A POST One Too Many...

बातें हैं, सब साली बातें हैं...

कहते हैं, फिर भूल जाते हैं !!!

Have you seen Johny Gaddar? No? !!!!! You must... one of the finest movies I have seen multiple times in the recent past...

Ok now, mudde ki baat !!!

Friday and Saturday, witnessed an event that I had been working for, for about 3 weeks now... and it turned out just right... with a few minor errors, that I should have taken care of... but never mind... All is well, when it ends well !!! It was a two day workshop for the members of the Process Consulting Group, who are currently in Europe... a total of 25 participants. Had loads of fun with some serious brainstorming.... It felt really good to play an important part in organizing, and participating and getting recognized for what I am... and my team also won a quiz by a considerable margin :D ye !!!




Oh, and you can write a compliment NOW in comments and continue reading the rest of the post :D NOW!!! :D.. hehehehe...

Though the weekend was super tiring, there was a lot of satisfaction that I was carrying with myself... I should confess that I love attention when I know I deserve it, and have worked hard for it... rest of the times, its not important...

And now introduction to something that I am going to call my own for a long time to come... My new Lens, in fact the second of the two I have bought after I came to the UK...

The first one is the Canon 50mm F1.8 Prime... not many people, who know about dSLRs, would need an introduction to this one... This is a must have in your kit, thanks to its lightweight, excellent optics and remarkable picture quality...

The second one that I bought, came after loads of reading... I wanted to stop using my kit lens and step up to a lens which would give me a wider aperture, and better optics... something that I would be able to use as a walk around lens... And I finally zeroed in on the Sigma 24-70 f2.8 EX DG Macro... This is the closed that I could get to the 24-70L Series at one-third of the price of the God of Lenses... Read at least 500 odd reviews and finally bought the lens about 10 days ago... Did not click much during these 10 days except a few experimentals to make sure that I had taken the right call, and this lens did not disappoint... Beautiful colors, nice grip, and pro looks... It comes with its own disadvantages, but I have a feeling I am not going to feel bad about any of them. This lens looks like something I am going to be very very happy about... Already am, to be honest...



What follows are a few pictures from the New Sigma that I have and then some from the Prime... Enjoy !!!

The green line is a Laser Beam that is initiated from the Royal Observatory, Greenwich after dark... This runs above the Prime Meridian of the World...

And now the pictures from the Crazy Canon 50mm Prime...







Let me end the post with another song that I have already for about 3 times while I was writing this post...

देस मेरा रंग रजिया बाबु,
घाट घाट यहाँ घटता जादू

धुल गुबार मे जंतर मंतर
बाहर से भोला गहरा अन्दर
इंडिया Sir ये चीज़ धुरंधर
जेब दलिद्दर दिल है समन्दर

And now is the 5th time I am listening to this one... and I guess its going to repeat for another 5... love the happy mood of the song... For your information, the Song is Des Mera by Indian Ocean and is from the Album Jhini...

चार दिन की चांदनी...

I am feeling tired right now...

Because of the tiring weekend that just went by... It was kinda nice though... I need to write about it soon...

And because of people who cannot keep their word... An incident, and words pour... another incident, a few more words and a few days later... everything back to where it started from...

Hindi mein kehte hain na... चार दिन की चांदनी, फिर अँधेरी रात... this phrase makes me smile always :) dunno why...

Now, what makes my being tired irrelevent is the good news that one of Bindiya's articles is now a part of IGNOU's Course Material for a Diploma Course in Displacement and has been published along with some big names in the field of Resettlement and Rehabilitation... Good work Girl !!! Murari is proud of you !!!

Isn't it nice that Uncle God usually packages the not so good stuff with something to smile and and cheer for... Thank you God Uncle... Let me be blessed :) ok, a few more people I like as well...

My Friend Speaks...

A friend of mine wanted to speak something... take it out of his system... and did not want to it on his blog...

so the next best stop was "चाय की दूकान"... at least i am hoping that it is that way :)

What follows is his post... and you may want to share your thoughts, opinions etc etc on it... and I will leave it to him to read and react...

"there is a strength in some emotions [or state of mind] that surpasses the face masks that you put on your faces and make themselves visible with an inexcusable brazeness. and yesterday a visit to PVR confirmed my faith in strength that one of these emotions called love has. although it might be a mis-read [given the quality of good photographers and talented make-up artists] but kareena in that poster had a face that had beauty and grace which being in love and made humble by it only could bring. there was this calm on her face, which revolves around pain, that was accentuated by the urge to suppress the turmoil inside. there were words in those eyes that could pierce hearts to core.

i guess love only could bend you and still don't let you feel ashamed about it. or maybe the unfairness of it all makes you a pitied person in your own eyes."

I also have something to say about what he wrote in the last line... but I guess I will keep it for future and not write it now...

Random Thoughts...

Can you think of a painting without color?

Can you think of a recipe without some taste?

Can you think of the sky without clouds?

Can you think of a relationship without expression?

I cannot think of any of the four above... watching Lakshya (it happens to be one of my all time favorites) and hoping that everyone who feels something nice about someone, expresses it like there is no tomorrow...

You actually never know if there is one...

And you might just keep waiting forever... I hope not though !!!

Pass the "Excel" Parcel...

I was wondering how Manish, my MIS guru would feel in the situation I was in for a lot of my time today... When Manish used to work on Excel, he would never EVER use the mouse.. he would remember all the shortcuts... and we could hear his keyboard keys clicking in perfect harmony for most of the day.... and I would never feel any less amazed at how and what he would do to make excel work like magic...

I owe a lot of my excel skills to him... and I see him getting a lot of accolades with his amazing data analysis skills... I learnt how powerful a tool is EXCEL...

and today... I was doing a Knowledge Transfer to someone who has spent a good 7 years in the industry... and had no clue, absolutely no clue to how excel works... even the smallest of things like selecting cells and copying and pasting information... phew... and I was to pass on my Pivot and Data generation skill on that 10MB, 15000 row excel sheet to the person... I struggled with filters, cell selection, moving around in different worksheets on the same file and what not !!! I could not believe I was in that situation...

A true test of patience it was today... and I know its not yet over... there is more to come, because I have a feeling that as soon as I leave the supervision part, the data is going to be messed up !!!

Phew... Uncle God... you listening right? This is critical... I have worked hard on that data and brought it to look like information... cannot afford to lose it...

anyway... back to Excel... and sea of cells...

Ta Tu...

:'(

One of my very very good friends, and one of the best humans that I know on this planet lost his father this sunday... and it made my heart cry :'(

I don't know what to say or what to do... I just hope that Uncle God gives him and his family a lot of strength...

How I wish, I was next to you right now brother... I am sorry that I am not... I am sorry :'(

Me the KID, at times like this... and at times different...

A Friend called me a KID at two different occasions...

At one, it was probably some affection that was coming my way...

and at the other... it was probably a question mark on my maturity as a person...

Its interesting how one word can sound/mean so different at different times... and can make a good amount of sense at both too..

I don't like someone questioning my logic or maturity as a person... I give shit loads of people a run for their money when it comes to being practical, logical and a matter of fact guy !!

And obviously a few people are better than me... which is good... because that way, I can figure out what I can become if I am more logical and practical and all that... thankfully it also lets me figure out if I want to be that practical... I am glad I let a few dreams rule a part of me !!!

Amen to practicality that makes dreams LIVE !!!

oh... and that reminds me... I have a few new kids on the block in my camera bag... need to write about them sometime... Thank you God Uncle... you are the beshtesht !!!

A Few New Colors...

Wish..., originally uploaded by ~OM~ ॐ "FoTo-SoFiCaL" Bhardwaj.

Some fade away, some are new...

A few come back, the ones that stay always are few...


Have a blessed week everyone...

Hope you turn out to be a winner Smart Ass like the dude in the picture above !!! Have fun !!!

What's the Point?

This question at times stares me in the face...

Whats the point?

~ In thinking of a day after tomorrow when you are not even sure what happens tomorrow?

~ In thinking of a dream you have, when you know the reality today is a different world from you dream?

~ In giving yourself a hope, a reason to live through today and tomorrow and day after with all that you have?

Right, whats the point? in trying, if you know nothing is going to happen right away?

I don't know whats the point!!!

and I don't know what to say, when someone asks me this question, Whats the point Prashant?

Thankfully I don't ask this question a lot... I think there is a point... if I believe in something, I don't care if it happens today or tomorrow... I will still give it what I can... I will live with some faith, some hope.. and I would make an effort... and not back off by asking myself whats the point !!!

Today I am closer to a few dreams that have been a part of my days, thanks to not letting this question contol my actions !!!


Thank you Uncle God for making me feel that There IS a Point !!! Just keep letting me hold on to that small thing called FAITH, even if I have darkness right in front !!!

Words and Stills in ONE?

Have been thinking of merging the two blogs that I have...

So everything that goes on Behind the (*-*) Lens will now be posted on Chai Ki Dukaan... and that would mean, atleast one picture in a couple of days here...

thoughts?
ideas?
suggestions?


While you are thinking, here are some of the pictures that flickr thinks are the most "interesting" pictures I have taken...

What makes me happy is that the first picture is from my first trip with the dSLR to Orchha, and the second is a picture that I had taken a looong time back when I started thinking about taking photography seriously... Both of these pictures are very special to me, and I am glad to see them on the top still...

The rest are from a trip to Agra, McLeodganj, Pondicherry, Chattisgarh, Banaras, Moradabad, and Red Fort :)

And what makes this selection interesting is that it has 5 pictures from my trip to Chattisgarh where I went with Bindiya and Manas Da for the PMU Evaluation workshop and 1 picture from Sankalp, Moradabad... I would like to believe that I was at my best when I was doing these shoots for and with ASK... thank you Bindiya and ASK for giving me the best reasons to have a camera with me...

Details :
1. With Age...., 2. Waiting For the Rains...., 3. Wah Taj..., 4. Desires...., 5. I Can...., 6. Dark Windows, 7. My world... my thoughts..., 8. With her !!!, 9. No Matter What, 10. Shadow, 11. Pretty..., 12. A Silent Evening....

Anger Management

amandeep:
main gusse mein hoon.....

amandeep:
tell me some new, innovative way to vent it out

Prashant:
100 bucks ke kaanch ke gilas ke
bori mein bhar
aur hathode se tod de

amandeep:
LOL

Prashant:
aur ek ek karke

amandeep:
now this sounds good!!!

Prashant:
jab tak choora choora na ho jaye

amandeep:
YES!!!!
You're the best!!!!! :D

Prashant:
:)

amandeep:
but usske liye will have to wait till i leave office!!!

Prashant:
oh koi na
achche kaam ke liye wait to karna hi padta hai re

amandeep:
hmmmm.....
koi nahi karenge...
now i hope sham tak mera gussa shaant naa ho jaaye!!! :P

Prashant:
haan sochna
kaise todogi glass
maza aayega

amandeep:
i'm already imagining myself in the midle of that act!!!

Prashant:
super

amandeep:
:)


_______________

And for the guys, make it a point to add the most innovative of the galis while you are breaking these glasses or cups whatever !!!


Anyway, you got a way to vent out anger? Tell me !!!!

Sunday THE 13th with Cirque De Soleil

The weekend did start pretty well...Amazing dinner from receipies from a lot of places around the world, and then two nights of dancing, and one night of getting drunk !!!

What a weekend it was till Sunday...

I knew there was something planned for Sunday evening, but my bugger brother had not told me yet !!! So I knew we were to reach somewhere by 1900 hrs, and I would get late in reaching back home to Horley, and that there was no photography allowed...

What I did not know was, what I was about to see this Sunday, the 13th was

Suppa Duppa, Classy, Marvelous, Incredible, Astonishing, Splendid, Beautiful, Fantabulous, Magnificent, Brilliant, extraordinary, fantastical, terrific, tremendous, unreal, unusual, wonderful, wondrous, astonishing, awe-inspiring, awesome,awing, impressive, surprising, intense, irresistible, errorless, faultless, flawless, chamatkaran, mahe-surr, kamaal, fabuleux, fantastique, adbhuut, azab, gajab, mukkamal, Fantastique , Fantastisch, Fantastico , Überraschen , Stupore , Überwältigen , Sopraffare , Perfetto , imaginative, implausible, incredible, insane, extreme, excellent, fascinating, incredible, marvelous, prodigious, shocking, stunning, surprising, unbelievable, wonderful, astounding, bewildering, breathtaking, extraordinary, impressive, marvelous, miraculous, spectacular, staggering, startling, striking, stunning, stupefying, stupendous !!!!

Thanks to everyone who has read the previous post to help me out with the words...

And It was NEAT and Phenomenal (thanks aqui for reminding me of these :)

I got out of the bus, and what I see is that I am standing in front of the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington, London !!!

This is a shocker in itself... Every time I passed through that place, I used to wonder about how would it be to watch a show here, and there it was... right there in front of me and I was about to watch

Cirque De Soleil (Means Circus of the Sun)

This is an annual Circus event that is presented in the Royal Albert Hall ...

And this year's show was Varekai (Means Wherever in Romani Language)!!!


What followed in the next few hours is something that I am not capable of describing in words the way it happened... The most colorful of the dresses, the most flawless moves, people flying around coming out of nowhere, people jumping atleast 20 ft high in air, people balancing themselves with one hands 30 ft in air, and more and more and more...

I would leave it to the following pictures ( picked up from the official website) and a few videos that I managed to find over the internet to really show you what was happening there... Mind you these pictures and videos are nowhere close to how it felt during the 2 hours I was sitting in that auditorium...

Triple Trapeze

Water Meteors

Georgian Dance

Handbalancing on Canes (Me and Abhishek, both fell in love with this girl Irina, :D )

Flight of Icarus, The way this guy kept flying around with ease was unbelievable... I think I was in so much AWE throughout that I did not even clap and kept wondering what was happening...

The Musicians

The Russian Swings... (My favorite of all the acts) Amazing Energy, Amazing Flawless Fearless Performances)

Take sometime off, put some headphones to your ears and enjoy the videos that follow...

Cirque du Soleil's Varekai - Icarian Games


Cirque du Soleil's Varekai- Handbalancing On Canes


Cirque du Soleil's Varekai- Arial Straps


Cirque du Soleil's Varekai - Russian Swings


In case you are interested in the factual information about Cirque du Soleil or Varekai, THIS is where you can click...

And Abhi, Thank you Again :)

EXHale...

For about 2 weeks, I have been thinking of writing why I had a series of unsuccessful relationships in my past, and why I still know how to MESS things up BIG time and why I think I am a misfit when it comes to relationships :D

Just that I have not been able to gather enough courage to go public with that amount of truth...

I should start an anonymous blog !!! or steal someone's diary and write what I want to in there... or hack someone's account and post it in their name !!!

what else can i do?

Write it on a wall in UK :D when no one is watching... Graffiti... with the crazy people I know here, it might just sell for millions...

Make a painting out of my thoughts... again worth some greenies...

Umm... take pictures and say what i want to say in code... Naah... I make an attempt to take happy pictures or make them look encouraging.. with some exceptions of course !!!

What else?

Talk to someone about it? I did... with three friends...

One took a split second to agree to the fact that I suck !!!

the other gave me a lot of gyan and tried to pep me up, and partially agreed...

and the third, made fun of me and applauded at the honest confession !!!

For some reason, I am not feeling too bad about it... there are good things about me, there are bad ones too... Not being able to handle people I love is one of the BADDEST ones !!!

Why am i writing about it right now?

Valid point...

And I am doing it ,

Because I think i should take that thought of thinking about writing about thinking about why I suck should be out of my system...

And because I have been carrying this thought for a long time... years maybe !!! It needs to go out of my system... it need a body wash that can clean things from inside...

Or maybe I just need to eat at a dhaba, have chai at a road side stall, drive the entire night, have a few paranthas at murthal, honk the horn when i feel like, have a few golgappas till my eyes and nose start running, flip through the useless TV channels, etc etc...

Ok... so two things now...

1. No Gyan please :) take this post into your stride and humor :)

2. Read the previous post and help me out !!! not with Fishing Rods and instructions on how to fish, but with some FISH :)

Test your Vocab... Help me...

I need synonyms for

Fantastic

Amazing

Overwhelming

Flawless

Perfect

In as many languages you know of... 

So if you reach this page somehow ( RSS feeds, visiting Chai Ki dukan, Flickr etc etc) please do donate generously your gift of language for me... 

Drop a comment with as many synonyms you can of the words mentioned above.. 

PLEASE !!!

An Evening Alright !!!

My first visit to a 5 star hotel's restaurant in Central London... Called the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park.

Amazing service for two reasons...

Thats how it is in the Park

and it was the Pastry Chef's birthday

So we ordered our starters and the main course...

In addition to the Chinese Spring Rolls, The French Asparagus Salad, The Thai PakThai, The Indonesian Nasi Goreng which we ordered, kitchen made some "not on the menu" dishes only for us... The Arabic Pita Bread with Humus, and the Chinese Dimsums... very interesting food this was... 

And I was asking Abhishek to tell me the best dessert in his kitchen, and when we checked for desserts we were told that we cannot order it because the kitchen had prepared something for us... again not on the menu... So we had something made of Hazelnut cream, black berries, strawberries, raspberries, blue berries, and choux... suppa duppa... 

Thanked the people around for the amazing dinner and then walked to Piccadilly for my so far favorite club in London, the Strawberry Moons... the inhouse DJ plays amazing music and even with my very limited knowledge of songs I enjoyed the beats that make you move... and to add to icing on the cake, he played Summer of '69, Jump, You Give Love a Bad Name, Wake me up before you go, Grease and a few more that I knew... 

and now time for the highlight of the night... Picture this.. 

A platform for pole dance...

lovely young women dancing there (no these were not performers, these were the guests at the club who could do their 30 seconds or minutes to fame)

and my friend Abhishek decides to enjoy his birthday doing some pole dance with a girl there... comes down of there after 15 minutes and then is dragged up again by a blonde who literally takes all his clothes off doing the pole dance with him... So my dear friend cheers the crown up with some topless dancing for sometime and becomes an instant celebrity !!! This should be good for a birthday :D

And we left only when the music stopped which would have been around 0300 hrs... 

this does not look like and end to the post... :) its not... the weekend is still on... two more days to go... lets see whats happening... It might just be like all the other weekends... Ghar, Movie, TV Food and a relaxed time.... 

Wasted...

I have never been this drunk before... and i don't remember feeling this loney before either... i was in a club tonight celebrating Abhishek's birthday and throughout I thought that there was something missing...

never mind....

I am still drunk and I am letting go of myself... saying what i want to doing what i want... God bless us all... May we do what is right for us and our loved ones !!!

God bless us....

Of Curves and Cuts on Tyres...

This year's Auto Expo (one of the exbitions that I love to love) looks like one of the more practical ones in the last few years...

Two things that I have been following and am happy about are...

1. The cheaper Car - Nano... The claims are that it costs a lakh, however when you add things like road tax, insurance, a few accesories etc this should be around 1.25 on-road for the base model... not bad at all for a 33bhp 600 odd cc engine... I think this should be a very practical buy for city driving... The only thing that will keep me away from it would be the poor Tata build quality in cars... except the Safari, the plastics of most cars are cheap, and they can start rattling in about 6 months of regular usage... Indigo is a delight to look at, and has one of the best ACs that I know of in Sedans in India, however the sound that it starts making after a few months is something that is a big put off... Ankur now has a Safari and I am really looking forward to some first hand reviews from him...

The sad part is after I have driven the FIAT, the build quality of almost every car that I have been into seems inferior...

2. The new SUMO... relabelled as the Sumo Grand... though the looks seem to be coming a lot from the LandRover, minus the headlights which still have a dated feeling... the first looks at the SUV made it look impressive... again.. the TATA build quality is something that I would really like to consider before I would recommend this to anyone... Mahindra seems to be much better in their engine refinement and the quality of the vehicles when it comes to a comparision between the Sumo and the Balero and the Scorpio and the Safari...

But with this new good looking Sumo, and the "I so want it but cannot afford it" Safari, things might be a li'il tough for Scorpio and likes...

Another news that I have been waiting for was the launch of SKODA Fabia... Its a premium hatchback, which personally makes a lot of sense to me, and comes with the SKODA tag... needless to say the safety, reliability, build finish and quality are the things that you can assume coming with this car by default... Not sure how successful it would be though in the very cost concious Indian market... We are not too keen on paying a premium for a smaller car which comes with added benefits... If the Fabia 1.4L Diesel engine delivers like the much higher and bigger Octavia does... they already have a customer in line for the car !!!

Honda also had on display the Honda Jazz which is a sleek looking 5 door hatchback... Another car to look forward to in terms of reliability and performance...

Oh, and yes I also saw a few pictures of the new Suzuki Dezire... the sedan version of the SWIFT ( which is a nice car) but Dezire is one of the most stupid looking cars that I have seen in recent times... Looks like there is a competition of sorts about who makes worse car backs between Mahindra Logan and Suzuki Dezire...

All in all, this looked like a good beginning for the potential car buyers, and people who are looking at decent upgrades for their existing vehicles...

I am looking forward to another FIAT though :)

Call the FireBrigade... save the CAT...

I am working from home today... there is no one in the office who I can talk to and its no fun going there when my BT Boss is not around...

and I get my share of adventure today...

One of my house mates forgot his keys inside the room and the room got locked... and he is on the first floor... and these were the spare keys because he left his spare keys at home when he went there this Christmas... situations i tell you :)

Thankfully his window was open.. and all we could do was to climb up to the window, get inside the room through that 1ft by 3 ft window and open the room !!!

So here is what we did....
Picked up the ladder from the backyard :) it was just there :)

first he tried climbing... but I am not sure if he was used to climbing up these ladders so it starting shaking bad... so I volunteered to do the Cat Rescue ACT :) climbed up the ladder.. opened the window full... and tried to get in...

now imagine this... an almost six footer, managing himself on the 4 inch space on the bar outside the window, trying to get inside through that 1*3 ft space... not easy... i just could not get in... so the next best option !!! get the keys out... i managed to see where the keys were.. but I could not reach them through the window... what a dilemma...

So got a few pipes and rods to somehow pull that key chain towards myself and finally managed it after 15 minutes of struggle...

Yippieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee....

Tshirt
Pyjama
hawai chappal
sard hawa
aur ek 10 ft oonchi khirki

kya situation hai :D


I ROCK :D !!!

Loud Quiet Loud

This weekend was a good weekend... I managed to spend a lot of time with myself... was at Abhi's place, but still I did not see him almost the entire day... was kinda locked inside his room and kept thinking, taking a few pictures, or being just there... and then almost killed myself laughing while watching a TV Program...

It was nice... specially after being followed by a party at Strawberry Moons, a club on the Regent Street... Abhishek, me and one of his friends from Manderin were there at the club till like 0200 hrs... it was fun... might write about that sometime too...

As of now... I guess some pictures to cheer a usual dull Monday up should be a good idea :D Have a great week ahead everyone...

God Bless !!!

This is me Laughing my guts out while watching the finals of Great Indian Laughter Challenge... Kapil Sharma was amazing with his Shamsher Singh and Lalaji Acts...

And this is some more of ME :) have fun !!! Oh and thats a real mustache :D I was being clicked for my portfolio :D by Abhi !!!





Thanks Abhi for letting me be ME.. in silence in alone in company.. thanks Bhai...

Those Were The Best Days of My Life... so far :)

The first memories of being on stage go back to class V or VI when I was a part of the dance team which performed on Boney M's Its a Holiday... This was my first ever english tape as well.. Boney M's 18 greatest hits and I still love those tracks...

Remember practicing during the not so important classes and enjoying it... Vicky was my partner in that song, however I wanted some other girl to dance with me :) but then, li'il I could do about it... Nice white shirt and the black trousers... I am sure I kept that dress for a while before I moved on...

and then a lot of years of stage-o-fobia...

Until one day, when I was in class IX... I had to climb up the stage to fill in for a few people who ditched us in the Independence Day functions... my first stand up comedy stunt :) it went pretty well for the lifelessness I felt in my legs and the dryness in my throat in those 10 minutes...

Another few years of stage silence, before it was broken in the form of Mughal'e'Aazam in my first year of college... PGDAV was no great college, but the kind of friends I earned there, the life that I lived there is something that no other place could have given me... I loved those 3 years of my life...

I still remember that the entire team had practiced on my terrace for a day and by the time we had finished the entire play was changed... We laughed our asses out because of the changes that were made during the entire day... Ankur Wahal had written and directed the play and he was flawless with his work... Today he is a brilliant Corporate Lawyer and no one is going to believe that he once used to rock the stage with his amazing performances...

His entry in the play on that yellow tricycle... mine with that 8 inch sword and the loose pyjamas... Tushar as the Kaneez... Karan Bindal, our 6 foot tall Laila... and Ankur.. the short Majnu....

The play was a super hit second year in a row, and that 800 strong audience enjoyed it as much as we did who were on the stage at that time... Ankur and Taru had hosted that year's Aaghaz...

I was a part of the Cultural Committee now, and in my second year.. we were looking for people who would join the group... This is when I dragged the freshers Nimisha Bhagat, Sandy, Vandana etc into the group... Ankush joined, Gaurav Marwaha joined, Meghna Jain came in... along with a few others and we had a brilliant team of people doing everything they could... This is the year when I got an award for winning the maximum number of prizes in an academic year too.. 18 prizes I won in various individual and team competitions in Delhi University that year... MY year of glory...

Ankur did not host Aaghaz that year... I followed his footsteps and was responsible for managing the show for about 7 hours and with me was Virat Vikram Juneja... and both of us created a riot... I loved it... it was the kind of feeling that nothing else can even come closer too... NOTHING...

Third year of college... Cultural Society at its best... The dance team from my college won almost every single competition that they participated in.. Gaurav Marwaha and Ankush were leading the pack here... Ankush focusing on the dance team, which needless to say, had some of the most brilliant dancers I have met till date...Gaurav worked his sweat out to get the sponserships and managed more than we expected... he did work too hard... and I managed the theatre part along with Meghana and a few others... Ankur, Patrick, Nimisha etc were our western music champions.. this is the time when our Rock Band Nakshatra also revived itself... Some ex students came back to play with us too... the green room below the stage in DAV always used to have something or the other happening...

This is the year when Kapil Sharma who used to be a DAV student sometime also came back to college and taught me and other most of what I know and remember today about Theater and stage... Getting out of home at 0700 hrs and coming back at 1700 hrs.. even later.. and spending most our time reading scripts, discussing plays, acts and learning and talking was a life well lived... I both smile and cry at times for those times... I still remember the song from Chupke Chupke we used to sing... the one with Amitabh and Dharmendra... we used to rock !!!

Aaghaz again was my baby this year with me on the stage for about 6 hours and with Virat again... A repeat of the last year... Laughter, comedy, fun and the feeling of being on the top of the world... the only difference being that this year we did the show in Army Auditorium, Dhaula Kuan... what an evening it was... bad throat by the end of the day but smiles that would not stop for days to come.. because every time you entered college you would have some eyes who would recognise you... some people would even come up to you and tell you how good you were....Even Ashish bhai, our canteen wala guy said to me one day... Arre tu to wohi hai na Stage wala !!! I just smiled and said haan woi hoon.... :D

The making of posters, the winning and loosing competitions, the bunking classes, the professors refusing to even know you at the end of the year when you requested for attendance, the understanding and the misunderstandings, the certificates, the sitting on stage stairs and singing or talking or just being, walking up to the srinivas puri market to have tea and keep sitting on the stools there for hours, Out of the Gate, across the Road down the street was our favorite spot... during the festivals, the entire cultural society dancing together in jam sessions... I don't really remember seasons changing for some reason... every day of the year was as bright and sunny as we thought it should be or wanted it to be...

I moved out of college... thankfullly was in Delhi itself... Jamia Millia Islamia... and not too far away from DAV... though the classes were many, but I still used to go to DAV at times... meeting people in person was the only way to keep in touch.. that is when we did not really rely on Text messages and Mobile Phones or emails to keep in touch... so a typical routine used to be... I would finish my classes in Jamia, rush to DAV, find someone in the green room... talk for a while or wait for classes to finish and then come back home together...

For some reason the team back in DAV did not find anyone to host the show, and they asked me to do it... I was not sure if I could because I was already out of college but they insisted and I agreed... I wanted Virat to do it with me again, but he was not ready... after a lot of begging and requesting he agreed... and Prashant and Virat did it again in FICCI this time... third year in a row I was there... could not have loved it more... my professors who used to look so serious all around the year laughing off their seats, the people who i did not know responding to every line that i said on the stage... it was a dream... a dream i lived... my then principle Bhatia Sir, who had taught me mathematics in the second and third year also came upto me and said, Inko tujhse achcha koi aur nai milega :)

By the end of next year, things settled down... I was now looking at how am I going to earn a living... Nimisha was busy with her studies, Meghna wanted to do her post grad in NID, Virat started assisting his dad and his work in Faridabad, everyone from the dance team got busy somewhere or the other, Ankur was already doing his LLB... We all moved and Time too....

Its like I lived a life in those few years and lfe that no more there.... but I know that something has not died inside me... its still there... Thank you God Uncle for letting me live and not just exist !!! You are the best !!!

Open Book...

What a way to start a day... BLOGTHINGS...

Got in my RSS reader a link to find out what my name means :) And I did...

here is what comes up... Most of it is bang on... some I would like to believe... and a few.. umm.. not too sure of...

"You are influential and persuasive. You tend to have a lot of power over people.
Generally, you use your powers for good. You excel at solving other people's problems.
Occasionally, you do get a little selfish and persuade people to do things that are only in your interest.

You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something.
You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense.
You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun.

You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection.
You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive.
You have the classic "Type A" personality.

You are the total package - suave, sexy, smart, and strong.
You have the whole world under your spell, and you can influence almost everyone you know.
You don't always resist your urges to crush the weak. Just remember, they don't have as much going for them as you do.

You are truly an original person. You have amazing ideas, and the power to carry them out.
Success comes rather easily for you... especially in business and academia.
Some people find you to be selfish and a bit overbearing. You're a strong person.

You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people.
You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts.
You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.

You are a seeker. You often find yourself restless - and you have a lot of questions about life.
You tend to travel often, to fairly random locations. You're most comfortable when you're far away from home.
You are quite passionate and easily tempted. Your impulses sometimes get you into trouble.

You are full of energy. You are spirited and boisterous.
You are bold and daring. You are willing to do some pretty outrageous things.
Your high energy sometimes gets you in trouble. You can have a pretty bad temper at times.

You are balanced, orderly, and organized. You like your ducks in a row.
You are powerful and competent, especially in the workplace.
People can see you as stubborn and headstrong. You definitely have a dominant personality.

You are very charming... dangerously so. You have the potential to break a lot of hearts.
You know how what you want, how to get it, and that you will get it.
You have the power to rule the world. Let's hope you're a benevolent dictator!

You are fair, honest, and logical. You are a natural leader, and people respect you.
You never give up, and you will succeed... even if it takes you a hundred tries.
You are rational enough to see every part of a problem. You are great at giving other people advice."

Care to find out more about yourself too? click HERE...

Some of Many....

I was tagged and the tag was to pick up my best picture( the one that I have taken or liked) on my blog...

and being the still taker I am, its hard to choose one out of many pictures... so what do I do?

I go to bighugelabs, and make a small tile of some of the pictures I like... so here it is... some of many that I like... rather love...



1. Nani.., 2. No Matter What, 3. When you Turn, Smile..., 4. Eyes Speak..., 5. Smiles...., 6. Silent Smile..., 7. Smile..., 8. Papa..., 9. All Smiles..., 10. Yaari Dosti, 11. Babbaji..., 12. Happy SinGh, 13. With flowers in my hand, i feel like a man...., 14. AmMa...., 15. Excited....

White Falling...

Its snowing outside right now.... not too heavy but i can see the soft cotton falling on the road and the cars and all over...

beautiful...

I was waiting for this to happen :)

I just told a friend a dream I had sometime back... and right now its seems that I am in a dream myself... well minus the laptops, and people and the cars, and the roads and the buildings outside :)

The Best Christmas EVER !!!

I wanted to go to Rome... see a bit of Italy... bit I guess I was too lazy plus it was Christmas and I was told that getting around on the 25th would be an issue... nothing would be open, nothing would be moving so it might not be a good idea to be outside... Plus the costs of traveling around this time were kinda high so I dropped the idea... and waited for something to happen...

The Plan B was take the road to Paris... Neha is there... she could have helped plan it, and the move on to Brussels, where Ravi is... and come back... but again... Visa required me to go to London and get the visa... did not have the time to do that... plus for some reason, Paris did not really sound like the most exciting thing I could do... had reasons... anyway...

So Abhishek calls one day and says that he has the week of Christmas off, and what could we do? I said... lets go to Glasgow or did he say that? Don't remember exactly, but the plan was made and he took care of the coach bookings from London to Glasgow and back... We were not sure of where we could stay rather would stay, because staying with James' (Abhishek's boss) parents was an option, but we were not sure... about a week before we were to travel.. he talked to James and we knew that we were staying at his parents' place on the 24th...

So the plan was now... Reach Glasgow on the 24th morning... rent a car, roam around... see places... stay over in Balloch with James's parents and move up north on 25th morning to come back to Glasgow by 26th evening and take the coach back to London that night... perrfect... it took some effort to find a place to stay on the 25th night, but I managed to find a decent place called the Hotel Ballachulish near Fort William towards the west coast of Scotland...

The Saturday before I was leaving I asked Soumitro if he wanted to join too, he and his wife were keen on joining and got their bookings done too, and were to join us in Glasgow on the 25th morning...

Reaching Glasgow was ok... we took the Megabus, which is really mega... a double decker bus packed to capacity... I think there were many people going to Glasgow and thats why there were two double deckers going to Glasgow that night...

Slept most of the my way through.. woke up in Glasgow around 0730 hrs... finding a bus to the airport was a no brainer, bus number 500 from the Buchanan Bus stand will take you to the Glasgow airport in about 20 minutes and its a 10 minute service... so we reach the airport, collect the papers of the car from the airport, freshen up and take the car :) this is where the NICE part starts... it was a nice navy blue VolksWagon Polo... I think a 1600 cc some 100 odd bhp car which it felt like by the sound of it, and I just got too happy when I heard the music system.. it was bloody goooood... I knew it would have a CD player and had cut a cd for the trip like always, and it turned out to be the best thing...

James had given us his SATNAV, which made driving around very very very easy... so I knew in how many yards I had to take a turn and Julie, or Chammo like we called her kept speaking all the time about which roundabout, which exit, when is the left turn, when is the right etc etc all the time... It was a li'il strange to start with, but I got used to her speaking alright in a while...

Reached Mr. and Mrs. Campbell's house in about 30 minutes only to meet two of the most loving and charming people I have met in the UK so far rather why only UK, in a very long time... I guess parents are always nice and warm EVERYWHERE in the world...

It was nice house, with a breathtaking view in the front..

The lights far away are from Glasgow... this is the view from the front of the house :)

The Garam Masala finds its way to a Scottish Kitchen... nice :)

We had breakfast and then after a while we left to explore the area on our own... Abhishek had been to Lomond Shores, and thats where we went too... walking around the area and kept clicking... Sun Uncle seemed to be having a good mood and came out of hiding too for a couple of hours before it got dark around 1500 hrs or so...

A lovely couple at Lomond Shores.. very gentle very kind :)

That ship is the largest paddle boat in the UK, now used as a restaurant...Lomond Shores

Flying around Lomond Shores :)

Abhishek, the guy to make most of our trip happen... Thanks Bro :)

There is no fun growing up, if I cannot be a kid at times...

and I cannot make my friends act like kids too :)

Pictures, walking and talking, and we were back home by 1630 odd hours after a small drive up into the country on roads away from the main roads... it was nice... worth every second we spent... and having the car seemed like the best thing we did on this trip...

The evening greeting through my rear view mirror... a shot thats a must on every drive that I go on :)

The evening was spent at home, talking to them, hearing them tell stories, and more talking followed by some dinner and more talking... Finally call it a day around 2300 hrs... Oh and I had asked them to get us Santa Caps... they could not find them in the market but got us some very very nice Christmas Hats instead :)

Pictures at home :) My Best Christmas Eve... It was nice to really be with a family on the most important day of the year... something I will not forget ever...

Also had some white wine, and could not help but remember the new year's eve at Deepak's place in Chennai two years ago when I just took a sip from the glass and could not take another... this Christmas eve, however I had to finish that glass of wine... Did not want to do anything that would look rude... Afterall they had been so very nice to me and Abhishek... so managed it somehow :)

This decorative piece is over 30 years old... and stills finds a place on the Christmas tree every year, like many old pieces :) lovely...

Soumitro called me @ 0630 hrs in the morning the next day and told me that he had reached Glasgow and there was NOTHING open.. no buses, no shops... this was expected, however I was hoping that the bus service to the airport would be on...nope it was not.. so as planned I was to pick them up and then drive up north... Got up, got ready... had some amazing breakfast and rushed to the airport to pick them up.. they had managed to take a taxi and reach the airport...

Picked them up from a near empty airport.. could not believe that International Airports could look like that.. I did not see more than 30 people at the entire airport that morning.. including the four of us...

And our drive to Fort William started... I decided to go via OBAN to Fort William instead of the direct way and enjoy the drive... so we kept stopping where we felt like and parking was allowed and kept breathing in the place...

I see this in the night, and I might not just sleep... It was spooky enough to be around something like that in the middle of nowhere :)

I could not have asked for more... A lovely car to drive, just the right kind of music with amazing quality, wonderful roads and breathtaking views... Just how I like it... this is what takes me away from everything and I reach my Solace.. the state which I love and a lot of other things stop mattering or bothering me...

This is a Pier at Loch Lomond... a place called Luss...

Below is the Route that I took... Oban was our first major pit stop, needless to say everything except one pub was closed here too... and we had not managed any food or coffee in the entire day so far... however there was food in the car and we did have some food in the car.. it was like Picnic... total funn...


View Larger Map

View Larger Map

Chicks always have attitude, be in India or UK... a Sea Gull at Oban...

So from Oban we moved to Ballachulish and reached there in about an hour only to reach the BEST hotel that I have stayed so far... beautiful place, very well kept and had that typical Age to it... loved it...

Hotel Ballachulish for your viewing pleasure :) and thats Loch Lenhe in the front...

Had tea, just relaxed, went out for a walk, came back when it started raining... Abhishek's hat was stolen by wind and he had run a good 100 mtrs before he could manage his hands back on it :D that episode was fun for sure...

The bridge between Loch Lenhe and Loch Leven... Saw the water flowing towards Loch Leven and then back in a matter of hours while at the hotel... I guess high tides and low tides doing it.. Loch Lenhe is connected to the sea..

The evening was spend in the lounge over a few drinks, dinner followed by some live music... Live music is always nice, irrespective of you understanding the lyrics or not...

An Old Piano at the hotel... Missed my keyboard and did try to remember a few tunes... managed to play some too :) not too well though :)

The hotel decided for some reason to not charge us for the dinner, call it a Christmas Gift from them, and that saved us about 40 pounds each... that was a lovely gesture from the Manager on duty there... Thank you Ma'am !!!

Stills from the Hotel

Went off to sleep only at 0100 hrs and woke up around 0800... got ready and checked out of the hotel around 1100 hrs.. not before taking a walk and a few pictures outside and even managing to slipping on the stairs with wet leaves on them and hurting my back :) I saved the camera though, and I am happy for it :P

Somewhere next to Loch Lomond... I think its the largest lake in Scotland

The Route today was Ballachulish to Fort William to Glasgow... It kept raining the entire day on 26th, though that did not stop me from going inside this place called Inverlochy Castle and take a few pictures.. there were only a few walls standing there now, but it was beautiful nevertheless...

Inverlochy Castle

Drove back to Glasgow via a different route that day..

View Larger Map

Stopped at a few places and reached well in time for the bus...

Somewhere on our way towards Glasgow...

Decided to kill some time and saw "I am Legend" in Cineworld in Glasgow.., don't ask me about the movie.. its ridiculous... waste of time !!! this is when I was not well and started feeling the fever...

Abhishek managed to find a vending machine and got us some hot chocolate when most of the shops around we already closed for the day and that really helped beat the cold before we took the bus and got back to London...


I drove for about 300 miles in these two days and I could not have asked for more... Loved every second of it, rather should say every mile of it... Its pretty obvious from the picture isn't it?

:)