its funny...

I am not in the right frame of mind... i guess i have just lost it !!!

the last few days.. i have seen myself behaving irrationally, too emotionally, irratically, stupidly, and what the fkk not... where did the all so practical, with a head on his shoulders guy go?

its strange to be someone who i told a lot of people not to be !!!

Prashant beta kya kar rahe ho.. saara gyan baant diya khud ke kuch bhi nai rakha...

ab bhugto...

in case you read it and have an opinion... hold on to it for a while... or write to me personally... am deliberately disabling comments on this post...

white light...

The Glass Windows of my room rattling every few seconds...

i can see a lot of white light outside... coming on every few seconds...

and then i hear a loud... rather very very loud roar of the clouds...

and again the windows rattle...

scary...

Chai ki Dukaan....

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

I hope to collect these shots and keep them here... for my chai ki dukaan whenever it opens :)

...

Its a strange feeling to be very close to someone and be far away from her at the same time...

Prashant Bhardwaj of INDIA

I won my first Photo Competition !!!!


And I am delighted :) totally...

Thanks to everyone who voted for me and helped me get votes...

Click here to read more...

Many thanks to Bindiya, Aqeel, and ASK for the opportunity to click in Moradabad... If I had not clicked in the Sankalp Centres this picture would never have been there...

jlt...

Its a li'il discomforting when you know that there is a friend who is away from you and is bothered about something and you just cannot do anything about it...

this is when the technological marvels like Email, phones, text messages really don't make much of a difference... all you want to do is sit next to the person and just be there... irrespective of there being a conversation or not...

what adds to the lack of comfort is when your friend chooses to keep you away from the thoughts of the moment...

distance is such a pain at times...

So YOU are God? Eh !!!

So YOU are God? Eh !!!, originally uploaded by ~OM~ ॐ "FoTo-SoFiCaL" Bhardwaj.

Do you ever challenge God?

do that... and then raise your own bar !!!

Letting it flow...

Tushar says Let it flow...

I think he is right...

i planned for something to happen in the next three weeks... its not happening now... it needs to be deferred...

i am letting it flow...

God uncle you reading this post, right? I am sure you know what you are doing... it better be for good !!!

Writing the Future

Sometime ago, I submitted three of my pictures for an online photo competition organised by Development Gateway Foundation depicting social economic development in developing countries....

One of these pictures made to the final ten of the competition and now its upto the number of votes which decides the winner...

so go check this link out...

http://www.dgfoundation.org/news-events/photo-contest/vote.html


Visit the page... have a look at the pictures and vote for my picture :)

My picture is titled "Writing the Future"

million thanks to Bindiya for telling me about this competition and pestering me to submit the pictures.... thanks darling...

Report Card...

Every man or woman has a history...

there is some chemistry

which leads to some physics on the geography

saving themself from some biology to avoid a lot of mathematics later :D

so much for how education helps :P

Who were they playing for?

I am not sure how many of you heard and noticed what the Pakistan Captain Shoaib Malik said at the presentation ceremony...

He apologised to all the Muslims of the world for loosing that final !!!

Strange... was that team playing for muslims of the world or what? so now the non-muslims have won?

what surprises me more is that I did not see anything about this comment anywhere in the news...

anyway... I know for sure there were more muslims celebrating India's victory than the number of muslims in that country... I am very happy that Pakistan lost if this is why they were playing the game...

are there lines dividing us?

When I was in Bangalore this time.. i got into a few discussions about south vs. north...

what ppl in the north think about the ones in south and what do southies think about the northies..

I wanted to write a detailed post about those discussions... and probably offend a few ppl in the process too...

But INDIA won the 20-20 world cup.. and we were celebrating the same way.. the smiles were same... the cheers as loud...

no point drawing a south north line anymore...

let it be one country...

Customers and Service...

And we say that FIAT has a bad after sales service and blah and blah and blah...

Bull Shit..

I bought my car about 3 years ago.. and have been getting it serviced at Dynamic Automobiles noida... i have seen the workshop during its good and bad times...but not once I had an issue with the people there, or the service they were offering...

they changed locations and have moved to a good 15 minutes drive away from home now... and today when i went there to get the car serviced, i was kinda surprised to see the place done up with flowers and all with TATA service boards all around... well that meant that they were going to service tata too.. which is fine.. because TATA and FIAT jointly handle the customers now... anyway.. so i am asked to park my car outside, which kinda meant there were less chances of the service being done because of the opening of the service station and all...

i just walked inside, and was greeted with a number of familiar smiles and concern of what was i doing there... when I told them that i was there for a regular service... they informed me that they were not taking any cars for service today and i might have to come back on wedneday for the service...

But before i moved out... i was stopped and someone went and checked if the car could be serviced... and good news... they would service my car... so as an exception, my car was taken care of just right... and as promptly as it could have been done...

And a couple of managers there also kept a tab on the work being done on the car...

One exceptional example of customer service... from FIAT or lets say its dealers... but I am happy yet again...

back to her...

the same touch...

the same romantic sound...

the same comfort in her company...

no words spoken... non heard either... we knew we were together again...

for once the distance did not make a difference... not talking for so long did not make a difference... while i was away she knew i think about her.. and i am sure she missed me too...

I love her...

and I am sure... Radha would be happy to read this too, only if she could...

:)

Options...

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

Life will always give me many options..

A choice of words when i want to talk or write...

a choice of expressions when I want to communicate...

a choice of friends when i want to laugh or cry or just be...

a choice of places when i want to get away...

Its me who needs to really take a call as to what I want...

hoping that a wrong choice does not screw up things too much !!!! Amen...

Another Just Like Thats...

One day can have so much !!!

Wish I could sometime count and keep the of thoughts, the expressions, the feelings that i go through in one day !!!

there is so much that at times I want to hold on to... with just two hands !!!

OM

OM in color, originally uploaded by Yoii.

Thank you Yoii.. aka Ankit भोपाली Singh for a nice picture of mine... :)

Banglore Bhasad !!!

National Highway 7...

The road from Silk board to Electronic City....
I am in an Infy bus, the engine of which has been idle for about 15 minutes now... and the bus has not moved an inch in those 15 minutes...

And on my left is a sign that says...

Drive SLOW...

What the fuck... I could have shoved that sign-board up the ass of the person who put it there!!!

I wonder what happens to people who need medical attention here!!! I am not sure if the ambulances can reach where they should... and if they do... I am not sure if people can be taken to the hospitals!!!

And there are riots if a film star dies!!!

I love the weather here... and there are enough arrangements made to ensure that it’s the weather that I can enjoy on the roads for most of my day...

0930 hours and there is a "NHAI" project for a elevated highway going on, on the hosur road... and for some reason... even after I tried hard.. I did not see more than 20 people working there... strange feeling it was... there is such a chaos on the road... and still work is being done at its natural pace... I have seen how flyovers have been built in Delhi... and I am so bloody happy that there work happens much faster... however bad or screwed up the city may be!!!

Oh... and for the record... it took me about 2.5 hours today to reach Electronic city from Jayanagar... this is my personal worst in terms of speed... i am not sure how can one spend so many hours on the road just trying to reach office and then back home... when this time could have been used to do something much much better...

God Bless Bangalore!!! And with something more than the excellent weather!!!

News Reader...

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

News is business now.. and not only news...

Adds taste to the morning cup of teas...

and gives gossip content for the evening cups...

Sting Operations, people run over by buses and cars, murders... its only the names and places that keep changing... the content can remain the same...

interesting it is !!!!

I wish for a time when news also focuses on The good dedicatedly... The media also highlights The good that people are doing in every single edition॥ The local heroes, The doers, The actual leaders... hoping...

Also, how about a sting operation in the open on a traffic signal sometime? stop everyone who crosses the red light and ask them why they do this? or may be one day spend in the autos, asking every auto guy why he cannot be honest... or maybe ask the uncle peeing on the road, why is it that he could not wait till he reached his home?

My world... my thoughts...

My world... my thoughts..., originally uploaded by ~OM~ ॐ "FoTo-SoFiCaL" Bhardwaj.

There is a lot that keeps building up in the minds... its like a bucket of thoughts that fills up every moment...

and times like these are important...because they let you think about what you want to... what is really worth spending time on.. what is it that you can let go...

I wonder if that is what this kid was doing...

I do that all the time... when i am in My World My Thoughts...

आग

Ok… I have seen BOOM…. And I thought the director/producer was under a heavy influence of drugs right from the moment he thought about making the picture to releasing it…

And not too long ago, I tested my patience with HR’s आप का सुरूर … and I somehow managed to survive the movie till the very end…

But there is something that happened that suddenly made me feel that both the movies mentioned above we nice movies… and no points for guessing that I am talking about Ram Gopal Varma’s आग … no fun in going into the details of the movie, but there are a few bullet items that I would still like to mention…

1. Nisha Kothari, does not look good even with half her clothes off her body. Ok she is a woman, and she got a decent figure... but see her act in this movie and there is li’il about her that is going to be attractive anymore…
2. Urmila Matondkar definitely got a boob job done… there was no other reason why there was song sequence featuring her and Abhishek Bachchan…
3. Ram Gopal Varma, and everyone else who was associated with the direction, production, acting, post processing etc etc tried a li’il too hard to make it different than the Sholey and yet not loose a similarity touch… and they miserably failed… the failure was worse than the Indian Cricket team getting all out on 50 runs… who ironically managed a great win over England in yesterday’s match… super exciting cricket after a very very long time… I miss Saurav Ganguly as the captain of the team for some reason…
4. मौसी was now गंगू Mummy… yes… exactly… “Gangu Mummy” what the fuck … who thought of that title?
5. Ajay Devgan acted pathetically in the movie… he was tried to be funny, and all I could see was a repeat of the hairstyle and the dialogue delivery from the “Phool Aur Kante” days…
6. Zero Chemistry between the friends…
7. Useless dialogues… including the one where गब्बर ... oops... बब्बन , this time, says “कब है दीवाली ”…
8. What was Amitabh Bachchan trying to do? Please someone help me get an answer to that question…
9. साम्भा is थाम्बे … and he was also cleaning the gun when the almost physically challenged बब्बन makes an entry…
10. It took me a while to figure out if बब्बन was coughing or laughing… then I realized that he was laughing…
11. The scene when वीरू threatens to commit suicide because Basanti’s मौसी is not agreeing to the marriage has been repeated as if some third standard kids thought of doing the same scene again with वीरू enacted by हीरो , बसंती enacted by घुंघरू , Mausiji enacted by some “Gangu Mummy”
12. The blind चाचा of the “इतना सन्नाटा क्यों है भाई ” fame is also there... only this time he is pretty aggressive and an angry old man…
13. Rajpal Yadav tries to make up for सूरमा Jagdeep भोपाली in a seemingly funny but very irritating accent…
14. The movie’s plot is based out of a place called Kaliganj in Mumbai… and there are gun fires, huge bomb explosions, AK 47 wars, and not a single Mumbai Policeman around…
15. And have I already talked about the songs? I do not remember even one of them as of now… all I can remember is that all of them came when they were not needed… and useless music!!!
16. There is Mohanlal the southie superstar as well… the poor guy, I do not think, knows that damage he has done to himself by acting in this movie... he has been decent at a few places for sure… but like ठाकुर even he did not have the limbs… they were cut off by babban because the inspector had used the hands to kill his brother…

Overall… a pathetic experience… worse than what it sounds like from the post above…

The only good thing that I personally liked was the lovely use of lights and some intelligent camera angles at times… Photography benchmarks… good ones…

I think Ram Gopal Varma should give a public apology for making this movie... the tremendous caliber that I think he has was WASTED in this his आग … not sure it caused some heat on the boxoffice…but it sure did leave a burning sensation somewhere inside me… Acidity maybe!!!

Decided....

I have to buy a Royal Enfield... the sooner the better !!!!

Media Centre - Infosys Banglore

Media Centre - Infosys Banglore, originally uploaded by ~OM~ ॐ "FoTo-SoFiCaL" Bhardwaj.

I am travelling to banglore for two weeks starting this monday to 23rd...

And I have the weekend of 15th to do my September Trip... suggestions please...

Choice of Expression....

Two friends...

One Angry...

One far Away...

The angry one can either take it all out on the one who is far away because of something he said or probably did not...

Or

The angry one can tell the one far away what really happened and resolve the matter...

Chai Ki Dukaan...

Chai Ki Dukaan..., originally uploaded by ~OM~ ॐ "FoTo-SoFiCaL" Bhardwaj.

Something that i have always loved... every place I go in India... i find one of these... muah to INDIA...

Language is like SEX...

Greenwich... or gren-ich....

This discussion still has been going on... Arobindo wants to sue his school because he was never told that its Gren-ich.... and because of the fact that he would have to face issues when he travels the UK....

I think language is like SEX... people speak/do it the way they like it...

There are no set rules... there are some basic guidelines, called grammar, etc etc are there... but as an individual you decide what you like the best...

so enjoy ... the language too :)

cheers...

World समोसा (Samosa) Day !!!

:Time for a day !!!

And let me introduce you to "the World समोसा Day..."

Why only samosas... because this is one snack that I missed the most in London... and also saw how ridiculously dissimilar the samosas in England were to what we get in Delhi... the amazing shape of the samosa is reduced to just a wrap called samosa... and sold for about a pound everywhere...

This post and this day henceforth, I would, dedicate to Samosas, The best tea-time snack I know of :) !!!

May we all get good samosas always... with the best of tea ( @ the चाय की दुकान )

Amen !!!

Oh... and today also happens to ne India's National Flag Day... read more about it here...

The Past in Present...

Not too far away in time I was a small kid… and with not many friends… used to be a good student and with a few friends… people my life circled around… and one such friend used to stay not long away from my house…

I remember my first cycle trip to his place… and how I got lost while coming back....i remember how I could still manage to reach home finding my way out with the high telephone tower helping me out…

I also remember a day, when three of us small kids were cycling around in noida and one of us met with an accident… he happens to be the father of a sweet girl today…
The third one happened to be one of my closest friends of those times… good company he was…I was always scared of his dad because he was a Police Officer, and his mom was one of the sweetest moms I knew… she is such a lovely lady… and the Mickey and Mona, his brother and sister… were two sweet darlings we used to be with…

Time passed… and I moved out of the school… to find a dream and a career for myself, and during all this while we did not talk… we moved apart when no one had heard of something called an email and we used to keep our fixed line numbers in phone books… so loosing that phone book meant that you loose touch… and if someone changes his residence or the number changes.. Then also you would not be able to track them down...

I lost one of my phone books... and I lost a few of my friends I had practically spent the nicest days of my life with… did not make any long lasting friends in the new school or college except while doing my masters… infact the people that I call friends are very very few today…

When I was going to London last month, I talked to one such friend… and he happened to the same guy who I used to treat as my best friend back in दाव school… Abhishek Dixit...


the same guy who used to roam around with me on cycles… the same guy I remember as a die hard fan of Amitabh Bachchan… The guy from Banda, UP, the same guy who used to sit with me on the last bench in school, the same guy who fell with me while we were trying a few summersaults on our last bench in school॥ The same guy I lost touch with for about 11 years…

And I was there with him, in a different country, in a different continent, about 6700 kms away from home… living some of the best moments of life again… the same comfort level॥ The same care... the same conversations, with some refinement though… things did not change much did they?


We walked the streets of London, we went to Scotland, we talked, ate, and ooooogled at girls together… life made simpler... the simple joys of life come to me in form of Abhishek… who also doubled up as the guide in a firangi country in the not so good of situations and the better ones too…

London would have been a mess, if he was not there… thanks Bro for being around... then and now!!! You are a blessing!!!


शुक्रीया दोस्त...

मेरी चाय की दुकान

I have been thinking about it for a while now… and I think I need another title for my blog… "Life As a (w)Hole" has been there for sometime now, infact a lot of time now… while I still am fine with looking at these words, I do not remember the last time I read the title of my blog…

So I think, its time for a change… did not really think about many titles… thankfully the one that came to my mind first is the one that I want to be with…

And

Life As A (w)hole… would now be called…

Chai ki Dukaan !!!

Blame it on the London weather or the rains that was all that I saw in the last 10 days of my stay there… because a Chai ki Dukaan was something that I was really missing there in the firangland…

However, the afterthoughts also helped me stick to the thought… because I have always like the roadside tea-stalls… they have been the most adorable, and faithful partners in all my trips in all the years that I have been traveling… go anywhere in India, and you will always be welcome in a tea-stall with a nice boiled tea and a few biscuits… a feeling that no other country in the WORLD can provide you with…

And I think that these tea stalls are where the real conversations take place… the words between the sips of boiling tea, and the sips between the conversations… I love them all…

So the ladies and the gentlemans… please welcomes the

Chai ki Dukaan… this is where my conversations with the world happen !!!

And this post would be incomplete if I do not mention Bindiya, who was very prompt in agreeing to the thought of changing the blog title, when I mentioned that to her!!! Thanks darling!!! It helped…

Might work on the template as well soon... ideas welcome !!!

Who Should I be scared of?

I believe that one single incident cannot really be good enough for anyone to pass a judgment about the entire country or a state for that matter, however with incidents like what happened in Gurgaon in the Honda Factory where hundreds of people were mercilessly beaten up by the policemen, the time when couple in Meerut were beaten by the policemen and policewomen for being together in a park... and now the dragging of a pickpocket in Bihar...

While I am sure that there is some action/ punishment required to straighten things up and the not so legal acts... but is this the right way? Are they trying to be heroes or something?

I would not be lying if I say that I am more scared by the police around me as compared to the criminals... At least the criminals keep into hiding, but the police can roam around freely doing what they want and the way they want...

And to add to an icing on the cake, there would usually be a few ppl suspended for beating the shit out of common people, and there would be a few people suspended (for shaking hands with Sanjay Dutt, when he is released on bail), there would be a group of people to enquire about the whole incident, and the opposition would ask the Chief Minister to resign and the incident would go on a completely different tangent...

Shameful and painful...

Lost...

I was trying to look up the internet for a definitive meaning of the words " youth icon". Did not really manage to find something...

So either I completely misunderstand the term Youth Icon or there is some big confusion...

Orkut?
Abhishek Bachchan?
Shahrukh Khan?

Don't we know of people who are young and make a difference in the lives of people in the country? Are there non left?

And the winner is Orkut?

Am i missing something?

The Common Link...

Scene 1 : One of the finest Indian restaurants in London, Mela, Shaftbury's Avenue.... amazing food and mango lassi...

Scene 2: The Jubilee Line Tube and the person, a firangi, next to me sitting listening to some music...

If were wondering why the above two are mentioned together is because there was something common in the two scenes..

No points for guessing, if you are a close friend of mine, that it was my "favorite" Himesh Reshamiya... with aapka suroor in scene one and jhalak dikhlaja in scene 2...

This guy would not leave me like this... aargh !!!

Correct English...

Its strange how people have speak about the correct way of speaking english...

I do not agree to a way of pronounciation being correct or incorrect, just because the people in a country speak it in a specific way...

I might have to adapt because the people here do not understand it, but to label a certain way of talking as incorrect is bullshit...

Atleast I do not know of anyone in India telling someone what is correct english and what is wrong...

I almost got into an argument with a friend, who insisted on using the words right english and wrong english... but stopped myself because she seemed to be completely convinced that the way people in London speak is the right english...

Anyway... let the computerrrrss be computerrrrrs....

Scotch - Land...

And I thought travel in India was painful... well for those who have not been to a place outside India, there is something to feel good about... the buses that drive you around long distances in India... and the trains that take you places... are much more comfortable than the ones in the UK... atleast london...

The Virgin trains have seats that do not recline at all, so you sit at an angle of about 100 degrees throughout your journey... you cannot even feel comfortable after 45 odd minutes, forget about sleeping on the train... the only good point being that they are much much faster than any of the other trains I have been in, and that means that the discomfort does not really last for long...

It did long for about 2.5 hours each way from London to Manchester for me though... and the fares... phew!!! Sky rocketing!!! A return trip to Manchester could be anything between 150 pounds to 200 pounds... and that is expensive by any standards...

Anyway... for Edinburgh... trains usually take about 4.5 hours so me and Abhishek initially thought of taking the train, but it was about 112GBP one way, and we were almost on the verge of dropping the idea to travel because of this high train fare... and then the national express came to our rescue... this is a bus service that operates out of London to various places around Europe including Paris etc.... I was hoping something closer to the Indian Volvos, if I can use that term here, to take me to Edinburgh... the ticket was cheap about 50GBP return... and i had my fingers crossed only to realise that the seat moves back only about 2 inches... and there was just the amount of legroom that would fit a 5'8" person comfortably... and I just cannot write how much I was missing the Volvos that I have travelled in, in India... they are sheer luxury...

The place is full of ppl who can paint you in minutes... amazing...

We left London on 10th around 2300 hrs and reached Edinburgh around 0730 hrs... the City Centre where there is the coach station... Took a cab to our hotel Park View on the Hermitage Street, about 10 minutes away from the main hub of the city... the Royal Mile... and this is where most of the action around the Fringe Festival was happening !!!

Posters and pamphlets of activities for the festival...

Posters and pamphlets of activities for the festival...

We realized that the reception was closed and we could not check-in until 1300 hrs... and it was only 0830 hrs when we reached the hotel... this meant that we would have to head back to the city... and roam around and come back in the evening to check in... Which we did... the chef at the hotel was kind enough to get us two large mugs of coffee that really helped us wake up... i had a stiff neck thanks to the all night journey, but there was li'il that we could do... so we bought a day ticket for 2.5 GBP and headed back to the city... and it actually turned out to be a great day!!!

One of the best street performances I ever saw... was by these guys above...

He is balanced on the pole using his leg muscles only...

Managed to check out a few venues of the annual Fringe Festival, went to the gates of the Castle and decided not to go in. went to a visual gallary called Camera Abscura instead and enjoy roaming around the entire 5 floors for about 2 hours... Camera Abscura had a room on the 5^th floor with mirrors on the top and they reflecting onto a oval screen on the bottom… went through a small 20 minute presentation there to see the entire town through those lenses and thought of how different it would have been for people to see that screen back in the 18^th century where there was nothing called a TV around, forget about a live telecast, which were looking at there on that screen…

No this is not a real woman... this is a picture of her.. which looks 3-D because of some light techniques...

And me :)

View from a bridge on the Princess Street... The castle in the background on the right is Edinburgh Castle...

more or less that day belonged to the streets and a nice Italian lunch at a restaurant on the Royal Mile...We did not do much the rest of the day but just walked around the centre of the town enjoying the hustle bustle, and the festival activities... there were about 300 Fringe Festival Venues and it is practically impossible for someone to check out everything even in the entire festival duration... and we did not even try that... I was keener on being on the streets and get a feel of the place instead of being inside a theater and spend time there...

A Red-Indian band playing... nice it was...

One of the best street performances I ever saw... was by these guys above...

We went back to our hotel around 1400 hrs and slept for 3 hours before we headed back to the Princess Street... the agenda this time was to eat, and then check out some local clubs... I had one of the best Indian dinners of my life @ 9Cellers and then we walked around the place before we club-hopped ;) two clubs... cannot remember the name of the first one, but the second one was Subway... and it had some nice music playing with I guess teenagers dancing their asses out on the floor... and I have to say that people in India dance much much better in clubs as compared to whatever I have seen in England so far... no offences meant here though!!! I even managed to witness something that I had only heard of so far here... a girl (not sure about her age) smooching two guys and a girl within about 30 minutes on the dance floor... it was kind of strange to see... anyway... we were back at the hotel around 0100 hrs to wake up early for our day tour of Scotland which we booked during our walk in the city...

On a cycle with one wheel.. two knives, one torch, and blindfolded juggling...phew...

Day 2: Sunday 12th August...

Highland tours had arranged for this day tour... and the bus was a Mercedes which helped :) the seats were much more comfortable and they reclined back… which made the entire day very very comfortable… we were to spend the entire day in the bus traveling around the country visiting various places…

another night view...

Starting at 0830 hrs and back by 1930… this trip was something that we could do best to check out the country... especially when it had been raining like crazy, there was not much that I would have managed to see in the city itself…

It kept raining most of the time when I was there... :(

So the route we followed was: Edinburgh -> Pitlochry -> Dalwhinne -> Fort William -> Loch Ness -> Glencoe -> Sterling -> Edinburgh…

The bus that took us around the country...

We stopped @ Pitlochry first and had breakfast… me and Abhishek kind of wandered towards a river there... and almost got late... but managed to be just on time for the bus to leave…

Most of the time our guide, Michael, kept telling us stories about the kings and the events and made sure that the rain outside does not dampen the spirit inside… the weather Gods like always were kind to me this time as well.. And after a few hours of rains the blue skies opened up and the nice bright sunshine filtered through the scattered clouds…

A cruise on “arguably the most famous water body in the world” Loch Ness, the home of the famous Nesse the Monster was amazing… it was kind of scary to see that black water… and to experience that too windy winds was great as well… it got really cold because of the water and winds.. But I guess I managed it just right...

Loch Ness from the Cruise Boat...

A live 3-D view from the monitoring systems in the boat... what you see here is the bottom of the Loch Ness... Can you see Nesse somewhere? :)

We drove for most of the day stopping at a few places… and our last stop was @ Glencoe where the entire bus managed to taste the famous Scottish Whiskey... and did some shopping too... I too bought some liquor J and in the smallest possible bottles… so that I have something to display from Scotland when I head back home…

Darooooooooooooo... loads and loads of it...

Managed to reach back by 1930 hours… roam around a li’il more… buy a muffler for myself… the typical Scottish Red checks… and take the bus back to London @ 2200 hrs… the bus had more Indians than others.. And it really looked like a Delhi-Jaipur bus instead of an Edinburgh-London one …

All tired and happy… I managed another short but made long weekend trip... and this time in a different country than India… Happy to have done that…

Oh.. this is nothing special... just one Matiz that I saw in Edinburgh.. picture for my good friend Deepak :)

The city of mis-pro-noun-ciations...

So Edinburgh... which used to sound like how its spelt is now Edin-bura or Edin-bora...

And Greenwich... which also used to sound like how its spelt.. is now Grenich... phew...

and Gloucester.. which again i would pronounce as Glo-Shes-Terr... is to be pronounced as Glo-S-Ter...

I spend every day about 2 hours in the amazingly complicated but simplifying life, tubes... with men wearing nice suits.. and women in all sorts of formal and informal dresses... with that whistling sound that a tube makes when it moves fast... real fast...

There are loads of free papers in the city as well like the Metro and thelondonpaper...and most of the people would pick them up from the stations and read them through and through before leaving it in the tube for someone else to read... interesting... and what makes it more interesting is that such papers are built out of 80% recycled paper and only 20% fresh fibre... and the cycle goes on...

the administration here advertises use of cycles for smaller distances... and anything that emits less CO2 into the environment... good... and the focus stays...

People say sorry and thank you as if its hard coded in their breathing cycle and live as mutually exclusive humans with no or li'il concern about what the other person is doing... strange how everyone can manage this slightly difficult balance of being polite and courteous while not caring about the rest of the world at all....

The buses run all night... and you are sure to reach home, mostly safe, at any hour of the day...

Places like Piccadilly circus stay open till wee hours in the morning... and there are a whole lot of 24 hour food shops around...

its really a life of convenience here...

and it has its flip sides too... which i shall talk about later...

As of now the strangest thing is to sit in London and saying Happy Independence Day to fellow Indians... seems like a joke or a pun and definitely intended...

Anyway... hope you be free too !!! shed your slavery to the thoughts of boredom and sadness... and be free to see a new light of energy and happiness...

Amen !!!

2 Years of Travel...

Being in a different country is different for sure :) I have been in England for about a week now and it for sure has been an experience…

Right from the longest flight I sat in, to the amazing view of the mountains in Afghanistan, to the plain deserts of some part of the world, to a collection of 53 movies to watch from, to my first stamp on the VISA, to a complete day of not speaking Hindi, to not being able to call anyone I really really wanted to… its been quiet an experience…

I should also be congratulating myself for something that I do not think many people have been able to do... and that is for the last 24 months, i.e., starting from July’05 I have been traveling outside Delhi every month !!! Is that a record of sorts or something? And I complete 2 years of this every month trip with my first International trip!!! God has been kind to me… very kind…

London is good… and I am at just the right time here, bright at sunny with no rains so far… amazing skies… and the so called summers in the country… in the last one week, I have seen more legs and umm… cleavages then the rest of my life.. Phew… it gets too hard to handle at times when women actually move around in the bare minimum they can wear for work…. But then why should I be complaining?

London is similar and London is different… London has humans who behave like machines and as if they are on a conveyor belt… the tubes keep running, the people move out first, and then the people move in… they stand on the right side of the escalators and walk on the left… they look before they cross the road… not crossing on the red lights… its mechanical… as if some super natural power ( read self-discipline) controls everything here… and at times, it can really get to your head !!! It did to mine for sure… a couple of times…

Have been able to see the famous London Tower Bridge, walk for over 4 hours on the Queen’s walk next to the river Thames, checked the slow moving London Eye and the heard the Big Ben… Not to mention have clicked a few pictures as well to compliment my stay here in the city… With Abhishek’s help, who has been kind enough to keep me with him for the time I am here this month, I managed a trip to one of the best places I have been to… Camden town… the punk place… had an amazing time walking around the streets there... and ended the day with a fantastic performance by some street musicians… loved that day of mine…

Another day that I would like to remember for good is the visit to the “Prime Meridian” of the world… the line that divides the world into two halves... amazing feeling that was to see that line... and the 24 hour clock… and the view that place gives of London... too many goodies in one there…

Also managed one day work related trips to Manchester and Gloucester in this week… and after work did walk around the two places to capture some of it in my camera… yes yes... I have talked about pictures... there are going to be uploaded soon... gimme sometime please…

Rest is fine… The life is good… with a few exceptions of course... but I guess I can manage that…

Will keep writing…

ASK-ing for More and Getting it...

Joy comes with Passion... and Passion usually fuels the will to do things...

My joy came a few weeks ago when I managed to visit Ambikapur and 3 villages near the place on a project related to Sanitation being managed by ASK

Some information about the project before I carry on with what I did there...

"The Chattisgarh PMU is a Gender Sensitive Sustainable Sanitation improvement and management through community initiative project. This was a demonstrative project over a period of one year. The project was implemented in areas where ADB funded rural road project has been completed.

The project has two main objectives. These are:

* To successfully demonstrate a sustainable sanitation program model implemented and managed collectively by the community stakeholders
* To ensure the availability of a practical process based manual on implementation of sanitation program

The strategies applied for the project were:

* Strengthening of Self Help Groups
* Formation of women federation
* Formation of Village sanitation committees (VCS)
* Formation of Project management committee (PMC)."

My journey from Chandigarh to Ambikapur took almost 18 hours...
Chandigarh - Delhi : Train in about 4 hours (including the road travel to home from station)
Delhi - Banaras flight : about 2.5 hours
Banaras- Ambikapur Road trip : About 9 hours

The best part of the travel was being introduced to the sleeper class buses.. not that I had not seen them before but getting to travel in them on a hot and humid evening, was something that i was not really looking forward to :)

Finally after being in an auto with about 10 people with all my bags on me, and a wait of about 30 odd minutes somewhere almost outside Banaras, the bus finally moved... Had Bindiya for company and that helped me forget most of the issue i was having so far... Manas Da who was travelling with us, also made me pretty comfortable with his presence. Never felt as if I was meeting him for the first time... My faith in the vibes and that they matter a lot actually got strengthened after I met him...

So Bindiya and me spent a lot of time chatting off in the bus and she also managed to freak me out my moving her legs in the dark... scary !!! phew... did manage to sleep for a while though after getting scared !!! The bus stopped at a place called Renukoot for dinner around midnight, and we had some amazing dal and roti there...

Finally managed to reach Ambikapur, which is the project office, around 0300 hrs on the morning of 21st July... Met Puneet who has been instrumental in the success of the project and slept for a couple of hours before moving towards our destination... the first village of the three we were to visit... Hirratikra... about 30 odd kms away from Ambikapur, which is the district headquater for the Sarguja District in Chattisgarh, This village is the second on the road built under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY)

Out of the five villages on the road, three were chosen by ADB and ASK to work on the project, namely Hirratekra, Korea and Kandrai...

We spent the 21st in Hirratekra talking to the people there... Here is what I learnt...

SHG - SelfHelp Group
Small groups made by womenfolk of the village. And women in the group pool small amount of money say 10 bucks or 20 bucks a month to the group account, which is usually there in the bank. In case of a need, a request can be made to the lead of the group for a loan and the interloaned amount is returned to the group at easy installments... This basically serves to make the women stronger in managing their activities and also thinking....

VSC : Village Sanitation Committee
This is now renamed as the VWSC, the Village Water and Sanitation Committee, and works mainly to ensure that sanitation and water related issues in the villages are looked at. Instrumental in interlocking with the govt and administration and is recognised by the Govt. as a team as well.

So the SHG and the VWSC worked together after about 6 months of efforts put into strengthening the teams in these three villages.

About the context of the project:
Before the road was constructed, the people in the villages used the area around the paths for their daily sanitation needs and after the construction of the roads, the immidiate effect was on the sanitation needs of the people especially women as now they had to go to the fields at odd hours and far away from their homes... It caused more trouble to the old women and the young girls as they needed someone to accompany them... the solution to this is individual toilets in all the homes.. and both the groups that i mentioned above with some very very active support from ASK and some funding from ADB worked together to achieve the target....

Our two days (First in Hirratekra, and the second in Korea and Kandrai) were spent in identifying how the project went, what is it that we started from? what is it that we have achieved? what is it that still needs to be done? is the work and the project sustainable, even after ASK and ADB move out?

Also asked the representatives of the villagers to rate the various activities on various scales... nothing different than what we do in our work places... exactly the same, the difference being that there are no fancy boardrooms they work on, there are no whiteboard markers or emails.. but there still were Minutes of meeting registers, account books, meeting schedules, fine payer lists, etc etc etc... amazing professionalism by people who are probably not even well educated...Made me wonder what is it that us educated and so called literate people are all about... is there a difference? it seemed to me that these people were much more better off than most of us in the cities...

ASK has done some amazing work in making these internal groups very strong and give them enough motivation in the last one year to keep the project going even after they move out... simple salute to the people who have made this difference... and continue to do it over and over and over again... Even the people recognised that effort and i could see it in their eyes when we were moving out... Some of the things that the villagers made were related to how they could not get more information and were keen on understanding what is happening in the world more than before, the way the women in the villages have gathered to own the improvement of the entire system around... fantastic effort and good response... God Bless...


On the more personal side, I was scared by Snake scares and Naxal presense in the area by Mr Puneet pretty successfully...
Made some amazing friends with Manas Da and Puneet over the few days I spent with them...
Got closer to one of the nicest people I know, Bindiya... and knowing her more is very nice...
Drove around a honda activa with a scared Bindiya as the co-rider :)
Had an amazing sweet called HeeraMani in Ambikapur...
And had a great time... full of happiness, fun, warmth, excitement, pride, and more...

And going away from Ambikapur while the rest of them were still there was not easy... anyway... I left and managed to stay for a day in Banaras showing myself and my camera some parts around the holy river Ganges and the famous Banras Ghats... not much to write about Banaras... will let the pictures speak soon...

Pictures here...

Not being romantic about it...

The first response that I get from people when I talk about underprivileged kids, or the areas in the country which are less fortunate than the betters, is of Sympathy..

Mind you, most of the issues cannot be taken care of by sympathy only or by being only emotional...

What we need is a step to be taken.. a small but firm step...

So if you have been thinking about doing something... do it.. do not feel too sympathetic or keep thinking about doing something for your society for long.. do it.. give it a shape...

High...

I asked ,"What is it that keeps you going re? What motivates you?"

She said... Prashant... I feel that I make a difference... on whatever level but I do...
I am in it for the same high !!!

I want to make a difference... and i will...

And I know it, because of some people like Bindiya who are around me... Thank you darling for all you are to me...

What are you looking at?

This is what I note in women... Physical attributes i mean... Not in any order though..

Front :

Eyes (If not too far away)
Hair ( I love long hair, though there are women who look amazing in short)
Lips (I forgot mentioning them... without a lipstick... and still pink... i might not even notice what she is wearing)
Breasts (Men find it extremely tough to not look at the breasts more often than not; so either the eyes gotta be very beautiful, the smile gotta be magnetic; the conversation ultra interesting or important... if none of that happens, there are good changes that the eyes would slip a foot down south from the face)


Back to Back:

Butts... first always... I really like women with nicely shaped butts..
The curves of the back... and how the hair flow down...


What is it that women look for in men? and I am talking about Physical attributes ONLY.. not talking about things like sensitivity, humour etc etc..

I know of a few:
Shoulders
Shoes
Smile
Jaw Line
Arms/Palms

Happy Birthday To You...

See this before you waste any more time !!!

http://www.quantumshift.tv/v/1182905171/


http://www.humlog.org/news.html#mudcake

or YouTube

Thanks to Paren for introducing me to Gaurav.. and Thanks to Gaurav, for telling me that this video has resulted in a 200kg cake being made for children... like the ones in the video..

Keep up the great work Doc... Claps !!!

Growing up...

Its strange how you grow up...

Together or away...

Someone who you used to call every second minute now becomes an unknown number in your contacts list...

Someone who used to be your favorite teacher now is a smile from the past...

Your first crush now seems to be a sequence of the stupid things you did...

Your decision to do engineering now seems to be a decision you want to do a undo on...

The time lost in not doing anything is something that you feel you need today...

Its strange how you grow up...

And it all seems so natural !!!

Same bench... different people...

Sitting on a railway station...

In a small town...

With a lot of ppl all around...

Being a part of them and talking to them..

Waiting for a train like I have to go somewhere too..

I kept asking how long before the damn bogie arrives?

and one of them would turn and tell me, its usually late.. another 20 minutes may be..

and i wait with them...

The train comes... some people get down... and some board the train...

And i am still there...

Waiting for a train.. with a different set of people...


This is how I spent about 3 hours today... on a railway station in Daurala, about 12 kms away from Meerut...

Wonderful afternoon... well spent...

Bored....

i

?

The Gravity of Love...

How much do you love me?

45 kgs

WHAT!!!! only 45 kgs?

Baby... you do not understand...its not only... its a lot
just that the gravity of my loving you is more then the gravity of the earth...so if you take the normal gravity it shall be only... but if you consider my gravity benchmarks its might be more than you can imagine...

Ek aur Kahani Khatam !!!

Bhai, Apne se nai hota ye sentiyapa... I am back to my "single&ready2mingle"hood !!!

Kya hua?

Arre.. natak hai bhai... main sala itni mushkil se senti hua aur ab wo kisi aur se shaadi kar rahi hai kyonki uske parents bol rahe hain !!!

Par tu bol na ke baat karegi...

Maine bola na bhai... Bolti hai abhi nai bol sakti... August mein bolungi... maine bola ke abhi bol de.. atleast teri engagement se pehle time to milega kuch sort our karne ka... Bolti hai, ke nai bol sakti... Phir bolti hai ke, "I think we should break up." Maine bola bhai ke kya pagalpan hai !!! mera hi dimaag kharab hai !!!

Maine phone rakha aur do din baat ek ex-flame ko phone kara...

Wo flame ki light abhi bhi bujhi nai hai bhai... aur apni life mein wapas candle lit dinner ho rele hain !!! Zindagi mast hai...

bhaad mein gai ye relationships...

IT for sure is A MISTAKE

ITS a MISTAKE...

that's what he shouts only 5 minutes into the movie... and he is so right... for the first and the last time... "Aap ka Suroor" is such a mistake... and I became a part of it by watching it day before yesterday...

All I wanted to do was to test my patience and see if I could manage to sit through the entire movie... and what I did was keep smiling throughout thinking why was I doing that to myself !!!

Here are a few things that I noticed in the movie...

~ Himesh tells his friend Sravan, " Sravan dekh to Germany mein meri naak mat kata dena". Sravan says, " Nai yaar, main aisa kaise kar sakta hoon, teri naak kat gai to tu gayega kaise".
~ No two scenes in the movie seemed to be continuous in nature... though they were connecting the story, but the editing was done pathetically... It seemed like they had made 5-6 hour long movie about Himesh, and then shortened it to about 2.5 hours.
~ Hanshika Motwani has done extremely well with her immitation of Sushmita Sen's voice and style of speaking... If you are not looking at the screen, you would think that its Sush only who is speaking...
~ Himesh has the irritating, almost about to cry, face in the entire movie as if he is suffering from piles... The only time he manages to laugh and that too in the most plastic fashion is when a li'il girl makes fun of his cap...
~ When Himesh meets Ria the first time... the scene has Gayatri Matra playing in the background. I have never seen a mantra being used such pathetically ever.
~ And then Himesh also bothers to sing the Gayatri Mantra in its worst form ever... and he managed to screw up the Rishi Kapoor/Kishor Kumar song too... Main Shayar to nahin...
~ For some reason, Himesh was also seen rubbing his chest in a strange manner in a few instances in the movie... yuck...
~ He does not have a body to wear button less shirts, but still he was trying to flaunt something that was there under his shirt by wearing the buttonless shirts throughout the movie... atleast i did not notice a cleavage or chestcuts for that matter...
~ Oh... there is this classic scene where Himesh is being taken away by the Police in their cars and out of nowhere (in Germany) there are 3 autowallas in uniform who make him run away... the camera also was frozen on these 3 super heroes for their 5 seconds of fame...

Overall this was a ridiculous movie... ONE of its kind.. you really have to watch it to hate it the right way... not watching it and not liking it is something thats not really worth it !!!

The only good thing about the movie was Mallika Sherawat... I have kinda started liking the way she carries herself after Pyaar ke Side Effects... and how natural she can look at time...

Oh... and when the movie finishes, the song Mehbooba Mehbooda appears out of nowhere... for no reason at all... Not sure what the editors were trying to do with the kilometres of reel that they have for the movie...

The First first, that never happened...

He had bought the condoms... It was going to be his first time... He was nervous and very very excited... A fear of failure was looming large in his mind... He hoped that he could do well and make her happy...

She arrived at his place at the time they talked about... and like two hungry wolves they just pounced on each other as if there was no tomorrow...

No words were being spoken... no sounds were being heard... it was only lust that was playing its wicked game in that room... and then the time came... to use that packet of Kamasutra's he had bought...

And then he stopped... he felt it was not right... he should not be doing this...

She kept lying on the bed with her eyes closed waiting...

And he kept looking at her...

All he could do was ask her to leave... and all she could do was have that question mark on her face...

They met... but never talked again...

End of Story....