Change of State...

I have to learn how to laugh at a few people I am angry with...

Realising that my anger is not helping anyone, and most importantly me... but laughter might just give birth to a few smiles once in a while!!!

Anger : Out... get out... just get the fkk out !!!

In fact I wonder if these people are worth anytime, but unfortunately we meet and walk a distance with folks who leave a deep impact on our lives, on our thinking and on our behavior... all in the name of life...

Fortunately, I have had people I have laughed my lungs out with... and I have had people who made me cry till I could not breathe anymore...

Extreme pain, access sadness,
Blank Thoughts, insane madness,

....

Have been feeling a li'il low for the past couple of days.. happens all the time whenever I am back from an amazing trip !!! I guess I need to write about the trip soon and read it myself to get back to life :)

I am tHiS ThAt aNd MoRe...

Aro thinks that I am nuts, and a gone case and maybe more...

Mon thinks I cannot laugh at myself, and that I am too practical...

Bindiya thinks that I am too much of a matter of fact person...

Ankur thinks that I judge people too quick...

Deepak agrees with Ankur...

Anjuli thinks that I am very rude, and I am arrogant, and that I don't care about people, and that I am a very good photographer... A lot of other friends also agree with Anjuli...

Sharanya thinks that I am not a logical person and too emotional...

Rains thinks that I am very sweet, and rude at times, and that not many people can stay angry with me...

A lot of women think I am a womenizer... and a few men think so too...

Nimisha thinks that I have the best sense of humor in the world...

Adi thinks that I only work because I love to and not for money or growth... he even asks me, Sir, paise ke liye kab kaam karna shuru karoge? :D

Ruchi thinks that I carry too much mystery about me, and she gets into a analyse mode when she talks to me....

And a lot of people think something or the other about me...

and I am glad that I am all of it, and a lot more actually a hell lott more :)

I am THIS I am THAT and I am MORE...

I am trying to figure out while I am living my life... and this is how I like to live:

Well the years start coming and they don't stop coming
Fed to the rules and I hit the ground running
Didn't make sense not to live for fun
Your brain gets smart but your head gets dumb

So much to do so much to see
So what's wrong with taking the back streets
You'll never know if you don't go
You'll never shine if you don't glow

The ice we skate is getting pretty thin
The waters getting warm so you might as well swim
My world's on fire how about yours
That's the way I like it and I'll never get bored

I speak this.. you hear that...

I don't know how to sugarcoat my words... I might be silent and not speaking... and there are times when its happening because people are new to hearing how I speak and might find it raw... but the good news is thats how I am...

Thankfully, so far, professionally, I have always been admired and appreciated for my speaking abilities, with a few notes here and there of being too straight forward with words... That should explain and acknowledge the street plays, and the time on and off stage I have spent... God !!! How I wish I live some of that time again sometime... aap sun rahe ho na Uncle? note karlo je wala point please...

I am not a player of words either... i don't know how to blow up a conversation by using bigger words and making it sound larger than what it is... probably things which are simple sound better and easily understandable when they are said simply too...

I love talking in Hindi... and like hearing Hindi... i don't know if I remember writing a lot of it... its been a while I have not written anything in Hindi on a paper...

and then again, more often than not my Hindi is the raw Hindi... comes straight, can sound harsh, is not meant to be that way... and people realize that only over a period of time, having said that, there usually are cases where they did not like what i said and how i said it before realizing, that it was not how it was supposed to be heard...

I guess the western UP Dehati element is something that rules my way of speaking...

just like

Prashant becomes a Proshanto in Bengal (I love it for some reason, probably because the way its said, and because the "sh" sound is retained... i like that sound actually)

and

Prashant becomes Prasanth during a lot of my conversations with my teams from Bangalore and Madras Hyderabad (and I HATE it; probably because the "sh" sound is removed, and the "th" is added... honestly I am not sure but this version of my name is irritating) In fact, if someone mentions my name incorrectly in an email, I usually point them towards my signature or my address book details where they can refer to the correct spellings....

and

Prashant also becomes Parsaant a lot of times... and this always freaks me out... I double Hate it...

What did I start writing about? oh... the way I speak... yea !!!

So the fact remains... my way of talking is not sweet, is rough, but honest..

and when I say ek chamaat padega, I am not really going to hit :) It needs to be translated to "I am not in agreement with what you said, and because I care and I feel connected, and I am expressing my disagreement with what you just said."

I like the chamaat line... but if someone chooses to hear it the sophisticated way :) I am game...

Randomizing Myself...

I have been given an opportunity to write about myself :) I love it... so here we go... oh.. first thanks to Arch @ Rang,who has one of the mostest bestest blogs that I know of, for tagging me... though I am not a keen tagger or the tagged kinds, but I guess I will take this one :)

so here we go... Random things, 7 of them about me...

1) I have a feeling that I have written something of this sort before as well... some random facts about myself... but I don't know when or why...

3) I am very glad to see how my photography has improved in the last one year and I hope that this is just the beginning...

2) There is a break in my travel for the last two months, and the thought makes me very restless and uneasy. Now that I am back in India, I have to have to go out of Delhi and Chandigarh (to the hills or somewhere else) But I have to... and an official visit to Bangalore DOES not count anymore...

6) I very seriously considered closing down the Chai Ki Dukaan a week ago, because of how one person interpreted my writing on the blog... but I just woke myself up to the fact, that I have always written for myself and not for anyone. I am fortunate, that there are a few people who like to visit Chai ki Dukaan regularly and share their opinions here...But the fact still remains that I write for myself, however selfish that might sound...

4) I have not yet given half of my prize money to Sankalp and I don't like it... I am going to something about it, and will do something to make it up for the delay too...

7) In the last one year, I have not stayed for 7 continuous nights at one place. This is strange but true :)

5) My shaadi.com profile got deactivated because of inactivity :D hehehe !!!! and the pictures that were there, were good enough to scare people away, though I loved those photographs...

And a random 8th thing... My opinions/judgments about people are based on my individual interactions with them and not because I heard/saw/read something about them... and I am kinda happy about that :)

Oh and the numbers are not in any sequence... random it was to be...

I am...

One of my good friends today told me today:

"You are one of the biggest ego person I have ever met !!!"

This is FYI please !!!


And that... I am going to write this post because I want sympathy from the world...

Brilliant Observations !!! Bull's Eye !!!!

Did I mention I am hurt?

and Heaven IS !!!!

And I did not mention it before...

Heaven is your darling (read Radha) with you... you two roaming around the roads for no apparent reason... just zipping past some traffic at times, or slowing time just to let some suckers move ahead and feel good...

having the windows rolled up...

listening to your favorite CDs one after the other like there was no tomorrow...

Heaven is when you are with yourself and someone you love from the bottom of your heart... and you can't figure out the different between the two :)

all this really makes me feel that Heaven IS...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Open Book...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When Eye Speak

the mouth can stay shut...

Thanks Abhishek for the picture...

The Coin'd Me...

I am listening to Madhushala right now and every single time I hear it, I like it more... not sure if its the music that calms me down, or its one of my favorite singers Manna Dey's voice or its the words... I guess this poem is much more than I hear !!!

This is how even people are, much more than we can hear or see... notice closely and you might just find something new about someone who know, and ditto is with me... I have been noticing myself for a while and needless to say I have realized more about myself in the last few years than the rest of them and I can only surprise myself over how I am and what I am...

I have been good, I have been bad... People have been with me for a long time, and people have written me off completely... People have loved me and then hated me to the core, people have not liked me and then liked me too... All of this happening when I was trying to know myself more, and liking it or not liking it depending on the discovery.

I am the coin, with both its sides together... and I am flipping, at times just enjoying the flip and hoping for myself to fall in safe hands at others !!!

Happy Marriage Anniversary !

Happy Marriage Anniversary Mummy...

Happy Marriage Anniversary Papa...

It was such a joy to hear papa laugh when I called home a couple of minutes ago to wish them !!!


I know for sure they must have become very sad after I kept the phone down... I can feel it here :(

I love you two... more than ANYTHING else in this world... May God be with us !!!

Let the HEAD be where it should be...

We have a total of X minutes with us to live, out of which we all would like to give Y minutes to work... which is very very important because
work gives us money,
work helps us sustain the standard of living that we like to live or to reach closer to the one we might want to, and
a lot of other reasons like
work helps us reach closer to that stage where we reach a certain level of maturity and see things in the right perspective most of the time, or that
work helps us unwind...

we all have different reasons to work and spend those Y minutes...

and in and for those Y minutes,
~ We plan everything just right or would atleast like to strategize it right, after all our companies earn money if we do things right...
~ We ensure that we have a certain level to meet everytime we do something... we cannot mess up, can we? we would be thrown out of work or someone else who can do things better would get this profile or the next one we are aiming for...
~ We give it our heart and soul to ensure that everyone who is looking at our work or is getting effected leaves with a good impression of our effort...
~ We look forward to things happening and reaching next levels at work, in maturity, in hierarchy, in composure, in sense and all that...
~ even if cannot handle it anymore, we live those Y minutes and manage somehow... so what we have to skip our lunches, and we don't have time to even drink water the entire day... work comes first...
~ Even if getting up is the last thing we want to do, we do and log on to the conference call in the middle of the night...
~ So what there is a backache, we still manage to get up and get going...

and then there is a X-Y amount of minutes, which we label as personal life...
~ We tend to ignore the planning part
~ We can do a lousy job of it because there are no standards to meet, there is no competition, there is no annual appraisal after all... there is no one who will throw us out.. and even if things get bad, we assume that we can take care of that, WHeN THE BLODDY TIME COMES... as of now we don't have time to deal with it...
~ We are too tired to give our heart or soul to it... and have no option but to defer things that might be important... oh com'on there is that important meeting at work... I think about that or this issue?
~ We look forward to things, but have that amazing capability of keeping them at the back seat or tuck them away under the blankets because there is a business suit that is waiting for us that moment...
~ We get angry with our loved ones !!! why the fkk can't she understand that I have a headache !!! God, I had such a hard day at work, and he has to pick up this topic right now !!!
~ Ignore ourselves... Let me just take a painkiller right now for the backache... will see if I can see the doctor over the weekend.. and that weekend never comes because we were too lazy to get up on the only day we get an off...


What are we trying to do? Could I please know it one more time? I lost myself somewhere back there !


I realised that I did not even hear my thoughts because I was listening to music a li'il too loud... I don't even know what I have written up here...
but let me tell you these sony headphones(MDR G42) I got are worth dying for... amazing bass I get in them... nicey nice...

and its too funny trying to rub your own back and put some balm on it... How come the hands don't reach exactly that place where the pain is? anyway... I shall try putting some balm again and sleep before this backache kills me and stops me from getting up in the morning...

And here is All Star singing...

Well the years start coming and they don't stop coming
Back to the rules and I hit the ground running
Didn't make sense not to live for fun
Your brain gets smart but your head gets dumb

p.s. The picture was taken on a recent visit to the British Museum in London.. amazing place

कुछ ऐसा करने का dil करे

dil का अरमान के खुली हवा हो ...

और उसे सांस मे भर लेने का dil करे

आखों के आगे न ज़मीन हो न आस्मान ...

और चलते चले जाने का dil करे

ऊपर देखूं तो कुछ तारे मुझसे बात करने के लिए नीचे हो जाएँ ...

और मेरा sirf उनको niharne का dil करे ...

कहीं दूर पहाड़ के पीछे से बांसुरी की आवाज़ आये ...

और मेरा भी कुछ गाने गुनगुनाने का dil करे ...

कहीं दूर एक झरने से पानी के गिरने की आवाज़ आ रही हो ...

और उस आवाज़ मे खो जाने का dil करे ...

एक् रेलगाडी की सीटी सन्नाटे को चीरते हुए मेरे कानो तक पहुंचे ...

और फिर वापस घर जाने के dil करे ...

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dil ka armaan ke khuli hawa ko...

aur Saans lene ka dil kare

aakhon ke aage na zameen ho na aasman...

aur chalte chale jaane ka dil kare

upar dekhoon to kuch taare mujhse baat karne ke liye neeche ho jayen...

aur mera sirf unko niharne ka dil kare...

Kahin door pahad ke peeche se baansuri ki aawaz aaye...

aur mera bhi kuch gaane gungunane ka dil kare...

kaheen door jharne se paani ke girne ki aawaz aa rahi ho...

aur us aawaz mein kho jaane ka dil kare...

ek railgaadi ki seeti sannate ko cheerte hue mere kaano tak pahunche...

aur phir wapas ghar jaane ke dil kare...

Sympathy for me...

How does it feel to open the shower one chilly winter morning, hoping that you will have some warm, if not hot water... and what pours on you is the cold water...

sounds like a funny situation !!! When that happens to me, which it does at times... i usually scream out loud!!! :D

what happens when something of this sort happens to emotions...

Something similar happened to me sometime back... Its not been a very interesting trip this time in UK... work pressure, being alone, not speaking a single word for the entire day, etc etc keeps me busy...

and to add to it one of my monday mornings, not today, started with bad rains and winds... and while I was trying to handle the umbrella and myself, there were cars on the road, which shamelessly kept splashing water on me everytime they passed by... for someone looking at me, that would have been a funny situation.. but there was li'il that I could do... if i stand under the only two shades around, the cars would ensure i was wet... and otherwise, the rains and the winds would... pretty neat consipiracy that was :D

last week... I was told that when I told about this incident to a friend, I was looking for sympathy for my condition in UK...

and I was stunned... why would a friend ask for Sympathies?
... friends don't need sympathies !!! do they?
was I looking for sympathy? NO...

strange...

That incident made me think about a few other people would have reacted to this situation of mine

Aro: He would have laughed his ass off.... and he will when i tell him this...
Deepu : Would give a quick practical advice on how i can manage the next time this happens...
Subbu : Would listen and not really react to it...
Bindiya: would just laugh and tell me that I am responsible and that I am an idiot to get out in the rain... to end it would ask if I managed a cup of tea or not when i reached office...
Tushar : Would have said," Chal koi na... wapas aaja chai piyenge".
Mom : Would have called, emailed to ensure that i was keeping myself warm and packed for atleast 5 days after that day... she did... though she does not know that I was running fever the entire week...

While I now smile thinking about how some people, I know, would extend their sympathies to this cry baby; I remind myself of being careful of how people look at you... its not a very good feeling when you are looked down upon and made to realise that you are not worth it... and I am going to not like it for a very long time....

Oh on a footnote, I am thinking of doing a roadtrip between London to Brussels via Paris sometime soon... any ideas or thoughts?

Outside myself...

I am here because someone has decided that i should be here, and I am...

Why am I crying, as one of my friends always says, or feeling bad about things and people who are not around me?

Instead why am I not loving and living what I should ?

There is more to life than I can see, there is something else which I don't realise, there is something that I am a part of but its a part of me too...

Too many thoughts flying around in random motion inside my head, but when I move out of my own body and see them from outside, they look in perfect symmetry...

Reminds me of the times, when as a kid, I used to think what if I have to travel to the end of the space... would i really find it?
Peace

Walking with myself...

Walking is a nice thing to do...

depending on how you'd like it lets you talk to yourself, sing to yourself, be quiet, be sad or be happy or whatever...

or you may just walk...

i did... primarily because i was feeling too restless in my room yesterday... it was very warm and cozy, and probably thats exactly what i did not want at that time... so i picked up my jacket, the phones ( which i will not when i go out for a walk now, probably) and went out..

walked for about an hour before i came back... and in a much better shape mentally than before.. i could appreciate that warmth in the room better now... and was feeling more at ease as well...

realised:

that i can humm one song for about an hour... and when i attempt to change the track, i will get back to the original within 5 minutes...

that i need a music player with all my favorite oldies.. somehow when i am alone, the new songs don't strike that chord that the oldies do.. maybe because i can sing along better.. whatever...

that i could resist the temptation of looking at my cell for a while... the first half i just kept looking at if off and on again... dunno what was i waiting for... but maybe i needed something to break that silence, before i got to terms with it...

and that walking helps you with acidity too :)


i hope i can gather enough courage to change clothes and get out of my room again tonight... its getting real cold these days here... as low as 0 degs which is predicted for today... right now my igoogle says that the temprature is around 8 degs outside...

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... :)

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...

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…