What WE (might) want...

Lives have become so mechanical these days...

Conversations have translated to monologues where one speaks, other listens, and when the monologue is over, the other one is allowed to speak... And if there is no agenda, there are no conversations...

Your expressions are dependent on time-tables and distances...

The amount of talking is a function of how good or bad your day at office was...

The amount of attention you need is in direct proportion to how busy one is...

And more and more...

But that’s not what I really wanted to write about... A few days back one of my friends had asked me, "Prashant, what makes a man feel superior?" Initially I did not get the question, however further discussion revealed that the question was around what a man feel good about and will make him feel better than peers...
We talked about better salary, better communication skills, better skins ( yes ! as per her more and more men are buying fairness creams and other cosmetics these days... she even shared some statistics with me), a nicer looking girlfriend and so on and so forth...

The conversation was over but the thought stayed... After all, what is it that men really want...? Here are a few things that we want... Now this list is basis my interactions with friends, strangers, myself etc etc and is not necessarily a complete list... can never be one anyway... but an honest attempt to write down a few things, that I feel are necessary...
Please agree, disagree, ignore, react, as per you like... (Oh and most of these are what we want from women...)

What Men want?

1. Wear a seat belt when you are at the co-driver seat...
2. Be concerned about safety, but not hyper about it...
3. When you say you love, show it... No, not prove it, but show it... and explicitly, most men don't read hints very well, though they are good at reading between lines...
4. Show confidence in your man...at least once in 3 days... It boosts his willingness to be with you like crazy...
5. Let him speak too... We might not be the best listeners or speakers, but we still like to be heard and talked to...
6. Don't do something just after he complained about you not doing it... You might think you are doing it with genuine feelings, but he, more often than not, would think that you have been forced into it...
7. Don't make I love you, just one of the sentences in your conversations...
8. If he is far away, show concern about his well being but know before the concerns start tilting towards pestering...
9. Hug from behind when he is least expecting it...
10. Let conversations be like conversations, and not like emails... where you write an email, wait for a response and the other one writes back etc etc... Leave office in office and let home and personal life be that way...
11. Send an eCard... (Greetings are great to share... nothing beats a handwritten note... and nothing will EVER beat it either, so if you can send that handwritten note... it WOULD be great)
12. Offer to drive him around one day...
13. When you are in a party, and have too many people to deal with... Once in a while, which can be 1 time in 30 minutes... make eye contact with him... Come and hold his hand or pat him on the shoulder or do something that tells him you are there...
14. Show respect... If you don't have anything that you can respect in your man, too bad!!! You probably made a mistake when you got with him, or this is high time that you do something about it...
15. Don't ask him how the food tastes... if its ok, he would not say anything... If it’s bad, he would still eat... but if its good and he was hungry... He would silently thank God for you being in his life... some of us might even give a compliment :) Actually on second thoughts, most of us would compliment :)
16. Talk to his parents... or someone he is close to... Your comfort level with his close ones increases his comfort and his faith in you a lot...
17. Know how to change a flat tyre... Though he would be ok doing it for you, but you still need to open the boot and hand him one of the tools... Do it together :) You never know changing tyres can be funn too...
18. Buy him his favorite candy at times...
19. Once in a while treat him like a kid... It gets too tiring to be an adult all the time...
20. FLIRT with him....


Will stop here!!! Though there are more that I can think of... but the list would become boring (it might already be)...

I just read this post again... Felt that Men can also do a lot of things that we expect women to do !!! I should take a note :)

One of my friends said to me after she read this - I want a lot of these from my Man too ! I wish her luck :) and am sure she would get all she wants !!!

I guess on a basic level all of us still want the smaller things in life to make ourselves happy, and these smaller things we preach and and still miss out on all the time !!! God bless you and me and everyone and give us enough opportunities to do the smaller nothings in your life for your man or woman !!!

Input - Output

The apples were a little too red to be real... I thought I should keep a record :)

Jelly always makes a nice object to click :) and eat of-course :)

And the Yummo Coldie Coldie Custard... Fulll of Stuff and Taste !!!!

चाय की दुकान पर मीठे की बहार

I might be a sucker for a few things but some I do well... and one of those is

1. Making Custard and Jelly... Primitive for the chefs and cooks all around, but more like a Bharat Ratna for someone like me :) so dinner, and lunch tomorrow would have some custard and Jelly for Dessert... Care to Share?

2. and the second one is my favorite Cold pasta salad... I have pasta sauce for it today and I have the same veggies again :) but no fotos :) Looked around for pineapple, but did not find it anywhere :( I am sure I did not look enough !!! Lazy ass !!

Oh and the pasta is different today as well... Not using Penne but Spirali...

Off to the kitchen now :) a whole lot of work to do !!

Trick Question...

white white face dekhe...

I think being emotional about some people is one the best ways to fukk up your life...

I seem to be reaching the day when someone would give me a graduate degree in making a complete fool out of myself with people!!!

Neva mind...

Thankfully...

White white face dekhe, dilwa beating fast sasura chance maare re !!!
Oh very happy in my heart, dill dance maare re !!!

Dil dance maare dance maare daaance maare re !!!

I have heard this song for like 10 times already... and looks like this is going to be a part of the amazing list of Chichora songs !!!

Life is not that bad afterall !!!

Oh wait...

tohra dil ke threatre ma, dil deewana booooking advance maange re !!!

Oh very happy in my heart !!! dil dance maare re !!!

On a serious note,

I need to get back to the usual self !!! It should not be that difficult, eh! After all its just me that I am trying to be !

The 28 hour Recharge

Just around midnight on Saturday, me and Tushar leave home for somewhere... During our walk on the road, while looking for an auto to ISBT, we discussed our options to go in all possible directions, but froze on Rishikesh ... His responses to a 24 hour trip to Bharatpur, Agra, Jaipur were funny, keeping in mind the Gujjar agitations happening around these areas :)

And it was interesting how our families let us go... with a disclaimer that we had lost it !!! and that nothing could be done !!! what else would you say about two guys, who just pack and go somewhere at midnight !!!

Just then, an auto stopped, we hopped on, reached the ISBT and took the bus after a few difficult choices of a bad bus, a not so bad bus, a not so good bus, the UP Roadways or Uttarakhand Roadways bus stared at us in the face... We finally took a decision and took the UK (Read UttaraKhand) Roadways for Rishikesh :)

Tushar did overhear a small issue when we boarded the bus, but too bad that we did not take it seriously... We realized after 15 minutes that one of the twin tyres at the back of the bus had a puncture and we could not move at more than 30 kmph till the time it gets fixed.... Which was a major disappointment as this clearly meant that our plan of reaching Rishikesh around 0600 hrs was fukked up pretty bad !!!

Li'il that we could do, but laugh at the situation :) for some reason we did enjoy the slowness on the road... Every vehicle honked and passed us while we were cruising at a top speed of 30-40 kmph on the HIGHWAY !!!

The first pit stop was at some Nataraj Restaurant, in front of the Cheetal Grand, Khatoli ( some 40 odd kms ahead of Meerut)... This is where the driver found a Puncture Shop and decided to give the tyre for a repair... It was around 0415 hours that the guy removed the tyre, and though the conductor said we should be good to go in some 30 minutes, I had a feeling it was not going to take anywhere less than 60 minutes, maybe more !!!

Me and Tushar walked around the place, discussing the entrepreneur skills of the guy at the tyre shop, who was managing the operations, the finances, and infrastructure etc etc all by himself !!! I had a cup of warm sugar with bits of coffee in it !!! We also discussed taking a different bus to Haridwar just to save sometime, but did not do it thinking that it would make a difference of about 30 odd minutes only... the slower part of the journey was already over... We finally moved at 0545 hrs ( as expected ) and dozed off almost immediately.. All I remember was that the driver suddenly had changed the entire tempo of the journey... It was his turn now to honk and pass !!! and he made a full generous use of the pressure horn in the otherwise not so quiet bus :)

The Laxman Jhoola...

We reached Haridwar around 0800 hrs and had to wait for another 20 odd minutes before we got another bus to Rishikesh... We reached Rishikesh, and then took a Tempo to Ram Jhoola... Breakfast was planned at Govindji's Prasadam (one of our favorite eating places in Rishikesh, for its hygiene and tasty food at decent prices, but extremely slow service and a strange combo of Tea, Lassi, and Curd in the same combo breakfast)... Unfortunately the quality has deteriorated over the last 3 years... Anyway... this is where Uncle God decided to start playing a few games :) and it started raining... Our entire plan could have been washed out, had it not stopped raining in a while... It thankfully did, and we were now ready to move too... A long walk and we were on the other side of the Ganges at the taxi stand for Neelkanth Mahadev Temple...

The Rains left us with some lovely pearl like momentos ready to be captured :)

A very interesting door I saw while walking around... this ladder is the only way to reach the door...

Buddhist Prayer Flags on the Laxman Jhoola

Neelkanth is about 25 kms (drive) and 14 kms (Trek) away from Rishikesh... The taxis are available near the Ram Jhula and Laxman Jhula, near the Choti wala Restaurant and Trayambkeshwar Temple respectively... It's a little tricky to get a taxi here, because the drivers/operators are not keen on any empty seats and because a lot of people travel in groups, it's tough to get the exact number of seats in a cab... We were lucky and an operator helped us get an Amby shared between the two of us and family of 3... The travel time to and back from Neelkanth was not much thanks to the good quality car and very efficient driver...

Pooja Thalis at a shop near Neelkanth Mahadev...

Pooja Thalis at a shop near Neelkanth Mahadev...

Tushar's Thali... The Plastic glass has Gangajal, Honey, Gulab Jal and Milk mixed in it...

We however were stunned to see the amount of people who were there at the temple... We took the pooja thalis and moved towards the end of the queue, walked for about 10 minutes before we saw the last person in the queue... And this meant that there were at-least 200 people in the queue ahead of us...

A part of the loooong queue....

Just a tap... nothing specific... I click leaking taps...

It was already pretty hot by then, and I was in no mood to stand there... Tushar did not either, and we turned back towards the temple where we offered our prayers at a different Shivling, lucky us that we realized there was a view of the main temple and Shivling... and offered our prayers through that window :) smart US :)

The place for Incense Sticks and Dhoopbatti...

Another view...

A lady tying the Holy Thread (Kalava) on a grill...

A Lady looking at the interesting roof of the Neelkanth Temple... Though it's in the north, the temple's roof and top resembles the temples in the South a lot...

Kids need Papas and Mamas to ring the Temple Bells :)

Friends of all ages were around too :)

Tired, and yet managed to smile a bit :) Tushar must have said something cheap :P

We moved back from Neelkanth, got down at the Laxman Jhoola, took a few pictures and walked for about a km or more in the heat looking for a Tempo towards Ram Jhoola... we finally got to enjoy the best ride of the trip with our bags inside the tempo and we standing outside with the cool breeze whooshing past our faces drying up all the sweat and fatigue :)

The Trayambkeshwar Temple, near Ram Jhoola, has 11 floors in all, here is a list of all the Gods you can meet there :)

A view from the top of Lakshman Jhoola

The motor boat near the Laksham Jhoola... The same As#$%#le had hit our raft head on at full speed on one of my rafting trips... It's only Gods grace that I am alive right now, otherwise he had made sure that the people on the left of the raft had their heads ripped off from the bodies... No idea how we managed to survive... Thank you Uncle God :)

We reached the Ram Jhoola, and spent sometime trying to figure out which beach/Ghat we could go to take a bath... It was not a very difficult decision, however once we were there, getting inside the water which seemed freezing cold was tough !!! took us a while before we decided to give up all our fear of the current, and cold water and just jumped in !!! spent some gooood 45 odd minutes before we decided to leave...

I could try some splashes too after clicking some on the recent trip to Kurukshetra :)

And I emerge a winner :) against the current and the cold water !!! Omie you rock !!!

Some relaxing time pass too :) By this time I was ok with the water :)

And then I made Tushar do some chapaak chapaak :) He is lighter... you can see his head going in... with me being atleast 100 kgs heavier than him :) my fall was quicker :D

But the two brothers were very happy after the 20+ dubkies, the throwing water at each other, the running out of water because it was cold, and the chapaak chapaaks :)

Had good food at the Chotiwala... waiting for a bus at the bus stand... thought of coming via Dehradoon for the charm of AC buses running between Delhi-Dehradoon, but finally took a decent Pawan Gold to Delhi... slept most of the way in awkward positions on the seat :) just to wake up at times with a painful lower back, or a pulled musled in the neck, or legs :) change the position and sleep again :) This time as well the journey took much longer than usual, thanks to the freaking jam at the border near Dilshad Garden... must be about 2 kms long and it took about 100 odd minutes to pass !!! We managed to reach the ISBT, Kashmiri Gate around 0400 hrs and then home around 0445 hrs....

The Ram Jhoola...

What a trip it was !!! just the perfect 24 hour recharge that my mind required... I can now wait for some 10 days before I start getting itchy about another travel :) hehehe...

I did not know that Lakshman Jhoola was this old... Now I do...

Some more information, not necessarily about this trip but for the Delhi- Haridwar- Rishikesh Route:
1. Distance
Delhi - Haridwar : 208 kms; Delhi- Rishikesh : 230 kms
2. Approximate Time :
Delhi - Haridwar : 4-5 hours, Depending on the time of the day you are driving
3. Best way to travel:
Hire a cab or drive yourself...I would say hire a cab, its better to be driving around on the bad roads instead of punishing your own vehicle... The 4 lane highway is under progress for good on the stretch, however it would take a good couple of years before it can get fully operational..
4. Eating options enroute and on location:
Cheetal near Khatoli, Moolchand just before the Muzaffarnagar bypass; Mohanji Poori wale near Har Ki Paudi, Chotiwala Restaurant near Ram Jhoola, Govindji's Prasadam near the parking in Rishikesh
5. Bus Tickets and other fare : Rs. 150 per person (Delhi Rishikesh in the UP Roadways bus); Rs. 5 for the boatride one way near the Ram Jhula; Rs. 5 for Tempo per person from the bus stand to Ram Jhula in Rishikesh; Rs. 600 for the Amby ( Seats 5) for Rishikesh-Neelkanth and back
6. Staying options: Many hotels ranging from Rs. 500 per night for a double occupancy to Rs. 2500 double occupancy

Of Aha's and Ouch's...

Back from a quick trip !!! Loved it...

Also realized that the quickest way to throw a friend miles away from you is to ask : " Who are you to tell me what should I be doing? "

Anyway....

More coming soon...

Is it Saturday or Sunday !!! I think Sunday !!!

Its a fact that dealing with someone else's issues can be a burden for us individuals more often than not... Over a period of time, we gather more issues that we can ourselves handle, our work, our individual lives, our own social circle (however big or small that is) and ityadi ityadi... and to add to those if someone comes and starts talking about his/her own issues when you are least interested, it only irritates you more !!! Its advisable to be practical and deal with your own issues instead of expecting someone to listen, understand or for that matter even care about it!!!

Having said that, let me digress from the topic for my own selfish reasons...

It was kinda interesting driving for no reason yesterday night... I was under speed limits, driving in proper lanes, listening to my favorite (well for the benefit of not having the real favorites, lets call the current ones favorites) songs, and just being !!!

Finally reached Arobindo's place and stayed put there... Helped !!!

The second fridge at Aro's place, now being used as a repository for Music and Video.. The perfect energy savers !!!

Woke up on time, slept again... went out for another drive :) and this time on the new 6 gear, two wheel Hercules Bike we had recently bought for him !!! and Aro here won a contest of sorts !!! of having more gears with him !!!

Pretty hot outside, but the spirits were as high as the temperature to ride the bike...

My car has just 5 :( and his cycle has 6 !!! Darn !!! I lost !!! But never mind, for some reason he has decided to treat me to Dessert Course in a 5 Star next Saturday. Wonder what got into his mind, but I don't really mind till I get to eat !!! Suggestions please !!!

Later I added all my car + Bike + scooter Gears and tried to win the contest back, but I still lost as he said that we were now talking about maximum gears in one vehicle !!! Darn again ! Never mind !!!

Critical Balance...

I also have a dim-dimata hua thought around cycling which would take me from Delhi to Vrindavan or maybe beyond on Cycles some day !!! It needs to turn into reality soon.... It sure will...

This cycle was there at the shop where we got the tyre pressure fixed...

I left post afternoon as he was having his team lunch at his place, and I was in no mood to speak much !!! On my way back, I again was driving around randomly... enjoying the Delhi roads at my own pace... My car is running out of fuel and I should have taken a specific route to reach the pump, but I don't know why I went into the other direction and forgot all about the fuel !!! Cha !!! never mind... I took a pit stop at India Gate to make a few new friends... Let me introduce them to you before I finito the post !!!

A vendor at the India Gate...

I kinda liked that tree on the bike :) This is when Pankaj decided to jump in and added life to my picture :) very naughty guy !!!

With friends around, its difficult to make a portrait :)

But we can still manage something :)

And the whole gang here ... Pankaj, Kuldeep, Subhash and a few more :)... They sell variety of stuff at the India Gate... do say a hi when you see one of them sometime :)

Every wanted to be in the picture :) and Pankaj as usual at his naughty best !!!

And sincere thanks to Indian Ocean, Sukhvinder Singh, KK, and a few more to be with me throughout !!! :P


Oh... I am getting out of Delhi tonight !!! any suggestions? So far I have just thought of reaching the ISBT and taking a bus towards somewhere !!!

Good Morning...

Today was a strange day.... Empty... and thats how its ending as well EMPTY !!!

To that extent that suddenly at 2230 hrs, I got up, packed my bag, and told mom that I was going out... She could see it on my face that there was something wrong, she asked, I could not tell... I did not know myself either !!!

I just wanted to go out... It was probably because Sehwag was just caught out and I was hoping that Delhi would win the semi final, but the first over itself told me that Rajasthan Royals would win !!!

They eventually won the well deserving match too... I am now seriously hoping that they win the IPL trophy as well !!! All the best Shane Warne, you have done what I really wanted to witness !!! Congratulations and thank you !!!

Ok so back to my sad story :P...

I drove out... really looking for some solace, or some company... loving being alone and at the same time being lonely... and i just drove around and a little more around finally to reach somewhere !!!

But the tiger is still in the cage !!! The cage changes shape according to how the tiger moves, but the darn cage stays !!! Its sad to see myself like this... I can do so bloody much and I am not being able to ! Just being played around by circumstances and more !

Let me give myself a deadline :) I like it !!! 1 week... lets make a difference dude, You and ME!!!

Dinner...

After a long drive last Sunday, I had fixed myself a quick ( well not so quick too) dinner... A nice cold pasta salad... Had to make a pit stop and buy the Veggies, the Mayonnaise, and Penne Pasta... Did not find all the veggies I wanted but the carrots and bell peppers (Capsicum) was good enough :) I would have loved to eat the yellow and red ones though !!!

and thankfully, it tasted GREAT !!!! might make more this Sunday !!!

:)

I asked I got !!!

thanks Tanu for this :)

...

To the dish of Hope, add a bit of Patience, and garnish it with Faith !!! and Serve Hot !

Yummmmmmmmy !!!

FKK !!

I was supposed to be careful !!!

and now I have to be more careful !!!

Looks like a muscle pull was not enough, I had to fall and go through this almost broken shoulder too... FKK FKK FKK !!!! It does not feel like something is broken though... its just some pain !

And guess what, I had been warned about this...

The Land of Gita - Kurukshetra

This was a trip long due...

Papa had been asking me about Kurukshetra for a while now, and we just could not make a plan... We thought about taking the bus, and then the train, and finally decided to drive !

The initial plan was to go early morning and return in the night, but I thought if we are going, we might as well stay back for the night and relax... so decided that we will leave late morning around 1000 hrs, reach whenever, roam around in the evening and the next day before heading back home...

So we did... This was the second long drive with parents... no wait ! third... The first and second being Agra and Bharatpur respectively...

It was a smooth drive with one pit stop at my favorite parantha party place, Murthaland the second at Zilmil Restaurant Complex, just after Karnal and finally Brahmn Sarovar in Kurukshetra...

The yummo white butter on a tandoori Aaloo Parantha...

The belief is that Brahm Sarovar is the place where Lord Brahma (The Creator) conceived the Earth... A dip in this huge 1800*1400 feet Sarovar is said to bring salvation from all your sins especially during Amavasya (No Moon night) or Surya Grahan (Solar Eclipse)...

Mummy Pappa...

Some kids enjoying a splash in the Brahm Sarovar...

More Water, more splash...

His name is Dharmendra... Studies in the day, sells alphabet bracelets in the evening at Brahm Sarovar...

The day was still young, and I was not getting any good pictures, and there were a few more places that we wanted to visit... so we decided that we would go to Jyotisar, and come back to Brahm Sarovar once again in the morning...

Papa...

Ma...

About 9 kms away from Thanesar (Kurukshetra) is Jyotisar, which is said to be the place where Lord Krishna gave the message of Gita to Arjun....


While walking around the temple complex me and Aro heard a lovely sound of someone singing a bhajan or something... though the sound was very clear, there were no loud speakers around or anyone who was singing could be heard... Some more attention to the source of the sound made us realize that it was coming from under the bridge over one corner of the pond in the temple compound...

The Pond at Jyotisar Temple Compound... just below the bridge, towards the right was Goga Singh singing...

And I did manage to go there and take a few pictures of him while he was enjoying his singing...

There was this man singing at the corner of the pond and his voice was heard crystal clear all around the temple compound... My pa was already there talking to him and called me as well... Goga Singh (his name) has been singing at the Jyotisar Temple complex since 2001 and is a well recognized person around the area... Infact there are people who come to the temple only to hear him sing... Pa requested him to sing and he did oblige with a lovely Bhajan, while I was taking pictures of him...

Goga Singh...

My Pa is a palmist... reading Goga Singh's palm here...

After a while, we moved to a village called Narkatari... this village gets its name from the fact that it was a part of Pataal Lok and was brought to the earth by Lord Krishna ( thats was a local priest told us)...

The temple at Naraktari..

The other and more important significance of this place is that this is where Bhishm Pitamah lied on the bed of Arrows and eventually died.


The night was now reaching close and we decided to move back to Kurukshetra and call it a day... finding a place to spend the night was not a very difficult thing to do with the Haryana Tourism Guest house being there on the main road itself...

Inside of the Haryana Tourism Guest House...

Some quick talks, a light dinner and a plan to wake up at 0500 hrs, later we finally called it a day...

Choosing to have only one day in this post because of the number of pictures !!! Some more from second day in a post later...

Time for a few statistics and other factual information now:
Distance from Delhi : 170 kms
Approximate driving time : 3-4 hours (Thanks to the construction at Murthal and Panipat). Once the flyover at Panipat is complete this should reduce by at-least 30 minutes
Night Stay options : A number of Dharamshaalas, a few hotels, all on the main road