Guest Appearance (Ku)

Today we have a guest appearance here. The guest appearance is going to read us a poem, which has been composed for the host.

---------------------------Start---------------------------

I have a friend, his name is Sudeep, :)
looks really cute, and talks sooo sweet!
Has innocent eyes, and tells charming lies
when talking to him time just flies.

He's always there for me
morning or night
when he is around, everything feels right.

A bit naughty n quite a flirt. :D
Has a heart of gold, and no one he hurts.

Hardworking, honest , intelligent ( super intelligent :D) and kind
Another one like him is impossible to find!

Humble, shy ,a modest guy
has an awesome smile
that makes everyone sigh!! ;)

He's caring, loving, such a precious one!
every moment with him is full of fun.

He says all these funny and witty things
and tells me sooo many stories
Cheers me up everytime and
I forget all my worries.

He really amazes me and makes me wonder...
How does he put up with me!!
Given i am such a blunder!

I say the stupidest of things and get all filmy :P
And then i think... this time he is surely gonna kill me!! :P
So I ask him,Sudeep.. :- i m sorry..did i bug?
And he smiles sweetly, n gives me a hug :)
Still not convinced i ask him , did i waste your time?
He smiles again, n says of course u didnt, :) the pleasure was all mine. ( One of the charming lies i reffered to.. ;) )

Every passing day, to me he becomes more dear
So far away, n yet soooo near :)

No matter how hard i try, words i cant find
To tell you about this sweetheart of mine.

It really scares me when i think about the time
when our lives will go seperate ways,and will share no rhyme.
Wherever we may be,come what may
forever n ever safe in my heart, these memories will stay.
And for him to be always always happy, i'll pray...

---------------------------END---------------------------

(Applause). WoW. Thank you so so much for this wonderful unique gift. No words could justify my gratitude.

The Best of Monsoon

After getting soaked up in the Bangalore rains twice in less than 24 hours, and one of them being very unique experience. I think i will pen down my best 3 moments WINNERS of the monsoon season and some consolation prizes.

What happened yesterday can't make to the top three but is definitely but a mention. Many times in the movies we watch that in rains, someone standing near a stalled vehicle asking for help. Something very similar happened last night (24-10-2008 : 01:15 AM), people from Bangalore can draw clear picture. On the airport road there are many low lying areas where are heavy rainfall, water gets logged before being eventually sewage off. So we were out towards the KempFort pizza hut (definitely not for pizza), while coming back, our Lancer had to go through some of these water logged low lying areas. Given the appalling state of the car, it stalled near the HAL main gate. So here we are, 3 of us pushing the 100-kg dabba (read car) on the airport road in a hope that it would start some time sooner. For 5 minutes this drama continued, after which all of us were all soaked up until the engine roared.

Now jumping to the rankings at once. Presenting before you, my very own,

The three best moments of the monsoon till date : Starting with the second runner-up

--------III--------  

This one is not exactly amidst heavy rains. In my 10th standard I used to go for maths tuition in arera colony,Bhopal. One day after a heavy downpour I and one of my friend, abhishek nema, were returning back to our home. Everyday we, sort of, used to compete on who will reach nutan college first, which by the way was tiring, considering the Bhopal heat. But the rain that day made the race exciting as ever, not only because of the cool breeze but also because of a naughty prank which you can play of rain laden leaf branches. As we cut through the traffic in the area of charimli, which is densely covered with trees. Every time I got to the lead i used to pluck one of the branches and run, as the one behind had no idea of it used to be the victim and the droplets on leaves used to provide a perfect downpour. Also as we know the real rain fun is to get wet yourself, so many times we traded the roles and got wet. The playfulness, naughtiness, carelessness makes this the third most memorable moment of the monsoon.

--------II--------

Probably everyone wants to enjoy the first rain of the season. I also did, until an February evening with kukku. I can't assure that it was the first rain of the season, as it always rains in Bangalore, but it definitely was the first weekend evening when some of us where free. Somewhere around 3 it started to drizzle, by 4 the rain caught some real power. As many don't bathe on weekend, but I had to do on this one at least. I got a crazy thought of, you know, get out aimlessly roam around get all wet and no one to scold after. But all crazy ideas remain ideas unless you execute them, and for something as crazy as this, i needed an accomplice. Well, Hanish (aka kukku), turned himself in for the job. So for next 50-60 minutes we were walking, running, talking, screaming, shivering - more importantly without any purpose - aimlessly. The feeling was superb and the feat exceptional. I congratulate kukku and me for the second spot.

--------I--------

In comes the champion : Well this has to be related with sports. In past I have been part of many football and kabaddi matches in rain, but never ever i enjoyed so much as in this one. My first durga pooja holidays in IITR, in our colony, Danish Nagar, we had a good distinction between when to play cricket and when to enjoy football. One of the evening, free from pooja activities I get time to go to the only ground where we play everything. Today it was football, and that too a special match. All college final years versus the rest. Some 10 college final year students formed a team, and on other side we were, 2 college first yearites, 3 from twelfth stnd, 2 from eleventh, and some 6 from 10th and below. Soon after the match started in came the rain, just like ones we see in EPL, as the rain grew strong, so did mud on ground. By end we won emphatically 12-3 with me scoring 6 of them. Also we were covered with mud from toe to face. The best part with rains is you can always clean yourself before heading back home. But when I reached I was in surprise from my mom. Someone from the colony called my home and told her about all these. But in all the masti the experience was first of kind which lead me to so many more rain soaked matches.

The one definitely missing and would make to the top the table has to be a romantic one, pyaar huya ik-raar huya types scene, or Jab we met - "tumse hi ", still to experience, sigh sigh !!!!!

Travel Guide : Chennai

Travel Guide : Fun, Love, Friends.

After a very successful blog about 14 hours in Mumbai, I think I should give my readers some hands up if they ever wish to visit Chennai.
Tip 1: Drink lots of fluids. [:P]. It’s really hot and you don’t want to get yourself dehydrated.
Tip 2: Keep a notepad, or keep saving the names of places on your cell. You are bound to forget names like tirusuvalum, mambalam, kodambakkam; these are few easy ones which I remember.
Tip 3: Have lot of money, for the auto walas you are their Christmas pie. Astonishingly, you wouldn’t have idea how much to bargain. Buses are too crowded to travel. Local train system is the best. Not at all like Mumbai or Kolkata.

My very own Chennai trip is a collection of few of the very special moments which I will cherish my whole life. First and foremost, I met people who are very dear to me, besides that the biggest worry of me picking a complexion was negated by the cloudy weather for the only 2 days I was in the city. I felt as if the city was alluring me to come again. But there are too many other goodies for grab besides this.

To start off with the trip, I was late from Bangalore to catch the bus. But as all things happen for good, so was this, met a girl at the nearing bus stop. As we shared an auto for 55-60 mins I had an awesome conservation which literally set-up the tune for the trip -> crisp and fun. For newbie at majestic, the bus stand is a fascination in itself and anyone can get easily lost in there as we experienced while going to Wonder-La. But this time I had my previous experience to ask as many bus conductors you can to get to the right platform.

Once I was in the bus, by the way which was running 1 hour late because of the Bangalore traffic, the only excitement left in me was to reach Chennai as early as I could. Lots to my ignorance and innocence I was in for some good spotting stuff. From here on the blog becomes categorized as above 18 for few lines, so all kids reading this part kindly jump off the quoted lines.
"If you are alone in a dark AC bus with everyone sleeping around you, what can make your travel interesting? Any guesses? I hope some of you might have got it right. Everyone's fantasy is to meet some girl on bus have some rocking conversation before you exchange your numbers and continue the story. If not better what I watched has to be in everyone’s (top 3) time pass in a bus travel. How about a couple smooching right in front of you for say 2 hours(not gonna share details with you, after all I paid for the bus fare so I will only have the fun you have all the J part). I may be seen as a desperate frustoo here, but in my view it’s better to sleep or watch other buses overtaking ours. So for about 2 hours I had the best seat in the theatre which was screening a movie which had more stuff and duration than a Hollywood movie. The only problem was the itch in my hand having a digi-cam and could not capture the glorious moments to be shown to you guys." Whatever, no clue when they slept and when I slept.

Finally, I reach the grand bus stop of koyambedu, with only one piece of information to reach Chennai central before 7:30. So excited I was, I was there by 6:45. Waiting in anticipation and happiness of meeting raju. In short we had breakfast, strolled along Marina, saw forbidden kingdom at city centre, some [:D] shopping at Spencer, had jhaal mudi(a famous Bengali snack) too.
Enjoyed all of it, so much that I still have the hangover.
Disclaimer: This part was kept concise on purpose.

No stinginess from now on, at mambalam waiting for Vishal was the most boring time of the trip. As I saw many local trains come and go. Leave me, even they had no idea what all we will do. By THEY I am introducing 4 new faces, Vishal, Sachan, PK, Raju (this one is a different from one mentioned above). From station to the most crowded street of India - ranganathan street, T.nagar - where there are shops as high as 7 floor dealing only in gold where a stretch of some 200 meters took nearly 20 mins to cross. From there to high time - hotel GRT - watching the match between mohali and Chennai. As the clock was nearing mid-night, time to head back to home. Again to the station, this was the part till where everything was planned. It was now when I heard someone mentioning about going to Pondicherry. A wacky thought, who would support that ?, all of us. Pondicherry, 3 hours from Chennai, known for scenic beauty and union territory privileges. A night out after a long time, and this time Counter Strike was not the purpose of that. A beautiful sun rise providing lot of opportunities to click before the sea with scenery as beautiful as ones we used to draw in school (not me off course). [Travel Tip:] While going to a beach, take a spare set of clothes and towel, you have no idea where all places in the body the sand makes in-roads. In all this time of 2 nights I would have hardly slept for 4 hours, it was then when I realized that I have lost my specs. Tracking back the specs from the pics, it seems somewhere along the beach it got lost. After so much of activity it was sleepy, lethargic time after that, eating junk food, sleeping shamelessly. The only way to regain the lost energy.

As I was boarding back for Bangalore, all the memories of the two day trip flashed in front me. Reminding of the events which could not have been more fun filled, which could not have been more touching, which could not have given me any hint that I want every weekend like the one which was just ending.

Riders Riding on Challenged Challengers

8th May, 8 PM, Eden Gardens, Kolkata.
Possibly the match could be seen as the battle to top the IPL group (from bottom). Both the teams are literally strugling to compete with other top-rung teams like that of yuvi's (read preity's) and dhoni's.

The Match
Considering the team capabilities, even the rain god didn't want to torture his followers with a 40 over match. Rather the rain god did his very best to abandon the match. But the sheer amount of money associated with matches just can't make the organisers quit, and that too against a fanatic crowd of eden garden(remember India's 96 world cup semis or the India Pak 2002 test which could only be resumed after vacating the stands). Since the game was shortened I expected excitement levels to grow, atleast that was the logic to shift from 50 overs to 20 overs. If we exclude the slots where dada and wall were out with their weapons (which they use more to defend than to attack), the game was exciting. Just after being shell shocked by those 2 innings, even the blasts of Hussey, Saha and White sounded peaceful. Both the teams had a purpose, to win, but only riders showed that by their fielding standards. Taibu and Hodge showed the everyone how to catch the leather rather than chasing it. Talking about purpose, did the captains showed any ? Atleast DADA did with his immaculate bowling, and a MoM to boost his efforts can't be questioned. But what is with dravid, its obvious that he is not the most ideal person for this format but atleast like others he can try to hit out. No one has held his bat from swinging at the bowlers, most of the credit of 3 overs for 7 runs of DADA goes to Dravid. At the end some superb bowling by ishant and equally remarkable captaincy from saurav helped riders register their third win of the coveted league.

Zeroth Umpire: Thats me
As the number of field umpires have been 3 and DoorDarshan taking the slot of the fourth umpire(remember mandira and charu), so taking the slot of fifth umpire will be making me last on list (which i don't like). So i cheat on the concept of zero day placements of management school I choose to be a zeroth umpire. For this match , I am already bored with the game and writing so much , so I am signing off. See you soon.

More than 4 months and nothing at all here. This has to be height of silence. Once a wise man said, "words are silver, silence is golden" (kuch aisa hi muhaavra hai), by this law I would have made fortunes here. But to my dismay I have gained non-creativenes and more reluctance to write. All because of the omnipresent laziness, there has been so many occassion I could have blurted about. Be it the new year maab(mob) hungama, or the IPL drama. There was so much to write which I thouroughly missed.
I think everyone got my point, and to cut short the blog, from now on I will try to write frequently (I know its a sad news for you).
Just to remind myself and keep writing I blog about what I do the most(no no, no stories for you from my office), watching sports and movies. And as IPL should be in progress for another, i dont know, eraa it seems, with formula1 moving to europe, champion league finals airing from chilly moscow, french open must start shortly too. So I have enough of events to look at give my point of view, which is now rectified by a spec of 0.5.

Home Coming II – The Mumbai Salsa –

Yeh hai Mumbai meri jaan (should be changed to) Yeh Mumbai mai jaan hai …..

After meeting rachit at airport somewhere in the afternoon, and going to his place for a very short time, I hardly spent an hour in the same place till 2:00 in the night, not that we were barred or something, but there was so many other things to do than to sit at home (we also did that for an hour, and played CS on each other’s PC). The first motive was to pacify rats in my stomach, as I had very little since the morning, so we went to near by restaurant, Shiv-Sagar, an average looking restaurant from outside, but it was more than average, atleast in terms of looks and the crowd dining there, but the crowd is like the same story all over in mumbai, in short, fundoo, foki, stylish, even the attitude and style of an 11 year old can give you shivers. I felt as if we are like oldies from 70s. From spaghetti tops, skirts, deep neck tops, shoulder off minis, coloured hair to full make-up on girls to spikes, sleeve less t-shirts on boys, seems as if the junta there defines what are the hot and happening things in fashion ramp. If someone says the dresses in fashion show never make to the road side walks, I will say him to visit Mumbai, and his perception would take no time to change.

Leave apart all these, its show time now, so we decided we can watch the movie WELCOME in a near by theatre, so on the way to PVR we were trying not to miss many things, as we had an look on the Big-B’s abode, pratiksha, and along side to many other such places like the one where Bombay bomb blast took place at ’93 and few more sports complex and 5 star hotels we at last reached PVR, but, but, a holiday is like the worst day to make plans for movie, as all shows were already booked, so we decided to go some site seeing now:

First Stop: Juhu Chaupati, the classic hindi movie setting of hero and heroine walking by the beach on the sunset was on my mind until I reached the place, also I always had these fantasies about a beach, most of them from the serials like BayWatch etc, that a beach is a place where you find sun bathers in minimal clothing, little to anyone’s liking those beaches are non-existing in India, but to my disliking the Juhu Chaupati isn’t any good, with algae all over the sand coast, its very slippery out there, imagine if BayWatch was shot in India, and Pamela Anderson running (in lustful slow motion) across the coast and suddenly she is out of the frame, reason, she slipped on the algae and was lying there flat on the sand, and moreover, with chances of skin infections after 2 weeks the producers should have been forced to replaced her with more rough and tough Indian version of her, with Rakhee Sawant.
But still the best part of the beach are the vendors and their items, where you can spoil yourself with barf ka gola, sev poori, paani poori, and other chats. There it is, first experience with barf ka gola (kala khatta flavour), I learned a new thing I can suck at, it’s so much fun at 15 ruppees. After that, we decided to stroll on the beach, which by the way was also stinking from the garbage, which was dumped there and it was thrown back by the waves. Seriously, there must be something the municipality do to take care of the chaupati.

Second Stop: Bandra Band Stand, strolling across the chaupati we reached rachit’s accommodation where after a short CS stint, we decided to leave for the other type of beach, the one at bandra band stand, this one is different from the chaupati, here there are constant waves hitting the rocks, it’s a lot cleaner, plus one more speciality (which will be revealed later). So to reach bandra we decided to try our luck with the all infamous local train, so the first local train arrives, here we are at the station holding our position like the warriors who wish that they can make in-roads in the never ending human-force of the local train, unfortunately the force was so much that for entire time for which the train halted we were continuously thrown away from the doors. So first attempt was futile and exhaustive, so to regain some strength we stopped by the vendor to have some samosas and lemonade (nimbuu paani), to our bad luck by the time a vacant, less crowded, local came out of no where. Missing this one was evident. 6 minutes later, the third one was scheduled, we have to get in this one, it’s been long that we have acted gentlemen in this game, now its time to be rude and show other what we are made of. Luckily, this one was even more spacious than the previous two, so we had no struggle boarding this time. For someone who wishes to visit band stand, here is a piece of info for you, best bus - 211 goes there, and this will save your 30 minutes which we wasted there for the same info. After reaching the band stand, which by the way is a beautiful rocky beach. Previously I mentioned about some speciality about this place, well have you ever visited Victoria Memorial @ Kolkata, or Ekaant Park @ Bhopal, then you can portrait my feelings easily. It was the same, only enlarged in proportions, and so is the frustration level, when you see 100s of couples in a romantic location in intimate positions, and me with a guy to boost the frustration, leaving aside that the place is beautiful with a view of Mumbai skyline. To end the visit, we decided to visit SRK’s Mannat, well I don’t need to praise it, as it speaks for itself.

Third Stop: If you are thinking, the day isn’t over yet, well it has, now it’s the night time, the time for which Mumbai is specially know for, the night life.
Sudeep: Ab kaha chale ?
Rachit: ToTo’s garage pub chalte hai ?
Sudeep: Kya? yeh kaisi jagah hai ?
Rachit: Tu chal naa…..AUTOooooo….
From outside, it’s just a door, with a WELCOME board in neon flash. Inside, its music, smoke, drinks, and offcourse partying junta, here you can easily order a drink of your choice and ogle at choice of your girl, which are abundant here. And if you are tall and handsome like Rachit you can get few to come with you, just that today he was not in mood (sorry ladies not tonight :D). About the bar, it’s a theme bar with various car parts, number plates and accessories hanging at places. The best, was the volkswagen beetle hanging from the roof at the centre, another innovative item was a wall clock embedded inside a mrf tyre. These things are hard to locate and remember when you have distractions of so many drunk girls :P. About the ogling part, the eye tonic was never short in Mumbai, at the point of landing to the moment I took off; I had lot of eye tonic to keep my ophthalmologists away for whole year. On a mathematical comparison basis,
If, G = number of ogle(able) girls I met in Bangalore in 6 months,
Then number of ogle(able) girls I met in Bombay in a day = 10 G;

Suddenly, we recalled that Anshul (nostrum) was also coming tonight. So we went to airport to pick him, had dinner there in a near by restaurant and reached back home by 12:00 (uhoh 00:00). In no time it was 00:30, and it all started
Rachit: Toh kaha chale abhi ?
Sudeep and Anshul: Abhi ??(aankhen phati ki phati)
Rachit: Disc chalte hai.
Sudeep: Is time Bangalore mai gudnite, sweet dreams, take care, ho jaataa hai.But I was too excited to resist, and we were out again, meandering, enjoying a hell of last 14 hours or so.

Overall, I am too excited by this visit which appeals me to visit again and again and sooner and sooner.
PS: There are other reasons also. [:P]

Home Coming I – The Journey Begins

<11:00>
At 34000 feet and 800 kph (couldn’t feel the speed of the flight at all, except from few jerks at times, its like spending time in a chair and getting bored), what would one like to do, well there are kids who are enjoying after they took the elves christmas caps from the air hostesses. There is this guy 2 seats away who I guess has some breathing problem and doing ramdev baba category exercises to regain in breath in a pressurized capsule to save everyone from the outside 10° C and really low pressure, to make it suitable for the travellers, but seriously isn’t there any solution to the air pressures felt at the ears, those are really frequent and freaky. There is this other guy listening songs on his i-pod, well if it would have been a girl I would have been cursing Steve Jobs the same way rachit did in his blog. So 1.5 hours I will try to write something, and watch few more episodes of F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

Anyways, to start the trip, well it wasn’t planned at first, I was supposed to be enjoying a marriage at Calcutta, but some things don’t go as planned, but once that event was postponed, it was more of necessary to break to visit home, and a way I can use that to enjoy at Bhopal. So, from Bangalore to Mumbai, and then to Bhopal, that summarises the trip in terms of journey, not in terms of fun, which we all will know in coming days, and I don’t have any idea of that. Oh oh the plane is starting to tilt, we are about to reach Mumbai, time to switch off the fun, will resume later……
<11:44>

Resuming with the story, 21^st December was the date when I had to leave Bangalore on a 10:15 Deccan Flight DN-606, as suggested by other I had to leave 8:00 for the airport, so I woke at 7:30 AM, got a bathe, dressed neatly and applied the adidas deo to impress girls and air hostesses. Reached airport well before time and I may be the first one to check my baggage at the counter, the attendant gave me an option of a window seat, which I accepted without any retaliation. Going through several security scans through different sections at the terminal, wasn’t any exciting though. But the fruits of getting up early did reap so early, so many well make-up(ed) faces greeting you from time to time. In short, a early morning visit to lounges should be made compulsory for especially people with poor vision, there is a lot of eye tonic to serve the purpose of the senses, which in a way is refreshing, so much that I didn’t sleep at all in the flight, plus there were these beautiful ladies, called air hostess, in red mini-skirts and white tops wearing Christmas caps was another reason, I wasn’t able to sleep.

On my seventh experience with what “wright brothers” once flew in early nineteen hundreds, I have nothing to do, listening to songs from my collection, adhering to the captain’s directions and highly excited to visit Mumbai, listening to the constant humming of the engine, initially I had this feel that the seats near to the wings will give me an opportunity to look on how the controls work while taking off and landing of the plane, as the captain was checking the controls at start, I knew, I was gonna enjoy this, and infact I did, while taking off, the shape of the wings reminded me of the terrifying fluid mechanics classes (though I got my best grades ever in those subjects, 3 A+ in 3 courses, but I never had an idea HOW). Shifting from Bangalore to Mumbai, in terms of place, or Pruthi to Rachit, in terms of person, the loving part never fell short.

So here after a delay of some 30 minutes I landed on the beautifully built Mumbai Chahtrapati Shivaji airport, where after collecting my baggage, I had a clear instruction to head left where rachit was waiting for me. And there we are @ mumbai, where a great Mumbai bash awaits, so we have the whole day to see places and many many more things awaits us in this Mumbai nagariya.