Vacation...

6 days of my amazing vacation comes to an end today. A very different trip. Not along the planned lines…my mantra for this trip was to take each day as it comes and make plans accordingly.
Positives:
- The day dedicated to the match…refer to the next article.
- traveling by train both ways!! Finally feels that I had gone somewhere far!
- Finally succeeded in having a house party!
- The luxury of staying at Mahim. (really grateful to uncle and aunty for that)
- The absence of local train travel. (Though it did have a negative side as well…I did not get to buy those 5 bucks clips!)
- The feeling of watching late night movies.
- Eating at 5 spice! Have always had an amazing time there.
- Meeting my ex roommate.
- Finally getting to have tequila shots! (baby…thank u so much for forcing us to try it)

Negatives;
- The statement by one of my closest friends that I have changed and she can’t connect with me anymore.
- Did not get to spend too much time with Ipsi.
- The fact that my favourite pani puri vala guy was no longer there.
- My favourite shops at linking road had been removed.

Cricket...Passionate game??

The only thing that I was initially cribbing about during the planning of the trip was the fact that I was being “cajoled” to “dedicate” one entire day of my precious 6 day vacation watching the India-Australia match at Wankhede. Ironic as it may sound….it was the best day of my trip. Have never enjoyed cricket this much! I used to always think that it would be so boring to sit and watch an entire match in the stadium. No replays, no commentaries, no nice innovative hutch adds, no option to switch channels between the 20th and 35th overs. One match has changed my opinion. You need to be present there to feel the spirit. Extremely infectious crowd. So much so, that even I was actually jumping and cheering even when the Aussies bowled a wide!!

It actually took me some time to adjust. The first ball of the innings goes for a wicket. Everyone is cheering like crazy while I am clueless as to what happened. Initially I thought it must be just the excitement of the first ball. Later Suneer realized that I was a little lost and explained that it was an LBW! Delayed cheering from my side.

For first timers, it is a little difficult to comprehend exactly what is happening. I was glad to have an experienced cricket follower by my side. Even the technical aspect of cricket sounded so interesting. Once during Sachin’s batting, the ball went for a four. I instantly jumped up and started applauding. Soon realized that I was the only one doing so from my stand. The reason being that there had been an inside edge and the ball had first hit the stumps before proceeding towards the boundary line! (err actually, Suneer later tells me that Lee himself did not realize till the other Aussies started celebrating…so, you see!)

The crowd did have its negative side as well. I really did not like it when people started jeering Lee. I mean Symonds is still acceptable, but not Lee. He is too cute to deserve that!! There was a big gang of girls next to us, and they were the only ones cheering Lee. I joined them. I need to mention my favourite part….whenever there would be any kinna talks between the Indian batsmen and the Aussie player, the entire crowd would in unison go like “ey ey ey ey”, followed by the Aussie players slogan “- is a b******”. A little harsh, I agree,…..but as hosts there have to be a few advantages given! Everytime this happened, the next ball would invariably go for a four or a six! Amazing fun. Amazing time. Total paisa vasool!
Baby, thank you so much for convincing me with al that emotional blackmail. Loved every bit of it.
And the final topping of the day (or night) was that we actually went out to celebrate the Indian win! Just went home, changed, and went out. Loved the feeling of leaving home at 12 and coming back at 2. Amazing day. Too much excitement for a simple chandigarh girl.

Now, I am back to Chandigarh. Life will never be the same again!!

To do...now done!

Finally this week, I did two things that have been on my “to do list” since quite some time.

a) Watching “Madagascar”.

Actually, it’s only recently that I have started watching animations. Have personally never liked cartoons, so had always assumed that I would never like animated movies. ”Ice age” and “Finding Nemo” helped change my perception. And ever since I saw these movies, I have wanted to watch Madagascar. Everyone used to tell me that it was the best animation ever, a total must watch for everyone, etc. The movie has been aired on star movies so many times, but every time I managed to miss it. I would always circle the timing in the paper, and then something would come up during those hours itself. Finally, last Saturday, I advanced my walk timing (went for a walk at 5PM, when it was still sunny here) and managed to catch the movie. Loved the first half, got a little restless during the second half, but nonetheless it was a very well made and feel good kina movie. The song “I like to move it” was sooo cutely done, especially when they play it at the end of the movie with all the characters dancing…..Really cute!

b) Reading “Kane and Abel”

Everyone would tell me that it was the best Archer book. Surprisisngly, I would never find this book in the stores where I had asked. I must confess here, that I must have only asked in about 2 shops, but then those were the only 2 shops in Chandigarh that I was aware of! Finally, found the book in my library. Two of the pages in the middle were missing, but I still borrowed the book. I am halfway through the book. Started reading it yesterday, and the result was that I slept at 4AM (knowing that I had to get up at 8 the next day).That is the problem with me. Just can’t leave a book. I just keep thinking “one more chapter”…..

Silver Jubilee??

Yesterday I became 25! Have now crossed the silver line. Yippee. Don’t think that I am gonna be that excited when I reach the gold line. As of now lets only think of the present. The bright present.
The only reason why I look forward to bdays is coz that’s the day you get to talk to all of your friends. Makes you feel special. There were days when phone calls used to be the worst part of the bday for me….used to love the actual parties, the cutting of cakes, decorating rooms with balloons and streamers, opening gifts etc. Guess I have grown up. About time!
This b’day I decided to take my roommate to Taj for lunch. We decided to go for the buffet. Extremely lavish and exotic. Loads of variety. Although we took all the precautionary measures (includes, skipping breakfast, going gymnin/skippin, and avoiding heavy stuff in the buffet), we could not do justice to the meal. The buffet @ 800 per head was extremely overpriced. No one can eat anything worth that amount. Even after being totally prepared for it, we must have just eaten stuff just worth half the amount. Still, it was a nice experience. Don’t think I would want to do it again. Not unless someone treats me to that buffet!!
And now that my bday is over, there is nothing to look forward to! (apart from my 2 gifts, which I heard are still on their way and my musical card…on high priority demand!!) My next Mumbai trip should be in mid October. That is 50 days away!! Can’t even start my countdown so soon!:(
Actually we do have a company anniversary celebration in mid September, probably I should be looking forward to that, as a short term incentive! But cant help it…nothing is sounding good in comparison to a Mumbai trip!!

Weekend mazaa......

A different weekend for me…not quite though, but it's a start!
Saturday: Went to the State library in the morning. That's one of the new hobbies I have inculcated after shifting to Chandigarh. Not going to the library, but reading books . One of my colleague recently recommended this library. So wanted to check it out. It's really huge with loads of books. The entire ground floor was the children's section. It was 10 times the size of my college library!! I was extremely impressed. And the best part is that it was totally free. They take a security deposit which is fully refundable. I was extremely surprised and innocently asked the librarian as to how would they earn a profit.

And I actually meant it. Don’t YOU think it was a "jaayaz" question? My innocent question was received by some non stop laughter.
Somewhere behind there was a board that said, "Silence Please." The irony was not lost on me.

After the laughter subsided, her reply was very "to the point"-sarkari hai! What a non-sarkaari answer.

I just smiled and moved on.

The only drawback of the library is the timing. It’s open on weekdays (10-5) which totally clashes with my office timings and on Saturdays its open till 13:30(Last Saturday-off). This effectively means that if I go home for a weekend, I will need to wait for one full week before I can borrow another book. 
The evening was regular. Kajal showed us her culinary skills. Originally set out to make some authentic gujrati stuff. Ultimately, it was only the "thepla" that was gujrati! But yummy food nevertheless!
Sunday started off really well as I could sleep till 10:30. Usually doesn't happen on weekends. Followed by cleaning the room, eating, washing clothes, reading, again eating. Basically lazing around. In the afternoon, went with Kajal to do some shopping. Wanted to buy a nice white kurti. Have got this new craze for ethnic stuff. Actually staying in the north, u cannot escape liking kurtis. I must admit, I am totally pathetic at shopping, and accompanying me on one of my shopping trips can be extremely trying for my companion. After window shopping for nearly 2 hours, and trying nearly a dozen kurtis, we finally entered a small shop. There were no customers at that time. And the sales girl was busy eating chowmein. Seems like she had just started as her plate seemed full. Am sure she must be cursing us and our timings. (That's what I usually do if I get a call just when I am sitting to eat!) Again tried loads of kurtis. Really wanted to buy something from that shop as I was feeling extremely bad for the sales girl. I know it not a very good reason, but somehow anything related to food makes me extremely sympathetic! So finally bought a kurti (black). Now some very alert people might notice the fact that I had originally set out to buy a white kurti.
After that, I emotionally blackmailed my housemates into playing badminton. Something I have been trying to do since quite some time. This time I succeeded. Had a good half an hour session of badminton. Felt extremely good!
Let’s just hope that this was not a one-off badminton session!!!

Attitude or what??!!!

I need to mention this. Something about the attitude really amazed me. This time when I had gone to Srinagar for a vacation, the thing that really stood out was the attitude!! The guys were drop dead gorgeous. Every second guy was a potential hunk. Amazing features. I still remember the guy I saw in a small shop, where my mum was doing some typical suit shopping. For a change, I didn't mind shopping. He had such cute dimples. Could beat anyone in the "looks" department.

Didn't get a look at the girls, so can't say much. (and why should I look at girls?!)

Coming back to the attitude, most of the guys spoke amazing English. I assumed that would be due to the tourism in the city. The first three people we came across were the driver, our travel agent and the house boat owner. Driver was fine. But the attitude of the agent amazed me. Right from the time I first saw him, he had an air about himself. He was this confident guy who had no problems being rude.

Even if he meant well, his tone didn't. We were typical tourists who had come to a new city. So obviously we had loads of questions.

Picture this- We are in the shikara…going towards our houseboat. The houseboat that was given to us was pretty far from the main jetty. After being in the shikara for more that 20 mins, my dad asked him whether ours would be the last house boat. (in a sarcastic way obvio). His reply (with loads of attitude) – No, yours would be the second last one!

By the end, I actually started feeling that he had done a favour on us by letting us choose his agency! !

And before we could get over this guy, we were introduced to our house boat owner. His first line was "hope u had a pleasant journey". That's the last time we heard anything sweet from him.

An example: My mom was asking him questions about the houseboat facilities. Very basic questions like "would there be hot water" etc. His reply (after hearing 2-3 of such questions…with the same amount of attitude)- "Excuse me!!, Let me remind u, you have not come in a "gaanv" (village)! Can you beat that??? My dad was really angry and later gave him some advise on "hospitality"! Almost felt like we were invading his privacy by staying on his houseboat! But apart from those two "dudes", the other people we met were extremely sweet (and good looking).

PS- I know I have mentioned the good looking part too many times, but cant help it, have still not got over it :)

Ek Chaalis....

Finally, I managed to catch this flick. The movie that never released in Chandigarh!! Have no idea why though, considering we even had 2 shows of Sivaji running here…amidst the extremely north Indian crowd! I had been looking forward to this movie as I usually like Abhay’s movies and the promo song really sold the movie well.

The setting:
This Saturday, I got a message from Kajal saying that she had got a gift for me. Understandably, I eagerly waited for her to come home. In the evening, I get to know that the gift was a VCD of ek chaalis which Kajal had “bought”. Her logic was simple and practical. The MRP of the original vcd was 34/- while the rent guy was still renting it out for 30/-. As she didn’t wanna be “fleeced” she bought it. Here I must mention the fact that Kajal is a big fan of the “laari chuuti” song, and had also bought the audio cd for the song!

The revelation:
And now she is the proud owner of the ACD as well as the VCD of “1:40….”- The movie that people would have totally missed, had it not been for the song!

The action:
So on Sunday, we finally saw the movie.

The comments:
I liked it. Some scenes really made me smile. Loved the dialogues given to Abhay. Loved the way he delivered them. They were the kinds that you would come across in normal conversations. Abhay was really good as the call centre employee. What I like about him is the fact that he knows what his flaws are. And he chooses his roles accordingly. All the characters played by him till date have been very real. Very down to earth. I usually don’t like movies that have a dark setting. This was an exception. The concept was nothing extraordinary. What works in its favour are the scripting, casting and the handling of the concept.

The downfall:
But the biggest disappointment for us was the fact that the song wasn’t there at all! Kajal was extreeemely disappointed! After all, she had bought the cd only for this song!!

The disclaimer:
A nice movie to be watched without having high expectations

The Amazing Monsoons!!

Monsoon…the season I used to always look forward to. Those amazing dark clouds, the feeling of waking up in the morning and feeling that its already evening, the experience of sitting in the balcony with a huge mug of coffee and hot pakodas/samosas. Unfortunately, all my memories of monsoon have been in Mumbai. The very place where the monsoons are dreaded.
Probably bcoz of the fact that I have never really experienced the proper monsoons in the north. Proper- as in at least 1 hour of consistent heavy downpour. A very rare site. The only time that I have seen heavy rains here is during the month of February. And the worst part about rains during that time is that it is already freezing cold. You can’t even think of getting wet in that water.
Back to Mumbai rains-

“Mumbai- in deep waters”
“City flounders in downpour”
“Mumbai sinks again”
“Mumbai-the next Shanghai??”
“Weekend washout”

Come july, and the alarms start ringing. Headlines are all over the news channels. Masala like this is what the news channels have always thrived on. So if it rains for one hour in Mumbai, we get a live coverage. And where do the channel people rush to- the obvious milan subway! The first place to get flooded. So never mind if the rest of Mumbai is totally normal.
Having said that, I love watching these coverages. Watching the journalist talk about the inconvenience caused to every mumbaiite. About how the life has been disrupted. And what we see is kids jumping in the water, totally enjoying the monsoons. Probably that is the “famous” spirit of Mumbai.
The one thing I really hate is when people start comparing the infrastructure of Mumbai and Delhi. It is not fair at all. Mumbai gets 100 cm rainfall couple that with the high tides during the monsoon season- and you have a difficult task to handle. The reason there are amazing roads in delhi, is because there are no rains to spoil the construction. So, not much maintenance. Flyovers work because you don’t have water accumulated on both sides. I remember times when there used to be 18 cm of rain which would lead to water logging and extremely pathetic traffic jams.
Speaking of construction, this February we shifted to our new office-a DLF construction (top floor). One entire night of consistent rain, and we are greeted with ankle deep water in our office. The false ceiling had given way due to the water accumulated on the terrace. There were buckets full of water that were thrown out. Our working life was totally “disrupted” for that day. I mean, it was just one night of consistent rain. What Mumbai received during July 2005 was 3 full days of consistent rains. Where is the comparison??? I don’t know what would happen to the amazing roads and “infrastructure” if the north gets 3 days of consistent rains!

Thinking of Piercing.....Read on.

Some days back, a girl in my office was in a real big dilemma. Seemed like she was gonna make the biggest decision of her life..
Should she get her nose pierced??!!!???
As in most families, her mom was against it. I was reminded of the time when I got my nose pierced. Been almost 2 years now. My case was a lil different though. Here my mom wanted me to pierce my nose. According to her (and half the world around me), I never looked my age. People always considered me as a Xth std kid. It was like a well known fact. And my mom had accepted it.
The one day, we went to our village. I was with my VIIth std cousin (10 years younger than me). The old aunties there were genuinely confused as to which of us was the younger one.
That’s the time my mom decided that she had to do something about this. As soon as we came back, she took me to the jeweller. She wanted me to wear a nose pin. I refused. Okayed the ring. Finally got my nose pierced. Not a very painful experience though.

The painful part came later.

Initially, the guy made me wear a pin. Said it was better. He told me to wear the pin for atleast a month, before I shifted to the ring. Impatient as I have always been, I tried to change to a ring as soon as I came back to my hostel (1 week later). Took out the pin. So far so good.
Tried to put the ring. Couldn’t. Tried for about half an hour. Finally when my nose became totally red, I gave up.
This was at night. Slept without the pin/ring. Just lot of ghee and turmeric.
Next morning, went to some small shop. He said that the hole had closed and that he will need to re-pierce it. I said ok. Didn’t have too much choice. This time it was painful.
I was just happy that he made me wear a ring. Went about flaunting it. Loved the comments. Loved being flattered. Relatives thought that I looked like a grad student (Wonders that a small piece of jewellery can do). Friends thought I looked better. Bro thought I looked hepper. Suneer thought I looked hotter. Loved all this.
It was short lived. Two weeks later, the ring broke. Didn’t wanna go to the same guy again. As I was due to go home in another weeks time, thought will get it done under my mom’s guidance.
One week later, went to the Delhi guy. He said that the hole was not pierced properly. Supposedly the second guy had totally messed it up. Needed to re-re-pierce it. This time the pain was the most. Almost like a cumulative effect! The guy told me not to touch the ring for a month. Since I had learnt my lesson, I didn’t touch it for 3 months. But then there was no need to do it. Afterall a ring is what I had always wanted!
Coming back, this girl first got a clip on. Wore it to office to get the reaction. The verdict was a 50-50. I gave it thumbs up, since I have always been a big fan of the nose ring. She was a li’l skeptical about the pain. I told her my adventurous story. Scared her a li’l more. But then, if I had listened to the first guy and not touched the pin, it wouldn’t have been this bad. Finally she took "the" step.

Moral: the next time u wanna tell a girl that her nose ring is not suiting her, think about the trouble that she would have gone through!!!

Missing......

Today, I am kinna missing my friends. Reason- probably the fact that every1 must be going for the rain dance. Must admit here, that I am not a dance kinna person at all. Its just that I love spending time with my friends.
It’s these kinna occasions when we used to get together. Especially, now that every1 is working, am sure there would be fewer general get togethers.
Apart from these dances, Ipsi’s birthday would usually be one of the get together occasions. Probably bcoz the next was a national holiday. No one would have any excuses.
I clearly remember 2 such parties. The first was in Ghatkopar. We were up till about 6 in the morning. Played loadss of games. Was actually the first proper slumber party. After that one, I have lost count. And the best part was that I hardly knew Ipsi at that time!!

This was about 8 years back.

The other one I remember was about 3 years back. At Ipsi’s sisters place. Every1 was kina high as we couldn’t find water in their fridge. “Breezer” was the softest drink available!! According to me, the kinna topics this time were very mature. It wasn’t like the usual parties where we would play dumbcharades/buzz etc. Not that I wouldn’t enjoy the games. But this time we all spoke on various topics. For me, it was like a progress, from the kiddy group, we had finally matured!!!

P.S-Written on 23/6

Plans for the weekend...plans you said?

Yeah, have too much free time today. And must say, writing sure is fun. I don’t care whether anyone’s reading my articles, it keeps me happy, and that is all that should matter.

Another weekend is coming up. I can’t believe that it’s the very same weekend that I used to dread earlier. Used to hate going home and sitting at home with absolutely nothing to do. There were days when I used to love Monday’s . There r people in this World who like Mondays! I soon realized that it wasn’t “cool”, and got converted. Have now joined the “I hate Mondays” group. Yeah, have become normal.
Was just thinking why Mondays were so much fun. I had my reasons:

1) Had quite many new scraps to look forward to.(on orkut)
2) Was under training. So used to get my weekly progress reports on Mondays.
almost felt like a student getting my exam results.
3) Used to be the most relaxing day in office, with respect to dead lines.

Everything seems to have changed now. No orkut, so no scraps. No mentoring, so no reports. Quite a lot of pending work from previous week, so no relaxing.

Now that I think of it, there was a time when I used to write loads of mails. Would just love writing.

Dunno what has happened now. I have even stopped replying to proper mails. Just feel that I don’t connect with anyone. Probably it’s the distance. Probably its me. Probably it’s the fact that I don’t have anything to write about.

Whatever the reason, its not a good thing. There are times when I click on the reply button, and can’t even think of one line. Its not like me to do that.

So, anyways , coming back to my “happening weekends”. Why I look forward to the weekends. Lets try and list down these points.
1) Can get up at 10 in the morning.
2) Can go for my long walks.
3) Can study French.
4) Can lie down in my bed and read some nice book.
5) Can sleep in the afternoon.
6) Can try my hand at cooking if I feel like.

Yeah, those are my reasons. I agree that I dun have a so called happening life, but then this is one of the rare weekends that I spend here. And after 5 days of “work” it feels amazing to be at home. Spend time in ur room.

Given a chance, I would love to go out, hang out with friends, go for movies, go to the hill stations with friends, go shopping, do crazy stuff….etc.

But then u gotcha believe me when I say that Chandigarh is not Mumbai!!
Given a chance, would love to be in Mumbai. In the ever crowded ladies compartment of the locals, wading through knee deep water, trying to drive thorugh the crazy traffic at Andheri, cribbing about the humidity and the traveling.

Wishes….Wishes!

The French in me

The one reason that I liked going through random blogs was that at times I would come across some French blogs, and somehow that language really excites me! Have always wanted to learn French.

Have done 1 year of it in school (VIIth std to be precise). As expected, I don’t really remember much of it.

Was earlier thinking of joinin the weekend classes of Alliance Francais here. But the problem was that they teach about 8 hours on weekends and I wasn’t sure that I could commit my weekends for 3 months. Not that I am an extremely busy person. Far from it. The thing is that I go home once in every 3 weeks. And in August, Suneer is planning to come here, (that would mean 2 busy weekends). So I would be bunking quite a few of the classes. Not a very nice thought to be thinking about the bunking, before even joining. Guess I am one of those “practical” kinna people!

So thought that I will learn French on my own. Started last weekend. Bought a French text book, the same one that I had used in VIIth std. Took some print outs from the net, got a white board, white board markers (red, blue and black) and I was ready for my home lesson.
Loved the initial part.

It was sooo much fun and seemed extremely easy. By the time I came to the 11th chapter, my interest in the language considerably decreased.

And to top it all, I happened to surf through channels on my TV and found a French channel. Couldn’t understand one word!!! Then the thought struck me that the pronunciations may be a lil of a problem for me! It sounded like “vozh shazh muujh aszh”. Serious!

A normal person may have given up immediately. But not me. I went and got more printouts. This time, got stuff related to the phonetics. It was pretty interesting. Learnt quite a lot. The one thing which I found cute was that in French “oi” is pronounced as “uwa”. So mois (month) becomes “muwah”! It sure is an interesting language.

Will take me quite a lot of time to understand or speak French, but reading and translating written stuff should’t take too much time. The best part is that its giving me something constructive to do.

Just sitting and cribbing about weekends isn’t the coolest thing aint it?

Adieu !!

Here I am.........

Finally, decided to join the blog wagon. Have been going through various blogs in office (considering orkut has been blocked, and I am super efficient at time management). So today, a brilliant thought struck me. Why not have my own blog? So putting my idea to practice…Here I am!

I have always considered blogs as a waste of time. I mean here u sit and write a long article, but now who would read it. How many people would actually read it? Especially since we don’t even have the facility of searching for people on blog, I used to believe it as a waste of precious time. Though I don’t know why the “time” factor was affecting me … considering that’s the only thing I have aplenty!

Quite many people say that writing is therapeutic. So thought would try it myself. There must be something in it that people go so crazy about blogs.

So as u can see, a lot of thought has gone into taking this major step of entering the blog world. I better get some welcome messages from the 2-3 people who know of my existence here!