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!!!

Equation...

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

Some relationships get only stronger with distances !!!

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 !!!

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...

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 ...

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 !!!

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 :)

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....

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...

...

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 ;)

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!!!

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 :)

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 !!!!!

The Weekend in 20 Steps...

Another super weekend came to an end yesterday... probably the last in the series of weekends!!!

Next weekend is going to be very different with what I know as of now... Not sure if I am super excited about it right now but I am getting used to the thought :)

Let’s talk about the last two days right now though :)

1. Friday evening shopped for some curtain cloth with parents...

2. Friday early evening drove to Priya and had a small DFC get together... and i managed a peg of my favourite Absolut Peppar.... i love that flavour and the taste of it...

3. Managed to get Aro and Subbu at the party too...

4. It had rained nice and cool by the time we left, and then I drove to Gurgaon with them to meet Shaji and his super son Shawn!!!

5. We were on our way to Shaji’s place when Mon called and told me that I had to come to Dublin (the disc of Maurya Sheraton)

6. I stopped Shaji and told him that I had to go... Dropped Aro and Subbu in Dwarka and drove quickly to Dublin...

7. So between meeting the DFC gang once and then meeting them again, I had already driven like 60 odd kms...

8. Dublin is the worst disc I have ever been to... The DJ was dead, and the sound pathetic... I was missing my two outings to the Orange Room with friends and how we came out all exhausted after dancing for hours together... Dublin did not even make me feel like dancing... Highly unrecommeded folks!!!!

9. The good thing was meeting a few friends again.... that made up for most of the loss of good music though...

10. Quick drive back to Dwarka... actually pretty fast (took li'il over 10 minutes between Dhaula Kuan and Dwarka sector-9) saw a little bit of Varekai, and then called it a day...

11. Woke up darn late... and tried to watch a few movies but did not really watch anything...

12. Finally moved out around 4ish and went to ASK, where I gave them the cheque of Rs. 10000. (I will give the rest of the money as soon as I have it) Discussed with Dr. Khan about various issues that we as bloggers can target talking about... something might come up on Chai ki Dukaan too in near future...


13. Time to move to Shaji's place now... We reached and realised that he was not home and his phone was not reachable either... so we decided to move back to Dwarka... but stopped in between when Shaji called and said that he was coming back!!! While waiting, I managed some hot chocolate fudge at Nirula’s.... I think I like the last weekend's create your sundae better...

14. Shaji wanted to see Varekai too... So me and Aro drove back to Dwarka from Gurgaon and came back with the CD... Varekai went on till midnight, and by that time one of my friends also finished her work at office!!!

15. Picked her up, and drove back home after dropping her home... The ice cream walas at India Gate had already packed, but it was nice to see at least 200 people around the place at 0100 hours in the night when we drove past...

16. Sunday started very late.... A friend called me and said that he hates me because whenever he goes to his girlfriend's desk, she has a window of the Chai Ki Dukaan in front of her :)

17. Went out shopping with Bindiya... got myself two stunning Kurta’s!!! And a nicey frame for the wall... pretty neat stuff!!! I had posted a picture of Bindiya on flickr sometime back and decided to get it printed and framed and give it to her!!! It was awesome to see the shocked look on her face when she opened the packet!!!! Its nice to do certain things which you are least expected to do :)

18. By the time I came back, Aro and Subbu were home already... Had called Subbu to meet pa... Later, picked up Tushar, Went to the market, got a whole bunch of VCDs of which I kept a few....Arobindo, the bugger bought the entire collection of Calvin and Hobbes too :'( what an ASS he is !!! I don't like him for it...

19. Dropped Tushar back, went to the Tshop... and had a few teas... Subbu was not too happy
with the milk in the Darjeeling Tea, and Aro was not happy that I ordered ice tea for him... So I had the Fresh Lime Masala and some Peach Ice Tea...

20. The Day ended with the movie "Strangers"... Surprisingly I had not heard about this movie ever before and it turned out to be one of the best I have seen with incredible performances by Kay Kay Menon and Jimmy Shergil... I am not going to spoil the movie for you by telling what it’s about, but it’s a MUST watch if you have not seen it yet!!!

And Monday started as usual :) it’s already 4 and I don't know how the entire day passed by... I have been busy I guess :)

Nice!

just a thought...

Life becomes much easier when you let go of certain things...

its the letting go part which is difficult !!!

Thankfully life on this side of the screen seems to be moving in the right direction... Thank you Uncle God... you know how to get the things into place !!!

On Grass Courts...

The sexy girl in shorts fell pretty short of a 2nd round win against the 154 seed 20 year old Russian Alla Kudryavtseva.

I did not watch the entire match but the second set and there was no doubt that Maria was not really playing half as good as Alla... While trying to save the match on her own serve, the girl does a double fault... nahiiiiiiiiiin !!!


Personally I think she was looking too beautiful with those earings to crash out of my favorite tennis tournament like this... Let me not talk about how hott she is and feel worse about not being able to see her in the rest of the tournament !

However, noone even comes close to Gabriela Sabatini in my heart :) Call it a teenage crush or whatever :)


And I don't think anyone can ever play as good as Steffi Graf... serious !!!! *bows to the best*

Images : Wimbledon Official Site and Internet

Things People Do...

I met a friend today and she showed me a 29 page greeting card that she had made for her husband on his 29th birthday... Every page different, with a different message, made differently, new colors, new message... Awesome stuff !!! God bless them both :)

A total of 10 days of effort!!! And every second worth it!!!

I told her if someone would do something like that for me, I would not even know how to react!!! Do i smile or say thank you! Or what do I do? And she just laughed!!!

I am still thinking about what the hell would I do if someone does this for me... I guess I would just go silent and would be dumbstruck!!!

Maybe I just don't know!!!

:)


And here is something more that someone must have done to make someone happy!!!!

Customise a HONDA CRV to PINK Color!!! I don’t think this is a HONDA Original color !!! NO WAY

Pink, by Aerosmith is one of my favourite songs EVER!!!

Pink it´s my new obsession
Pink it´s not even a question
Pink on the lips of your lover, ´cause
Pink is the love you discover
Pink as the bing on your cherry
Pink ´cause you are so very
Pink it´s the color of passion
`Cause today it just goes with the fashion
Pink it was love at first sight, yea
Pink when I turn out the light, and
Pink gets me high as a kite
And I think everything is going to be all right
No matter what we do tonight
You could be my flamingo
´Coz pink is the new kinda lingo
Pink like a deco umbrella
It´s kink - but you don´t ever tell her

But here someone has taken it literally I guess!!!

Phew!!!

Enjoy the pictures...

Contrasty Weekends and More !!!

I feel very satisfied for being able to do what I started off for... And mind you, it could not have been possible without a few, actually more than a few, people around who played very very important roles during the entire initiative...

I have a commitment of Rs. 12500 from the two posts that show the paintings and have received Rs. 8000 already and the rest is in transition or process and should be with me soon!!! My next step would be to go to ASK and give all this money to them for Sankalp.... Thank you again everyone who has contributed in some way or the other... I am in the process of arranging the paintings and sending them off to their respective owners...

I should, however, mention a few names here specifically...

I had only thought of going to Sankalp and giving away the Stationary etc to the kids there... discussed the thought with Arobindo and our conversation resulted in the day turning into a Painting Competition for the kids where they could use the stuff we take for them... Thanks Bro for your support...

It would have stayed a painting competition, if I had not seen a framed painting made by a small kid at my friend's place... I was at Nidhi's place one day and that’s when I saw the painting... I think AP had bought it for her from an NGO, and that moment a bulb was switched on in my mind... I had more to do than just organise the painting competition... Nidhi, if it was not you, we would not have a single rupee in our kitty today!!! Cannot thank you enough really!!!

Bindiya was told about this thought, and she loved it... We figured out a few things over a few calls and organised the entire event... Kalpana ji from Sankalp was always more than keen in helping us out with whatever we required. I love it the way Bindiya (also read ASK) lets me take complete ownership of what I want to do and also give me the freedom to do it my way!!! Thanks Bindiya for everything!!!

Tushar and my cousin Ashish was both excited when I asked them to join me that day!!!

Not many people knew about the initiative except Me, Aro, Bindiya, Nidhi, Tushar, Ashish (my cousin) the team at Moradabad and Sharanya, whose excitement and loads of ideas she shared acted as a Catalyst to the entire thought process...

And once we were back from the Painting Competition, almost everyone I know in this big blog world helped the way they thought was appropriate... some came forward to take one of the painting, some encouraged me with very kind words, and some mentioned it on their pages to ensure more people knew about the initiative !!! And I also need to mention that my Hughes Gang rocks!!! For many reasons and one of them is the quick response that I got from Aseem, Subbu, Aro, and Naveen to buy the paintings.... Overall a great experience this was and needless to say, a very successful one to thanks to a lot of people!!!

Now something about what I have been doing for a while, other than trying to sell paintings :)

Some flower in my balcony... no idea about the name

The last weekends have been so different from each other yet very fulfilling...

The last Sunday was spent in silence... I did not speak much the entire day was almost locked (with an open door though) in my room... Watched movies (Juno and the Bucket List), read a book or may be more than one, went through the Calvin and Hobbes Tushar had given me for my birthday (A very welcome change from the travel books he gifts me all the time :)

My bed on the floor, the laptop the ear phones and dark !!! nice Sunday it was...

My lunch one of these days... brown bread with Sauce and Jam and Marmalade...

I like the way smoke moves out of Incense Sticks... I have lately realised I can look at it for a long time...

It rained last week... Did you get out to enjoy it? I took a bath in the rain twice last week :)

This weekend I was on a talking mode :) was trying to make up for the silence that started last Sunday I guess :) the weekend started a few hours early with a long drive to meet Ruchi, handed over the painting to her, drove to haldiram, got stuck in a two way truck and trailer traffic on a single lane service road (for about 5 minutes after we were already 25 minutes into the jam, I had a feeling that we might stay stuck there for a few more hours, but thankfully the jam cleared and we were out of it in like 35 odd minutes)...

Friday night at Arobindo’S place, with one more lad from the Hughes gang... laughter and bakar bakar bakar bakar and more bakar... Poor Raj was the target of most of the jokes while I and Arobindo laughed our asses!!!

Saturday started early and ended pretty late (Only on Sunday by 0200 hrs) and it included watching The Gods must be crazy part 1 and 2, having a late breakfast, not feeling like getting up from the beds till like 1400 hrs, taking the metro to Mandi House and not getting the tickets for a play I wanted to watch (GhasiRam Kotwal)... taking a wrong bus to CP from Mandi House, walking towards CP and singing songs fairly loudly on the road with Subbu, searching for Nirula's and finding it eventually after having a nice pan at Odeon, having the Make your own triple sundae at Nirula's with a scoop each of Black Currant, Mango Mania and Tutti Fruity, having the mango milk at Cavenders, going back to Dwarka in the Metro, singing songs, learning some English from Subbu, meeting a few more friends from Hughes at Aro's place and bakar bakar bakar bakar bakar till post midnight !!!! Phew!!! Long day eh!


Sunday was again a lazy day with the highlight being the English play Indian in the Bronz... and interesting subject but not really presented in the best of the ways... I revived a lot of good memories from the past of the various technical things that I had learnt about one act plays and how we used to implement most of them... I wish I can contribute to a theatre group soon... Maybe once I have shifted base to Delhi, I would... Not sure if Bindiya also had the same opinion about the play, but she made a nice single word remark that the play was interesting!!! Let’s buy that opinion for now :) Had to wait a good 20 minutes before we got a seat in the Bengali Sweet house before having our dinner of Chole Bhature, the Pao Bhaji and the lovely Kulfi Faluda!!! A quick drive back home and a few more discussions on how I can contribute more to ASK and various other initiatives in the organisation!!! We did discuss about some websites that talk about one can contribute to the society as well... I am going to write about them too in future once I have gone through the sites in detail!!!


Too long a post eh!!!

Never mind :) If you have managed to read it fully, congratulations, or if just jumped to the last line, well :) I think you missed a lot :)

Have fun, God Bless!!!

Oh and guess what, I have this small water pot in my balcony, which I fill with water every few days... sometime last week I there was this Pigeon who visited visited the waterhole of sorts... There was not much water there, but I guess enough to keep him there for a good 15-20 minutes and there was something in there that he was eating too... I guess he had brought it himself !!! Check the pictures below :) It was nice !!! very !!!



ok... final ta tu !!!

More from Sankalp :) Thanks Friends...

Here we go... The second lot of Paintings from the painting competition in Sankalp. Needless to say I am delighted to know that many of my friends pushed me into posting this set as everyone wanted to contribute something or the other...

So here we go :) Take your pick. Leave a comment here and drop me an email at prashantbhardwaj[at]gmail.com with your address... Like the last set, I am expecting you to pay atleast Rs. 500 in case you decide to buy one of the following ::)

Apologies but I could not note down the Artist's name and her/his class for this one. My Mamaji decided to take this one for himself :) Someone said it just right, Charity begins at home :)

Made by : Hina; Class VII (Not available; Reema Srivastava has offered to take this one)

Made by : Aayesha ; Class IV

Made by : Farha; Class IV

Made by : Tarannum; Class VI

Made by : Shaqib ; Class V (Not available; Ankur Prakash has offered to take this one)

Made By : Rabia; Class : VI (Not available; Mayuri has offered to take this one)

Made by : Noori; Class III (Not available; An Online friend who does not wish to be named has offered to take this one)

Made by : Sajid; Class III (Not available; Ankur Prakash has offered to take this one)

Made by : Laiba Noor; Class III

Made by : Faisal Hussain; Class III (Not available; Sarika has offered to take this one)

And this is the palm print of the kids from Sankalp :) Ruchi Sharma has offered to take this one :)

ah !

Madhubala is so freaking gorgeous !!!


muah !!!


Nothing beats her looks and her laughter in "Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi" !!!


Haal kaisa hai janaab ka?

o o o

aa aa aa

:)

I AM Wondering...

About a lot of things... Glad I had thought of a few and managed them pretty well... there is a whole new set waiting to be completed... Going through a series of mixed emotions these days where everyday is a plethora of thoughts and feelings and I sleep looking forward to a new day !!!

Thank You Folks !!!

My heartfelt thanks to

• Arobindo Sinha
• Aseem Kumar
• Monika Rawat
• Naveen Katlaria
• Pankaj Trivedi
• Reeta Skeeter
• Geet
• Mayuri Chaturvedi
• Gaurav Agrawal
• Subhadip Purakayastha
• Kavita Bhargava

for coming forward to take the paintings that I shared in the last post... I was hoping but not really expecting to reach the milestone this quick !!!

THANK YOU FOLKS !!!

I know of atleast 5 people who are keen on extending a helping hand to the initiative, and I am going to post another set of 10 paintings very soon from that painting competition and I am really happy to see that we would be able to collect more money than we initially thought of !!!

Time for a Sankalp...

So here I am... back to Sankalp and posting the much awaited paintings that won at the Painting Competition in Sankalp, Moradabad...

There were multiple things that I wanted to achieve from this entire set of activities:

1. Go out and do some fun activities for the kids in Sankalp
2. Not just donate something, but have some use of it
3. Bring back the paintings and do some fund raising for Sankalp

1 done
2 done
Click HERE for details of the day...
3 is what this post is about!!!

The aim is to collect at least Rs. 6000 which is the amount that is required for non-formal education of one kid in Sankalp. Non-formal education includes the education expenses, recreational opportunities, nutritional expenses and healthcare.

Here is the plan... You can select one of the 12 paintings below (click on the photo to see large) and write to me at prashantbhardwaj@gmail.com in case you are interested in the painting. The minimum that you should be willing to give is Rs. 500 and I shall leave it to you in case you'd like to give more. I am going to collect the entire money and hand over to ASK.

In case you' like to follow a different route of helping to the cause, please visit the ASK India website directly @ ASKIndia.org and browse around to find an opportunity.

Made by Sayma Sharif (Class VI). This one won because of the positive message in the painting, and the girl trying her hands on Water Colors for the first time. We had give three topics - Child Rights, - Child Labour and - Rains... Sayma wonderfully clubbed two of them to come up with this ! (Painting not available anymore; Arobindo has offered to take this one)

Made by Sana Afreen (Class VII). Lovely use of color... Very soothing to the eyes. The category she chose was Barish (Rains); (Painting not available anymore; Monika has offered to take this one)

Made by Irfan (Class (VII). A Very nice representation of Child Rights...(Painting not available anymore; Binnu :) has offered to take this one)

Made by Ishtiyak (Class VI). Lovely use of Color... Treat to the eyes... (Painting not available anymore; Aseem has offered to take this one)

Made by Saira (Class VII). Brilliant representation of Child Rights. Very nice use of color.(Painting not available anymore; Binnu :) has offered to take this one)

Made by Nazma (Class VI). Nazma was one of the winners because of a different thought she put into this. She made a canvas and then painted inside the Canvas... Nice thinking...(Painting not available anymore; Pankaj Trivedi has offered to take this one)

Made by Umar Farid (Class VI). Umar painted a question that stares at the face of many of us who are involved with the initiative... We have an answer, and we are working towards getting the answer being put in reality... (Painting not available anymore; Reeta Skeeter has offered to take this one)

Made by Shabeena Khan (Class VIII). Shabeena used the colors very nicely and the glitter too... It was a cloudy and rainy day in Moradabad and it took a while before this work dried... This is an absolute visual delight... (Painting not available anymore; Geet has offered to take this one)

Made by Shiri (Class V). Shiri's message in this work is simple, straightforward, and very clear. Lovely portrayal of the thoughts...(Painting not available anymore; Mayuri has offered to take this one)

Made by Rani Sartaj (Class VI). Very nice use of colors. Visually very soothing...(Painting not available anymore; Gaurav Agrawal has offered to take this one)

Made by Sadim (Class III). Sadim did not paint for any of the themes, but he made the Indian Flag and wrote the National Anthem for us... We could not have ignored this one...(Painting not available anymore; Subbu has offered to take this one)

Made by Salman (Class VI). Brilliant use of color, and a visually appealing representation of Rains...(Painting not available anymore; Kavita has offered to take this one)

Like I said before too, please contact me at prashantbhardwaj@gmail.com and let me know in case you interested in one of the above paintings/sketches. The minimum I am expecting from you is Rs. 500.

God Bless !!!

From the Horse's Mouth

Scene 1:
A few hours away from the Iran Border (into Pakistan)... He has been enjoying the Rs.4 per litre of petrol and riding his Yamaha at his own free will and pace... Somehow he cannot see any petrol pumps anymore... he somehow manages to buy some petrol from a roadside vendor at a premium of course... Next morning when he was leaving the MusafirKhana, where he rested for the night, he is told that he would be killed!!! No, this was not a warning or anything but something that would have been a usual activity for the sharp shooters who would shoot for no reason... He called his parents, friends and everyone who he wanted to hear, hoping that they see him when he reaches back home, though he did not tell what was expected...

Well... he managed to pass through with some luck and was not shot dead...

Scene 2: Pakistan Border
He gets a warm welcome, is given water to drink and some real nice food to eat and rests for a while before he moves on... There is some shooting (with cameras and not guns!!!) going on at the border and he is asked to act in it :) he is asked to carry a few bags across the border, but he refuses politely... After much negotiation, he is left like that :) but still he does spend some 3 hours shooting with the local team before he somehow manages to leave the place after many requests to the director of the serial!!!


Scene 3: Somewhere in Multan
He is being escorted by a SP from the local Police Department to ensure his safety while he travels through... The bad desert storm forces them to take shelter in a petrol pump and conversations start... During the chit chat, the police officer asks him why he does Murti Pooja... Though short of words for an answer, he still maintains a cool and shares his honest opinion about his respect for all religions... What comes next is least expected... the police officer says that the next morning he would take him to a hospital and do that needful so that he can convert to Islam... from there they would go to the Mosque and do the rest to ensure his conversion... Though he was stunned, but he still kept his cool throughout...

He told the police officer that there are ministers, media etc waiting for him at the border and if he does not reach there in the morning, there can be international conflicts etc... Some dedicated talks and the police officer lets him go, and escorts him to the border "intact"... Phew!!!

Scene 4:
Wagah Border... he is waiting an entry to India... but the Indian officials say that he cannot enter the country from Wagah as only people > 65 years of age can enter the country on their own from there own.. Rest either take the train or the bus... Much repeated requests hit deaf ears and he is stuck, and the only road takes him back to the same Police Officer who was keen on err... I have talked about it before!!!

He is not even given food or water for 6 hours, though a few phone calls to a few friends in the capital and then a few calls to some ministers etc help him get through the Wagah Border into his own country!!!

Phew!!! Again!!!


These are just some of the millions of stories that Pankaj Trivedi could have shared with me :) I find myself lucky to have met him in the evening today... He is one of the very few people on flickr, who have earned my respect because of their sheer simplicity and modesty... God bless you Pankaj Bhai!!! Hope to hear many more stories from you sometime soon :)

Pankaj just completed a Record by riding between Kanya Kumari to Leh in 5 days and 5 hours... he also drove some 200 kms with half a handle on the Karizma as it broke after a slip-up with a truck near TangLang La... He also has driven from UK to India on a bike, which I would write about in some more posts later on Chai Ki Dukaan... As of now, I am feeling very happy to have met him!!!

Lucky!!! Yes I am!!! He knows ME!!!! :)

Peace for me !!!

Pt. Jasraj's voice

Ustad Zakir Hussain's Tabla

Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasiya's Flute

Taufiq's Percussions

Manna Dey's "Aayo Kahan Se Ghanshyam", "Laga Chunari mein Daag"

and more...

random thought...

There are times when I feel that there is a very careful planning going on to take away things that I deserve !!! It obviously is God Uncle who is doing it !!! he is the culprit !!!

At the same time, on second thoughts, the good news is that he is thinking about me !!!

I am sure it must be for good !!!

I am holding on to hope Uncle !!! But let me tell you, its getting weaker !!!



p.s. its just a thought that I had to write !!! I don't need any comments on this one.. apologies if you had something to say about it !