Unspoken Wait

Taken from a past excerpt of the memory lane...

It was sunday. No work. No other motive to sit in office too. We were two alien in the city. Well he exactly not, because he studied at that place. And from his talks it appeared that he was nostalagic about the time that he spent there. There must be a story behind it. But we're not good enough buddies to have me the right to ask, and perhaps he too was reluctant to share on his own for the same reason. Our common objective was to kill time, and the preferred way was to sit in a dark room for 3 hours not looking, not talking, not listening to each other and still have a feeling that we achieved it together. I wonder why people always look for a company to go for a movie they really want to see, and more why in order to 'njoy someone's company they opt to go for a movie. They anyway don't seem to enjoy both of 'em together (..barring exceptional cases...). Isn't it like one of those mutually exclusive co-existing relationship....am I sounding like talking about marriages.

We didn't get the tickets. I asked him if we have other options. He seemed interested in taking me to his college. His enthusiasm met with my agreement. May be he wanted to take a walk down his memory lanes. He said he liked to be there. I wondered if he goes there often. He seems to have read my mind, or may be it doesn't matter. For once he started he kept on going,
'Coming here after a long time. This was our department. This is our canteen. We used to bunk classes and sit here. and this is the lake..we used to come here almost every evening and spent time together'

So the conversation was getting more and more on to the 'We'. I knew he's deep down in the memory lane, and would like to talk about it.

'So what happend', my pebble had started creating ripples in the rather seemingly peaceful lake.
'What, what....happened', like a red-handed caught he felt a little embarassed.
'Where is she now', my senses told me to continue, not worrying about his hesitation or my good feel factor.
'She is here in this town only, working in another company', he was opening up.
'Are you in touch. Do you meet often', I was waiting for a breakup tale to be unfolded.
'Yes, we are very good friends. Infact I asked her for the movie before coming with you. But she had some work and couldn't come', he sounded enthusiastic and feeling proud of their still going friendship.
'So do you like her?', now I was confused, wandering...eager to clear up.
'Yes, I do', he simply replied.
'And what about her', was the obvious question coming from me.
'I guess yes, I do feel so, but I am not so sure', he replied with a sounding confusion.
'Have you ever asked her' - me
'No, but..actually not' - he
'Do you feel shy to ask' - me
'No...I am very comfortable with her, and we can talk over any subject', he was again proudish about it.
'So, you are afraid of loosing your friendship, if you ask and she says no", I was feeling victorious in having reached a conclusion.
'No, it's not like that. I know that if I ask, she'll say 'Yes'. That's not the problem', his eyes were having that familiar solitude when he said that.

I was confused now, all my logical options seemed to be over with that reply. I was hesistant to ask anything further for the fear that I won't understand, and he won't feel good about having not been understood. We kept walking in silence. Ripples seems to have settled down in lake too.

'You know, i love her so much...if anytime she comes to me and asks me to marry her..that would be the happiest moment of my life. May be I am silently waiting for that moment to happen. I know if she comes to know about my feelings, she would say yes. But I need to know that she feels the same way for me, irrespective of my feelings towards her...I don't know why, but I do need to know that...", while saying this his eyes were so full that he would have leant on my shoulder only if guys were allowed to cry.

Silence resumed again in our walk and I imagine far off two girls sitting somewhere on stairs having the same talks. One of them would be her, only that she would be free to snob while uttering out those words.

Little Plant

In the heart of a seed
buried deep, so deep,
a dear little plant
lay fast asleep.
"Wake!" said the sunshine
"and creep to the light."
"Wake!" said the voice
of the raindrops bright.
The little plant heard
and it rose to see
what the wonderful
outside world might be.

- K L Brown

The bulls and bears

For those who are still 'njoying the bulls and bears of stock market like me, here is an inspirational story I came across -

Once upon a time in a village a man appeared who announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for Rs. 10. The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys went out in the forest and started catching them. The man bought thousands at 10 and as supply started to diminish and villagers started to stop their effort he announced that now he would buy at 20 rupees. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching moneys again. Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer rate increased to 25 and the supply of monkeys became so that it was an effort to even see a monkey let alone catch it.
The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at 50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business his assistant would now buy on behalf of the man. In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers, "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at 35 and when the man comes back you can sell it to him for 50." The villagers queued up with all their saving to buy the monkeys.

After that neither there was the man nor his assistant. The only thing remaining were monkeys and monkeys :)

This is how the stock market works.

Change

sometimes you ask, sometimes you explain
you never know, when across the interview table
you will have to switch the place

one fine day starts with a locale support
By noon it becomes a conflict of jboss port
Evening is about the style and layout of the corp site
you can never tell what's the issue of the day
but one thing you can be sure of that remains the same,
the taste of wicked brownie over the coeffee talks
no matter when and how the subject of gossiping change.

so far meeting requests were for status calls and ordering sessions
today it has become all about design patterns and struts lessons
ofcourse speakers remain the same
but do you know when the topics change

one more day is gone
we are closer to fulfill another goal
be it an alpha release or an interview call
life brings every new day with a change
the spirit for life remains the same.

Scribbling

by a beautiful heart -

maeN to apna wajood Dhondati hooN
din kay is baywafa ujalay maeN
chaand ki ghumshuda si kirnooN maeN
maaN ki mamta maeN aur lori maeN
baap kay saibaan aaNgan maeN
bhai ki sher si kalai par
maeN to apna wajood dhondati hooN

mujh ko takhleeq karnay walay sun
maeN bhi takhleeq karnay wali hooN
aey zamanay tujhay khabar hi kiya
maeN hi dunia basanay wali hooN
par zamanay tujhay nahiN maloom
karb-e-takhleeq karb hai kaisa

janm lenay say pehlay hi maeN tou
apnay astitv ko gaNwati hooN
maeN agar janm lay bhi loon tab bhi
paida hotay hi dafn hoti hooN
ya to bazaar kay yeh bazaari
baich daitay haeN mujh ko biyopari
behn hooN maaN hooN ya maeN beTi hooN
phir bhi tasweer baybasi ki hooN
par zamanay tujhay khabar kiya maeN
apna astitv pana chahti hooN
zinda rehna azaab hai mujh ko
aur maeN zinda rehna chahti hooN

A day @ QS

It was a happy morning, a bit more pleasant because I got up early and my morning chores also included birds watching (of both types). I didn't think much when our MD (Haridev) asked me to see him on immediate basis even before entering the office, nor did I go deaf when he dropped the bombshell. For a moment, I thought its one of his prank.(HD, once you talk setting up an office in Pakistan, you lose the credibility). But when I was out and saw the familiar expression on Mangu's face, I knew it has happened. Not that it was new to me, but not so sudden was expected. And we both screamed in our hearts, 'Not again'. The other things that scanned my mind were the talks I had with the folks in convincing them in their decision to join the company. Anyway the announcement by VP about the decision to shut down the shop was pretty formal with nobody convinced of the reason. But how does it matter. The amazing thing was that nobody broke down.

Then the best thing happened. We gathered in a conf room to brush up some of the technologies likely to be asked in process of interviews. I was taking that session and HariDev jumps in. First it looked a bit awkward to go over all this in front of him, but everyone knows he's cool. And in the spirit of event, he himself couldn't resist for long. One mistake by me and he snatched the marker from my hand and after that there was no stopping. The passion he showed in explaining all his favouritees from the recruitment question bank to the depth, I don't think world mattered to him at the moment. Where would you find an MD of a company imparting training to all his folks to help them out in joining another ship.

I don't know what future is in store for all of us. But one thing I have seen off times and I strongly believe that if you have a trust in the leadership, half of the worries of such events are taken care even before they happen. Hats off to HD and wish best for everyone.

Privilege

I happened to eyewitness this beautiful incidence today at a local hospital in Bibwewadi.

A little boy climbs up the stairs with a limping leg, taking support on a shoulder from an old boy whose attention was down on the little boy's leg. They enter the nursing home.

Attendant(Nurse) gave a casual look at the little guy and immersed herself back to her register.

'He has met with an accident and is bleeding. May be there is a fracture too in his knee', said the old guy grabbing Nurse attention. She asked the little boy to lie on stracher and hurried to call the doctor.

'Nothing serious, there is no fracture. We'll do the dressing', said the doctor after examining the little boy.

'Do you think it will be a good idea to give a tetnus shot', asked the old boy.

'Yes, no harm in it. So how did he get into this?' asked the doctor while pressing his leg.

'He fell down from his cycle', replied the old boy with a smile.

'Oh, so you are his......' the doctor left the sentence for him to complete.

'Nothing, I just happened to see him on the way', came the sweet and short reply.

'Hmm..', nothing more the doctor did say. Dressing was done and there was now a smile on the face of little boy too. He looked much relaxed. I saw him coming out of dressing room and stand by this guy looking into his eyes.

'How much I have to pay?', asked the old guy as usual maintaining his smile.

'Its 50 Rs, but its okay', doctor said looking at him. I think there was an appreciation in her eyes.

'No, I can pay this. Let me have the privilege', saying this he took out a 100 Rs note from his purse and handed over to the attendant, took back the change, turned back to doctor, smiled, said thanks and went out holding hand of the little boy.

'Let me have the privilege', repeating this a smile spread on my face too.

Just thought of sharing it.

The house

I happened to see a house today. It was for sale. Actually not the house, but its location. And it was one of those my instant love kind. The reason - simple. Its on the side of a beautiful hill. The hill I am already in love with. There was no concrete jungle like ever other housing society in pune offering. Just the row of old decent houses. I don't know if I'll buy it, but as of now I wish to. If ever, I happen to settle somewhere sometime, it will be one of the place.

Not yet forgotten

I came across this forward which made me think of my favourite serials of my childhood time. Although I cann't recall all of them, but here are some of my favoritee...

Hum Log
The serial was shot on sets with the house of the family being only 2-3 rooms. The serial glued the whole of India. Each episode ended with Dada Muni coming and explaining the episode and actually trying to find a moral in the episode. I still remember Basesar Ram cribbing, lallu fighting with Chutki, Nanhe styling with his hairs, and Dadi maa with her lively dialogs . Amazing!!!

Yeh jo Hai Zindagi
Remember the theme song Yeh jo hai, yeh jo hai Zindagi. The serial was so famous that we use to wait for it every Friday. A fantastic way to end the week and welcome the weekend. Dialogues like 30 years ka experience and Yeh kya ho raha hai? were on everybody lips.

Potli baba ki
A childrens series ..a series of small stories with the puppets. Jhunuu wali.....Kisse aur kahaniyon ka geeton ka dabaa...

Jungle book
The chaddi pahan ke phool khila hai mogli and the jungle characters.

Neem ka ped
*ing pankaj kapoor. Beautiful title song -
"Muh ki baat sune har koi, dil ke dard ko samjhe kaun..Awajon ke baazaron me khamoshi pahchaane kaun!"

Fauji
I never loved Shahrukh Khan so much before and never after, even at the cost of disagreeing with someone special.

Choti Badi baatein
A serial on superstitions. Sulabha Deshpande is shown as superstitious and the whole family tries to prove her wrong. The way they try to prove it was hilarious.

Circus
Shahrukh Khan again. Son of a circus owner who comes back from USA and is forced to take control of a failing circus. It had Renuka Sahane playing Shahrukh's love interest. She was very young then. Her smile was beautiful then too.

Nukkad
The best and most loved serial of all times. A set of characters on a Nukkad (street) and their everyday life and experiences provided laughs and sometimes even made us cry. I think the stories were directed by Aziz Mirza and Kundan Shah. Character includes Guru, Kader Bhai, Tambi, Ganpat Hawaldar, Ghanshu Bhikari, Hari, Teacherji, and many more. The theme song was great too Bade Sehar ke ek gali mein basa hua hai Nukkad

Kahan gaye Woh Log
Late Sunday Morning drama about heroes of freedom struggle.

Mr. Yogi
Mohan Gokhale plays Mr. Yogi who comes to India in search of a bride. Om Puri plays Sutradhar who directs the story of Yogi. The story revolves around Yogi and his search for a perfect bride. The ending episode had Yogi marrying Om Puri's daughter. 13 episodes and 13 girls. Hilarious.

Mungerlilal Ke haseen Sapney
Hilarious. Raghuveer Yadav as Mungerilal who day dreams. The common thing in all his dreams was this heroine. He always dreams about her. His dream always starts with twitching of his eye.

Wagle Ki Duniya
The problems and everyday life of middle class man called Wagle. I think it was designed on R K Laxman's Common Man

Mahabharat
"Mein Samay hoon". Never has "time" been so popular. And after seeing such a wonderful making, I doubted myself why I used to see Ramayan. Better in directions, special effects and execution than Ramayan.

Malgudi Days
The serial based on stories of R K Narayan. The stories were really good. I think it had a south Indian director. The serial became interesting after Swamy joined it. The theme music changed from the slow Ta na na tana na na na to a fast paced track with Swamyyyyyyyyyyy being yelled in between. Swamy was the best and I think the first serial that dealt in growing up of a child and the story was told from the child's perspective. Girish Karnad plays Swamy's father. . I don't remember how the story ends. I still remembered Swamy acting as if he was sitting on a horse and then the horse taking off. Incredible. The name of the boy was Manjunath, right?

Indradhanush.
A science fiction serial starring Akshay Anand. Somewhere it's written the small boy in the serial was Karan Johar. It was something to do with time travel. They travel to the time of independence struggle and then travel forward to 2035 (I think again). A nice serial

Space City Sigma
Featuring Milind Soman or was he in Captain Vyom? The serial was inspired by Star Trek. The hindi made it confusing. I think it was directed by Ketan Mehta. A copy of Star Trek but that time I had no clue about start trek.

Tenali Rama
The serial was hindi, the setting was south Indian and the theme song North Indian Baale bale bale tenali rama. Although very much popular, it ended very soon.

Neev
I liked the serial very much. It was based in a hostel and they had all these different houses and the rivalry between houses. The serial use to come on Sunday afternoon. Amit Kumar sang the title song, Dharti par Suraj ki kirne….. then something something and then Neev rakhe vidyalay ki

Byomkesh Bakshi
One detective serial and me and Ajay were so obsessed with it, that inevitably we used to see it and discuss on each episode for hours even during our 10th board exams . Based on some Bengali character, it had Rajit kapoor playing the lead. The characters were lot similar to Sherlock Holmes with also a Dr. Watson.

Firdos
I liked both the villian and hero (asfraf) in this. It was shown in a different way and also presented Pakistani's view about their fight in Kashmirs.

Ulta Poolta
I was in school those days and before going to school, I use to watch TV every morning. Ulta poolta was kind of filler for DD morning programs. Jaspal bhatti's wonderful debut on television. Had a funny theme. Uuu uuu ulta poo poo poolta. Ulta ehhhhhhhhhhh poolta ehhhhhhhhhh Quite early around 7:30 in the morning. DD had just started the morning slot.

Flop Show
Jaspal Bhatti's stupid comedy. He pulled up anyone and anything. Corruption, politician everything. His real wife played reel wife too. Had his own set of actors. A complete mockery of many things and that too on the government owned channel.

Mirza Ghalib
Naseerudin Shah as Mirza Ghalib, the famous Urdu poet. Gulzar made this as a tribute to Mirza Ghalib. Gulzar also wrote a book on the poet. I was small then and didn't have a ear for poetry. So did not watch that much. I recently got the set of episodes from eknath...a trip back to memory lanes.

Bharat Ek Khoj
Based on Jawharlal Nehru's book, Discovery of India. Directed by Shyam Benegal, Roshan Shet played Jawaharlal Nehru. Good. Sometimes heavy, it traced India history from ancient time. Oz remembered the song Shrishti se pehle satya nahin tha, Asatya bhin nahin, Antariksh bhi nahin tha, Pataal bhi nahin...Chupa tha gyan kahan, kisi pata tha..." Thanks Oz

Dekh bhai Dekh
Anand Mahendru's fantastic serial. A bit of slapstick but wholesome entertainment. Shekar Suman, Farida Jalal, Naveen Nischal, and many more. Liliput was a added attraction. Remember the line by Liliput Dekh bhai dekh Sameer bhai

Surabhi
Siddharta Kak and the beautiful Renuka Shahane. The real meaning of Colgate smile is seen here. The program shoped the tradition and culture of India. It showed India like it was never seen before. Renuka Shahane was later replaced by Iravati Harshe, who also did a good job. I think it was the longest running cultural magazine on television.

Shreeman Shreemati
Rakesh Bedi, Reema Lagoo and Jatin kanakia with Archana puran Singh. A story about a married man who has a film actress as a neighbour. Mostly slapstick. Funny. Remember Dilbura uncle..

Sach hai mahaj sangarsh hi

Recently came across this beautiful hindi poem 'Sach hai mahaj sangarsh hi' written by Jagdish. Those who have studied 10th in CBSE board (around 93 batch) and remember Swati (Hindi text book for poems), might be able to recall this. It has been one of my best inspiration ever since.... perfect lyrics, so deep in their meanings that you cann't stop appreciating it.
Here it goes...

Sach hum nahin, sach tum nahin,
Sach hai mahaj sangarsh hi!

Sangarsh se hat kar jiye to kya jiye ki hum ya tum,
Jo nat hua wo mrit hua jyon vrind se jarhkar kusum,
Jo laksya bhool ruka nahin,
Jo haar dekh jhukha nahin,
Jisne pranay path maana hai jeet usi ki hui,
Sach hum nahin, sach tum nahin,
Sach hai mahaj sangarsh hi!

Aisa karon jisse na praanon me kahin jadta rahen,
Jo hai jaha chupchaap apne aap se ladta rahen,
Jo bhi preesthethiya mile,
kaante chube kaliya khile
Haaren na insaan kabhi, hai sandesh jeevan ka yahin,
Sach hum nahin, sach tum nahin,
Sach hai mahaj sangarsh hi!

Humne racha aaon humhi abb tod se iss pyaar ko,
Ye milan bhi kya milan, jo mod de majhdaar ko,
Jo saath phoolon ke chalen,
Jo daal paate hi dale,
Wo jindgi bhi kya jindgi, jo sirf paani si bahin,
Sach hum nahin, sach tum nahin,
Sach hai mahaj sangarsh hi!

Sansaar saara aadmi ki chaal dekh hua chakit,
Par jaakhkar dekhon drigon me sabhi hai pyaase thakit,
Jab tak bandhi hai chetna,
Jab tak hridya dukh se ghana,
Tab tak na maanoonga kabhi iss raah ko mai sahin,
Sach hum nahin, sach tum nahin,
Sach hai mahaj sangarsh hi!

Apne hridya ka satya apne aap humkon khojna,
Apne nayan ka neer apne aap humkon poochhna,
Aakaash sukh denga nahin,
Dharti paseeji hai kahin,
Jisse hridya ko bal milen,
Hai dhyay apna to wohin,
Sach hum nahin, sach tum nahin,
Sach hai mahaj sangarsh hi!!

Here is the link for the hindi version -
http://www.anubhuti-hindi.org/kavitayen/jagadish.htm

The Great India

Last saturday our group (snehnidhi) organized a collage competition for the street kids at Herman day care centre at, Shivaji Nagar station. "Mera Bharat Mahaan" was the obvious choice for the target. Ani and Poo organized all the show with Amit being the main logistics person right from scissor to gum. I should say that children were more than enthusiastic. They looked professional in their true sense, picking up the best of the pictures reflecting their interests in various things. Like one guy was after pulsar big time, one wanted all cricket starts to be on the board inluding Steve waugh and I'd to control another who seemed fanatic about the movies :) Girls were more sincere and creative. Poo group came out to be the best because they had selected best of the images covering most of the aspects of our country. Our group was the first to finish but out of sheer enthu had included a bunch of foreigner in depicting the great heritages of India. After a long time, I got to participate in such kind of event. This wasn't all...we got to see one more hidden talent of the girls there. Candle making...The picture says it all.
Overall it was a fun day and the bright one with all the smils on those faces.

Looking beyond the glasses

Thursday evening, all of a sudden I started having stress in front of monitor and the next day I found myself sitting in a clinic waiting for the doctor to come. And then my eyes met with the random alphabets in different sizes placed at a distance from a chair, on which I was supposed to sit and read, in presence of the doctor.

It took me in the memory lanes years back when I was in my 10th standard, and I found myself sitting with my dad waiting for my turn to come for an eyes checkup. I was having severe watering problem and I knew seeing my condition, a recommendation for specs were inevitable. But in no case I was going to accept it. I just culdn't imagine what will my friends say after seeing me with specs. Typical problem with teenage. I obviously cudn't bribe the doctor, and he definitely couldn't understand my problem, even if I had dared to explain it in presence of my dad. And in this helpless situation, those small, big alphabets flashed in my eyes and I knew what am I going to do. Next 5-10 minutes I spent in remembering them by heart in those particular orders. When my turn came, I was so confident in reading them, that doctor found himself with no option but to perscribe just some medicines. This is how I got my first escape from the glasses. Just the reverse happened in my 11th standard. I had a chapter in my English curriculum 'Looking beyond the glasses' where the author narrates his first time experience of wearing the spectacles in the most beautiful manner, portraying it like best ever happened thing in life, and soon I realized I was dying for it. But my eyes won't betray me this time and I never got the chance.

So thinking, this is my chance to see the world thru specs, I was all excited. But doctor just advised me to use anti-glare screen and some eyes exercise for a couple of weeks. Today morning I went for the first exercise. It was sort of funny. I was shown a boy and a girl with a tree in between and asked to rotate some screw till I can see two trees. I rotated it till the end, yet there was a single tree. Dr. insisted, it should be two. I was about to suggest her, there are other ways to make a thing look two or three;), if that's the hardcore requirement. Anyway I 'njoyed it. But in the evening also it happened like that and she told me that I have a vision better than normal people, so no exercise for me :( Seems like I'll have to wait for some more time. But I've managed to order for the antiglare glasses in this whole episode. Happy Seeing!

Story of money

When I was in 5th, 6th standard, my class teacher used to get a salary of 300 Rs per month. I remember once him flashing 3 new 100 rupees note in front of me with a proud mentioning of his salary. The senior most teacher was getting paid 550. You can guess about the rest. I knew from my civics book that President of India is the top most authority of the country and he gets paid 15 k per month. My neigbourhood barber used to get paid 1 rupee 50 paise for my haircut, that too after a lot of scolding from my m'om that he hasn't done it right. The icecream with cocunut was 10 paise and w/o coconut 5 paise. The guy who used to sell it could make 7 to 10 rupees a day in the peak season. Yet they were all happy. So I never felt that money is too important a factor in life.

As I grow up and we shifted to Delhi, I saw that people have more money than what I thought is required. They even have washing machine, car and vcer. It took me a while to realize that they actually need it to live comfortably. Moreover my school fee there was almost double the monthly sal of my class teacher, and milk was costly too. So I had to revise my view on importance of money a little bit accordingly.

When I joined college and stayed in hostel, my monthly expense was between 1500 to 2000. An extra 200 or 300 bucks were luxary as I could buy a jeans or t-shirt from tank road. That time I thought 5k should be a decent amount for a person to live a comfortable life.

I heard people saying that Govt. jobs are best paying and most secured. Moreover you don't have to worry about work. But whenever I had a chance to interact with such people in different offices, I developed a sort of disliking for their profession and a pity for them because they had lost their relatedness to others, in order to keep themselves in the rat race just to get few extra bucks in bribe.

I started my career with a pay of 8k, out of which I was getting only 5 in hand; but I was able to save substaintial amount. An extra 3k, and a subsequent hike was a sweet dream going to be true after 6 months. Life was beautiful even then with the same level of comfort feeling. 25 k was the max I could think that I should earn after years in order to have a sense of fulfillment in my career and to do everything I want to do in life.

Now when I have excelled in my field and getting paid much more than what I really can spend, I am still poised with the same problem. To what extent I should run after money. Now I understand the question is not how much I do need, but more like how much am I worth for, and the striving always has been to increase the worth for self.

Whatever way it'll go in future, one thing I've seen that mind has the amazing capability to stretch and shrink itself to give you the same level of comfort and joy, irrespective of how fat or thin is your pay cheque. The only thing that matters and vary with individuals is the duration in which it's able to adopt. Signing off with these thoughts....

A World of Silence

After a long wishful thinking and considerable efforts, finally I was able to time myself for vipasana. When I heard about it for the first time, I was simply fascinated by the idea of spending 10 full days in a perfect silence and the experience of something beyond mind by keeping aside the language. The manifestation of the fact that the world around us is nothing but a creation of our own language and that it exists nowhere but only in our minds. It's like for a fish, getting an experience of water outside the water.

Anyway, I better tell you how it went. After an initial struggle I became in harmony with the daily routine there. The place was perfect. Nature was at its best. I even saw a brown rabbit in the vicinity of campus playing fearlessly. There were people from all over the places but non-existing for me. I even couldn't ask my roommate whether he wanted the lights on at night or not. When on the 10th day we broke our silence, there're hardly words coming out of everyone's mouth and we literally stood there laughing at each other. We laughed like mad remembering all the occasions when we wanted desparately to tell something to each other but had to avoid. One thing more I thoroughly enjoyed was the simplest of the food served to us, may be because it was served in limited amount and more 'coz there was nothing else to do while eating.

Coming to learnings, there were a lot. Its like getting a glimpse of the balance while learning to ride a bicycle for the first time. You cann't communicate it except reflecting it through your confidence of having a control and experiencing something you didn't know exist for you earlier. Those who wants a sincere break in life and believe in a world beyond mind, definitely a place to go...

Joe Satriani live @ mumbai

Joe Satriani was in amchi mumbai last friday and he rocked it in style with a capital R!! I was the last minute pile up with Krishna and Mak. Thx to Ruzan for opting out. We stood in queue almost an hour before and managed to get in the 4th row. Actually after the front row, every place was same. He came on stage in the black shades around at 7.00 with his guitaar and only stopped at 10.00 pm after 3 hours of continuous rock, blues and whatever the hell he does with his guitar. It felt like the guy makes love to his guitar. This is what Mak has to say about the show:

It was a nite to remember ... to cherish ...
The GOD himself had come down to the MMRDA grnds Bandra mumbai ... to enthrall His mortal audience with a music which the blind could see ... the deaf could hear ... music which could pump life into a corpse ... The 8000 strong crowd waited patiently for 2 hours before the schedule just not to miss a single "see", a single "hear" from the cool goggle clad, shaved head GOD.
The show started with "Up In the Sky". The ticket money that we paid ... got over on this very song ... and O' boy who knew that there were 19 more tracks to come .... Then came the cooolest song .... my favourite ... cool as a breeze, COOL # 9. By the time He played "Flying in a blue dream", we were already out of this world ... in the GOD's durbar ... "the heaven" :)
This is the divine creature who has professionally taught "Metallica", "GnR", Steve Vai ... and the like ... who themselves are considered to be the Gods of music !!! The other songs that we had the extereme privilege to listen were - "Is there love in space", "Starry night", "The Mountain song".
And last but not the least ... the penultimate one - "morrocan sunset" followed by the laaast "Psycho monkey" !!! What a show it waaaas !!! killing performance ... No wonder they had scores of ambulances lined up outside the stage ... :D
But was that the End ???????????? NOOOOOOOO WAAAY !!!!!!!!!! the worshippers wouldnt just let the GOD leave like that !!! The worshippers kept chanting "more" "more" .... Their penance was answered ... and the GOD reappeard !!!
So, finally ... last but not the least .... the penultimate one ... again my fav - "Surfing with an alien". Phew !!!!!!!!!! what energy ... equivalent to a 1000 atom bombs exploding inside of u !!! And the last song ... "Friends" left us gasping for more !!! That brought to an end, a show which I would rate the best till now ... A show the memoirs of which would last for 7 of my lives ... A show for which I have already sinned by putting it into words ...

Mak did recording of almost all his songs with his friend's camera. I also managed to take some cool pictures heading my camera over the dancing shoulders. Mak was rocking like someone in true love with Joe, and so was the girl standing adjacent to him. She got so impressed with Mak or may be with his camera that she gave her phone number and asked him to be in touch. So if mak is not in office during weekends, you a reason to doubt. And if someone needs the phone number, Mak stored it in my cell phone :)

After the concert we went to Mocha...a nice joint with some cool sitting arrangement. The best part was the flavoured tobbacco less hukka which we enjoyed with a competition of who makes the perfect smoke rings.

Something to Cherish...

It was a pleasant surprise to do a search of my name in google when I encountered this link...

http://www.freshpatents.com/Mangal-Sain-NewDelhi-invdirs.php

Atleast now I have an identity on world wide web. Cheers!!!

Now or Never

"Life is what happens to you, when you are busy making plans for your future"
What a profound statement! So simple yet captures the whole intricate fact of life. This is how my life is going on. So I started wondering exactly how much time in my day to day routine I actually live in now, and do I cherish those moments.
The later part was easy to answer. Absolutely!! Former is hard to recall... May be a little bit in the morning hours, when I stand at my patio to greet the sun and smell the air, before the mind catches up with what all things to worry about for today. May be when the fragrance of ginger comes out of the morning tea and passes through my nostril admist of rain droplets. May be when someone on the way greets me with a smile, or when in our mill creek I see ducks stretching out their wings under sun and jumping in water at a gentle noise. Or after an exhausting workout, when i simply lie down and catches up with my breath. At work, when I am actually working instead of thinking or discussing about working. On my way home, when its dark pitch and I am driving on an empty road and humming a song not bothering about who is listening to it. A couple of similar times here and there.
Except for these moments I see my mind constantly working like a cluster of hyperthreaded servers with much advanced page ranking algo than google and fastest cache retrieval and memory storage system..Even while i am writing this, I can see my mind searching for right words, rephrasing the contents to make it more presentable for someones reading in future.
And then I wonder...."What is life full of cares, if we have no time to stand and stare"

Atlast...

Back to my college days, I still remember my friends who were envious of seeing me in a relaxed mood during exams, making an earnest wish to God for granting me atleast one supply (backlog). As there is an old saying in Hindi 'Bhagwan ke ghar me der hai, andher nahin', finally it came true for me also. And not only once. It happened when I went here in US for 'behind-the-wheel' test for my driving license.
First time when I went there, I had no clue of what was expected out of me. It was sheer enthusiasm that drove me there along with Sumi. The system here is very organized and within minutes I was in queue sitting alone in car waiting for my turn to come. It was the same kind of experience as someone must have felt while going to the consulate for the visa stamping. Like, 'Oh God, let me get a liberal examiner who hasn't started the day with a quarrel at home' ! I was greeted by a fat lady, who didn't bother to acknowledge my pretended smile. It was clear that I am not going to get any bonus for a P.R, so I straightened my curves. No wonder, I ended up with a mistake in an attempt to impress her with my overcautious drive ( I slowed down and did a shoulder lookup for right turn while the signal was green.)
This is how I got my first supply of my life. I consoled myself that atleast its going to make some people happy and will reaffirm their faith in God. May be kar or schn might throw a party too. And much to their delight, I repeated the same story in my 2nd attempt too with the only difference that this time I did the reverse mistake at the same right turn.(I didn't make a full stop at red signal for the right turn).
And finally, I made my last attempt with little hopes. This time atleast I was confident not to repeat the same mistakes. The time since the examiner entered the car till she asked me to park it, I was kinda robot just following her instructions. When she started counting the circles on my evaluation sheet, my heart beats were loud and clear. 12, 13, 14..and so I am not gonna make it this time also. But like a good hindi movie end the counting stopped at the last savior point...and here I was finally with a P on my sheet and big curve back on my face.
Guys, system in India is definitely much more advanced and sophisticated for these things. I got my licence at home without need to do anything :) Anyway for those of who are unlucky like me in their earlier attempts, here are my 2 cents - 'Go for the next attempt' .

Fundas@DCH

I found this an interesting fwd talking about the learnings from movie 'Dil Chahta hai'. Personally I liked this movie a lot and agree with all of these...

*Freaking out and enjoying life doesn't need drugs or cigarettes.

*There are relationships apart from bf/gf, marriage, siblings, friendship or Sex that can be very emotional and true. which is beyond the understanding of many people.

*And yeah even though u may be the best of friends there is always a limit which shud never never be crossed. Then it starts hurting...

*Improving ur imperfections after you realize it, always take some time.

*You always don't need to show or prove your gf how much u love or care about her, which can sound very boring and finally u r dumped.

*Believe in Love, true love will never let you down.

*Never be ashamed to go back to your old friends,friends are there to understand your mistakes.

*Whenever you need your friend , remember that he is just a phone call away... distances can't separate friends

*What a woman wants in life is some one who can make her smile. Be true in all your relationships, be it friend, wife, or a stranger.

*In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

*It's the friends you can call up at 4 A. M. that matter.

*The only unchangeable certainty is that nothing is certain or unchangeable.

*Happiness is an attitude. If you are used to being unhappy, even in the best of situations you'll still grumble and be unhappy. Nothing can make you happy in the world.

*The best kind of friend is the kind you can sit on a porch and swing with - never say a word, and then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you've ever had.

Memorable Moments

I have experienced it at times, and these are some of my memorable moments of life. The moments when the mind stops playing havoc and dances in tune with the heart. The moments where the rationale of things are gone, and all that left is a zest to do the things and the submission to its course. The moments when the thoughts stop, and the spirits begin. The moments when the existence of self ceases and the experience with the life conceives. This is what I term as love and the energy that goes with the life. Here are some of those moments from my treasure of memories that you may cherish...

- To listen to my favorite song in the FM while waking up in the morning.
- To have a ginger tea with samosas on a rainy day.
- To get a head massage from my sis at the cost of her scoldings.
- To wake up and realize it is still possible to sleep a couple of hours
when I was having exams in the Morning.
- To start studying just couple of nights before exams hoping to get passing
marks and getting unexpected results.
- To pass a while with my best friends when time is not permitting us to do
so.
- To see an old friend again and to feel that the things didn't change.
- To see both sun and moon together and clouds in between them just next to
my plane window.
- To look at an evening with all its beautiful colors on a sea beach.
- To find mails by the hundreds after returning from a vacation.
- To say something that doesn't mean anything at the moment and later on
discover a special meaning to that.
- To hear a song that makes me remember someone special.
- To know that a 50%(from my side) crush can turn into 51%.
- To wait for audience to stop applauding so that I can continue my talk.
- To take 3 semester exams of MBA in a row without any preparations
beforehand.
- To see the expressions of the prometric centre incharge when he looked at
my scea result card.
- To watch one of the old movies (Anand, Golmal, Bawarchi..) and recall how
innocently I used to get inspired from them in my childhood.
- A close conversation with a good friend while taking a stroll, while
sipping a coeffee.
....the list goes on.

Those who happen to read this, I'll be glad to know some of yours...