What Having Fun was... What it is?

Comes from my conversations with few buddies... mix of their and my incidents :)

As a Kid having a cold drink was fun. I still remember the time when my dad used to take me to Indian Coffee House, ordered a Special Dosa for me (with one Kaju, costed 14 Rs. then). He would order a filter coffee and watch me munch on the dosa. And then came the cold drink. Ahaa, that straw and that first sip was awesome. From Gold Spot to rarity of having coke, it was all fun. And yes The Green Boxed Frooti (Rs. 6) was awesome too.

As a kid I loved having an ice cream. Didn't we always dream of a chocobar or a vanilla cup. It was so awesome when I went out with my family to have that. Maybe once a month, maybe once in 2 months. But it was awesome. Arun Ice cream's vanilla cups were the best :)

As a kid I loved ice cream. The best thing was Nirula's. Chocolate was simply the best. They used to give me one after I showed them my report card, and I also got coupon for my birthday :)

Those were the days. Sipping Beer, or whisky at Banshankari's famous hang-outs. Seshgiri or its not so far sister concern (codename: 3 gigolos :)). We got drunk, had chips from some HOT CHIPS, cold drinks from the same store, and then we talked...

and talked

and talked

a movie used to play, a guy used to enter kop-bhavan, 2 guys were always coding something on a red laptop which was hotter than a frying pan, and we ended up playing karaoke with Golmaal or discussing Nihilism, science fiction & indian cinema.

And there are moments which me, and a few others dont like that much, but it gives some sort of fun to others. Like, loud music, dark discos, late night drinking and talking sessions etc etc.

But then like today, there are awesome mornings to cover them all up, from disc-asur to Idli-esh. We had the best breakfast one can ever have to start the day, filter coffee, 5-6 types of idlis, 4 types of dosas, podi with oil, benne (white butter).

I know what kind of fun is best for me, and I will be back soon, as soon as this 2 year thing comes to an end.

Left Behind

Once upon a time, there used to be this colony of around 200 ants. They had been living together, happily for around a year and a half now next to a small river. There colony had the best stocks of food, good climatic conditions in the area, and above all great antz. They were fun loving and used to enjoy each other's company. They had fun in outings, in the functions and even the sports festival which they celebrated. Then came the day of the great rains which continued for a few days. The river overflowed and the ant colony came under threat. A group of 20 odd engineer ants created a bridge for the ants to cross the river safely. Slowly they started crossing & around 150 of them crossed the bridge to move towards safety. Rest were stuck on the island created due to rains & river as the bridge broke down after that. Still the team of around 20 kept on trying to recreate the bridge.

End 1:

Engineers kept trying to reconstruct the bridge with great difficulty. Rest of the ants who had crossed seldom cared. Few of them did, but some of them went away to their homes, some started playing sports- cricket & football & handball, some went for trips, & some just didn't care. Some kept on partying which the ants stuck on the other side used to witness. Even I sometimes attend those parties, & so do the other engineers. Every time the ants who had crossed partied the ants who were stuck felt sad. Few of them sent across signals of reassurance still the ants who were stuck were lost in hope. They were sad, and blamed their misery on fate.

Somewhere in those engineers, I felt really confused, & filled with guilt at times. Why it has to be this way? Couldn't we all be together. The bridge would be completed soon, and all of them would be able to cross, but why this indifference?

End 2:

Engineers got the help from the entire population of ants who had crossed. They worked day & night to help the rest of ants cross the river. The ants who were stuck felt reassured that the all their colony members are with them in this moment when they needed them the most. Although it took time for the bridge to complete still they were able to live through all this reassuringly.

Me and my team of engineers was happy looking at all of us working together in these tough moments.



There can be two ends, I know the way it is shaping now, and I also know the way we want it to end. Lets hope for the best.

कहानी २५ पैसे के बोरकुट की

On all those cycle journeys back from school me, my namesake and few more friends spent most of our time chit-chatting, drinking water from my Milton bottle and taking numerous stops. Strangely each stop and its activity was the same for years.

The school was some 15 mins from our home Krishna Vihar in morning (or even at 10 mins at times), but in afternoon it took us half hour or more. We had 3 stops, first in Yamuna Vihar (water drinking and discussion on girls and on latest Kaands in school stop), Kaveri Vihar Market (detour from our route, chedu's pravachan, his our fascinations of kimberly drummond (different strokes) & ms. winslet of titanic and experiments with sanskrit :)), and finally the borkut stop :D...

Borkut stop was our final frontier of freedom, 1Re coin helping us buy 4 of them, we were usually 3, so one for each and then carefully splitting the final pack in 3 parts. Or mixing borkut with aamkut and imlikut just at 25p :). Borkut is btw a pachak product made from Jungli Ber's power along with chatpata masala (like hajmola). Aamkut is amde form raw mango and imlikut from dried tamarind.

Those were the days were a rupee bought me that much pleasure. Jalebi in those days was Rs. 40 a kg and we were full in 5Rs.

And yesterday whn I stpped out with another of my namesakes we spent 98 Rs for 2 pieces of Jalebi and 2 Pieces of Gulaabjaamun. Oh I forgot 5ml of Rabdi which accompanied it. Felt bad, but world has changed.

And so have we...

Reliving छब्बीस जनवरी

Happy Republic Day. Enjoyed a wonderful morning today at college, all the National Events tend to be extremely pleasing events, and as I felt today if it was not for them, we would completely disconnect from our cultural heritage.

As a kid Republic Day (and even 15th August) used to be super fun. It started a week or 10 days before the D-Day. As a kid and even now I wasn't that performance inclined. So as always I formed the chunk of the neglected extras on the day forming the part of MARCH PAST :). The superstars always were part of some dance, or group song. ( I was part of group song once, last row, because they wanted few guys who were tall in the last row, so far from mic, that no one can hear us. As a chotu child Group songs were occasions when our faced were smashed with Red Colored Circles, and thumb sucking kids we were used to running around on stage with nursery teachers chasing us :)).

March Past practice was fun too, forming queues, using cliched phrases like arre one-arm distance lo na, Physical Education Teacher finding center stage apart from his usual student-thrashing activities etc. etc. Girls who were part of the March Past were a depressed lot too, because most of them anyways were part of dance, the girls who were not, were thoda sort of Tom-Boyish types as people said that time. Then there was the yatra-tatra-sarvatra drummer who was omnipresent during all practices of all kinds. Be it the regular march past routine, morning assemblies, tabla in annual function, any other instrument for annual function. He was the Music Teacher's favorite and was groomed to be a Music Teacher in future, sadly ending as another engineer among us millions :). BTW this March Past was for commoners, the Scouts and Guides were the Elite class, we were just filler items.

The D-Day used to start with Flag hoisting in school with Vande Mataram and ending with Jan Gana Man. Mostly students associated with the main event came to school (yes there was a lot beyond that, not even a part of the march past :)). We got an extra packet of the same goodie kit which we received a day prior to 26th Jan too (distributed among all township schools). Kit consisted of 1 Classic Parle -G (the then 100gm 4rs. to the now 82gm 4Rs.), Poppins (the then Rs.125, not to be found much nowdays, there is another interesting story about Poppins, but sometime later for that), couple of candies/lollipops and even dairy milk at times (used to change every year). Then we sat in a bus and moved to the main ground.

All the township gathered on the Man Sarovar ground, the battleground of our numerous Cricket battles, fistfights, once visited by the great Narendra Hirwani and Sandeep Patil :). The ground was always full on these 2 national holidays and it was great fun to be part of the festive atmosphere.

Most of the attention was always grabbed by Dance performances from across schools, award winners etc etc. The most depressing lot was always that of the March Past gang, who started the proceedings and then stood there for an hour till everyone danced, sang and received prizes. Whatever we did, we stood, got tired etc etc., but we never broke the one arm distance :).

After so many years छब्बीस जनवरी still evokes emotions, but not of that strength. But I am happy these things keep country's culture running for a few more days before the roadie kind of people swallow it up completely.

Also would like to remember the ones who lost their lives on 26th Jan'01 in the Gujarat quake, may their souls rest peacefully in heaven.

Learnings from MBA- Part I

The best thoughts hit when you are sitting on the toilet seat. Suddenly realized how much disconnected from the world I have become sitting there today. Many people whom I talked are nowhere to be found to nowadays. Have missed one friend's wedding, going to miss 2 more soon. Lots has changed, MBA has changed a lot. Just to summarize the learnings from the 18 odd months till now,

- Acads, well remember a bit of Business Strategy, Consult is still fresh, a bit of marketing fundas which have been repeated enough number of times, few of the Finance ka fundas, thats mostly it. Haan, liked supply chain and a couple of visiting faculties too, but thats it.

- Ability to take Stress, or the non-ability to take it. It actually depends on you that how much you set your limits as. I set it very high, to levels which I cant take, and it shows. Its difficult, and you know that you cant take anymore. But just 2-3 months to go...

- Anger Management or the lack of it: For a person who claimed to be Anger Free since Two Thousand Three ( 2-3 instances) the worst part is to abuse daily and shout at other people which is like a ritual to me nowadays

- Networking they said happens in MBA, honestly all your old pals, relatives etc. stop talking to you given the lack of interest you show in them, so its just you and you forever after that

- Sense, or lack of it missing in the Top .01% of the country sitting along with you for 2 years. What else should I tell...

Would be putting down a few more during my final days here. If its going to be like this in work post MBA too, either I would retire in 2-3 years. Or even sooner.

People planning for MBA, dont do it, kills your life.

भेडचाल

बदलाव हमारे अन्दर होता है। बदलाव निरंतर है और उससे रोकने का शायद ही को कोई उपाय होगा। पर क्या मैं बदलना चाहूँगा?

कुछ वर्षो पहले तक मुझे कुछ पता नही था की मैं जीवन मैं क्या करना चाहता हूँ, और आज भी मेरे विचार कुछ स्पष्ट नही हुए है। काम करना क्या केवल एक मजबूरी है, या इसमे कोई आर्थिक लाभों के अलावा लाभ है, ऐसे प्रश्न मेरे दिमाग मैं कुछ दिनों से आ रहे है। काम काजी जीवन जैसे जैसे नज़दीक आ रहा है, वैसे ही मैं थोड़ा उससे घबरा भी रहा हूँ।

प्रबंधन का अध्यन भारत मैं कई छात्रों का सपना है, क्योंकि इसमे पैसे अच्छे है और यह आजकल की नई भेडचाल है। पर मेरा अनुभव कह रहा है की आप जिस अवस्था मैं प्रसन्न रहे, वही अच्छी नौकरी है। प्रबन्धन के पश्चात् आपको इतनी म्हणत करनी होगी की वैसे भी आप ४० की उम्र के बाद कुछ करने के योग्य नही रहेंगे।

तो क्या मुझे चाहिए,

अच्छी नौकरी, अच्छी तनख्वाह और एक बड़ा नाम
या फ़िर कुछ अच्छे लोग, कम चिंता वाला काम, और ठीक ठाक तनख्वाह

फिलहाल तो मैं हमेशा की तरग इस असमंजस मैं हूँ की मैं क्या करू, मेरे आजू बाजू हर कोई जरुरत से ज्यादा एकाग्रित है, सबको साबुन तेल बेचना, बेंको मैं जाना, और संगणक उद्योग मैं अपना जीवन बिताना है। मुझे इन सब से कोई लेना देना नही, मुझे कुछ भी चलेगा। पर मेरे लिए सबसे जरुरी चीज़े है,

मेरे आस पास के लोग, एक अच्छा वातावरण, और निश्चित आराम और अन्य रुचिया पूर्ण करना।

पर मुझे फ़िर लगता है कीजीवन मैंने आजतक उस चीज़ को नही चुना जिससे मैं चुनना चाहता था, बलकी उन बातो के पीछे ज्यादा रहा जो भेडचाल का हिस्सा थी।

यह सब बस कुछ विचार है जो चले जायेंगे, मैं फ़िर इन किताबो और अजीबो गरीब काम के चक्कर मैं डूब जाऊँगा, और रह जायेगी यह भेडचाल, जिसका मैं सदेव हिस्सा रहूँगा।

खेल,इन्टरनेट और हम

कुछ बाराह साल का था मैं, जब मैंने पहली बार भगवान् को देखा, वो नीले रंग का मुकुट पहेनता था अपने घुंघराले बालो के ऊपर, और एक भारी लकड़ी की गदा थी उसके पास, और अपने चमत्कार से वोह दुनिया के सबसे महान गेंदबाजों का नाश कर रहा था. उस साल था विश्व कप के उपलक्ष पर उसने दौड़ो की झड़ी लगा दी थी, और शेन वारने नमक गेंदबाज़ को तो उस महान ने नेस्तनाबूद ही कर दिया था.

पर फिर वोह दिन भी आया, जब कलकत्ता की रणभूमि पर ९१/२ के स्कोर पर वोह आउट हुआ, और उसके बाद कलकत्ता की जनता ने उस देवता के अभाव मैं मैदान को भस्म कर दिया, लोग कहते है वोह शिवजी का दुःख था की उस नन्हे भगवान् के आउट होने पर उन्होंने उस दिन कलकत्ता पर आग बरसाई. पर उस रात मैं सो नहीं पाया, और उन आँखों मैं कही कुछ पानी की बूँदें ज़रूर थी.

१९९६ का वोह साल और मायनों मैं भी ऐतिहासिक था, जब इन्टरनेट नामक तकनीक मेरी दुनिया मैं आई. एक घर्र्र घर्र करते संगणक के सामने बैठ कर आप दुनिया मैं कही भी चिट्ठी लिख सकते थे. हॉट मेल , याहू, और मेरे आज के नाम से जुडी एक पोर्टल काफी प्रसिद्ध हुए.

पर मुझे क्या पता था, की कुछ १० सालो बाद, इन्टरनेट के जरिये मैं उन महान खेल के क्षणों को संभाल के रख पाऊंगा, जिनका इतिहास मैं कोई सानी नहीं, और जो मेरे दिल के बेहद करीब रहेंगे. इसी का प्रयास करते हुए हम कुछ मित्रो ने मिल कर "पेन द गेम" की स्थापना की. इसके पहले ही वर्ष मैं इसने indibloggies पुरस्कार समारोह मैं भारत के सबसे बेहतरीन खेल ब्लॉग होने का गौरव प्राप्त किया.

इस वर्ष भी हम इस सम्मान के लिए नामांकित हुए है, कृपया इन संदेशो का पलान करे, और हमें विजयी बनाने मैं मदद करे..

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