Random images from my flickr stream...

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30/06/07

Class II

Not that it matters but he came first in class in Nursery, KG and First...

Today was the result day and he knew he was going to stand first again in his class... He had not yet been introduced to feelings like nervousness... so we can without a doubt say that it was just a usual day for him...

All he would have to do is go to the class teacher and ask for his medal and the certificate... He had still kept all the last medals and trophies he won in the class, in sports events etc.

So he went to the teacher in the morning... and asked her for the medal... instead of asking for the result... what confidance !!!

And the teacher told her that she could not give him the medal this time...

He did not understand why...

All he remembers today, is that he cried the entire day, not because he came second... but because his medal did not come to him...

29/06/07

T-Shirts !!!



Aro and Subbu, and the story of Tshirts...


YOU HAVE TO READ IT HERE.

From the UnderSigned...

They used to travel in the same bus back from school... She usually was on the window seat on the second row from the back and he somehow or the other managed to either stand near the rear gate in the bus or take the last window seat in the bus...

Looking at her through the reflection of the windows, or through the queues in the morning assembly, or while just walking around in the corridor of the school, or in the lunch time... he spent a few months...

That afternoon he gathered enough courage to tell her about what he felt... he pulled out that greeting card without the envelope, that he had stolen from a shop a week back, wrote some sweet nothings on it and gave it to a friend to give it to her at her stop...

And all he could do when he got down of the bus was run... the fastest he could to his house... and just hope that she liked him as much has he did...

and she probably did not even know who had signed the card...

28/06/07

Lives in One !!!

I have been thinking about all the lives connected with me for the last few days... there has been so much that has happened in the last 28 odd years that I am amused by the variety I have been through...

I am going to attempt to write down some of these incidents from my life or from the lives of people who were a part of mine...

soon..

20/06/07

Calm....


Calm...., originally uploaded by ~OM~ Bhardwaj.

Be the fire within !!!

Fire when challenged...
Light when dark...
Warmth when cold...

18/06/07

BeSt TiMe !!!

275 Kms...

5 hours flat...

With a break of about 45 minutes...

The best I have done on NOIDA - Delhi - Chandigarh Route...

With a few better roads... I should be able to do better... bye bye the Indicas, the Zens, the Taveras, the Qualises, the Innovas, the Wagon Rs, the Indigos, a few Accents, and Ikons toooo :D

I know what being high is... thanks to my CAR !!!

16/06/07

Toughie.....

Its strange how the tolerance level of certain activities, behavior patterns, moods etc is high when its about your friends...

The same thing is not acceptable with lovers, boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands and wives...

Relationships do change people a lot... its tough to be a friend and a lover both to the same person...

14/06/07

The Detached !!!

I am by nature a person who gets bored with certainty and predictability in my personal life...

If I know too much about something then also I get bored and detached...

If I know nothing about something for a long time then also I get bored and detached...

I think if I cannot look forward to something I get bored and detached...

Over a period of the past few years, I have been so much detached with most of the things and people around me that its becoming harder to create strong ties today... and I usually do not feel too bad about loosing out on them... and the result is that people who care about me end up getting disappointed...

Not sure if this will change because as a person my needs, expectations, wants etc are limited and I try hard to ensure that I can take care of everything myself instead of sharing it with someone... If there is a need at times... I would not really try to zero in on one person who would like to hear me out but call up or meet just about anyone to talk to... It works just right for me... or I would just be quiet for a while and let myself talk to myself and hear myself out...

Let me remember a few strong ties that I still cherish for my own sake, today...

~ Parents... Nothing is bigger than them !!! NOTHING... Anything in the world for them, and I do not care if that needs me to give up on everything else in this world...

~ My Car... More then a car she is a trophy for me... A result of my hard work and a true extension of my personality... Likes attention, does not need too much of it.. Is more or less trouble free except the regular service it needs.. Is a slow starter from zero velocity, but once its revved up properly nothing can even think of competing... Technically sound... and almost the best a car company could have made...

~ My camera.. umm.. no, rather Photography... Another something that keeps me happy and how I like to be... gives me the moments I like to see over and over again...

~ Arobindo Sinha... A friend for over 4 years.. Says it, if he does not like it on my face... and makes fun of me if he does like something... someone my parents are fond of too... almost like a member of the family...
~ Narang... The best at handling things!!! A jack of everything and a master of more !!! an inspiration to be better personally and professionally....

~ Mags or Meghana... One of the best creative people I know of since college... Have acted together, directed together, fought, laughed... one of my best buddies...

~ Tushar Goel... Is around when needed... and happy with himself most of the time... He does not socialise much and there have been mishaps that I have seen with him... He might not be one of the most admired people around.. but for me he has been one of the most genuine people to be with...

~ Nimisha Bhagat... One of the best singers I know of... A darling to the core... Has laughed the most on my silliest of jokes and always has been an encouragement...

~ Bharti... Know her for about 2 years now...Sweet smiling buddy who I miss at times for the sparkle in her voice and a chirp in her tone... We have met just 3 times.. And that too for time less then an hour.. But worth it...

~ My group from Hughes... The best people in this world... Almost 3 years that I left the company and people have moved around... still everyone is closer today to each other...

There are many more people/things that have played a part in my life and I can fill pages while talking about them and how they have effected me… but as of now I will stop here only… and wait for a time when I come back to this thought again…

Till then keep reading about something else somewhere or here :)

12/06/07

OF(F) Roads and Hills...

One Friday evening I had asked Tushar, while we were driving around in NOIDA, if he would like to go to Rishikesh in another hour… he almost freaked out and said no…

I told him that this is how I would like to travel sometime... just think and go…

And it finally happened this Friday… I just called up Aro to tell him that he should not go to Vaishno Devi as he was planning because it was too crowded there… and he would not be able to manage over the weekend… and I also told him that I wanted to go out too… and then I told him that he could go to somewhere else and take me along… suggested Patni Top, Amritsar and Mcleodganj to him… He was keen on the hills, so we quickly conferenced Sanjit and decided that we were leaving in another 2 hours for Mcleodganj… So we were three people and we thought that a 4th one would not be too bad an idea…

So I talked to a few friends and Gaurav agreed… but we had to delay our plan by a few hours because he was to come only around 2100 hrs...

I went to Dwarka and picked up Aro and Sanjit… also decided that we were driving down in my car… and then moved to NOIDA… I packed my stuff, cleaned the memory card, took out the new lens, checked the batteries and was all set for the trip… Gaurav arrived on time… and we were out by 2130 hrs…

It was for sure a long way ahead… at least 12 hours… and the route I knew was Delhi- Chandigarh – Ropar/Roop Nagar – Kiratpur – Swarghat – Bilaspur – Mandi – Palampur – Gaggal – Dharamshaala – Mcleodganj…

I wanted to drive all this way, but it would have been very very taxing for me, so we decided that Delhi – Chandigarh is something that Aro would take care of and I do the rest…

I drove till Murthal… and we had the lovely paranthas and then I took the back seat… It was kinda strange to sit on the back seat of the car for the FIRST time in 2.5 years / 40000 kms J but it was kinda fun… Aro is a careful driver, however it still did not make me sleep, though I was relaxed and not getting tired… so good music and nice AC... And a decent speed made us reach Chandigarh in about 6 hours… We were there around 0330 hrs... Aro wanted to see where I stay in Chandigarh so we went to my place… Surprised and woke up my flat mate, took a CD, rested for 10 minutes before I took the wheel again for about 30 kms… Somewhere before Ropar I asked Aro to drive coz I was not really feeling like… he obliged not with a lot of happiness though this time and gave up in another 40 odd kms… We took our third stop at this dhaba (roadside restaurant) around 0600 hrs and had two cups of tea each… first time the cameras came out and a few stills were clicked… This is when the destination changed from Dharamshaala to Mandi, because of the distance we still have to cover.

I clicked Radha’s pics and loved them !!! here is one for you too :)



And now I took over the steering again… and started the most painful stretch of the drive... The road was good from Kiratpur towards Swarghat-Bilaspur-Mandi was good but there were a million loaded trucks on the way in front of us and coming from the other direction too which ensure that we were not moving at anything more then 20kmph for most part of our journey… Overtaking and zooming past saving ourselves from the traffic used all my driving skills and we finally took another pit-stop around 0900 hrs after we crossed Bilaspur.

This is where we discussed all our options right from what we can do in Mandi, to why we should not be back in Bilaspur, and how far was Shimla and Narkanda was a good place to visit, and why the hell did we even come this far… it was fun looking at the book Tushar had given me about Himachal and going through it to find out where we could go after driving for a good 11 hours J

Finally I put a stop to all the discussions and said that we were going to Dharamshaala and that’s IT. And I also promised that I would do that 170 kms which were left in about 4 hours making us reach the place around 1300 hrs.

Then we thought a li’il and decided that we would stop when the clock strikes 1400 hrs and move to the closest place irrespective of where we were…

We were also told that instead of moving towards Mandi –Palampur, we should proceed towards Hamirpur- Kangra – Gaggal route as it was shorter… We later realised that we had taken a very long route to begin with. There were other routes to Dharamshaala which were at least 70 kms shorter… but then the damage was done already…

We stopped about 28 kms before Mcleodganj for a bath in a river… Yes you read it right… We did jump into a small river and refreshed ourselves with that amazing water… this was a good 45 minutes break that all of us needed badly…

We finally reached Gaggal, after which I was familiar with the route, because I had changed my bus from there the last time I was going to Dharamshaala…

And we were in for a very very unpleasant surprise this time… The Road was not there... and was replaced by pebbles… the road was under construction for over 5 kms and it was nothing but pain to drive on that... uphill on a broken road with a single lane… Not the best things to happen to you and your car EVER…

We finally managed to reach McLeodganj around 1330 hrs… Just on time as I had promised the gang… and were shocked to see the amount of cars and people… too many of them... realised in not much time that it was a bad time of the year to come there… Parked the car about 500 mtrs away from the town entry and walked our way through the cars stuck in a jam towards the town… Managed to find a hotel with some difficulty, had food, relaxed for a while… and moved out to clicked pictures…

Managed to go a graveyard in the St. John’s Church about a km away from Mcleodganj and sit there for a while too… It gave me a different kind of peace, which I am going to talk to about in some other post of mine…

Ate, and walked and clicked that evening… Visit my favourite JJI Café and met Handsome there… he is a 2 month old Pup… lovely fur and beautiful puppy… had some food and shakes and moved out… Finally called it a day with some Pasta salad at an Italian food joint and watching some TV…

The next day started @ 0600 hrs for me and Gaurav and we went out to click… While Gaurav decided to head towards the Church again, I moved towards the Monastery. Took some pictures and then headed back to the hotel where I found Aro and Sanjit still sleeping away to glory… Gaurav also came back and we four finally managed to get out of the hotel by 0900 hrs and this time moved into a French restaurant for breakfast…

Roamed around the place for a couple of hours before we decided to move back at 1230 hrs… Checked out of the hotel and walked back to the car only to discover that were was a jam again… at least 50 cars wanted to move out of the town, and there was a similar number waiting to get inside...And that too on a single lane road!!! Phew!!!

The way I had the parked the car, it was pretty easy to turn it right there and I saved at least 1 hour by avoiding being a part of the traffic towards the town. So we slowly stared moving towards Dharamshaala, before we picked up some decent speed about 2 kms away from the town…

We had realised the correct and the smallest route towards Chandigarh and took that this time to move… 245 kms to Chandigarh from Dharamshaala via Gaggal – Kangra – Chintpurni Devi – Una – Nangal – Kiratpur – Roopnagar

The drive was a mix of good roads (most of the time), road under construction (wet and dusty) and no roads (waiting to be under construction). The first pit stop was somewhere around 1430 hrs on a Dhaba somewhere in Himachal. No idea where we were at that time.

Put a few Scorpios, some Taveras and Qualis’, and a Verna to shame on the hills before I reached the plains… Reached Chandigarh… got a Petrol Refill and handed over the steering to Aro but not for long as he was not comfortable on the road between Chandigarh to Ambala... I took the steering back and drove till Karnal before Aro took over again…

Dropped Aro and Sanjit at the Bus stand where they took at auto for Dwarka and reached home finally at 0300 hrs… A total driving time of about 15 hours this time…

Wonderful trip comes to and end…

And I am already waiting for the next one!!!

Some Important information:

Available Routes:

Delhi – Pathankot – Gaggal – Dharamshaala (My first route)
Delhi – Chandigarh – Ropar - Kiratpur – Bilaspur – Mandi – Palampur – Gaggal – Dharamshaala (Second route; while coming back from the first trip)
Delhi – Chandigarh – Ropar - Kiratpur – Bilaspur – Hamirpur – Kangra - Gaggal – Dharamshaala (Route while going; 2nd time)
Delhi – Chandigarh – Ropar – Kiratpur – Nangal – Una – Chintpurni – Kangra – Gaggal – Dharamshaala (Route While coming back 2nd time)

Total Driving distance:

511 kms (Route 4)
585 kms (Route 3)

Food Variety:
Indian; South Indian; Chinese; Italian; French; Tibetan

Accommodation:
Anything between 350 to 1350 per room on a twin sharing. Not many hotels have fans.

Checkout time:
Strict 1200 hrs


I think this has turned out to be one of the longest travelogues I have written… thanks for reading it till the end…

AND, and do Let me know in case you read this line too !!!

Oh... and the pictures can be found HERE

11/06/07

ASKing For More...

I know of many who give up...

I know of many who keep struggling..

I know of many who crib and cry and not do much about things..

And I know of some who get up and make things happen...
And one of these people is Priyanka...


Someone who I was introduced to about 7 months ago... Thanks to another go-getter Deepak...
Priyanka and I worked on a small picture project for ASK in Feb'06. You might want to read about that HERE.


and today, Priyanka managed to complete ASK's website... It was a big and tough task... which needed her to know much more then what she already knew and what Priyanka has achieved almost single handedly, with tit-bits of assistance from friends, is great...


Check out the website here.

God Bless you girl.. you are a rockstar...

08/06/07

Basanntiiii...

Veeru meant that Gabbar and his Goons were dogs...

Basanti took it literally... she thought Veeru was referring to actual DOGS... and there were none around... hence that dance...

Another thought is that Basanti was a trained dancer... she was supposed to dance to get all the film fees...

Plus we think that she felt that Gabbar could bring her a better future then veeru, because of his power, resources, and his ability to get crowds... either by choice or by force...

And Gabbar also knew that she could dance her ass out... he had checked the babe out in a marriage where "wo Bahut Jor Naachi Thi..."

There is so much about Sholey that can be talked about over and over again...

Abhi chalta hoon...

Gotta drive to Dharamshaala....

Adios...

Talking to myself...

Someone said Honesty is the best policy...

:)


And then there are words and sentences like...

Smartness...
I love him, but I do not know if I can marry him...
You cannot say the truth always when you are in a relationship...
Oh, but I cannot tell her this...
I do not know what happened... but i do not know how it happened either...
I was not sure how would you react to this...
I wanted to tell you but I thought you will feel bad about it...
I do not like this about him, but I am not sure if I should tell him...


Its a life of convenience... Isn't it?

06/06/07

The smaller world of Infosys...


Waiting for a ride..
Originally uploaded by IMS-PCG

I was in the Banglore Campus a few weeks back...

Finally managed to upload a few pictures from the walks around the campus...

Check out the beautiful campus by clicking here.

04/06/07

I am not from a ST : What a Shame...

And I always thought Blackmail was criminal...

And in Rajasthan and Delhi there are people who are openly blackmailing the government and the system and also causing pain and damage both mental and financial...

And our government can only stay silent and hold peace talks with the leaders.... why can't we just order for force and make them STOP... is the inconvenience caused to the people and property loss not good enough a reason to put a stop to this senseless shit? oh... they would not... vote bank rules the country here....

What are they asking for? an ST tag... go give it to them... if they get that tag and the reservation these bunch of bastards would at least stop causing harm and letting the entire world know what they really are made of !!!

I wonder does a SC/ST tag in India make someone better that most of the people are now fighting for it?

I am also wondering if the caste system in the country was past or is it OUR PRESENT and FUTURE !!!

03/06/07

Welcome....


My latest toy :)

The Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III USM

Read more about it HERE