Random images from my flickr stream...

www.flickr.com

31/07/08

ये कहाँ आ गए हम, यूँ ही साथ साथ चलते

चाय की दुकान crossed a landmark yesterday night...

50000 foot falls... no lets write it again..

Fifty Thousand

पचास हज़ार !!!


and I am thankful to everyone who has been here once, twice, or many times !!!

I have always maintained that I write for myself, to clean my system, to make myself happy, to vent out, to share a laugh, to avoid dropping a tear, to be honest to myself...

That still stays the primary reason for this blog's existence, however I would be lying to myself and to everyone who visits, if I do not agree to these visits being a key motivator for this long journey...

मैं अकेला ही चला था जानिब -ऐ -मंजिल ,
लोग साथ आते गए और कारवां बढ़ता गया


Thank you शुक्रिया धन्यवाद благодаря 谢谢您
hvala ti tak bedankt kiitos merci Danke σε ευχαριστώ grazie
ありがとうございました 감사합니다 takk dziękuję obrigado mulţumesc
благодарю Вас gracias tack


For the records...

The blog used to be called

Life as a (W)hole when it started... reason being that I was talking about life, and everything about it... and the hole signified that everything was going into this blog hole...

It became चाय की दुकान... Sometime in August last year... almost one year ! Read more HERE...

For the love of numbers: Today the main page gets about 100+ hits everyday with an average visit length of about 3.5 minutes...
60% of visitors are from Asia, 30% hits from the US, about 5% from Europe...

74% of visitors use Windows XP, 17% use Vista, 2% Linux and 1% Mac OS (I wish Mac Users were more... seriously)

35% users see Chai Ki Dukaan on IE7, 34% still use IE6, and 29% are Firefox users...


And

Thank you Again everyone... hope to see you around !!!

P.s. (thanks to Mayuri for the idea)...

This weekend (Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 1-3rd August'08), all your Canteen ki चाय, Roadside ढाबे की चाय, Parle G Biscuits, Tiger Biscuits, समोसे, Bread पकोडे are on me !!!

Enjoy yourself and share the bill with me, I promise to reimburse !!!


पर ऐसा मत करना के,

खाया पिया कुछ नहीं
गिलास तोड़ा बाराह आना



.

tug tug


nothing to comment on... just a personal memory which is very close to my heart !!!

29/07/08

बचपन के दिन भुला न देना...

अक्कड़ बक्कड़ बम्बे बो...
अस्सी नब्भे पूरे सौ...

सौ में लगा धागा...
चोर निकल के भागा...



आगे बताओ अब !

अपडेट :

Here are a couple of versions thanks to the visitors of चाय की दुकान :)

अक्कड़ बक्कड़ बाम्बे बो
अस्सी नब्भे पूरे सौ
सौ में लगी बिल्ली
बिल्ली भागी दिल्ली
बोले शेख चिल्ली
खेले डंडा गिल्ली
गिल्ली गई टूट
बच्चे गए रूठ
बच्चों को मनाएंगे
रस मलाई खायेंगे
रस मलाई अच्छी
हमने खायी मच्छी
मच्छी में काँटा
पड़ेगा ज़ोर से चांटा

- Thanks to ॐम्ना

__________________________
अक्कड़ बक्कड़ बाम्बे बो
अस्सी नब्भे पूरे सौ
सौ में लगा धागा
चोर निकलके भागा

राजा की बेटी कैसी है?
दुल्हन सज कर बैठी है

चाय गरम... बिस्कुट नरम,
पीने वाला बेशरम !

Thanks to Convivial

I am 'err' loving it !

"for the most part when you are really honest about what you want from life, life does give it to you... "

and I know it myself because there is a lot that I have wanted and I got...

Please allow me to be human and greedy and selfish and let me feel bad about what i wanted and was honest about and still did not get !!!

Life at times sucks, but I still can't stop loving it !!!

So is life....

27/07/08

चाय का फार्मूला

दूध चीनी रोक के !
चाय पत्ती ठोक के !!


(This translates to, less sugar and milk, and stronger tea)


Thats the key to a good regular tea !!!

Funny how people react to these lines when I speak them every time someone is preparing tea for me... :)


This is a wonderful ice breaker too !!!


next time you are sitting on a tea stall and feeling out of place... just speak this to the chai wala and jump start your conversation !!!

Listening to Manna Dey on Raaga today !!! lovely

The Body knows

- When to wake up

- when to feel sleepy

- when to be hungry

- when to feel thirsty

all you need to do is listen to it


Woke up to the lovely sound of rain, Friday morning, about 10 minutes before the alarm rings...

It usually happens with me... I usually wake up on my own around the time my alarm is to go off, while it makes me happy it for a reason, I also feel bad about not getting an opportunity to snooze the alarm !!!

Ma says that if you need to wake up at a specific time, tell the pillow to wake you up... It works for me !!!

what works for you?

25/07/08

बातचीत

तनुश्री :
हेल्लो
क्या हुआ ?
मिल गया SSN?

प्रशांत :
SSN का पर्चा भर दिया
हमारी भी identity हो जायेगी US में अब कुछ दिनों में

तनुश्री:
बधाइयाँ !!! हा हा

प्रशांत:
हम भी कुछ बन जायेंगे अब !
मेरा सपना पूरा हो गया

तनुश्री :
अबे फिल्मी शायर :)

प्रशांत :
यार तू भावनाओं को नहीं समझ रही !
मुझे तो खुशी के मारे रोना रहा है !

तनुश्री:
dialogue बंद कर :)
हा हा हा LOL

प्रशांत:
दिल भर आया मेरा SSN के लिए apply करते वक्त

तनुश्री:
overacting :)

प्रशांत:
ऐसे मत बोल .. सुबुक सुबुक ....
:') खुशी के मारे मर जाऊंगा आज मैं
पता नहीं उस दिन क्या होगा जब मेरा SSN आएगा

तनुश्री :
तू खुशी के मारे फूला नही समाएगा :))
LOL

प्रशांत:
हाँ...
जैसे ग्रेजुएट होकर टोपी उडाते हैं ना .. वैसे मैं SSN वाला पर्चा हवा में फेकुँगा
और खुश होकर फोटो खिच्वाऊंगा

24/07/08

The Sound of Romance...

The long trinnnnggg and the rush to pick up the phone before anyone else picks it up, the cheer when it was her, and the disappointment when it was for dad...

The not knowing when she will call again, and the not knowing who will pick if I called...

The blank Calls and the smiles that followed... the short calls the empty it left...

I miss the Sound of Romance !

p.s. Apologies if you follow my flickr page and the other blog, because this is what you might have seen there too...

23/07/08

Let the Muzik Play !

I think the FM channels in this city of Minneapolis are fantastic.... whatever I have heard so far at various hours of the day has been amazing.... I need to get a FM Receiver...

Amazing music !!! Love it !!!

And I bought myself a 1:87 replica of the 1958 Porsche Speedster, the car from Top Gun, one of the BEST movies EVER made !!! And not many songs come close to The Top Gun Theme !!! The music that melts my heart just right !

And what on earth is an Organic Bra !!! I have heard of Organic Tomatoes, Organic Potatoes, Organic Juice, Organic Tea, but this is taking the organic fever too far !!!

22/07/08

Happy Birthday Aro !!!

Meet Arobindo Sinha...


used to be my collegue and now one of the dearest friends that I have...

I hate him for a lot of reasons but because today is his birthday (In India, not yet in the Amreeka though..which technically makes him younger than he is), so I will try to be nice to him and give him a birthday gift right here at the Chai ki Dukaan !!!

The the gift is this AD:

Alliance wanted for a well settled Bengali Boy ( err, boy!!! ) ok.. whatever... Alliance wanted for a well settled bengali boy who is

1. a gem at heart (not gems, but gem)

2. has the best laughter in this world

3. knows how to be direct, and show you the mirror

4. Comfort you when you really need it, for most of the rest of the time he will make fun of you or just laugh
5. Is the oldest stud in our gang, but still young enough to get married
6. Was born on the 22nd of July a few decades ago

7. Used to own a phone that Neo had in Matrix and that phone used to be his identity... That phone used to come back to him irrespective of where he left it, the cab, the cafeteria, his seat, someone Else's seat, loo, anywhere...

7A. Loves to spend time in the LOO...

8. Knows more about life than most of the people I know of my age group

9. Has been an avid traveler

10. Is a very very well read person... Probably knows more about books than anyone else I know... (The bugger bought the entire collection of CnH just to tease me and Bindiya !!!)
11. Is not too keen on marriage because he thinks it would be really tough to give up the independence, and share the space he has for himself

12. is one of the best people I have met in my life...

Too long an ad eh !!!

Subbu,
Ek milestone ho gaya in the AD :) next step is the TOI Matrimonial Section :D

May the wedding bells ringgggggggggggggg !!! Amen !!!

Oh and I almost forgot... I called him at midnight to wish him happy birthday :D and he was so happy that he promised to call me once every week at midnight ( while I am sleeping) to wish me a happy birthday for the next 52 :D

21/07/08

Tell me the Direction...

There is an interesting story that just got finished in Dilbert, of having a moral compass !!!

Dilbert's Moral compass was broken by Dogbert and he was then promoted to the position of the vice president of the department which makes life miserable for employees !!!

Very interesting thought about having a moral compass... I am assuming that having this would mean that we can always point out the direction of the right and the wrong... having a compass also means that we also have something that will facilitate our moving in the right direction...

Now the question is, how many of us still have their moral compass working and how many actually follow the directions !!! or is there we live in a magnetic field of thoughts and opinions where the moral compass does not work because of the distractions...

All this while Hobbes just saw the future... that Calvin was being thrown into a mud hole :D

20/07/08

Bad Mood Day Prescription

1. Talk nonsense or sense with friends but avoid a serious discussion
3. Discuss a future plan
6. go through old pictures
8. Figure out something that you don't understand
2. Give someone a surprise
4. Do something nice for yourself
9. Don't sit on the bed and watch TV
7. Flirt
5. Cook
10. Get over the bad mood :)

Some more additions that I personally liked (from the comments)...

12. Gardening (do something in the garden)
32. Drive ( This has always helped me too... Gosh, I miss my car and the music so much)

I am listening to
Tu hai Aasmaan mein ( Jhankaar Beats ) ... still in love with this song even after 5 years...

and I want to listen to Nirvana (Come as you are)

some more tips... take as many as you want per day even without a bad mood :)

11. Do something with your hands... gardening was one... cooking is another... maybe making clay objects too...
19. Sing loudly to your favorite music... My choice of songs would be Sa Re Ga Ma ( from Chupke Chupke), Baajoooooo (Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi), Jaaneman Jaaneman Tere ye do nayan, Do Dewaane Shahar mein, Zindagi Aa raha hoon main, Hum Bekhudi mein Tumko Pukare Chale gaye... and lots more...
54. Dance

! out of here now !!!

Impression Transition

Thank you Kim for the help in change of impression !!!

for the record, Kim is the manager of the hotel that I am staying in and was very kind and polite while handling a few issues that my collegue had at his hotel...

I am open to a change in impression, and am glad to see some good conversations !!!

19/07/08

Enjoy your no frills experience !!!

I call that rude, maybe some people would call it a to the point, matter of fact experience when it comes to flying domestic in this country!!!

In both the flights AA and US Airways, I think the attitude of the staff was very indifferent... and honestly I am starting to love even the low cost airlines in India only for the sheer fact that they talk to you properly... One lady in my last flight from MSP to Phoenix was sweet, but the rest of them... well let me not comment about them at all...

Found it very strange that you have to buy a headset in case you want to listen to music ( actually I did not realise that I could use my own headset too) and that you have to buy food on the flight... even though I am paying some $270 bucks one way on that 3.5 hours flight... on second thoughts I should not be complaining as I had seen in the news a few days back that because of the high oil prices most of the flights are running in losses... they are not making a single dollar earning, on the contrary have a loss of anything between $500 - $1000 per flight... But I am a customer; I should get what I am paying for!!! In double minds about this complaint right now!!!



Also it might be just me who is feeling this, but I usually get a second look because I am an Asian... there are not many that I have seen in places I have been to in the last two weeks of my stay in the US... honestly, I am still to start liking this country except for the fact that my camera equipment is cheaper here...

So this weekend I am in Phoenix... the oven city ( that’s what I am calling it) the temperature is around 105 degs Fahrenheit which is only 40deg Celsius, but because its dry, it feels as if my body is sitting in a Tandoor... already having a bad headache today and I have another two days left here, and all this when I have survived the 45degs in Delhi... i am going to avoid this sudden change of temperature from my room to outside and then back into office tomorrow.. How!! Not yet sure of yet!!!

Ok enough of cribs... here are few good moments from my flight!!! I am going to try and enjoy the rest of my weekend, hope you do too!!!

17/07/08

Equation...

Distances don't always cause distances in relationships...

Some relationships get only stronger with distances !!!

15/07/08

For the Record !!!

Day before yesterday someone broke the locks of Chai Ki Dukaan and the changed the locks...

And I could not enter it the entire day yesterday, neither was able to check my emails or login to anything that opens with google accounts...

Sorted it out in the morning today !!!

back to normal !!

During this time, I seriously thought of starting to work on a few things that have been kept in the cold storage for a while !!!


14/07/08

Gang of Three Me!

I am never alone... always accompanied by two people who will not leave my side, whatever happens...

They always present me two different perspectives of things when I am confused...

They are

HeartMe

And

MindMe


So I am not just me, but I have two more essential parts of me the HeartMe and the MindMe...

HeartMe is more of an emotional give it anything and will see what happens later kind of a guy...

MindMe, is the calculative one... looks before he leaps, plans makes sure things fall into place...

These two guys don't get along very well with each other... MindMe goes right, and HeartMe goes left...

MindMe says there is pain coming, HeartMe says there is happiness afterwards...

HeartMe says lets do it, MindMe says wait for the right opportunity...

HeartMe says today is the day to live in; MindMe says what about next Thursday?

HeartMe pushes me here, MindMe pushes me there...

And poor me, I being a good friend of both of them has to hear them fight every time we three reach a crossroad... thank God the fights have not been physical so far otherwise I would have been a walking nutcase hitting myself while walking talking standing sitting... what a hilarious situation would that be...

At times the HeartMe is invited to the MindMe's apartment and we take the argument to a logical end...

Other times, we three sit down for a drink in HeartMe's cottage and find happiness for ourselves leaving logic behind....

But most of the time, both of them like to come where I am, and we have a blast together, well mostly intense conversations to be honest, usually the results of these conversations is what others call a balance...

And Life goes on...




Still listening to All I want is you and Tesu...

12/07/08

Blue Umbrella...

चाचा, छाते को लेकर कोई फायदा होगा क्या?

अबे, ये इन्द्रधानुस को देख के कोई फायदा होता है क्या?
ये पानी में सोट्टी सी कागज़ की नाउ तैराके कोई फायदा होत्ता है क्या?
वो पहाड़ी के पीसे सूरज को डूबते देखके कोई फायदा होत्ता है क्या?
और तेरे जैसे निखट्टू को काम पे रख के कोई फायदा होता है क्या?
...
आत्मा की सांति में नफा नुस्कान नहीं देखा जात्ता !!!
...
कुछ पिछले ही जनम का संबंद है !!!

छत्री और खत्री का !!!!


This is just one of the many dialogues that will keep you hooked to the Blue Umbrella... a movie which revolves around an old man's love for the blue umbrella a young girl Binya, in his village, got from the tourists, how he tries to buy her into giving the umbrella to him using all he could and more... The movie is based on a novel by Ruskin Bond and is directed by Vishal Bhardwaj.

I am not going to discuss the plot of the movie here because it has its own climax and how it unfolds, however I should mention that Pankaj Kapoor as Nandkishor Khatri, is at his amazing best with the simplest of scenes and dialogues that you would like to remember... The accent of Nandkishor Khatri is something to notice (well you will, without me mentioning it anyway). I am mentioning it specifically because I loved it !!! I LOVED IT...

What adds to the beauty and simplicity of the movie are the songs which have been written by Gulzar... every song is a gem in itself...

मेरा टेसू यहीं अड़ा,
खाने को मांगे दही बड़ा,
सूख गया मेरा टेसू,
एक टांग पे खड़ा खड़ा...
is one of my favorite songs ever, and needless to say the movie is a favorite too :) Do I have it in MP3? yes I have :) Do you want it? You know what to do

Chai ki Dukaan highly recommends this movie !!! Go get the VCD/DVD and watch it with the entire family !!


बिल गेट, अरे नंदू, बिल गेट...

अरे पता भी है कौन है?

अरे पता है... बिल गेट एह ... इंडिया गेट के पास है... पीछे की तरफ्फ़ पड़ता है ...

11/07/08

Face Value...

We got two ears and one mouth ...

3. So that we speak less and hear more...

45. We might get to hear twice what we speak... so speak nice and you get to hear twice as much nicer things and speak foul and be prepared to hear twice as much crap...

2. We can control what we speak, but cannot control what we hear... so manage what you do, and don't worry about the rest... what has to come to you will come to you...

5. I can't think of anything else right now....





p.s. and this completes 700 posts on Chai Ki Dukaan.... thanks !!!

09/07/08

If i was a flower...

If i was a flower growing wild and free
All I’d want is you to be my sweet honey bee.
And if i was a tree growing tall and green
All I’d want is you to shade me and be my leaves

If you were a river in the mountains tall,
The rumble of your water would be my call.
If you were the winter, i know I’d be the snow
Just as long as you were with me, let the cold winds blow

If you were a wink, I’d be a nod
If you were a seed, well I’d be a pod.
If you were the floor, I’d wanna be the rug
And if you were a kiss, i know I’d be a hug

If you were the wood, I’d be the fire.
If you were the love, I’d be the desire.
If you were a castle, I’d be your moat,
And if you were an ocean, I’d learn to float.

All i want is you, will you be my bride
Take me by the hand and stand by my side
All i want is you, will you stay with me?
Hold me in your arms and sway me like the sea.

I have been thinking for a while, that life is missing something called Simplicity... and then I was reintroduced to it, thanks to the soundtrack of Juno....

Juno is a movie about how a teenage girl deals with pregnancy... a very well made movie and worth a watch....

What this post started with, is a song from the movie that I had been searching for a while now... "All I want is you..." by Barry Louis Parker... while most of the songs from the movie are beautiful, simple and easy on your heart and ears... another one that I particularly liked was "Tire Swing" by Kimya Dawson... In case you are fond of acoustic guitars, please find time to listen to So Nice So Smart by Kimya Dawson again... very nicely executed chords on the acoustics... I am really happy to have the entire soundtrack with me today... listening to it is really making me feel nice :)

I think you should also hear these songs by clicking

Here for All I want is you

And

Here for Tire Swing

If you like them, write to me and I would mail the MP3 to you


Needless to say "All I want is you..." is added to my list of favorites :)

08/07/08

Jet Lag and the BPO... there is a link somewhere...

I did not really know what Jet Lag was... I thought it would be some sort of strange feeling that you have in the stomach when you reach a place faaaaaaar away from your place...

Now I know what Jet lag is... It’s your body thinking you are in a different part of the world, while you really are somewhere else... Something like hardcore day dreaming!!! I thought it would be really tough to manage the sleep etc, however I feel quite ok right now and it’s almost 5 in the evening here... I am feeling only as sleepy as I do any evening at 5ish :)

However there is something that I think has really helped me here... and that has been my BPO Experience... for your convenience, lets call it the Call Centre Experience...

My shifts used to change every 3-4 weeks and I have worked at almost all hours of the day during my 3 years of Call Centres... and that really helps even today when I want to either sleep early, or wake up early, or not sleep at all, or sleep longer...

In addition to this, I this is how I feel that working in the BPOs has helped me immensely...

1. When you go through voice training, you are told that people can sense emotions when you are on the phone with them, and hence keeping your cool and maintaining calm is very important when you are talking to a customer... Over a period of time, I guess that becomes a habit to ensure that you have better phone conversations....

I usually don't shout over the phone anymore, and my conversations are much better as compared to what it used to be before my calling experience...

Basically I have learnt to be more sensitive towards conversations which are not face to face...

2. My experiences with the customer service / technical support are better thanks to me spending a lot of time on the other side of the phone as well

3. The body can be aligned to any time food, any time sleep in quick turnaround time

4. I can understand the accents of a larger group of people than usual and my conversations with people from Europe and US are better than average...

5. My accent is on an auto-modification mode now... If I am talking to someone from the US I can talk like them and ditto in the UK too.... the bottom line is the MTI (Mother Tongue Influence) is less than average when I speak with people from various backgrounds... Have received many kind hearted compliments as well over the last many years thanks to this...


The above points are just of the few things that make you a better person. I am not giving the entire credit to the BPO industry, however for me personally, the changes have happened because of my time there...

Given a choice I would make calling necessary for everyone for at least 6 months when they start their career... If not anything else, it would at least make people realise what kind of hardships someone in a BPO goes through in terms of work, and its not only a life of night outs, drinks, smoke, and sex....

07/07/08

Ajeeb Desh hai ye....

Bhari Dopahar mein andhera...

aur Raat bhar Suraj !!!

ab koi kare to kya kare !!!

Amreeka Discovered Again...

  • The land of the Eagle....
  • The land of shorts with formal full sleeves shirts...
  • The land of polo neck t-shirts with formal shorts and shoes...
  • The land of sports shoes...
  • The land of large man and women...
  • The land of loooooong cars, huge SUVs ( now I really know why they are called trucks) and larger than life trucks ( what are they called here?)
  • The land where being on the road feels like being in the mirror...
  • The land where the flag can be worn anywhere in any form...
Flags at the O'Hare Airport, Chicago ( seen in the background is our Tiranga too)

  • The land where flights and flight attendants and amazingly casual about things...
  • The land where there can be a thin line between being rude and being to the point...

Welcome to the land of Amreeka !!!


The flight was long by any standards... took a total of 15 hours from take off to landing... pathetic collection of movies, and not even average food with ultra casual attendants most of them over 40 yrs of age... so was American Airlines !!!

anyway... when I reached the Chicago O'Hare Airport I could not get any information about my connecting flight except that I should go to terminal 3. I did, checked in again and realised that non of the display boards had my flight number out of the about 60 flights they were displaying... Felt a li'il strange and manage to find an agent ( here the people who are associated with the flight, but are not Crew members are called agents) and after a couple of understanding and misunderstandings I was told that the flight was cancelled and I was moved to the next available flight... It added about 2.5 hours of waiting at Chicago with nothing much to do... If it was not for a few lovely words and I had read and heard when I left Delhi, I did not have anything much to think about either!

Anyway, I reached alright... hungry, tired and with a backache :) as expected from the long flight !!!

The balcony at my Inn...

I had talked to a guy here a couple of days back and he was kind enough to come over and take me to a super market to get some bread etc and then show me around a few restaurants and my office which thankfully is just about 5-6 minutes away...

I am happy that subway tastes the same in India and London and now Minneapolis too... Just stuffed myself with a footlong and two laaarge glasses of Nestle Iced Tea...

Back at the hotel room now and trying to pass sometime so that I sleep only when its evening here... That would help me wake up properly tomorrow morning! Maybe !!!!


Lamps in my Inn Room...

I will crash now, Just can't keep my eyes open anymore...

05/07/08

...

Off to a destination tooooooooo far away in a few hours from now...

I wonder how I am going to manage this 15 odd hours flight !!! Phew...

Here is what I think I would be doing...

~ Finish The Kite Runner
~ Watch atleast 3 movies
~ and I don't know what !!! that makes it sound more exciting :)

I was thinking about something for a while now... I did something about it too a few days back, and I realized that I was terribly late... has made me feel very helpless before I am to go !!! and I am sincerely hoping that it turns out to be for everyone's good... I think it will !!!

Chalo ji... Chai ki dukaan would be closed for this weekend now !!! or may be not ;)


04/07/08

bright evening....

The day ends at a very bright note...

Sign : Getting a parking space, just for my car in a parking lot, which was 300% full of regular capacity !!!!

Uncle God... funny ho tum ! bahut zyada !!! but I guess, thoda late hi sahi, kuch to kar rahe ho !

Its too hot and I just cannot eat food now.... sleeping without food tonight...

for the lack of Ctrl Z...

There are times when one sentence we have said or how we acted in one moment can change the course of our lives !!!!

We usually don't realise it when we are saying that sentence or doing what we did, but it comes to light after a while, and obviously life does not have a CTRL-Z on its keyboard...

I see that my life has changed and taken a different track because of what I have said at times, and what people have said to me... I should not regret it, and let it be, however I am just human :) I am feeling bad about a few things today !!!

On second thoughts, thought the faith is a li'il shaky right now, it still exists in you, God Uncle!!!! I don't know whats happening to your sense of humor because I am not finding it funny for a while now!!!

02/07/08

The So Called Bad Did Me Good !!!

Unlike a lot of studious kids around, I never could study late nights... My logic was, I am sharp enough to do what others do in double the time... why study more? And that’s why I used to choose what I want to study wisely... here is how

Pick up the syllabus and start dividing into sections

- Most Marks
- Difficulty Levels
- Current Understanding

I would first finish the ones with high level of current understanding, less difficulty level and more marks, gradually moving towards the ones which were least in value, highest in difficulty and I had no clue about...

At the end of my preparation, I would have left some 10-20 percent of my syllabus and I would have no clue about it either :) Peers would talk about a few topics and I would always give them a blank look: P

Once I get the test paper, I would quickly browse through the things once again in the manner I mentioned above and just ignore a few questions...

Relaxed preparations/ relaxed examinations... a decent 80+ percentage consistently... life was good!!!

And then came the final year of college... My only option for survival in this big bad world was to get through MCA or a similar different masters :) I had not attended even 20% of my classes in graduation, thanks to my attention to Theater and Drama and Stage during that time... but this was scary now... If I would not crack a competitive exam, my father would throw me out of the house...

Started coaching for MCA near my college, and by and large I used to sleep in the class... What else do you expect from someone who studies, err, is there in the college the entire day!!!

Anyway... so studies were a must now... and the course was too large... and I was not a night person... So what to do... and hen a miracle happened...

My cable guy started showing a channel called TB6 during those days, and I one day accidentally realised that there is a soft porn program "some diaries something" at 0330 hrs every night...

So here was the deal now... I would study from 2200 hrs to 0330 hrs every night, and then carefully switch on the television, and watch the 30 minute program on mute... We used to live in a 2 room flat then, and switching on the old TV, reducing the volume (we had a non remote TV ) were all works of ART!!! There were nights when I used to study like crazy till 0330 hrs, switch on the TV and see some irritating non- understandable Russian drama too, only to hope for my awaited program to start, and finally go off to sleep around 0400 hrs...

Whatever said and done, that half an hour of uncertain television ensured that I get top ranks in 9 out of 11 examinations I gave!!! It was amazing.... missed the first two, but after that every result brought only a smile to my face and a potential future to my life!!!

Thank you TB6 :)

01/07/08

The Motorcycle Diaries

One of the movies that tops my list of "Oh I Can see it a million times" is The Shawshank Redemption... After the first time I saw it, I must have seen it already about 20 odd times still a while to go before the million happens but anyway :)

... and lets add another to this list today....

The Motorcycle Diaries or Diarios de motocicleta... The story of two doctors, well almost, who set out on an adventure in a old Norton 500 bike, which they call "The Mighty One", "La Pederosa" to be specific in the language the movie is made... The movie is in Spanish and I saw it with the sub-titles ofcourse... During the course of their journey, these two friends go through whatever one can think of... Bike Accidents, Crashing into cattle, skidding off into water, Snow, Desert, Water, Wind, Hunger, selling off the bike and so on and so forth...

One of the best scenes for me personally was when Emesto Fuser, jumps into the Amazon to cross it in the night only to reach the other side which is the camp for leprocy patients and celebrate his 24th birthday with them....

When I finished the movie and started reading about it, I realised that this man Emesto Fuser, later went on to be called Che, the iconic Marxist Revolutionary... Incidently I was unaware of this name till a few weeks ago when Bhumika talked about a Luxar highlighter ad which had won at the Cannes festival... That is when I had about the face with Subbu and Aro and we had briefly discussed him...

So Coming back to the point... This movie is now a favorite and stays one !!!!!