most of the characters which he played in the recent times whether it was Sexy Sam in KANK to the one he played in Cheeni Kum. I’m even looking forward to see him as Gabbar in RGV ki Sholay, but somehow I’m not very excited about the fact that he will acting in TV serials. KBC was altogether a different story and I believe that people will accept him again if he hosts another show. But I was just thinking that whether we are ready to see Mr. Bachchan as the male version of our own Baa…???

I told my viewpoint to Nishant that at least actors like Mr. Bachchan should not start doing Sasur-Bahu sagas; doing movies like Nishabd or Cheeni Kum is fine but please no daily sops. Nishant presented a different view that people who are older than us may think opposite to me and will say that daily sops will do but not movies like Nishabd, etc which are against our Indian Culture. I agreed to his point meanwhile Tammy asked us to imagine that Mr. Bachchan will look while romancing Baa on TV.

Although Tammy wanted us to imagine a scene where both the characters are hugging each other; while I imagined a scene where Mr. Bachchan and Baa are seated on a bench in a park. They both are asking each other’s age and Baa replies “I’m 200+” and AB replies back, “very young…”(The scene from the movie Cheeni Kum). This was the third angle to my point whether Mr. Bachchan should act on TV or not.

Only time will tell that whether we’re lucky or unlucky to see Amitabh Bachchan again on TV. Whether we want to see him on TV varies from person to person and it will depend on various factors. But one of the important factors may be the number of zeroes on the cheque which will be offered to Senior Bachchan by his producers.

Don’t forget to tell me whether you are excited about viewing Mr. Amitabh Bachchan in the daily sops or not???

Who says “Marriages are made in Heaven” ???

Who says “Marriages are made in Heaven” ??? I don’t say so, atleast after what I’ve seen yesterday…

Yesterday I went to a doctor’s clinic for some test, don’t worry I’m perfectly fine and it was a just a routine checkup.

The clinic was crowded with patients except for the place where an elderly uncle (let say Mr. X) and I was sitting. Sofa for three was occupied by only two of us, lucky we. Not much time passed when this comfort of ours was snatched away from us. Another uncle (let say Mr. Y) came with a lady (let say Ms. Z) and both of them fitted themselves in the space which was initially meant for only one.

Let me tell you few of my observations about my sofa mates:
Mr. X: By his looks he wasn’t seem to be a very serious patient. May be he was also there just for a routine checkup.
Mr. Y: He seemed to be a serious patient by the way he walked and talked initially.
Ms. Z: On seeing her one can easily make out that she was definitely not Mr. Y’s wife and she was her daughter which I only came to know later. She was not very young; I mean not the college going types. If not married then she was of the perfect age for marriage.

After having some conversation with Mr. Y, Ms. Z went out for making some call. Just then Mr. X approached Mr. Y with a question, “Are you a Marwari?” (I think he must have guessed this by the accent in which they were talking). The timing of that question was so perfect that it seemed that he was just waiting for the lady to go out.

"Yes, I’m a Marwari”, replied Mr. Y
“I’m too a Marwari from Dausa, Rajasthan and what about you?” asked Mr. X
“I’m from Jaipur” replied Mr. Y in an unpleasant tone.

Initially Mr. Y doesn’t seem to be interested in the conversation but slowly and steadily the chit-chat between the two became friendlier and even interesting for me… They continued by asking about each other’s profession, residence in Mumbai and family backgrounds, etc. But in the whole discussion Mr. X was more curious to know about the other one, that time I thought some people have this nature but later I got to know the main reason behind it.

Finally Mr. X came to the main point when he started enquiring about Ms. Z. By this time both of them have had become so friendly that Mr. Y never thought for a second before telling everything about his daughter to a stranger. I’m not jotting down the full conversation here; but the major points which came out from that conversation were: she was unmarried, doing her post-graduation and expert in cooking ad household works.

A thought stroked my mind immediately, “What else one can look in a bride???”

After listening to all the qualities of her, Mr. X told Mr. Y that his nephew may be a perfect groom for her daughter, if he is looking for one. He further told that his nephew is a Software Engineer and is also pretty handsome in his looks. After that Mr. Y added that these days’ software people get handsome salaries. At that point of time, I too thought that even my chances are bright in the marriage market. Anyways jokes apart, by then Mr. Y had already shown his interest in Mr. X’s nephew.

The exchange of numbers has also taken place by the time Ms. Z re-entered the room. Then Mr. Y introduced her to his new friend or should I say that one of her’s future in-law. By this time nurse called me and I went inside the doctor’s cabin. When I came back all three of them were still busy in giggling and talking. I think by that time they must have also fixed the date and venue for the first meeting of both the families.

Now I want to add in the quotation that “Marriages are made in Heaven but sometime in Doctor’s Clinic too…”

Weekend Diaries...

The weekend which ended yesterday night was a hectic one; actually I prefer to call it ‘hectic’, since I wasn’t able to sleep for durations which I generally sleep on weekends. On both the days I woke up approximately at six thirty in the morning. Normally on weekends I wake up at noon, when our maid comes and then too I ask my roomies, “Why does she come so early on the weekends?”

Saturday morning I played Cricket after almost a gap of 2 years. It’s always fun to play with your friends but this was the first time when I was playing with my office colleagues. Although our team lost the match; but I won the competition, which was between Mayank and me that who will remain not out. Playing was fun but the body pain which is still there is really bad…

Evening was the time to come out of our den’s and enjoy again, so we decided to watch the movie Cheeni Kum. The show at the nearest theatre was house full so went to another theatre and watched Shootout At Lokhandwala (For my international readers: Don’t worry this was not an encounter or a terrorist attack video but it’s a latest Bollywood movie). This movie was based on a true incident and could be watched once just to gain some knowledge about that particular incident. My ratings: 1.5 /5

We decided to go to Siddhivinayak Temple on Sunday morning. It was a nice experience to visit the temple early in the morning although we were not on schedule as per our own plans. While coming back home, we finalized the plans for the evening: another movie, this time our original choice, that is, Cheeni Kum.

The show was at 10:30 in the night, so in the mean time I went to the coaching and to one of my relatives place. Later went to Goregaon to watch Cheeni Kum. Although the masses may not be able to relate with this movie but the so called ‘multiplex audience’ will definitely enjoy watching it. An experimental cinema sought of a movie with good performance from all the artistes, especially the girl who played the character of ‘Sexy’. My ratings for this movie: 3.5/5

Signing off for now as I’m unable to write more due to the muscle pain…

So the morale of the story is: Play cricket regularly or else don’t play.

Bloggers P-A-R-T-Y

Melody and Sakshi, the Bombay bloggers and one of the best hosts in town, are again hosting a blog party on June 9 for anyone interested who happens to be in the city.

Be there — Bloggers also have the rights to Party !!!

Rohit Bhai ki Bidaai... Ruqsat'07

Rohit had to fly to Japan on Saturday 21^st April, 2007. Therefore he came back from Indore on Sunday 15^th April, 2007 to treat us all @ PopTates. (Oops!!! We did it again, Niraj and I actually planned that this time we’ll not ask anyone for any venue options…) Apart from the usual bakar, the main attractions of that party were: A Poem by Nishant and the Q&A session initiated by our own fantasy man, Tammy (the details of that session will be posted soon).

As per the plan, Niraj wrote an awesome mail to everyone (all our batchmates who are still in Mumbai). The subject of the mail was “Let's Say Good Bye or rather All the best to Rohit....” that mail was hilarious and senti both at the same time… Check out the full details of that Page 3 Party at Niraj’s Blog (Don’t get confused, Page 3 Party means our party, we’re no less than celebrities. If you guys have any doubts about it, then come to us and we’ll explain how???)

On the day of the party, in the morning we (Nishant, Niraj & I) decided that we all should give some memories to Rohit, in the form of a gift and a card… Even though it wasn’t possible to make all the arrangements that day, so we decided that we’ll surprise him at the airport. Later after several mail chains and conversation, we finally decided that we should give him an iPod, a coffee mug and a card. We scribbled all over the card and also on the coffee mug…

We gave these gifts to Rohit on Friday night… He too became a little senti but didn’t cry… (If anyone of you has doubts about it then we’ve the video of the same too…)

The D day came; surprisingly most of us were present at the tea stall on time… We reached International Airport and there too our usual masti and bakar was on… At some moments Aunty started crying but Bhavana, Rakhi and even all of us tried to console her… And finally the moment came when Rohit finally said Good Bye to each of us and went to Japan…

Rohit, we all once again wish you all the best for your bright future !!!