eyes

morning musings...

2011-07-16T22:27:00.003+05:30

dreams have the ability to make you fly.

fantasies are even better. they have the innate ability to take you to space. to another world. another realm.

School trip to Kolkata / Nepal

2011-05-30T11:04:00.004+05:30

Year '89

School Tour : Calcutta / Dharamshala / Khatmandu / Pokhara

(these notes are written on 12/5/1989. i was in class 8 then. now when i read this i realize how bad a writer i was then) :p

on 11th may 1989 we left our house at 4.30 pm. we went to the station and waited. the train started at 7.15 pm. after sometime tasneem and i played cards. after playing some games we started talking. then a man from the tour company came and asked us to wash our hands and have dinner. for dinner we had delicious shrikhana, puri, pulao, curry and potato vegetable. after a while we went to sleep. in the morning i woke up at 5 am. i brushed my teeth and freshened up. i started writing these notes after that.

at 9 am we had breakfast of sandwiches. the day passed happily. at night our class teacher made groups for the trip. we were 4 in one group. our group included tasneem, arwa, hetal and me. we were to follow sister daisy.

next day we reached howrah station. we had to carry our own luggage. we were soon exhausted. we reached our hotel and it was horrible. our teachers refused to let us stay there. later we were shifted to another hotel which was much better. the name of the hotel was meghdoot. we travelled by the metro rail. (i remember how in awe i was with the whole concept of underground metro. i loved the ride and wished we had something like this in mumbai) i called vinita (my aunt who lived in kolkata) and told her about our transfer. she came with her parents to see me. she got me some yummy bengali sweets which i thoroughly enjoyed.

next morning we went sightseeing. we visited the belur math kali temple, jain temple, indian museum and victoria memorial. after the sightseeing we left for the airport. we checked in and completed the formalities. our flight was delayed by a few hours and we had to wait at the airport killing time. this was my first plane ride and i thoroughly enjoyed it. the dinner on the flight was really bad. i did not eat at all. after we landed we were checked into our hotel called blue diamond. we had our dinner and went to sleep. next day we visited the pashupatinath temple, swayambhu temple and water garden.

the next day we were awake at 3 am. we got ready and were taken to a place called nagarkot. the sunrise there was superb. we also shopped and went to bhaktpur. next day was free for shopping. (i remember buying 2 erasers for my brother and me. they were oval in shape and came packed in an oval shaped box. i still have the small box.) we went to the casino in the evening. (since we were underage we weren't allowed to play the normal games there. but we were given coins to play the slot machine. i remember winning a lot of coins and then buying myself something out of the money) :p

next day we left for pokhara. we reached in the evening. i loved the place. it was a valley and had lovely trees and pastures around us. we went to see a waterfall the next day.in the evening we went boating. next morning was free for relaxing. we went to kakarbitta in the evening.

next morning we left for india by bus. we crossed the border and reached siliguri. from there we left for darjeeling. we reached darjeeling in the evening. next morning we went shopping. afteer lunch we left for sightseeing. we visited the himalayan mountaineering institute, zoo, the tibetian refugee center, race course, tea gardens, tansien rock and the ropeway.

next day a few girls went to catch the sunrise. i did not go. my friends were too lazy to wake up. next morning we left for calcutta. on our way down the ghat we were caught in a traffic snarl as there was a big accident ahead. we reached bagdogra airport 2 hours late and missed our flight. we had to travel to calcutta by bus. it was a tiring journey as we had to travel all night. we missed our train to mumbai because this. when we reached calcutta we did not have any hotel booking. we went back to stay at meghdoot. everyones parents started calling to know the status of our journey. the trains were full. we did not have reserved tickets to travel back. our tour people bought regular tickets for all of us. there was just one bogie and so many of us. there was other general public too.

when the train reached our station, i managed to get into the bogie and find a place for myself. my friends could not climb in. lots of girls were left behind. one teacher stayed back with the other girls and the others came with us back to mumbai. the train journey was bad. there was no place for much movement. half our luggage was left behind with the other girls. we reached mumbai after 2 days. the journey back was a nightmare. my friends came back the next day. i will never forget this trip. even though it was bad in the end, i did have fun.

(that was one crazy trip! the last leg was tiring and a nightmare! but the fun part of the journey cannot be forgotten.)

shant zarukhe - gazal

2011-01-05T11:44:00.003+05:30

this is one of the most beautiful gujarati gazal i have ever heard... there aren't enough words to describe the romance and beauty of this song..

lyricist : saif palanpuri

singer : manhar udhas

in the song the poet describes a girl he notices in a 'jharukha' (small windows in a palace or house) and goes on to tell us about her... describing her beauty and the feelings she generates in his heart... the way she influences the animate and inanimate things around her... making us feel as if he is in love with her... making us wonder what happens to the girl and her relationship with him...

later on the poet talks about the years gone by... when he returns to the same place... the same jharukha... and the song takes a sad turn as he does not see the girl there anymore... he describes how the place is empty without her... how there is no life around him anymore... making us feel as if his love is lost forever... there is no song in his life anymore... no beauty in anything that he notices around him...

the last part of the song stuns the listeners, when the poet says the girl was not his lover nor his wife... he just knew her from the window... he did not even know her name...

but still his heart felt lonely... he still felt that his world was barren without her.. the void that could never be filled...

leaving the listeners sad as we feel his heartbreaking tale...

Shant zarukhe vat nirakhti
 roop ni rani joi hati,
 me ek sahejadi joi hati.  
 
she was standing quietly at the jharukha when i noticed her,
she was a beautiful queen,
a princess 
 
ena hath ni mahendi hasti ti,  
eni ankh nu kajal hastu tu, 
 ek nanu sarkhu upvan jane,  
mausam joi vikastu tu.
 
the mehendi on her hands kept laughing, 
the kajal in her eyes kept smiling, 
when she was around a small beautiful garden would flower and grow more beautiful, 
as if her presence changed the season to spring  
 
ena smit ma sou sou geet hata,  
eni chupki thi sangit hati,  
ene padchaya ni hati lagan, 
 ene pagrav sathe preet hati.
 
her smile could make hundreds of songs,
her silence had music in it,
her shadow loved her too
the sound of her feet made everyone fall in love with her.
 
Ena yaad na asopalav thi, 
 ek swapn mahel shangaryoto, 
 jara najar ne nichi rakhi ne 
 ene samay ne roki rakhyoto.
 
Her memories had built a dream palace (in my mind)
which she decorated with the leaves of asopalav plant (cypress)
her eyes kept low,
she had even managed to hold back time (for him)   
 
Ae moja jem uchaltiti,  
ne pavan ni jem laheratiti,  
koi hasi ne same ave to,  
bahu pyar bharyu sharmati ti.
 
She moves like the waves of the sea
and like the brezze blowing,
and if someone came smiling towards her,
she would give him a loving smile..  
 
Ene youvan ni ashish hati, 
ene sarv balao dur hati,  
ena prem ma bhagidar thava, 
 khud kudrat pan aatur hati.
 
she had the blessings of youth
and the evil eye never touched her,
and even 'nature' was excited,
to fall in love with her..
 
Varso baad farithi aje ej jarukho joyo che.....
 tya geet nathi, sangeet nathi,  
tya pagrav sathe preet nathi,  
tya swapnao na mahel nathi ne,  
ne urmio na khel nathi.  
 
the years have passed now.. and i am standing at the same jharukha..
but theres no song and music now,
no love for the sound of her feet,
no dream palaces
and no play of her smile.  
 
Bahu sunu sunu lage che  
bahu vasmu vasmu lage che.
 
it feel lonely now,
the (heart) feels desolated..  
 
Ae nahoti mari premika ke 
 nahoti mari dulhan,  
meito ane matr jarookhe  
vaat nirkhti joi hati,  
kon hati a naam hatu shu,  
a pan hu kya janu chu......
 
She wasn't my lover,
nor my dulhan, (wife)
i just know her through the jharukha,
i don't know her name  
 
Tem chata a dil ne aaje  vasmu vasmu lage che,  
bahu sunu sunu lage che.
 
Even then my heart feels the desolation,
the loneliness and the sadness of her not being around..

lakshadweep tour

2010-12-01T12:18:00.004+05:30

(this was written a long time back when i was in school. my trip to cochin and lakshadweep. i had just given my 10th boards that year.)

this year my school did not go for any tour. i therefore joined my friends from another school. i went to cochin, lakshadweep, kanya kumari and trivadrum.

we left on the 29th of april. i remember this date as it was also the same day we had left for kashmir 5 years ago. the train was to leave at 3.30 pm. we reached at the station at 2.45 pm. i was with parini, alpa and krinal. during the day i used to sit with them. at night i had to go to the other bogie to sleep with some other group of girls.

29th April : i hardly knew anyone and was feeling very lonely. even alpa felt alone as she was not from the same school. she used to read some filmy magazine and i was bored. i hardly read any film magazines. in the evening i made friends with some girls. evening we had our dinner and i went to my bogie to sleep. i felt this trip was going to be very boring.

30th April : in train. i made friends with a few more girls. we played games. we started talking to an uncle in our compartment. he was a judo champ. we passed our whole afternoon talking to him. he had a lot of knowledge. parini even called him an 'encyclopedia'. in the evening parini started playing. krinal too joined her. alpa was alone and so i decided to stay with her.

1st May : we reached ernakulam (cochin) in the morning. we stayed at k. k. international hotel. our group of 4 was accommodated in one room. we had a refreshing bath and then went out for some shopping. the shopping area was full of stores that sold mirrors, hardware stuff and clothes. i bought some spices. after that we went back to the hotel. we had our lunch and then went to the area where we had to board a boat for sight seeing. we had to wait for the other girls to come. we boarded a boat and went to see the chinese fishing nets. they were very good. from there we went to st. francis church. then we went to the jewish synagogue. it was magnificent. the tiles were of a different style and the walls and ceiling were beautiful. there was gold all around. we wanted to go to the palace but it was closed.

2nd May : we packed our luggage. we had to board a ship. we boarded 'tipu sultan' and it started at 3.00 pm. we played 'antakshari' and we won. then we went to the deck. after that we went to check the hall of the ship. it was great and huge. the seats were comfortable and there were 2 tv's. many of us started feeling sea sick. even i felt my stomach churning. we were given a pill to make us feel better. we watched 'saatwa aasman' on cable tv that night. (those days cable tv was the latest thing. and we were all excited to watch movies like this) then we went to sleep.

3rd May : we reached the first island at 8.30 am. we went to the main island by a small boat. there were cottages. we sat out near the beach. the sea was sky blue at some places, while a little more lighter at other places. a few girls jumped into the water. i sat on the beach looking at the sea and enjoying the place. we went back to the cottages and had lunch. we had a lot of oranges there. we also had coconut water. we played kho-kho and tug of war. we went for a boat ride which was very unique. we were transferred to a boat which had a glass bottom. we could see the sea-bed and the corals. we saw blue nad green corals. we saw an insectivorous plant too. it had brown leaves and many mouths. (this was the most beautiful part of my journey. i can never forget the corals and the sea-bed) we went back to the ship in the evening. the islanders gifted each of us a box of glasses. many of the girls also bought souvenirs. in the evening we watched 'saajan' on tv.

4th May : when we got up we found out that we were going to visit an island with many lagoons. we were again transferred to small boats which took us to the island. we reached the cottages and had coconut water. we were than taken to a beach by a van. we played musical chair and blind mans buff. we went to the lighthouse. we were tired after climbing 225 steps. but the view from the top was exquisite. then we went to the beach. the water was cool and calm, but the weather was very hot and sunny. there were no trees and all of us were thirsty. we went back to the cottage and had our lunch. then we went to another beach. we weren't allowed to swim as the waves were huge. we enjoyed the view. we then went for the ride to the village. we spoke to a few local people there. it was very surprising to know that in their tribe the man went to the woman's house after marriage. we were so amused to hear that. after we went back to the boat something funny happened. i was sitting with reshma, alpa and krinal. parini was sitting on the other side. michael (one of the tour guys) was sitting behind her. then came the fun. first michaels 2000 rupees fell into the sea. after that alpa's hat flew off. and then we heard a splash. first we thought parini had fallen off the deck! but then she was safe. then someone said it was michael. and then when we saw him safe we realized it was some boatman who had fallen into the sea. all of us started laughing. we had dinner and watched 'love' on cable.

5th May : when i got up i found that the next island was already in sight. we were transferred to the island by boat again. it was great. there was greenery everywhere. we sat in small tractors and went to our cottages. we had coconut water again. we rented a pedal boat and went for a boat ride. it was fun. we went back to the cottages. i did not want to goto the beach again. so i sat back with a few other girls. we had papayas and then when the gang got back we had our lunch. we were then treated to folk dance by the locals. we bought some shells and then went to some factory. we clicked pics of some native kids who kept giggling all the time. we then went to the lighthouse. after that we went back to the ship. we had promised an entertainment show to the captain. we started practicing in the evening. i planned to sing a song. there were a few events planned. we had a fabulous dance and song show that evening. it was a fun party.

6th May : we reached cochin and went back to our hotel. we then left for kanyakumari which was 8 hours away. we saw 2 movies on the bus. 'maine pyar kiya' and 'sadak'. on the way it started raining. we had to get all our baggage inside the bus. we reached kanyakumari at 8 pm. we slept at 11.30.

7th May : we went sight-seeing. we visited the vivekananda memorial rock. then we went to a temple. the statue was very beautiful. it was a statue of 'kanya' with a beautiful diamond studded nose-ring. the surrounding was decorated with diyas. i loved the place. later we went to the southern most tip of mainland india. we watched the confluence of arabian sea, bay of bengal and the indian ocean. the view was great. we had chinese food for lunch and left for trivandrum. we watched 'chaalbaaz' on the bus. on the way we halted at the kovallam beach. the water was not very clean and i did not like the place. we then continued our journey. we reached late in the evening. we had dinner and went to sleep.

8th May : we visited the meenakshi temple.we then visited the zoo. we were all tired. so we did not enjoy the visit. we then went to the historic museum. i was bored and uninterested in all the stuffed animals. we then went to the art museum. the portraits were huge and life like. i like the portrait of 'agni devta'. the colour combination was very good. we went back to our hotel and had lunch. in the evening we went shopping. i bought 2 sari's for my mother. then we went back to the hotel. we had a party that evening and a fancy dress competition. parini won the fancy dress competition. she had dressed herself in a black dress with letters attached to her dress calling herself the 'black mailer'. she also won the housie and dance competition. after the party we went back to our room. we had decided to stay awake the whole night and keep talking. but one by one everyone went off to sleep!

9th May : we had to wake up at 5 am. we had our breakfast and went to the station. we caught our train back home. since i had made a lot of friends i enjoyed my day back home. we played many games.

10th May : the day passed making stories and having fun and games. we also sang a lot of songs.

11th May : i awoke at 5 am. we came to know that the train was late by an hour. i was so happy. i did not want to go home! but we had to go home! we reached v.t. station in a while. this was the end of a beautiful tour!

(wow this was long.. and i remember a lot of things that i have written here. was fun and nostalgic! this has been one of my favorite journeys. specially because there is no place like lakshadweep.. it is simply beautiful!!)

Nainital Trip

2010-10-12T11:38:00.004+05:30

whenever i went for a long tour i used to write down my experiences.. i found a few written sheets of my trips to various places.. this one is about my nainital trip.. i do not remember what year it was.. maybe 1996 or 1997... i have just jotted down things in general.. though i do wish i had written more about my in-depth experience.. anyway.. here we go..

people in the post:

Tasneem - my best friend since school days

Khozem - tasneem's brother

Tasneem's Parents

Nani - tasneem's nani

Masi - tasneem's masi

Aftaab, Zameer, Misba - tasneem's cousins

Aftaab's parents

Tahani - Aftaab's girlfriend

29th April : We left for delhi by August Kranti Express

30th April : We reached Delhi at about 12 pm and went to our hotel. We had lunch and later we rested for a while. Next day we were supposed to leave for Nainital. That day we slept at 1 am as Tahani and I were talking.

1st May : We couldn't leave for Nainital as there was some diesel problem. Therefore we had to extend our stay at Delhi. Spend the day in general. Evening was a trip to Pallika Market. Night was again the time for long talks. Aftaab, Khozem, Tasneem, Zameer, Tahani and me got talking andslept at 3 am.

2nd May : We left for Nainital at last. It was a tiring bus ride. We had excellent lunch at some dhaba on the way. We reached Nainital at night. (i remember this ride to nainital at night.. the mountains looked so serene and silent.. and the higher we climbed the closer the stars came.. it felt as if the stars are there to b touched n stolen.. i felt that if i extended my hand up higher i would grab one of them just for myself.. was beautiful) We stayed in some hotel which was not worth a mention.

3rd May : We had breakfast and took a proper look at Nainital. It was breathtaking. We then shifted to another hotel and had lunch there. In the evening we took a stroll at the mall. (the market in nainital is generally referred to as mall.. nothing like what we have now.. more like roadside stalls.. ) We then went to the nepali market.

4th May : We went boating. Aftaab, Tahani, Misba and Tasneems parents were in one boat. The second one had Khozem, Tasneem, Zameer and me. The third one had Aftaab's parents, masi and nani. Aftaab's dad was the funniest of the lot. In the middle of the ride he got up and started acting as a film director. He started calling Aftab as the hero and Tahani as the heroine. Since we were all in the game, we acted as if we had gone there for a shoot. People actually started believing us. (aftaab anyway looked like some bollywood actor.. height above 6 ft and looks of a greek god.. tahani was the pretty one too.. so it was easy to believe..) We then tried the ropeway. But it was a boring ride as the weather was foggy and we couldn't see the sights. After the ride, we youngsters decided to go horseriding. The way was dangerous. But the view was beautiful. (aftaab and zameer are trained horse riders.. they were the one who actually taught me how to ride.. my passion for horse riding started because of them.. i loved watching them ride a stallion and gallop away in the mists of matheran)

5th May : We went to Bhimtal and Sat Tal. Boating again. On the way back our bus had a technical glitch. We got off the bus and started playing kiddie games. Orange is a lemon, ringa ringa roses and a few dance moves. Taneem, Tahani and I went to the market later in the evening and had icecream.

6th May : We stayed at the hotel that day. Evening we went to the market and purchased candles and some other trinkets. Bags were then packed as we planned to leave the next day.

7th May : We left for Kousani passing Almora. There were not many hotels there. We stayed at the Government hotel. We could hardly see anything then as there was a fire in the forest. I went for a stroll with Aftaab's mom. It was a beautiful place.

8th May : The morning was fresh, and as we got out of the room we could see the Himalayas right at our doorstep. It was a fantastic sight. Uncle, Tahani and I went for a long walk in the mountains. It was a lovely walk. Later in the day we had ragda pattice. In the evening it started raining. The view of the Himalayan snow capped mountains with rain pouring outside our hotel was amazing. Our last evening there and we got to see such a lovely sight. Bliss.

9th May : Next morning we went for a walk again. (i am generally a mountain person.. and love to take long walks.. dad loved it.. n now i love it too) Later we left for Corbett. We did not have too many days left. So we just decided to spend the night at Corbett. We booked ourselves in at Claridge's. It was a lovely place, situated on the banks of the Kosi river. The mango trees were superb there with the mangoes dangling right to the ground. Our room was beautiful too. We had dinner at their restaurant. We were shown a wild life documentary.

ps : when we reached the hotel, we were told not to get out of our rooms at night as there were leopards moving about freely. Tahani was so scared she did not let us open our doors and windows. Did not even let us step into the terrace!

10th May : We got up early. Went to the river. It was a beautiful sight. White pebbles surrounded the banks. The river was clean and sparkling. We dipped our legs in the cool water. Spent sometime there and then went for breakfast. After breakfast we went to the river again. Spent sometime there. After that we had to go pack our bags for the return trip to Delhi. Tahani and Zameer played table tennis. We played a few other games. Then we watched the shooting of 'Namaste India'. After lunch we left for Delhi. Our bus broke down again! We had to wait for a long time and reached Delhi pretty late. We checked into our hotel again for the night.

11th May : We shopped all day through. I did not like anything. It was also very hot. Then in the evening we left for the station, awaiting our Rajdhani.

12th May : Reached Mumbai. Back home after a lovely trip.

cheers!

(i remember a few other parts of the trip.. we used to play teen patti where zameer was my partner.. n we generally won.. i also remember zameer as he only ate potatoes.. he wanted potatoes in every thing he had.. and then once during some lunch zameer and I got into a chilli eating competition.. and we kept eating raw green spicy chillies all through the meal.. we stopped when his dad yelled at us.. and then i remember one of the road trip where we all youngsters got onto the bus carrier and started dancing.. tasneem's dad got into rajesh khanna mode and jumped on the ladder and started singing some songs.. i remember getting down from the bus on our way to corbett and aftaab showing off his biology skills.. he kept showing us the 'touch me not ' plants... and i was so impressed.. i can never recognize plants!... and i remember how the whole family had a migraine problem.. and i was the official masseur of the group.. jisko bhi headache ho.. neha ko bulao... :p)

kulula.com

2010-09-08T12:01:00.008+05:30

kulula is a low cost airline that doesn't take itself seriously! and boy am i glad for the goair and kingfisher airlines in india!! read on to have the biggest ROTFL you've had for a while..

On a Kulula flight, (there is no assigned seating, you just sit where you want) passengers were apparently having a hard time choosing, when a flight attendant announced, "People, people we're not picking out furniture here, find a seat and get in it!"

On another flight with a very "senior" flight attendant crew, the pilot said, "Ladies and gentlemen, we've reached cruising altitude and will be turning down the cabin lights. This is for your comfort and to enhance the appearance of your flight attendants."

On landing, the stewardess said, "Please be sure to take all of your belongings.. If you're going to leave anything, please make sure it's something we'd like to have."

"There may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but there are only 4 ways out of this airplane."

"Thank you for flying Kulula. We hope you enjoyed giving us the business as much as we enjoyed taking you for a ride."

As the plane landed and was coming to a stop at Durban Airport , a lone voice came over the loudspeaker: "Whoa, big fella. WHOA!"

After a particularly rough landing during thunderstorms in the Karoo , a flight attendant on a flight announced, "Please take care when opening the overhead compartments because, after a landing like that, sure as hell everything has shifted."

From a Kulula employee: " Welcome aboard Kulula 271 to Port Elizabeth . To operate your seat belt, insert the metal tab into the buckle, and pull tight. It works just like every other seat belt; and, if you don't know how to operate one, you probably shouldn't be out in public unsupervised."

"In the event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, masks will descend from the ceiling. Stop screaming, grab the mask, and pull it over your face. If you have a small child travelling with you, secure your mask before assisting with theirs. If you are travelling with more than one small child, pick your favorite."

Weather at our destination is 50 degrees with some broken clouds, but we'll try to have them fixed before we arrive. Thank you, and remember, nobody loves you, or your money, more than Kulula Airlines."

"Your seats cushions can be used for flotation; and in the event of an emergency water landing, please paddle to shore and take them with our compliments."

"As you exit the plane, make sure to gather all of your belongings. Anything left behind will be distributed evenly among the flight attendants. Please do not leave children or spouses.."

And from the pilot during his welcome message: "Kulula Airlines is pleased to announce that we have some of the best flight attendants in the industry. Unfortunately, none of them are on this flight!"

Heard on Kulula 255 just after a very hard landing in Cape Town : The flight attendant came on the intercom and said, "That was quite a bump and I know what y'all are thinking. I'm here to tell you it wasn't the airline's fault, it wasn't the pilot's fault, it wasn't the flight attendant's fault, it was the asphalt."

Overheard on a Kulula flight into Cape Town , on a particularly windy and bumpy day: During the final approach, the Captain really had to fight it. After an extremely hard landing, the Flight Attendant said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to The Mother City. Please remain in your seats with your seat belts fastened while the Captain taxis what's left of our airplane to the gate!"

Another flight attendant's comment on a less than perfect landing: "We ask you to please remain seated as Captain Kangaroo bounces us to the terminal."

An airline pilot wrote that on this particular flight he had hammered his ship into the runway really hard. The airline had a policy which required the first officer to stand at the door while the passengers exited, smile, and give them a "Thanks for flying our airline." He said that, in light of his bad landing, he had a hard time looking the passengers in the eye, thinking that someone would have a smart comment. Finally everyone had gotten off except for a little old lady walking with a cane. She said, "Sir, do you mind if I ask you a question?" "Why, no Ma'am," said the pilot. "What is it?" The little old lady said, "Did we land, or were we shot down?"

After a real crusher of a landing in Johannesburg , the attendant came on with, "Ladies and Gentlemen, please remain in your seats until Captain Crash and the Crew have brought the aircraft to a screeching halt against the gate. And, once the tire smoke has cleared and the warning bells are silenced, we will open the door and you can pick your way through the wreckage to the terminal.."

Part of a flight attendant's arrival announcement: "We'd like to thank you folks for flying with us today.. And, the next time you get the insane urge to go blasting through the skies in a pressurized metal tube, we hope you'll think of Kulula Airways."

Heard on a Kulula flight. "Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to smoke, the smoking section on this airplane is on the wing.. If you can light 'em, you can smoke 'em."

A plane was taking off from Durban Airport . After it reached a comfortable cruising altitude, the captain made an announcement over the intercom, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. Welcome to Flight Number 293, non-stop from Durban to Cape Town , The weather ahead is good and, therefore, we should have a smooth and uneventful flight.. Now sit back and relax... OH, MY GOODNESS!" Silence followed, and after a few minutes, the captain came back on the intercom and said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I am so sorry if I scared you earlier. While I was talking to you, the flight attendant accidentally spilled a cup of hot coffee in my lap. You should see the front of my pants!" A passenger then yelled, "That's nothing. You should see the back of mine!"

ENJOYYYYY

book quotes

2010-08-07T20:30:00.003+05:30

'i find television very educating. every time somebody turns on the set, i go into the other room and read a book' - groucho marx

'a good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author' - g. k. chesterton

'outside of a dog a book is man's best friend. and inside of a dog it's too dark to read' - groucho marx

'a man who doesn't read books has no advantage over the man who can't read them' - mark twain

'good friends, good book and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life' - mark twain

'the worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it' - james bryce

sights and eavesdropping

2010-07-06T20:51:00.003+05:30

interesting sights:

1. i was travelling by train today.. i noticed a bride sitting in the corner with her family surrounding her.. she was definitely newly married.. problem was, she was wearing this red red sari with the worst glitter gold work i have ever seen in all my life... a huge fake gold (again glitter) necklace shining around her neck... fake gold bangles clinking on her wrists... she herself was not someone i would call pretty or beautiful.. her dark skin and all the gold adorning her did not help her looks too..

and then she suddenly turned her face towards me.. it stunned me... the soft look on her face.. the simple coy smile on the newly wedded womans face changed everything.. suddenly she was the most beautiful woman around me.. i could feel her happiness.. it was so palpable.. the anticipation of a wonderful life ahead.. it surprised me at how looks do not matter sometimes.. just a smile or a twinkle in the eye is more beautiful than anything in the world..

2. walking on the road this afternoon i nearly stopped moving.. sight?.. i saw a cow right in the middle of the road.. sitting as easily as if she was in the meadows of europe.. the traffic moved around her.. seeing to it that she wasn't disturbed.. she keep looking around her.. unmindful of the commotion around her.. this made me smile.. reminding me of the good old days when i was a kid and there were a lot more cows on the streets.. walking and munching at anything green on the road.. aah nostalgia!

funny eavesdropping:

1. I was at the jewellers today.. they were discussing the high rates of products.

Jeweller: Aap ko pata hai italian jewellery kitni mehengi hai? Jewellery ki baat chodo! Italian joote bhi mehenge hai. Mere ek friend ne 35000/- ke joote liye. Aisa lagta hai 1000/- ke hai!

Woman 1: Mere bete ke paas 10000/- ke joote hai. Maarne ka bhi mann nahin karta un jooto se.

Woman 2: Arey haan. Aaj kal toh kaise kaise naam hote hai company's ke. Jimmy Choo aur DnG. Kutto ke naam se company chalate hai aur bewakoof banate hai. Jimmy toh kutte ka naam hai na? Aur itne mehenge joote?

(i couldn't control my laughter then. just left the shop giggling)

day 7

2010-06-15T23:29:00.002+05:30

alright people.. last day.. not a bad week.. :)

menu for the day:

3 bowls vegetable rice (lots of veggies less rice)

wonder soup all day through

1 apple

1 glass sweetlime juice (no sugar)

1 muskmelon

thats it i think...

result of the week long detox diet : lost 4 kgs

sad i didn't lose those inches.. lol

laterzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

day 5

2010-06-14T21:36:00.002+05:30

wonder soup all day through

2 bowls vegetable rice (lots and lots of veggies)

1 cucumber

wowww.. just realized iv hardly had much today.. maybe i will get a few tomatoes in my tummy later...

:))

day 5

2010-06-13T21:19:00.003+05:30

easy day again.. been busy all day.. kept flitting in and out of the house all day... couldn't even go swimming :((

food intake:

2 bowls mung.. no oil

one bowl wonder soup

one bowl rice cooked in 3 tomatoes (had rice after so many days... was yummmm... and specially the tomato rice where i added a spoon of pao bhaji masala to make it tastier)

1 cup black coffee no sugar

lots of water

(mung was out of the menu again.. but i think it is healthy enough to have it.. i was supposed to have 6 tomatoes.. 3 done.. maybe i will have the other 3 in a while.. consumption of soup was down.. not because i am bored of it.. more so because i did not feel hungry all day.. had rice in the evening.. i surely missed the rice and roti all these days... )

tomorrow sounds like an easy day too... :)

day 4

2010-06-12T22:44:00.002+05:30

easy easy day today :

5 bananas all through the day (was supposed to eat 8.. cant manage.. too much for me)

wonder soup all through the day

1 black coffee (no sugar)

3 glasses milk (this has been the biggest problem in the whole diet.. milk without sugar is eeeeeeeeeekkkkkkk)

1 bowl of mung with masala and lemon.. no oil (this is not mentioned in the diet. but i think mung is good and filling. so i added it for the day)

found an interesting site while researching for nutritional value of mung. check it out. i love the pyramid and the maps shown. so simple to understand.

http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2333/2

i was told this would be the most difficult day. i think it was the simplest of all days. not once in all these days have i felt hungry or weak. infact i feel invigorated and lighter.

tomorrow 6 tomatoes and 1 cup rice day... interesting....

cheers

day 3

2010-06-11T23:53:00.002+05:30

today was fruit and veggie day:

muskmelon in the morning for breakfast

1 bowl wonder soup

tomato soup through the day

greenpeas, tomato and french bean sabzi

small portion of watermelon

1 mango

half a muskmelon

half an apple

cucumber and tomato salad

day 2

2010-06-10T20:35:00.002+05:30

just vegetables

had half a boiled beet in the morning (since i do not have potatoes)

wonder soup all through the day

cabbage sabzi one small bowl

capsicum cabbage and tomato sabzi cooked pao bhaji style - 1 large bowl

3 tomatoes and 1 cucumber in the evening for dinner

planned to have one bowl of baingan sabzi but i just couldn't eat it without roti/rice

maybe i will have one more tomato later.

am not feeling hungry though.

awaiting day 3.

diet diet

2010-06-09T21:46:00.003+05:30

started a detox diet... really need a system flush out after all the crazy wedding food...

http://msync.org/health/GeneralMotorsDiet.html

i hope this works..

goal : 5 kgs negative

today was all fruit day:

muskmelon for breakfast

wonder soup all through the day (fabulous taste)

watermelon

a medium bowl of papaya

1 mango

muskmelon in the evening

a slice of apple

one more apple later at night

Nathuram Godse's Point if View

2010-06-01T13:58:00.001+05:30

Ever wondered why Gandhiji was killed? Ever wondered what went through the mind of Godse when he pushed that deadly trigger? Read on..

JANUARY 30th, 1949 - The Mahatma was assassinated by a man called Naturam Godse.
After he shot him, instead of running away, he stood his ground and surrounded. He said, "No one should think that Gandhi was killed by a madman"

One of the best speeches of All time, which is compared to Socrates's speech in his trial.
The Judge was astonished by his speech and commented that if India had followed the Jury system of giving judgments, Godse would have been adjudicated as "Not Guilty" by the Jury, cause after the speech, the whole audience was in tears.

This is the speech given by Nathuram Godse in the court in his last trial for the murder of Mahatma Gandhi

Born in a devotional Brahmin family, I instinctively came to revere Hindu religion, Hindu history and Hindu culture. I had, therefore, been intensely proud of Hinduism as a whole. As I grew up I developed a tendency to free thinking unfettered by any superstitious allegiance to any isms, political or religious. That is why I worked actively for the eradication of untouchability and the caste system based on birth alone. I openly joined anti-caste movements and maintained that all Hindus were of equal status as to rights, social and religious and should be considered high or low on merit alone and not through the accident of birth in a particular caste or profession. I used publicly to take part in organized anti-caste dinners in which thousands of Hindus, Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, Chamars and Bhangis participated. We broke the caste rules and dined in the company of each other.

I have read the speeches and writings of Dadabhai Nairoji, Vivekanand, Gokhale, Tilak, along with the books of ancient and modern history of India and some prominent countries like England, France, America and' Russia. Moreover I studied the tenets of Socialism and Marxism. But above all I studied very closely whatever Veer Savarkar and Gandhiji had written and spoken, as to my mind these two ideologies have contributed more to the moulding of the thought and action of the Indian people during the last thirty years or so, than any other single factor has done.

All this reading and thinking led me to believe it was my first duty to serve Hindudom and Hindus both as a patriot and as a world citizen. To secure the freedom and to safeguard the just interests of some thirty crores (300 million) of Hindus would automatically constitute the freedom and the well being of all India, one fifth of human race. This conviction led me naturally to devote myself to the Hindu Sanghtanist ideology and programme, which alone, I came to believe, could win and preserve the national independence of Hindustan, my Motherland, and enable her to render true service to humanity as well.

Since the year 1920, that is, after the demise of Lokamanya Tilak, Gandhiji's influence in the Congress first increased and then became supreme. His activities for public awakening were phenomenal in their intensity and were reinforced by the slogan of truth and non-violence, which he paraded ostentatiously before the country. No sensible or enlightened person could object to those slogans. In fact there is nothing new or original in them. They are implicit in every constitutional public movement. But it is nothing but a mere dream if you imagine that the bulk of mankind is, or can ever become, capable of scrupulous adherence to these lofty principles in its normal life from day to day. In fact, honour, duty and love of one's own kith and kin and country might often compel us to disregard non-violence and to use force. I could never conceive that an armed resistance to an aggression is unjust. I would consider it a religious and moral duty to resist and, if possible, to overpower such an enemy by use of force. [In the Ramayana] Rama killed Ravana in a tumultuous fight and relieved Sita. [In the Mahabharata], Krishna killed Kansa to end his wickedness; and Arjuna had to fight and slay quite a number of his friends and relations including the revered Bhishma because the latter was on the side of the aggressor. It is my firm belief that in dubbing Rama, Krishna and Arjuna as guilty of violence, the Mahatma betrayed a total ignorance of the springs of human action.

In more recent history, it was the heroic fight put up by Chhatrapati Shivaji that first checked and eventually destroyed the Muslim tyranny in India. It was absolutely essentially for Shivaji to overpower and kill an aggressive Afzal Khan, failing which he would have lost his own life. In condemning history's towering warriors like Shivaji, Rana Pratap and Guru Gobind Singh as misguided patriots, Gandhiji has merely exposed his self-conceit. He was, paradoxical, as it may appear, a violent pacifist who brought untold calamities on the country in the name of truth and non-violence, while Rana Pratap, Shivaji and the Guru will remain enshrined in the hearts of their countrymen forever for the freedom they brought to them.

The accumulating provocation of thirty-two years, culminating in his last pro-Muslim fast, at last goaded me to the conclusion that the existence of Gandhi should be brought to an end immediately. Gandhi had done very well in South Africa to uphold the rights and well being of the Indian community there. But when he finally returned to India he developed a subjective mentality under which he alone was to be the final judge of what was right or wrong. If the country wanted his leadership, it had to accept his infallibility; if it did not, he would stand aloof from the Congress and carry on his own way. Against such an attitude there can be no halfway house. Either Congress had to surrender its will to his and had to be content with playing second fiddle to all his eccentricity, whimsicality, metaphysics and primitive vision, or it had to carry on without him. He alone was the Judge of everyone and everything; he was the master brain guiding the civil disobedience movement; no other could know the technique of that movement. He alone knew when to begin and when to withdraw it. The movement might succeed or fail, it might bring untold disaster and political reverses but that could make no difference to the Mahatma's infallibility. 'A Satyagrahi can never fail' was his formula for declaring his own infallibility and nobody except himself knew what a Satyagrahi is.

Thus, the Mahatma became the judge and jury in his own cause. These childish insanities and obstinacies, coupled with a most severe austerity of life, ceaseless work and lofty character made Gandhi formidable and irresistible. Many people thought that his politics were irrational but they had either to withdraw from the Congress or place their intelligence at his feet to do with, as he liked. In a position of such absolute irresponsibility Gandhi was guilty of blunder after blunder, failure after failure, disaster after disaster.

Gandhi's pro-Muslim policy is blatantly in his perverse attitude on the question of the national language of India. It is quite obvious that Hindi has the most prior claim to be accepted as the premier language. In the beginning of his career in India, Gandhi gave a great impetus to Hindi but as he found that the Muslims did not like it, he became a champion of what is called Hindustani. Everybody in India knows that there is no language called Hindustani; it has no grammar; it has no vocabulary. It is a mere dialect; it is spoken, but not written. It is a bastard tongue and crossbreed between Hindi and Urdu, and not even the Mahatma's sophistry could make it popular. But in his desire to please the Muslims he insisted that Hindustani alone should be the national language of India. His blind followers, of course, supported him and the so-called hybrid language began to be used. The charm and purity of the Hindi language was to be prostituted to please the Muslims. All his experiments were at the expense of the Hindus.

From August 1946 onwards the private armies of the Muslim League began a massacre of the Hindus. The then Viceroy, Lord Wavell, though distressed at what was happening, would not use his powers under the Government of India Act of 1935 to prevent the rape, murder and arson. The Hindu blood began to flow from Bengal to Karachi with some retaliation by the Hindus. The Interim Government formed in September was sabotaged by its Muslim League members right from its inception, but the more they became disloyal and treasonable to the government of which they were a part, the greater was Gandhi's infatuation for them. Lord Wavell had to resign as he could not bring about a settlement and he was succeeded by Lord Mountbatten. King Log was followed by King Stork.

The Congress, which had boasted of its nationalism and socialism, secretly accepted Pakistan literally at the point of the bayonet and abjectly surrendered to Jinnah. India was vivisected and one-third of the Indian territory became foreign land to us from August 15, 1947. Lord Mountbatten came to be described in Congress circles as the greatest Viceroy and Governor-General this country ever had. The official date for handing over power was fixed for June 30, 1948, but Mountbatten with his ruthless surgery gave us a gift of vivisected India ten months in advance. This is what Gandhi had achieved after thirty years of undisputed dictatorship and this is what Congress party calls 'freedom' and 'peaceful transfer of power'. The Hindu-Muslim unity bubble was finally burst and a theocratic state was established with the consent of Nehru and his crowd and they have called 'freedom won by them with sacrifice' - whose sacrifice? When top leaders of Congress, with the consent of Gandhi, divided and tore the country - which we consider a deity of worship - my mind was filled with direful anger.

One of the conditions imposed by Gandhi for his breaking of the fast unto death related to the mosques in Delhi occupied by the Hindu refugees. But when Hindus in Pakistan were subjected to violent attacks he did not so much as utter a single word to protest and censure the Pakistan Government or the Muslims concerned. Gandhi was shrewd enough to know that while undertaking a fast unto death, had he imposed for its break some condition on the Muslims in Pakistan, there would have been found hardly any Muslims who could have shown some grief if the fast had ended in his death. It was for this reason that he purposely avoided imposing any condition on the Muslims. He was fully aware of from the experience that Jinnah was not at all perturbed or influenced by his fast and the Muslim League hardly attached any value to the inner voice of Gandhi.

Gandhi is being referred to as the Father of the Nation. But if that is so, he had failed his paternal duty inasmuch as he has acted very treacherously to the nation by his consenting to the partitioning of it. I stoutly maintain that Gandhi has failed in his duty. He has proved to be the Father of Pakistan. His inner-voice, his spiritual power and his doctrine of non-violence of which so much is made of, all crumbled before Jinnah's iron will and proved to be powerless.

Briefly speaking, I thought to myself and foresaw I shall be totally ruined, and the only thing I could expect from the people would be nothing but hatred and that I shall have lost all my honour, even more valuable than my life, if I were to kill Gandhiji. But at the same time I felt that the Indian politics in the absence of Gandhiji would surely be proved practical, able to retaliate, and would be powerful with armed forces. No doubt, my own future would be totally ruined, but the nation would be saved from the inroads of Pakistan. People may even call me and dub me as devoid of any sense or foolish, but the nation would be free to follow the course founded on the reason which I consider to be necessary for sound nation-building. After having fully considered the question, I took the final decision in the matter, but I did not speak about it to anyone whatsoever. I took courage in both my hands and I did fire the shots at Gandhiji on 30th January 1948, on the prayer-grounds of Birla House.

I do say that my shots were fired at the person whose policy and action had brought rack and ruin and destruction to millions of Hindus. There was no legal machinery by which such an offender could be brought to book and for this reason I fired those fatal shots.

I bear no ill will towards anyone individually but I do say that I had no respect for the present government owing to their policy, which was unfairly favourable towards the Muslims. But at the same time I could clearly see that the policy was entirely due to the presence of Gandhi. I have to say with great regret that Prime Minister Nehru quite forgets that his preachings and deeds are at times at variances with each other when he talks about India as a secular state in season and out of season, because it is significant to note that Nehru has played a leading role in the establishment of the theocratic state of Pakistan, and his job was made easier by Gandhi's persistent policy of appeasement towards the Muslims.

I now stand before the court to accept the full share of my responsibility for what I have done and the judge would, of course, pass against me such orders of sentence as may be considered proper. But I would like to add that I do not desire any mercy to be shown to me, nor do I wish that anyone else should beg for mercy on my behalf. My confidence about the moral side of my action has not been shaken even by the criticism levelled against it on all sides. I have no doubt that honest writers of history will weigh my act and find the true value thereof some day in future.

-NATHURAM GODSE

@$%^$$^^&^

2010-05-30T18:20:00.003+05:30

caution: abusive words ahead. do not proceed if you are under age or your mentality is under age. thank you

i know mumbai has its share of perverts... i have come across a lot of them in my growing years... i remember the old times (obviously when i was young :p) when someone came close to me and whispered, 'hey sexy!' or 'wow beautiful' etc etc.. every girl goes through this regardless of how beautiful or how pretty she is... but what happened today would surely take the cake from all those other episodes of my life... (and i surely wish the cake is made up of horse shit and i definitely wish i had the pleasure to shove the cake right down their filthy mouths!)

i met up with an old school friend today... she had to visit some place at andheri and she asked me to accompany her... we had a great lunch and then headed back home... unfortunately we did not get an auto, and so we decided to pick a bus that would take us to the station... after dropping her off at the station i decided to walk home (which is about 7 mins from the station)... it was nearly 3 pm and i was hoping to catch a nap as soon as i reached home... the road as usual on a sunday afternoon, was less congested, with the cars/bikes moving at a better speed than you would expect on an arterial road...

i was walking on the road as the footpath was uneven... there were not many people walking along... suddenly a bike zoomed past me and slowed down.. for a moment i thought they would try to pull my bag... i caught hold of my bag and stopped right there... the biker stopped a little ahead... he was accompanied by another man... i didn't know what was happening... till suddenly the biker screamt, 'hey baby, wanna come along? lets go somewhere' (he did say a lot of things i don't remember now. and i don't remember if he spoke in hindi or english)... i was so shocked that i blurted out, 'fuck-off you bastards.'... then i realized my mistake and shut up... i thought it made better sense to abuse those morons in my head rather than create a scene on a relatively quiet road... he zoomed away after saying all this and i started walking back home... my brains screaming all the time... my lips whispering in anger...

fuckers

bastards

creeps

perverts

assholes

morons

chutiya saala kutta kameena... (urgh!)

(do forgive my sad abusive vocab... i am not someone who ever uses abusive words... so i know just a few of them and use them only when absolutely necessary)

i walked on, wondering if the guys were lurking around the next corner... i decided to scream if they ever tried to touch me... i decided to note the bike number and lodge a police complain if they harassed me again... i kept walking on still abusing in anger... i noticed a few people throwing me 'is she crazy?' glances... i didn't bother... i was seething in anger... i neared the andheri flyover crossing... i was halfway across the crossing waiting for the green signal to let me pass... scanning the area to see if the biker was around... suddenly i felt someone behind me... i turned around and saw it was some eunuch beggar moving towards a car... he/she (i am not sure what to use here) moved a little further away from me and said, 'kya madam, kahan jaa rahi ho?'... and this really freaked me out... i passed across a dirty glance and wondered if the whole world was scheming against me...

i almost ran home... wondering if it was a wrong day for me... wondering why was i attracting such weirdos today... and hoping this never happens to me ever again...

kanha

2010-03-24T18:44:00.002+05:30

Kanhaa .. bairun hui bansuri
Ho kanhaaa .. tere adhar kyun lagi
Aang se lagey to bol sunave
Bhaiye na moh lagey kanha
Din to katta, saanj kattey
Kaise kattey ratiyaaa

Kanhaa .. tere hi rang mein ranggi

Ho kanha .. saanj ki chav saawari
Sanj samay jab, sanj liptave
Lajja kare baavri
Kuch na kahe
Apne aap se
Aapi karein batiyan

Le gaya surajjj
Chod gaya kashi re ..
Heyyy…. kanha ..

(excerpts)

Movie : Veer

Singer : Rekha Bharadwaj

i don't know what to write

2009-10-31T23:53:00.003+05:30

been ages since i wrote something here... and its the same today... i don't know what to write here... there are times when i know what to write, but i don't end up publishing my write-ups... today i was reading a few of my older posts and now i am nostalgic... :)

thats the reason i thought i'd atleast say hello to the blogger in me... :)

posting my latest diwali picture (just so theres something worth catching up on)... smiles

Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie

2009-06-26T20:51:00.003+05:30

fantastic book... a must read... a few excerpts...

* We all owe death a life. (Isn't this true? To give death its full onus we should live a life worth living.)

* Do Hindus not accept that the world is a kindof dream; that Brahma dreamed, is dreaming the universe; that we only see dimly through that dream-web, which is Maya. Maya maybe defined as all that is illusory; as trickery,artifice and deceit. Apparitions, phantasms, mirages, sleight-of-hand, the seeming form of things: all these are parts of Maya.

* The promise of exotic futures has always seemed the perfect antidote to the disappointments of the present.

Salman Rushdie

child in us

2009-04-25T23:29:00.001+05:30

In each of us a child has lived and a child has died – a child of promise, who never grew up.

Aparajito

Bibhutibhushan Bandhopadhyay

The Last Song of Dusk

2009-03-25T20:40:00.002+05:30

a sentence from this book...

the only purpose of innocence was that it had to be lost, and the most defining characteristic of love was that it must be longed for.

Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi

kalaghoda fest

2009-02-19T20:51:00.006+05:30

kalaghoda is an art fest held in mumbai every year... i went to take a look this year and took a few pics of the activities and festivities... everything at this fest is super indian.. with ethnic things on sale and old indian customs seen around...

one of my favorite pictures showing the wind wand seller... reminds me of days long gone by when my father used to buy these for me everytime we went to the Gateway for an evening out... how i used to play with these wands and compete with my brother to see whose wand rotated the most... :)

and well.. thats me at the fest...

letter to a friend

2009-01-30T20:43:00.002+05:30

Dear Sougata,

I have been planning to write this letter to you since a few days now. Not just to thank you for all you have done, but also to put it up here so that I have the pleasure to read it in the future when these day might not be anymore.

First of all, Rakesh and I want to thank you for the help you have sent for our favourite charity. The money has been utilized to bring a big smile to the faces of the deaf and dumb children. I feel that it is easy to donate a sum of money, but more difficult to give time for these endeavours and convince people to help. Again, knowing your busy schedule, we appreciate the time you have put in to persuade them to assist the school.

On a personal level too, it is my great pleasure to be known as your friend. I have never known anyone as intelligent as you and it is fun to discuss various subjects with you. We will definitely be termed as ‘nerds’ if people know how crazily we discuss books, economics, spirituality, life and psychology. In fact you are worse because you know so much more than me. I wonder how you can retain so much knowledge in that brain of yours. I am surely not joking when I call your brain an encyclopedia.

The way you have led your life has been an inspiration for me. I always set you up as an example when my students need to be encouraged or inspired. You have come a long way in life, Sougata. You have achieved and excelled in most of the things you have set your heart to. Today you are moving a step higher in your professional life. I wish you all the best for the future. I know you are very capable for the kind of job you have been asked to do. We need honest people in your profession and I am so proud of you for being that.

I have learnt a lot of things from you. The most important being how to face the difficulties in life. I can always rely on you as a friend and I don’t always have to tell you what my problems are. Your presence has a very calming effect on me and I know that things will be fine soon.

Thank- you for always being around and being such a nice human being. It is a pleasure to know you.

Neha.

papa's gyan

2008-11-19T10:02:00.003+05:30

papa would tell me, "beta never get married to someone whose living depends on the stock market"

snippets i heard yesterday...

the owners of 'cream center' which is a very famous chain of restaurants in mumbai have gone bankrupt..

reason : lost money in the stock market

flash back... a year ago...

flat owner: i will sell this flat for 95 lakhs
uncle: i will pay 90 lakhs
flat owner: i wont even accept 94 lakhs.

result... no deal

2 days ago...

uncle: how much for the flat?
flat owner: 60 lakhs
uncle: i shall pay 55 lakhs
flat owner: ok deal.
uncle: i want to see the flat papers
flat owner: sure

(calls his son)

flat owner to son: we have got a deal for the flat. 55 lakhs. send the papers.
son: err don't you know? the papers are with the bank. we mortgaged the flat to buy shares from the stock market.

game, set over...

papa was right....
and i am glad i stuck to his gyan...

laterzz :p

sisters in action...

2008-11-11T20:08:00.009+05:30

a trip to mount abu... and a week with family and cousins... here are a few nautanki pics with my cousin dhara who joined us all the way from dubai... enjoy...

pics taken at the Kesar Vilas Palace Hotel...

so which ones better??? the calvin klein (hiding my eyes) or the fastrack (on my head)??

maharani neha...

maharani dhara kumari...

a la mallika sherawat run...

slow motion.... again...

maaro iskoooo.... masti mood...!

more pics to follow... laterzzzz

when i was 25...

2008-09-30T20:54:00.002+05:30

place - manali, beas river

hunger...

2008-08-27T10:33:00.005+05:30

Uganda.. 1980..

what was i doing when this child was dying of hunger??... laughing?... crying?... eating?... screaming at my mom for making me eat something i did not want?...

we take a lot of things for granted... never happy with what we have... always wanting things we do not have... its sad...

confused!!!!!

2008-05-10T19:13:00.002+05:30

i am learning to drive... and i am throughly confused... clutch, break, gear, right, left, signal.. ouch!!!!!!

doesnt mean i will give up...

laterzzz all

dream...

2008-04-06T07:42:00.000+05:30

last night i dreamt i had a 1 year old baby girl... it has shaken me to the core...

more of dubai...

2008-03-12T11:04:00.004+05:30

dubai marina... the place i loved the most... thats my cousin dhara... hriday my nephew... my bhabhi deepa.. and my mom...

The Rain

2008-03-10T10:48:00.001+05:30

Fiction written for BUF some months ago...

It was the season of Navratri. She was out dancing with her friends. She was wearing a beautiful long green bandhni skirt with a matching blouse. Her dupatta wrapped around her like a mini sari. Her long earrings swishing around her nape like a lover’s kiss. Her dozen bangles playing the tune of love. Her beautiful silver necklace clinging to her neck like a lover’s arms. Her eyes twinkling as she whirled about to the tune of the music. Swirling her skirt enticingly to the rhythm.

She was not alone. She had her friends around. There were hordes of people around her, dancing to the same tune. But her dance was different. She had never danced like this before. She knew he was watching her. She knew he was dancing with her. Moving to the same beats. Flowing with the same rhythm. He was dressed in a long black chudidar kurta. A beige dupatta thrown around his neck. He was handsome with the most beautiful smile she had ever known.

After the show her friends decided to go for a drive. She refused to join them, as it was too late. He offered to drop her home. She jumped at the opportunity. She wanted to be alone with him. They left the others and decided to walk home. It wasn’t too far. It was just a 20-minute walk home.

As soon as they were out of sight, he held her hand playing with her fingers tantalizingly. Her heart jumped a beat, but didn’t do anything about it. They walked in silence for a while. As they turned to a relatively lonely lane (moving towards her house) it started raining. They had to rush for shelter. There was nothing much around that could help shelter them. So they ran towards the gate of a building and stood at the entrance there. It was late at night and no one was around. Darkness surrounded them. They stood - hand in hand - waiting for the rain to stop. But it started pouring harder. It was cold. He felt her shiver. He held her close to him, hugging her with his left arm. She trembled again. And this time it was not because of the cold.

It just happened. It wasn’t planned. He knew he had to do this. He wanted it so much. He held her close to him, as he bent his head towards her face. His arms wove around her nape spinning threads of desire in her core. He held her softly and pulled her towards him. She moved forward without any resistance. And then their lips touched. It was a kiss in the rain. The most beautiful kiss of her life. Their lips played with each other. Moving to the rhythm and the beat of the rain. Her heart beating to the music of the raindrops falling around them. He pushed her to the wall unconsciously, as their kiss deepened. She was glad for the support of the wall. She kissed him back fervently. He pressed close to her. They were totally unaware of their surroundings. Their eyes closed, lost in desire. Their senses alert to the touch of each other. Passion brewing steadily. The rain drenching them. The fire of his kisses sizzling the water drops that were playing enticingly around them. His lips trailing the kisses to her nape. Moving further to her ears. Softly. Smoothly. She embraced him. Knowing she loved him. She hid her face in his arms, smiling softly. The rain had slowed down. It was time to go. She moved away from him. Reluctantly. Knowing the magic was over. He didn’t want her to go. She knew she had to go. She took his hand and pulled him towards her house. Walking away in the darkness. Hand in hand. With dreams of something more than just kisses.

band baaja...

2008-02-22T12:25:00.003+05:30

today 10 am...
loud music...
theres a wedding in the next building...
a band of musicians playing...

jag saara jag saara nigad gaya..... (jab we met)

i run to the window... its fun watching the band play...

my eyes rove around the scene...
no ones dancing...
people are moving at their own pace... going to work... going to the bank... moving to the bus stop...

suddenly my eyes hold on to a window at a computer education centre on the opposite side of the road...

theres a guy at the window... can't actually see his face... but he's swaying to the music... not swaying... dancing... right at the window...

and i smile... theres someone who has time to do what he wants.. at his own pace... how many of us do that?

at 10.00 am on a working day?!

dubai masti...

2008-02-08T09:36:00.001+05:30

other pics will follow... ciaooo..

pimple breakout... ouch!

2008-01-19T17:01:00.000+05:30

mount abu trip

2007-12-31T13:09:00.000+05:30

ek behen paanch bhai... (one sis 5 bros)

next generation same issue... 1 sis 4 bros!

classy me... with the kings pic in the background

mirror at the palace hotel where we were put up..

the conference room at the hotel...

princess messy at the fireplace??? .... naah :p

aatish... thats my bro... (as khadus as he looks).. but thats the way i love him... hugsss...

thats prisha again...

2007-12-19T12:35:00.000+05:30

a few pics of prisha... everyone says i used to look the same when i was a kid... cute wasn't i?

next... pics of my trip to mt. abu...

off blogging

2007-10-20T19:08:00.000+05:30

its been very busy these last few weeks... and is going to be worse the coming days... i wont be blogging anymore... atleast not for a few months... thank you everyone for your support and love... will keep commenting as and when i can... till then.. laterzzzz

will miss you all...

z00nie and pizza hut

2007-10-07T21:23:00.000+05:30

Thats me and mala....

abhi, mala (tring tring... who's on phone?) and me...

naturally curly...

lunch 'break'

2007-08-22T09:36:00.000+05:30

so it was sunday... my maid was on a holiday... my family members were out for the day... a perfect setting for a nice time to relax with my husband... so heres what i cooked that day... theres salad, paneer bhurji, soup, corn - paneer parathas, monaco munchings with cheese and toppings, cucumber raita, juice and jeera rice...

finished cooking till 1...
waited till 2...
had my lunch alone at 2.30....
he came home at 3....
i was angry....
wasnt his fault though...
something urgent had come up...
but i was still pissed....
i decided never to plan a meal like this again!!!!

things never do happen as we plan them... right?

lothal

2007-08-06T11:16:00.000+05:30

since i was a kid i have loved visiting historical sites... i have loved my visits to the taj mahal and the ancient city of emperor akbar called fatehpur sikri and the red fort and many more such places... this love started when i was in my 5th grade... every summer out school would plan a trip to a historical or geographical place of importance... and my dad would insist that i go for all of them...

so a month back when i went to gujarat i jumped at the opportunity to visit this old historical site called lothal... and i didnt regret the visit (even though 2 days earlier i was lying sick in the hospital)... for the first time i was in gujarat during the monsoons... and i never knew that my land could be so beautiful.. because in the other seasons it is always brown and has a barren look... this time it was green... as if someone had strewn the land with emerald diamonds... and the soft rains made it look even more beautiful...

heres there history of lothal from wikipedia...

Lothal was one of the most prominent cities of the ancient Indus valley civilization. Located in the modern state of Gujarāt and dating from 2400 BCE, it is one of India's most important archaeological site that dates from that era. Discovered in 1954, Lothal was excavated from February 13, 1955 to May 19, 1960 by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
Lothal's dock—the world's earliest—connected the city to an ancient course of the Sabarmati river on the trade route between Harappan cities in Sindh and the peninsula of Saurashtra when the surrounding Kutch desert of today was a part of the Arabian Sea. It was a vital and thriving trade centre in ancient times, with its trade of beads, gems and valuable ornaments reaching the far corners of West Asia and Africa. Lothal's people were responsible for the earliest-known portrayals of realism in art and sculpture, telling some of the most well-known fables of today. Its scientists used a shell compass and divided the horizon and sky into 8–12 whole parts, possibly pioneering the study of stars and advanced navigation—2000 years before the Greeks. The techniques and tools they pioneered for bead-making and in metallurgy have stood the test of time for over 4000 years.
Lothal is situated near the village of Saragwala in the Dholka taluka of Ahmedabad district. It is at a distance of six kilometres (south-east) from the Lothal-Bhurkhi railway station on the Ahmedabad-Bhavnagar railway line. It is also connected by all-weather roads to the cities of Ahmedabad (85 km/53 mi), Bhavnagar, Rajkot and Dholka. Nearest cities are Dholka and Bagodara. Resuming excavation in 1961, archaeologists unearthed trenches sunk on the northern, eastern and western flanks of the mound, bringing to light the inlet channels and nullah ("ravine", or "gully") connecting the dock with the river. The findings consist of a mound, a township, a marketplace and the dock. Adjacent to the excavated areas stands the Archaeological Museum, where some of the most prominent collections of Indus-era antiquities in modern India are displayed.

more information here

the minute i stepped onto the site it felt like i was thrown in another era... as if i was looking at how they lived some 5000 years ago... imagine what you would feel when you step onto some place where you know that people have walked and lived at the same place so many many years back...

and the best part was that i found so many artefacts still buried under the top soil.. since the rains had eroded the top soil the artefacts were lying right on the feet, for us to pick and look at... (the museum there didnt allow us to click pictures).. therefore i was excited to get you some pictures of the artefacts... (i actually held them in my hands... it was so thrilling!)

the place where the ship were docked 5000 years back... the worlds earliest dock...

workplace.. maybe where the beads were made...

a pot.. maybe it was used to fill up fresh drinking water...

a water canal...

workplace again...

parts of jars and pots i found there... (the one with holes is a part of a big vase kind of a jar... a similar one was put up at the museum there)

a shell... terra cotta pieces of bangles... and a toy (the big white thing)...

next place i would like to visit is dholavira, which is in kutch - gujarat... another ancient site of the indus valley civilization and estimated to be older than lothal too...

laterzzz all... hope you like the pictures...

the bizarre guys birthday

2007-08-03T11:42:00.000+05:30

(the scary z00nie with me)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Z00NIE...

its been 2 years since i know u... and the memories are carved in my mind forever...

from the birthday cake 2 years back...
to the dominoes and pizza hut pizzaz...
from ur dirty (make that yuckky too) woodland shoes...
to out earliest club called the 000nies...
from our fights to be the first one to comment (on your blog)...
to being proud of screaming our lungs out (whenever all of us met)...
from the way we celebrated your birthday last year (again)...
to the (awful) way the guys at pizza hut sang for u...
from the way id try to make u get me rochers...
to the way i saw u eat pizzas...

(the seedha z00nie with me again... err dont be misled)

on the day we went for puneets wedding...
and the day u came back to mumbai last year...
from the day we met mala at mcdonalds...
to the day we had that crazy photo session at mochas...

i remember it all z00nie...
thanx for being such a lovely friend... and be back soon... we are all missing u...

(and the GANG! with z00nie trying to get his head chopped out of the pic)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AGAIN....

the wedding

2007-07-21T10:26:00.000+05:30

the bride and the groom....

my mehendi....

dressed for one of the pre-wedding puja...

at the bunglow where we were put up... the day before i got sick and was hospitalized for food poisoning... (im fine now... but had a bad time for 2 days)...

went to an old harappan site called lothal... will put up those pics next...

laterzzz

Vote for Taj - times up!

2007-07-07T10:00:00.000+05:30

i was on a bike with my husband yesterday when i caught this pic... check it out... i know the times up for voting but these guys caught my eye...

and the latest amul ad caught at the same time... enjoy...

then and now....

2007-06-24T10:42:00.000+05:30

the only daughter of my family 31 years back... (thats me)...

the daughter of my family 31 years hence...

my family has a history of only boys... i am the oldest among my cousins... after i was born to my parents there were 5 other boys born in my family... in the generation after us too there are 3 more boys born, before this sweetheart was born 2 days back... my family has been eagerly waiting for a baby girl since years now... n now that shes here i can imagine how much she is going to be loved (just like i am loved by all my brothers)...

welcome home girl... my 100th post dedicated to u... hugssssss and kisses....

my oldest memory

2007-06-08T09:31:00.000+05:30

it has been long since i was tagged... and this ones intriguing... when i sat about thinking what was my oldest memory so many other memories from the nook and corner of my mind came about playing catch with each other... but one of them just struck as my oldest memory... its really nothing much but i still remember what i felt at that time...

i was real small then... say 4 years old... i was a cute plump kid... with large eyes and uneven teeth... (today im not cute... im a lil fat... i still have large eyes and uneven teeth!)... it was evening and my granpa offered to take my bro and me to the gateway of india... both of us were very excited to go somewhere nice... i distinctly remember my mom dressing me up then... she had got me a new outfit and i so wanted to wear it... i remember it was red in color... shorts and a tee shirt... blood red... mom said i looked pretty while my bro looked at me disdainly saying i looked fat!... we reached gateway and were running about in the garden when my granpa called us to watch the monkeys there... they were performing tricks and the monkey man was playing some kind of music... we were so happy then... clapping our hands... jumping in sheer delight... holding each others hands and laughing loudly... !!!

thats all i remember... nostalgia :)))... now im missing my granpa...

mom n me at matheran

2007-05-25T10:46:00.000+05:30

mamma's baby :)

temptation!

2007-05-22T10:53:00.000+05:30

caught this picture somewhere and couldn't resist posting it...

the woods (mala - by invitation)

2007-04-02T13:03:00.000+05:30

It was a balmy afternoon. They had walked into the woods, into the abode of silence. But for the occasional sounds of insects and birds that broke the sound of the breeze.

When in Rome, do as Romans do – and so they did too. In the house of silence, they were silent. The only sound that escaped them was the sound of dry leaves crushing beneath their feet. And the times when they breathed heavy owing to the uphill climb to reach the woods.

She loved the woods, and she suspected he did too. They had walked in together, hand in hand. With huge rocks on one side and a steep fall on the other, they walked. They walked on the loose, red soil that had started to dirty their shoes and the fold of their gray jeans. They walked on the path, not many had taken.

The grove ahead promised something they had not experienced before. She threw back her head and let the sunlight that filtered through the tall trees kiss her face. The woods got denser, and they found themselves admiring the wild flowers that looked colorful even in the dull surrounding, the fresh-as-dew, maroon baby leaf that waited to turn green and mature, and the faraway mountain that was engulfed in a film of mist.

She wanted to take a photo of him, walking. He obliged. As he strode ahead, he turned back to see if the distance between them was enough to make a good photo.

Standing a hundred yards away from each other, they did not take their eyes off each other for the next three seconds or so. Three seconds were enough for her to realize what he meant to her, and how special he was. And her heart skipped a beat. She secretly hoped they would somehow get lost in the woods. And that this moment would last forever.

His eyes said he hoped for the same.

No photo would look good with them so far apart.

And so he walked towards her. And went down on one knee. As he opened his mouth to speak the first words in a long time, she knew her life is about to change.

(thank you mala... a very beautiful post... i guess u knew it would remind me of matheran)

soul gatherings - senses of her soul

2007-03-21T10:50:00.000+05:30

(part 2 of soul gatherings... matheran)

this time i don't move out... this time i am within her... just concentrating on her... her senses... her perceptions... but i realize thats not possible... i feel the vibes of people around her... i feel the aura of things around her... she isn't bothered... she is too busy riding... too busy loving the feeling of it to think about others... busy to such an extent that she doesn't realize the pain she is going through... (the swollen fingers and a deep wound on her ankle where the saddle kept hurting her)... that is the time i take over... i feel things for her that she doesn't comprehend... i take over her consciousness...

sound... i dont like loud sounds... i like soft music... i like the swishing of the flowers more than the howl of the wind... but today it is different... shes galloping... there is no sound in the woods other than that of the two horses cantering to nowhere... or maybe somewhere... i don't bother where... and then i hear the sound... a loud sound... which i generally don't like... but as i said... today is different... it is the sound of the wind in her ears... so loud... so deafening... so blatantly ear-splitting... but still musical... so very symphonic... in harmony with the galloping of her horse and her body... it feels like an orchestra playing... is it the philharmonic playing???

sight... all she sees is the riding track... the horse... the saddle... and nothing else... she doesn't see the animals scurrying away from the galloping beasts... i see them... she doesn't notice the look of awe on the face of other riders... i notice it... she doesn't survey the woods and the valleys around her... i survey them... she doesn't visualize herself on her horse... speeding to nowhere... i do it... i see her clearly... like the way you watch a ballet dancer performing... is she swaying to the music?? the philharmonic??

taste... what do i taste here?... the wind in her mouth... she has this inane habit of parting her lips when she is riding... ofcourse she doesnt realize it... its not made up... but i notice it... as i feel the taste of wind in her mouth... cool... refreshing... tempting... and then there is this other taste... mud... the red earth blowing freely... clean earth... delectable earth... tasty earth... the taste remains in her mouth forever...

smell... i smell the balmy wind... i smell the pure clean air... i smell the naturally aromatic mud... i smell the acidic odor of the horses... the sour whiff of her perspiration... i breathe in the aroma of freshly fallen leaves... she doesn't heed them... i take them with me to bring them back to her when she is not there anymore... it will stay with her forever...

touch... i feel her touching the wind... or rather the other way round... the wind blowing on her face... the enticing touch... the feel of the saddle where her thighs touch it... the feel of the stirrups under her feet... as she rides ahead unheeded... the caress of her hair blowing wildly... and the contractions and expansions of her horses muscles... the feeling that was long forgotten... the feeling that had come back... the feeling that will never be lost again... the touch to be savoured all her life... by me.. her substance... her essence... her soul...

i am happy today

2007-03-20T10:31:00.000+05:30

how do i feel when i have loved someone for years and he says he hates me?... i feel happy

how do i feel when i have loved someone for years and he doesn't trust me?... i feel happy

how do i feel when i have loved someone for years and he doesn't believe a word i say?... i feel happy

how do i feel when i have loved someone for years and he says i have hurt him?... i feel happy

how do i feel when i have loved someone for years and he says i am a liar?... i feel happy

i am so happy today that i want to die... die happily...

matheran revisited

2007-03-13T10:55:00.000+05:30

matheran is a place I know since I was a kid… my dad loved it and in turn I came to love it… every year during my school vacations we would take a trip to this beautiful hill station… we would enjoy the toy train ride from the base (neral) to the top of the hill station… the 2.5 hrs ride would be intermingled with games of cards and chess, listening to music and playing antakshari with other kids we didn’t know… our favourite place to stay was the Regal Hotel… one of the finest at that time… not really the 5 star category (thankfully till date there are no 5 star hotels there), but it was a nice place to have a relaxing weekend… we generally took the trip in the first week of june… the onset of monsoons in maharashtra… the red mud, the monsoon rains, no vehicles, the hordes of monkeys, the horse rides and the chikki… these are some of the things I can never forget…

(matheran is famous for its no vehicle law… vehicles are banned on this hill station… they are allowed only as far as dasturi which is 45 mins walking distance from main matheran… the only automobile allowed is the toy train… internally people just walk, ride or hire the hand drawn rickshaws to go to places… not even locals are allowed to use vehicles in there… and this is the charm of this place… the only hill station in India or maybe the world to have such a law)

when I was in college, I was part of the hiking club… and invariably, every year we all would end up hiking to matheran… end of june and about a hundred teenagers trudging up the road to matheran (it was more like a picnic… we would just walk up the road to dasturi in the name of hiking :p)… rain drenching us to the core… joking… laughing… dancing in the rains… fooling around… eyeing the hunks… looking longingly at the couples walking hand in hand, wondering if we will ever do the same thing with someone we loved!… our legs groaning for mercy… bags dripping with the rain water along with all its contents (sometimes it would rain so much!)… and in about 3 hours we would reach the main market… it was always a 1 day trip, so we never checked into a hotel… all of us would gather in the market place and play games (during july - august it rains heavily, the hotels are shut down and the place is practically empty)… as the day would pass the rowdier we would get… I bet matheran has not seen a more rowdy crowd till date! … in the evening we would hike back to dasturi (the train does not work during the monsoons) and hire a cab to take us back to the station… a day in matheran, well spent…

my best friend Tasneem loved matheran too… I know her since my school days when we were partners in the IV Grade… we got admitted in the same college to be together… we were always together for our hiking trips from college… her uncle owned a bungalow in matheran… one summer we decided to go there… her cousins were joining in too… I remember the weekend well… 2 of her cousins were expert riders… everyday we would go for long horse rides around matheran… to places not many visitors know… riding in the woods… wind in the hair… enjoying every second of the ride! … they taught me to ride that summer (I am not an expert rider… but I can ride relatively well)… I remember this weekend as my ‘riding weekend’… Saturday night we decided to start a bon fire… at noon we tried gathering some wood… but the only kind of wood we could get hold of was the thin bamboo kind which never caught fire… all night instead of enjoying ourselves we were busy trying to get the wood to burn… and it never did… Tasneem and myself got talking till late night… we talked of matheran, our life, our dreams, our past, our crushes and also about wine… I distinctly remember telling her that one day I wanted to taste red wine… and she laughed at me saying I never would, as we didn’t drink… one of her cousin’s friend had some wine and he offered us some of it… I told him to get lost and not to listen to our private talks… he ran away and we burst out laughing as he had a major crush on Tasneem…

tomorrow I am going to matheran after 8-9 years… I am going to relive all my remembrances as I take long walks there… or as I go riding there… I don’t think it must have changed much… at least I hope not… will get back with pictures and my experiences this time round… till then hugsss… and I will miss all of you there…

bye n laterzzz…

ps : the invitation posts will be put up in a few days time... after my next post.. till then keep writing... hugsss

invitation

2007-03-09T10:31:00.000+05:30

ps : i will post everyones replies one after another... u can send me the link or mail it to me on mystic_muse_2000@yahoo.co.in ... will start posting in a few days so as to give everyone the time to read this post.

i have been missing from the blog scene since sometime now... dont get enough time these days... and i have been missing all of u since long now... then one day this idea struck me... so i thought 'why not?'

therefore i have made a list of my most favourite bloggers and would like to invite them to write something for my blog... anything they would like to say to me or my friends who visit this blog... not necessarily about me... it could be anything they want to say... and i promise i will post it without editing it... so here goes my list (and what i like about them)...

z000nie - coz hes the funniest blogger i have ever met

keshi - coz i love everything she writes.. n i specially love the way her mind operates.. (just dont try that drinking stunt again!)

uttara and mala - coz they r the ones who i laugh with and giggle with whenever we are painting mumbai red

wordy - coz i love his poems... the best being the one he wrote for me long back

vinci - coz i miss him being here... n he's stopped blogging :((

sebia - coz shes the one who inspired me to blog.. n shes lost now :(((

so start going guys... im waiting for it... hugss n laterzzzzzzz

soul gatherings

2007-02-14T16:43:00.002+05:30

I am her soul… her essence... I live within her... but sometimes I tend to wander around... looking for things that touch me... intensely... passionately... just to see the effect of the events happening around her... how they touch her mind... her body... I look closely at people... at the emotions people try to hide... or the emotions they try to show... trying to decipher them... she doesn't realize what I am upto... but ofcourse that doesn't deter me... I go from place to place with her... gathering things for myself... gathering special moments... special people... special thoughts...

Coming back to something that happened a few days back… she was at a restaurant… I moved out of her body to look around… not many people were around… too early for the normal crowds… there was nothing interesting to take in… so I decided to wait a while… I placed myself near a vase of white flowers and a few decorative bottles of preserved pepper… how enticingly beautiful!… and then I noticed them… a couple... sitting at a table right opposite me… he was handing her a book… a gift?… looked like one… she seemed happy… apologizing for something as she glanced through the book for a while… later she placed it next to her and started talking to him… on and on she went talking mundane things… leaving me with a feeling that he was putting up with her chatter the way we put up with a kid who talks incessantly… this made me smile… later she noticed a few books next to him and picked them up… he smiled as he watched her go through the gist at the back of those books… meanwhile he picked up the book he had gifted her and started going through it… I noticed that it was a book on poems… it must have been an interesting book because I saw him smile while reading it… so intensely was he reading it that he didn’t notice her trying to catch his attention… she started fidgeting… not noticing things that I was taking in… I watched him read the book… and he surprised me… I have never seen anyone read a book like that… holding the book open in one hand and caressing its pages with the other… it was as if he was making love to the book… totally engrossed… not noticing her… not noticing me… just he and the book… I saw his expressions change… one moment engrossed… the other moment smiling… one moment intense… the other moment calm… this went on for a while… I was spellbound… he read her a verse from one poem… his voice reverberating across the room… a high-pitched voice making love to every word he spoke… I heard his voice, not taking in one word that he was saying… I was too busy watching him make love… too busy watching the climaxing of the affair… too busy taking in the intensity of his voice... till the end of the poem… the zenith…

this is the moment I gathered for myself… my soul gathering…

of birthdays n flowers..

2007-01-26T10:24:00.001+05:30

i was my birthday yesterday.. whoaaa i guess im growing old.. n it was a fun day..

the first person to wish me (as always) was darshik.. he called me on the 24th evening when i was at a wedding reception (i guess it was 12 am in sydney then).. he always wants to b the first person to wish me.. a typical scorpion.. lol

(darshik if ur reading this.. im going to hit u when i see u next.. thats because i was so busy talking to u.. i didnt realise that the person passing by me at the reception was rakesh roshan.. i have been a huge fan.. n u made me miss him... urghhh)

n then the next person to call was my hubby.. (i had to stay at moms place coz he didnt attend the reception).. n then the phones started pouring in.. till 1 am..

yesterday was busier.. planned to lunch out with manish.. n that idiot forgot that it was my birthday!.. mennnnn!!... he escaped murder by showing me his grey hair n saying he was getting older.. lol

then bak home.. i meet up with my husband.. n whoaaa gift started pouring in.. he got me a pair of jeans.. n a watch.. flowers n gifts n a box of ferreros sent by darshik (yummyyy... by the way if u see the pic u'll realise half of them r over.. n the other half waiting to b devoured)... n more flowers.. n chocolates from the kids i teach..

evening we plan to go for a drive.. (we only celebrate out anniversary lavishly.. birthdays we donate the money that we save).. one of my friend was in town after a long time.. so we decide to meet up for a while.. so off we went to marriot.. chatted a while n got back home.. but then hubby was so tired that we decided to postpone the drive for today... n this is how my day ended.. well actually im still in the celebrating mode... my drives pending.. im planning to skip this wedding party i have to attend tonight n spend sometime with my sweetheart.. :))).. keep ur fingers crossed for me... lol

thank u everyone for the lovely wishes n phone calls... it means a lot to me.. n i realise that i dont know the birthdays of many of u who called me!.. so if ur reading this.. do send me ur birth date.. so i can demand a big party.. (winks)

laterzz all.. huggg n kisses...

party time... happy new year...

2007-01-01T18:02:00.000+05:30

latest haircut

2006-12-19T16:33:00.000+05:30

just got my hair chopped.. n for once i liked it.. thanx harsh.. for the lovely cut...

n eagerly waiting for fairys arrival to mumbai... come soonnnnn girl..

laterzz all

more pics...

2006-12-16T10:30:00.000+05:30

now look at my sweetheart hriday.. muahhh babyy...

n here hridays 'fia'.. thats me...

thats dhairya with his mom.. n garfield... :))

eweee... thats me after the diwali pooja.. tired!!!!

n look at hriday again!!!... throwing a kiss at me.. hehehe... muahhhhhhh again...

laterzz all

lip lock

2006-12-08T10:39:00.000+05:30

i take back my words... that is after watching dhoom 2... i had always maintained that indian stars didnt know how to smooch (other than the karishma-aamir kiss in raja hindustani)... n (thank god) i was proved wrong this time...

if u havent watched the film i would suggest u go watch it for the kiss... its really well shot... n done in a superb manner... i had always felt that ash was real cold in most of her films... n this one shot has changed my opinion about her.. i think shes only acting cold most of the times... specially after what she went through with salman... its like she has built walls all around her and only very very few people can climb over... shes acting plastic most of the times now... thats sad.. really sad... look what stardom can do to u... she has changed her whole personality... acts dumb (which she isnt)... tones her body so much that u feel as if shes a sculptors creation... (too perfect for me... duhhh)... and the worse... giggles too much... (stop it girl u look real silly)...

as for hritik.. he saves a dud film... n is looking real hot... hotter than abhishek too.. (yeah a true abhishek fan saying this... so u better believe me)...

nothing much in the movie other than this... but go watch it anyways... the lip lock sizzles!!!

dhairyas birthday pictures

2006-11-24T10:34:00.000+05:30

yummmyy.. isnt it??... we celebrated my nephew dhairyas birthday party and got some nice pics... so here they go...

we had the theme of 'krishna' n most of the kids were dressed as krishna... oh yeah n thats me in the blue sari :)))... n then heres dhairya dressed as chotu krishna... isnt he a sweetheart???... he didnt want to wear the whole dress.. n was crying... uffff he ever threw away his crown!!!... luckily we got a pic of him smiling...

we had games for everyone... i even won a game.. a couple game that too... (winks)... we had return gifts for the kids... a flute (Lord Krishna's favourite musical instrument) and a beautiful Krishna key chain...

ohhhh n how can i forget my other favourite nephews hriday (in blue) n raheil (in yellow)?... oh look at their faces!!! slurpppppp... when do we eat the cake haan???

this reminds me of a funny episode that happened when i got engaged.. my cousins had ordered a huge cake for the ceremony... n after the cake cutting ceremony they pushed the table to one side of the stage and finished the whole 3 kg cake in 5 mins... they didnt even offer it to anyone!!!.. my husband still screams that his friends didnt get to eat the cake that day... lolllll... thats my family... all cakeoholics!!!!

hope you enjoyed the pics... laterzzz then

SANTHARA : CONFUSION GALORE!

2006-10-14T18:46:00.000+05:30

'Santhara' is a practice (in jainism) of giving up the materialistic wants in life... from food to water to all ur possessions.. there has been a lot of misconception about this practice... unlike sati, where the woman is asked to burn herself on her husbands pyre (most of the time forcefully), santhara is a spiritual practice where a person gives up everything on his own free will and only after he has completed all his responsibilities in life or if he is critically ill... i came across an article by Shri Surendra Bothra a few days back n would like to share it with all of u...

Santhara is neither a cause nor an instrument of death. It is a name given to the last part of an elaborate Jain spiritual practice called Sallekhana or Samlekhana (ultimate vow). The meaning of the term Sallekhana is: to properly emaciate passions and body. Santhara literally means a bed of hay; the practice derives the name because when the time of death approaches the aspirant sits or lies down on a bed of hay renouncing all possessions, attachment and intake. The reflection of this practice can be seen in every household when a person is brought down from his cot to a mattress on the ground during presumed last moments of his life.

The oldest, authentic and first mention of Sallekhana is found in Acharanga Sutra, accepted by Shwetambar Jains as the first sermon of Bhagavan Mahavir. According to philologists the first Shrutskandh of Acharanga Sutra depicts the earliest phase of Jainism of about 3 rd century BC. It is the oldest available text in Jain tradition. All other discussions about Sallekhana belong to later periods. Here is whatAcharanga states --"If an ascetic realizes that now it is gradually becomingimpossible for him to sustain the body for his essential (ascetic) duties, he should gradually reduce his food intake through austerities. While reducing the food intake he should also reduce his passions. After reducing passions he should acquire mental serenity. Becoming thin by honing both sides, body and passion, like a plank of wood, that ascetic should make himself stable (free of agitations of body and mind) and rise (prepare to embrace meditational death or Samadhi Maran). If that ascetic has enough energy to walk, he should go to a village, city, â€¦ or capital (any populated place) and beg for hay or a stack of straw. When he gets a stack of straw he should retire into seclusion â€¦ â€¦ He should then thoroughlyclean that spot and make a bed of straw ( Santhara) there. Now he shouldoccupy the straw-bed and observe itvarik fast (fasting for a predeterminedperiod)." ( Acharanga Sutra 8/6/225)
There is a code defining conditions and circumstances when this spiritual practice can be accepted. " Sallekhana is done in circumstances like drought, old age, incurable fatal disease, and gradual depletion of the strength of the body." (Ratankarandak Shravakachar 122). Unlike suicide that is done in an agitated state of mind, Sallekhana is accepted in a peaceful state of mind and after much deliberation as well as seeking permission from family members and the guru. According the commentary on Acharanga Sutra there are two specialprovisions â€“ 1. If an ascetic observing sallekhana practices gets sick, unconscious, or dizzy due to lack of food and nutrition, he should stoprigorous austerities, terminate the sallekhana process and accept food. 2. If he develops an aversion for food or has lack of appetite, he should give up food.
The practice loses its spiritual value if there is intent of death at any time during this practice. In fact desire for death is listed as one of the faults in practice of Sallekhana. "An ascetic, who is practicing sallekhana or anashan, should neither desire to live nor pray for death. He should remain detached both from life and death ( Acharanga Sutra 8/8/233)
Sallekhana is a spiritual practice dissociating one's mind from the body in order to attain a tranquil and equanimous state of mind; something like Samadhi. Death in such serene state of mind is classified as Samadhi maran (meditational death), which is common to almost all religions. In this practice there is no invitation to death. It is, in fact, detached and serene acceptance of the inevitable. The only connection Sallekhana has with death is that it is a practice, preparatory toembracing death, employed in terminal conditions.

In medical parlance it is nearest to the condition of a patient in painful terminal condition put on sedatives. Doctors say that nothing can be done to cure him. They just inform him about an estimated survival period, stop almost all treatment and leave the patient to his own fate.Heavy dosage of sedatives is given neither for cure nor for prolonging life but to reduce his suffering. In other words, they try to put the patient, awaiting death, in a tranquil state of mind. Sallekhana is similar to thiscondition. The difference is that the former is induced by a drug and is a state of stupor. The latter is self induced and fully conscious state; something like self-hypnosis.

It is also something like extended practices of chanting mantras or holy words to a dying person, feeding holy water to a dying person, taking the patient for a pilgrimage, and many other such practices of providing peaceful and pleasant atmosphere prior to death. These practices in one form or the other are common to all religious and social communities throughout the world. Opposing such time tested religious and social customs legally or socially could be termed as sentiment-driven acts mostly based on ignorance. They tend to end as damp squibs if not back-fire.

Death is inevitable and unpredictable. It may occur at any time and in any circumstance. Can we prohibit all activities that were being done just before death? Every act, condition or state preceding death cannot be branded as instrumental to death, killing or suicide. If this happens, all acts of tapasya, sadhana, and even medical and surgical interventions where rate of survival is less than 20 percent (some cases of neurosurgery) will have to be called attempt to suicide or kill.

Answers to some questions should be sought before interfering with this accepted religious custom:
When it is a voluntary and self administered act, how can it be called killing?Is it possible and practical to put every terminal patient in hospital on life support system? Does it happen?
Why not compare the rate of death of ailing patients and the life support systems available in hospitals throughout the country?

Fasting is a very common practice in Jains. Fasting even for a much longer period than reported in such cases of Santhara is very common. How fasting by Jains can be branded as a method of suicide? Moreover, why not find out how many cases of suicide attempts by fasting have been reported all around the world? When it is not killing and when it is difficult to call it suicide why oppose it? Why not undertake religious, social and legal studies before taking such impulsive steps?

laterzz all

my short lived acting career

2006-09-22T15:24:00.000+05:30

sometimes we come across such people or episodes in our life which r simply funny... or maybe they leave us stunned... or with a 'dont know what to do' feeling...

im sure all of us have come across such times in our life.. some days back this episode just came to my mind.. it happened many years back when i was in college... its funny no doubt about it.. but i still dont know what to make out of it... so here it goes...

i was in degree college then... n had just completed some class... i was returning home n was waiting for a bus... now im such a kind of person that i dont really bother whos around me.. i dont really 'see' around.. always in my own world... so i didnt notice this man who was standing next to me...

when i entered the bus he sits next to me... i was going through my notes when he starts talking to me... first he says hi but then i didnt bother to respond...

after a while he says, "hey have u ever thought about acting as a career?"
i look at him n say, "no"
he says, "im a director of a movie n would like to have u take up auditions for my next film"

now obviously i thought he was fooling around... i gave him a dirty look n said i wasn't interested... he sat silent for a while... then he opened his bag n showed me some documents... they looked genuine to me.. about some movie he was making...

then he says, "y r u scared?"
i say, "im not "
he says, "look... if its about ur parents i can talk to them.. let me just speak to them"

now i get bugged... luckily my stops near.. so i get up.. say i have to leave.. but he follows me... he gets off too... i get darn pissed.. i ask him not to follow me... he again asks me if its about my parents... n then i stop him midway..

i tell him, "look mister whoever u r... i aint interested in acting... my parents decision comes later... i hope u get this in ur thick head that i do not want to act!... n now dare u follow me.. i'll go call the cops"

he was so stunned.. he didnt know what to say... (i can throw a lot of attitude when i want to)... i turn my back to him n just go home... by the time mom opens the door im laughing away to glory... she thinks i've lost it... n asks me what happened... i tell her the whole tale n she too bursts out laughing... but then we all know how moms r... after a min she says... y did u talk to him!!... y did u answer him!!.. what if he has followed u home!!!...

i had to pacify her for a long time after that... but this episode sure brings a smile on my face... alrite i know its nice to feel people think u look good... but the best part was the expression on his face when i left him... ohhhh give me one more chance n id say the same thing n see him stunned :p

laterzzz all... keep smiling :))))

math facts

2006-09-05T12:42:00.000+05:30

* a googol is 10 raised to the power of 100 or 1 followed by 100 zeroes. another very large number is googolplex which is 10 raised to the power of 10 raised to the power of 100 or 10 raised to the power of a googol.

* Abacus is considered as the oldest tool used for mathematical calculations. it was discovered in china some 5000 years ago.

* Thomas Malthus quoted "the world population increases in geometrical ratio and food only in arithmatical ratio."

* Euclid is called the father of geometry. he was a greek mathematician who taught geometry at the Museum of Alexandria in egypt around 300 b.c.

* Archimedes used his inventions to help defend his country. When he was old his country was defeated in a war against romans. he was studying a circle drawn on the sand when an enemy soldier charged into his room.when he shouted "dont step upon my circles", the infuriated soldier slew him with his sword!

* Brahmagupta is considered as the founder of numerical analysis. he framed laws to solve simple and quadratic equations. his famous book is 'brahma sphuta sidhanta'.

* Bhaskara said that if a number is divided by 0 the result is infinity. he is known as the founder of calculus. his famous books are 'siddhanta siromani' and 'karanakutuhala'

interesting isnt this? if anyone knows some site which gives me details of 'bearings' please offline me... thanks

laterzz all

alien attack wanted

2006-08-22T10:48:00.000+05:30

it scares me sometimes... to see all these attacks on innocent people... children, women, elders, men... killed for no fault of theirs... bomb blasts... liquid bombs... what is this world coming to?... where are we going??

i wonder what runs through these terroists mind?... how can they kill like this?... sometimes i wonder... do i need to give birth to a child in this environment?... will my child be safe when such people r running wild killing innocent people?.. will my child grow up n feel secure to move about?...

im sorry but i dont think so... i dont believe theres a chance for kids these days... todays kids will be living in terror 10 years down the line... they will have to learn to secure themselves... learn to fight... learn to kill...

is that what i want?... NO WAY...

there r only 2 ways that i can think of to be secure...

one... run away to the villages... atleast the people there r safe...

two... if aliens attack us...

i know this one sounds like some insane idea.. but thats the only way humans will unite... have u noticed.. two brothers fighting all the time???... and then when theres an external threat they unite?

havent we heard about people of one country fighting among themselves but when theres some other country thats attacking they all become one???

in the same way i think if aliens attack us we will all become one... who would care if ur a hindu or a muslim??.. a christian or a jew???... then we will know we are all humans... we will all come together n fight them...

thats the only way according to me... UNITY WANTED...

laterzz all... with a heavy n insecure heart

z00n the bug

2006-08-03T11:26:00.000+05:30

z00n the bug... do i need to say more about this crazy man??... i know him since a long time now... from my early blogging days... i jumped on his blog through a friends blog n the minute i read his posts i was on a laughing spree... be it his crazy obsession with the smooching scene in titanic.. to his desperation to watch desperate housewives on star movies... or even his crazy antics about marrying a blogger... i have read it all n laughed and laughed...

he was one of the founding members of the 000nie club which created waves on blogspot.. oh and i remember the number of people who wanted to join the club... and his cute turtle who he called m00nie... lol

i remember the days when all of us would try to outdo each other to read n comment on his blog first... and the way all the girls would flirt with him... ohhh those were the days!!! sigh!!!

a year back we even celebrated his birthday party... with cake n pizzas... oh yummy... n all the 00nies who weren't in mumbai were heartbroken as they couldn't attend the party...

this seems so long long ago now doesnt it?

its z00ns birthday today... n he has left for manchester... a new job.. a new place.. new friends...

z00n i hope u never forget us... we have been good friends... n have had so much fun together... whose leg will we pull when we meet next?... n who would call me m00niepiez now???

awww i miss him so much... and i am happy i met him a few days back to celebrate his leaving india (which he wanted to do so desperately) and also to celebrate his birthday... i hope he has a lovely life ahead.. and i hope he meets some nice girl who he wants to marry (n who wants to marry him ofcoz)... hehe

by the way z00n... do tell us when u r coming back to india... remember u promised to shop for us???.. we will send u a long long list... promiseeee

hugzzz n all the best...

happy birthday again...

laterzz all

banned

2006-07-20T10:30:00.000+05:30

india has banned blogspot browsing... i hope to return soon

for browsing ur blogspot try this link

http://www.blogslinger.com/

misti doi - the malaster

2006-06-30T14:48:00.000+05:30

i love calling her misty doi... the beautiful bengali babe... z00n calls her malaster... (she isnt one ofcoz)... old bloggers know her as zombie... and all on indiatimes know her as cheeku milkshake...

shes got the cutest smile... and a super cool heart... (just like the doi)... and i know so many guys who have got a crush on her... shhh mala dont ask who... top secret... one of them will kill me if he ever knows i leaked this... (i wish he doesnt visit my blog for a few days)...

so here is the girl... the one who came from delhi twice earlier and stole our hearts... n i guess we stole hers too... so she decided to shift to mumbai... yippie... welcome to mumbai girl..

its her birthday today... and she is away from her close friends in delhi... shes working today too.. (i dont like this at all)...

happy birthday sweety...

i know it must feel so lonely to be on your own on your birthday... away from friends and family... away from all those who u have been with on your birthday all these years... but i hope u dont feel too lonely here... ur not celebrating alone...

look out of the window... the rains are celebrating your birthday... isnt it beautiful???... i so wanted to take u to the beach today... i had planned this since the day u told me ur going to be here on your birthday... but then things got a little haywire... sorry sweety.. some other time... pucca...

we'll surely celebrate ur birthday as soon as utsy is back and i am up on my feet... hugzzzz baby... have a lovely day...

laterzzzz

for the k00kie of my eyes

2006-06-25T17:56:00.000+05:30

happy birthday to the most beautiful soul i have met at blogville... hugzzz sweety.. have a lovely day... i was wondering what i should write for u.. no words are enough to describe u... no words r enough to express what i want to say... i am no writer.. i am no poet.. so here goes an extract of a poem i read a long long time ago... whenever i read this one i always think of u... hope u like it...

look this is absurd
the way poets talk
about women
as weak and winsome

weak? are you mad?
just a careless fling of
their tresses
or a sly glance
can seduce even the stubbornest of God.

no, she needs no lessons
on how to use her wiles
to steal his heart.

some flowers simply wait
for the bee to come,
to come and be trapped -
knowing it cannot fly away.

look!
rain clouds, frame her face
with dark ominous tresses
peacocks play beneath them
on the mountain slopes.

look!
white petals snow

where can this gypsy rest
his gaze?

by pritish nandy

hot isnt this??... lol... have a blast... n miss me.... hugzzz

laterzzz

my best friends wedding

2006-06-16T10:09:00.000+05:30

(this is for a very good friend who is getting married in some days... i am writing this in advance so that he can read this before he gets too busy to get online)

i sometimes dont know what to write to u... i sometimes dont know what i want to say to u (u do get me angry so many times)... n sometimes i go on blabbering and blabbering... this is u and me... laughing and crying... smiling and happy sometimes... sad n brooding some other times... its been some years since i have known u... n u have been there for me whenever i needed u... we have been happy together on our achievements in life (remember the online party we had when u passed ur mba exams?) ... we have been sad together on all the problems that u or i have faced... i am sure there wont be anyone like u for me... you r moving on... to a wonderful life ahead... i hope u forget the fact that u hated the word 'marriage'... because u r getting married to a beautiful girl there... call it Gods will... or call it a coincidence... we have never met... but i have met her... i dont know how it happened... and i am amazed that i even realised that it was her when i first saw her... believe me when i say that she is really beautiful... and she is going to make ur life as beautiful... all the best to u...here are some words that i love and write for many of my very close friends who get married... this one is for u and her... have a lovely wedding n do miss me a little :p

Most people get married believing a myth - that marriage is a beautiful box full of all the things they have longed for : companionship, sexual fulfillment, intimacy, friendship. The truth is that marriage at the start, is an empty box. You must put something in before you can take anything out. There is no love in marriage; love is in people and people put it into marriage. There is no romance in marriage, people have to infuse it into their marriage.

A couple must learn the art and form the habit of giving, loving, serving, praising - keeping the box full.

If you take out more than you put in - the box will be empty.

by J. Allan Peterson

DEMOCRACY - my foot!!!!

2006-05-27T17:36:00.000+05:30

aamir khan… the well known actor… one day he speaks up against the narmada river dam and there is chaos everywhere… what is he asking??.. is he wrong?… he just wants proper rehabilitation of the farmers who are ousted from their lands because of the narmada dam… fine… that’s what he feels… others might feel differently… even they have a different point of view… agreed… but the way they r treating this difference of opinion is atrocious…

in gujarat they wont be showing his latest film ‘fanaa’… isn’t this the antithesis of democracy?… just because he had the guts to speak what he feels??… just because he is a well known person?… there r so many unknown people who r fighting for this cause day in n day out… do we know how they r suffering??… if aamir khan is being harassed so much I cannot even dare to imagine what has been the fate of these unknown people… medha patkar who is involved for the same cause was dragged by her hair in the 2002 riots!!!… what is happening to my gujarat?… the gujarat government is saying that they r doing this for the 5 crore gujaratis… aren’t the farmers gujaratis??.. don’t they live in gujarat??… ask the gujaratis themselves... no one really wants all this crap...

I am a gujarati too… n I think they are right in demanding proper rehabilitation for the poor farmers… this whole difference has taken a political turn… a sham in the name of ‘democracy’… I hope the central government will intervene… gujarat government today needs to be put in its place… they cant go on bullying everyone who fights against what they 'think' is right… the cases of aamir khan, medha patkar and mallika sarabhai r proof enough of the way they r trying to make a farce of ‘democracy’

as I said democracy - my foot!!! totally related to the way it is being treated in gujarat… n the hearts of gujaratis are bleeding at this gameplay of power!

oh what a trip!!

2006-05-12T13:11:00.000+05:30

3 days of sheer fun... n craziness... things i never expected to ever happen... stupid n silly things that we did...

had gone to golden swan club for 2 nights 3 days trip... only friends... no husbands... kind of a womens trip... with 5 kids!!!... hard to handle...

first day was awesome... played games n chatted chatted chatted... we had all met like this after ages... n read 'bitched bitched bitched'... lol

now id tell u why the trip was different from my other trips...

reason 1 : night 1... i was asleep... was around 12 30 am n someone knocks on our door... damn we were in a cottage... all gals... n it was pitch dark outside... after a while 2nd knock... ouch... we were scared... we can be jhansi ki ranis during the day... but at night it was weird... we see some guy standing outside the door... he was standing there till 2 am... gosh... we didnt know wat to do... no one was at the reception n we couldnt call up the other staff because we didnt know who the guy was... creepy wasnt it?... well we never slept that night...

reason 2 : i got drunk... now come on dont gimme weird looks... i dont drink.. right... but i wanted to try something new... so y not when ur with some of ur best friends?... n all of them were like go for it... its fine once in a while... so first nite i had some breezer n a cocktail with gin... not bad.. nothin happened... next nite was better... 2 breezers n a cocktail with vodka... ooo la laaaa... my head was swimming after a while... lol... my friends have started calling me 'bevdi' (a drunkard)... was fun till it lasted... but wont b drinking for a long long time now...

reason 3 : hubby darling gave me a surprise... he along with nother friends hubby came down to meet me... whoaaaaaaaa... he got a cake too... wowww... surprise surprise... for me as well as for him.. he found a drunk wifey on his hands... lol... he pushed me in the room n said... go to sleep sweetheart.. heh.. .what a surprise... ;)

next day we had more fun...swimming laughing talking... everyones husbands dropped in... n we had a nice reunion... am sure we'd meet up again after a while... i just hope that stupid guy doesnt cross my way again... i'll hit him hard...

as i said 'what a trip!!!'

ps: all on orkut r requested to join the 000nie community there... get going guys... hugzzz n kisses...

laterzzzz

shining star - vinci

2006-04-24T11:22:00.000+05:30

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO INVINCIBLE

whenever i think of him i remember his cute smile... n red ears... awww hes the cutest among them all... n whenever i think of him i remember a song... its called...

STAR

What cha wanna be - when you grow up
What cha gonna do - when your time is up
What cha gonna say - when things go wrong
What cha wanna do - when you’re on your own

There’s a road - long and winding
The lights are blindin’ - but it gets there
Don’t give up - don’t look back
There’s a silver linin’ - it’s out there somewhere
Everybody wants an answer - everybody needs a friend
We all need a shinin’ star on which we can depend
N’ so tonight we’re gonna wish upon a star
We never wished upon before - (to find what you’re
Looking for)
There’ll be times - in your life
Ya when you’ be dancin’ n’ shit - but you ain’t gettin it
But don’t get disillusioned - no, don’t expect too much
Cuz if what you have is all you can get - just keep on
Tryin’ - it just ain’t happened yet
Everybody wants ta be winner - everybody has a dream
We all need a shinin’ star when things ain’t what they seem
So tonight we’re gonna wish upon a star
We never wished upon before - (gotta get where you’re
Headed for)

Everybody wants some kindness - everybody needs a break
We all need a shinin’ star when things get hard to take
So tonight we’re gonna wish upon a star
We never wished upon before

happy birthday once again... have a blast.. awww n wheres our party?????

laterzzz

GOD - Myth or Reality

2006-04-14T10:25:00.000+05:30

i remember when i was a kid mom would ask me, "whos our God?"... and i'd reply "Lord Mahavir"...

such a prompt answer that was... but was that true???... is there a God???... this question goes through my mind often... and i have still to find the answer... the nearest i have got to answering that is when i read up some books on Jainism... n met some jain teachers who tried to explain the theme of someone called 'God'... therefore my idea about God is definitely influenced by the teachings and beliefs of Jainism...

most of the kids brought up by a jain family will be taught that there is a God and his name is 'Mahavir'... and i strongly refute this statement...

according to Jainism there is no creator of this world... it has just come to being by certain chemical and biological reactions... for example if we keep some pulses at room temperature without any pesticides added to them we would notice that after some days certain living organisms form in them... same way we have been formed... chemically...

but there is something called 'karma' that influences everything in our life... all that we get or suffer in our lifetime is because of karma... its the cause and effect theory that works here... our soul migrates from one life to another.. sometimes in heaven... sometimes in hell... sometimes on earth... but never in 'moksha'... thats because once it goes to moksha it never takes birth...

then why do we call Mahavir our God???... again he is not God... he never created this world... because when we think of the word 'God' it is always synonymous to someone who has created this world... but according to me God is someone who has suffered in life n cleant up all his bad karma... someone who has infinite good karma... n whose soul is in moksha never to come back...

also the deities that we worship r not actually in moksha... they are all in heaven... therefore they have the power to intervene... that is why we pray to them... we goto themples and wish... this 'wish' is nothing but materialistic want... those in moksha dont grant us such wishes... therefore we should look towards them only when we want to achieve something more... something for our soul... not for our body... and the best way to do that is believe in yourself and believe that u too can achieve moksha... not in this life then in some other life... and the only way to acheive this is believe that your soul is 'God'... God is inside you... only u urself can find Him... no one can do that for u

whats in a name?

2006-04-02T11:00:00.000+05:30

last Sunday I saw a picture of yash birla with his daughter shloka in one of the papers... a beautiful girl... must be 6 years or so... n such a lovely name... shloka... it’s a sanskrit name which means ‘verses from the vedas’...

he has two sons too... nirvaan and vedant... mr birla sure has a penchant for sanskit names... nirvaan... meaning to achieve ‘moksha’... well most of us would say moksha is heaven... but according to hindu philosophy they are different... u go to heaven when u have done good deeds... it’s a state of happiness... but this happiness ends someday... n u r back with a new life... ur soul has still to go through the rigours of life and death till ultimately u achieve ‘moksha’... a place from which u don’t have to take birth again... so ‘moksha’ is definitely a different place from heaven...

his other son vedant... again a very well thought name... vedant has its origins from the word ‘veda’...

now the question that always went through my mind when I heard their names was... how well would these kids adapt to their names??... kids of a rich indian... a world renowned family... kids who would b well known when they grow up... would they even know what their names meant???... n if they did would they adhere to the meaning their names conveyed???

this happened some years back... I had gone to meet a friends wife at breach candy hospital... she had just delivered a baby n I had gone to wish her... as I was talking to her I saw two boys enter the room with their nanny... the first thing they said was ‘Jai Shri Krishna’... not only to her... but also to me n all others present in the room... after that they did pranaam to her n then started playing with the new born baby... the first thought I had was ‘such lovely kids!!’

at that time I never knew who they were... later I was told they were nirvaan n vedant... yes the very same kids of mr birla... the minute I knew they were his kids I was impressed... it was not just the innocence of these kids... it was more about the parents upbringing... kids learn what we teach them... but we never think about the efforts parents put in to teach them such lovely values...

yash birla... he was orphaned in a ghastly manner when his parents were killed in an air accident... he was a kid then... I don’t know who brought him up... but today he is well known for his spirituality... his faith and belief in God... we see him on page 3... a life of glamour... a life with beautiful people around... but the same people who click his pictures right, left and center never write about his journeys to hrishikesh or badrinath which he makes every 3-4 months... I don’t even know if they are aware that this man - brought up in the lap of luxury - climbs thousands of miles to places unknown to meet the learned sages of the himalayas... and when I say ‘climb’ I mean without any form of transportation... no cars no jeeps and no horses...

this is the kind of ‘bhakti’ or spiritualism one should crave to achieve... people have different means of finding God... one would go to a temple everyday... the other would sing His praise... someone else would sit at home and try finding him in prayers... others would just do good deeds... but then too the aim is the same... finding God...

so this gets me to another question that’s always running through my mind… is there God???

I don’t know this myself... but id try to explain my thoughts about His existence in my next post... till then...

laterzzzz

ps: to all mumbaites.... we all know that maharashtra is facing a huge power shortage... and a mild water shortage (i dont know why the water shortage when we have had such heavy rains!)... so one request... save water and power... i am not saying 'dont use'... what i am trying to say is 'dont waste'...

missed u all....

2006-03-21T19:05:00.000+05:30

hello everyone... im bak... i missed u all.... n hows all of u???.... wats happening in the blogworld???... i've been away for too long i guess.... so let me share 2 of my favourite poems... they r written by taslima nasreen... hopt u like them...

QUESTION

Can you give me something
better than love?
A sword which is sharper than
me?

the second one goes like this....

WHEN I SEE YOU

When I see you
I want to begin my life
from the beginning.
When I see you
I want to die,
die and become sacred water
just on the off-chance
that you may touch it
if you’re ever thirsty.

I’ll give you my sky
you take sunshine, rains –
whatever and whenever you want;
I’ll let my morphine spread over your sleeplessness.

Give me a night which is twelve years long
to see you.
You’ve outmooned the moon.
In your rays one day
I’ll coil my hair into a pointed bun,
put vermillion on my forehead
and dress up to the nines to look a beauty.

When I see you
I want to die.
If your fire singes my mouth
when they cremate me,
I’ll go to heaven.

mittal matters

2006-02-21T16:07:00.000+05:30

matters of the business world… laxmi mittal is taking the world by storm… for those in the dark.. he is the third richest man in the world… mittal steel… based in netherlands n has businesses all over europe… n wats the issue???… he has bid for a company called arcelor… 23 billion dollars… a hostile bid at that… arcelor is no small fish in the steel industry… it’s share in the industry is second largest… so it’s a clash of the titans… but is the game plan fair???… i think it was a fair game as long as the politicians were not involved… hostile bids happen in this world… wats new about it???… but there is no fair play here… politicians are involved… they do not want the bid to get through… reasons??… officially they say the people working will be laid off… the profits of arcelor would be used for his other companies in US n this will not be in the interests of the shareholders… n the unofficial reason… he is an indian… there have been talks about him being an indian and therefore the company doesn’t want this deal to go through… if the bid was from some US citizen would the politicians be involved???…

mittal has already promised that no one will lose their jobs… since the time the bid has been put forward 9 billion dollar worth of additional value has been created in the two companies… now doesn’t this point towards common sense???… shareholders want the deal to get through… its only the politicians n the management of the company who are against this bid… they should remember that in the end it’s the shareholders interests that’s more important… n put racism and their ego at rest… ego… yes that’s because they had never in their wildest dreams foreseen that an indian would try to take over their company…

mr mittal… we indians are with you…. may the deal get through… cheers…

for uttara n bryan...

2006-02-05T10:34:00.000+05:30

happy birthday uttara.....

uttara.... happy bdayyyyyyyyyy... u like this pic???... ooo la la rite???... just for u... (n me too :p)... i better not forget divya... shed kill me otherwise... heh.. a reminder of the awesome evening we had last nite...

last evening we 000nies decided to go rock mumbai... 3 000nies on one side n bryan adams on the other... the most fabulous event i've had for a long time... other 000nies couldnt make it... awww we missed u guys... specially those who live in mumbai... z00nie, puneet, BnB (couldnt contact u... didnt know how to)... n vinci.... awww we missed him the most... couldnt arrange for the passes for him... damnnnn vinci... we'd have had the house down if ud have come.... n k00kie... ur not here... but i surely wished u lived here...

some reminders of my fave songs...

18 till i die : well i thought i was a teenager yesterday... i was screaming like an 18 yr old for sure :p

please forgive me : this song reminds me of my best friend tasneem... we were so crazy after this number that we had a deal... whoever saw it aired on mtv would call the other person n ask her to watch it.. those were my college days... sigh!!!

all for love : reminds me of how uttara sang this number loudly last nite...

lets make a night to remember : reminds me of my love :p

room service : this reminds me of divya... she was so excited to hear bryan last nite... she got wild when uttara told her that he was gay :p... well no comments of that from my side... lol

summer of 69 : reminds me of 'chintu'... thats chaitanya bhosle of band of boys fame... he used to sing this song every year for our college annual day function... n we used to rock... :)... as adams said last nite 'if u havent heard this one i dont know wat u have heard'...

have u ever really loved a woman : well he didnt sing this song... urghhh... but its one of my fave song... i remember the first time i heard this one... i went n got the album n wrote the whole song down.. :)... i still got that diary i wrote it in :p

n for those... (that means most of u) who havent read my last post... lemme just repost my fave lines of bryan's songs...

'To really love a woman
Let her hold you -
Til ya know how she needs to be touched
You’ve gotta breathe her - really taste her
Til you can feel her in your blood
N’ when you can see your unborn children in her eyes
Ya know ya really love a woman'

'Let's make a night - to remember
From January - to December
Let's make love - to excite us
A memory - to ignite us
Let's make honey baby - soft and tender
Let's make sugar darlin' - sweet surrender
Let's make a night - to remember - all life long'

'We're still gettin' closer baby
Can't get close enough
I'm still holdin' on
You're still number one
I remember the smell of your skin
I remember everything
I remember all your moves
I remember you
I remember the nights ya know I still do'

'Lay back baby - close your eyes
Let me do everything your heart desires
When I think of the years makin' love to you
There still ain't nothin' I'd rather do
There's somethin' I can't deny
You sure know how ta move this guy'

'Ohh, you can't tell me it's not worth tryin for
I can't help it, there's nothin I want more...
Yea, I'd fight for you,
I'd lie for you
Walk the wire for you,
yeah I'd die for you...'

'I gotta be the spoon - ta stir your cream
I wanna to be the one that really makes you scream
I wanna be - your lipstick when ya lick it
I wanna be - your high heels when ya kick it
I wanna be - your sweet love babe - ya when you make it
From your feet up to your hair - more than anything I swear'

laterzzzzzz

gearing for bryan

2006-02-04T10:32:00.000+05:30

bryan adams... have grown up on his songs... years back when he came to mumbai i missed his show... n i cried like crazy... today hes performing again... n i better go.. :p...

some of my favourite lines from his songs...

'To really love a woman
Let her hold you -
Til ya know how she needs to be touched
You’ve gotta breathe her - really taste her
Til you can feel her in your blood
N’ when you can see your unborn children in her eyes
Ya know ya really love a woman'

'Let's make a night - to remember
From January - to December
Let's make love - to excite us
A memory - to ignite us
Let's make honey baby - soft and tender
Let's make sugar darlin' - sweet surrender
Let's make a night - to remember - all life long'

'We're still gettin' closer baby
Can't get close enough
I'm still holdin' on
You're still number one
I remember the smell of your skin
I remember everything
I remember all your moves
I remember you
I remember the nights ya know I still do'

'Lay back baby - close your eyes
Let me do everything your heart desires
When I think of the years makin' love to you
There still ain't nothin' I'd rather do
There's somethin' I can't deny
You sure know how ta move this guy'

'Ohh, you can't tell me it's not worth tryin for
I can't help it, there's nothin I want more...
Yea, I'd fight for you,
I'd lie for you
Walk the wire for you,
yeah I'd die for you...'

'I gotta be the spoon - ta stir your cream
I wanna to be the one that really makes you scream
I wanna be - your lipstick when ya lick it
I wanna be - your high heels when ya kick it
I wanna be - your sweet love babe - ya when you make it
From your feet up to your hair - more than anything I swear'

laterzzzzz...

flashback

2006-01-28T17:21:00.000+05:30

age : 21 (9 years bak)

mentality : life is a bed of roses n romance

tagged by : wanderer again.. lol

sex target : male

reason of this flashback : this kinda lover doesnt exist... i know now... i didnt know then... :p

The rules of the game are:
1. The tagged victim has to come up with 8 different points of their perfect lover.
2. Need to mention the sex of the target.
3. Tag 8 victims to join this game & leave a comment on their comments saying they’ve been tagged. (will give this one a miss as everyones done this tag)
4. If tagged the 2nd time, there’s no need to post again.

my perfect lover :

(1) should b tall... atleast 5 11... i know id look like a dwarf at 5 4... but whats the hassle in dreaming..

(2) should love me like theres no other person worth loving... if i had my way id kidnap him n keep him on some isolated island... dont want competition u see...

(3) should b romantic n write poems for me... guess this is the result of reading too many mills n boon...

(4) should b able to gimme time... how i hate guys saying 'i m too busy today... i dont have time'... duhhh

(5) should have some grey matter in his head... id b bored if hes obsessed only with his clothes n hair n loves the mirror... id prefer him wearing an old jeans n tee n talking economics than going to some boring party n smiling like a plastic doll...

(6) should not have a perfect face... i aint looking for a model... i prefer the normal kinda guy next door looks...

(7) should like to hold my hands n walk on the beach or wherever... i simply love the holding fingers scene in the movie 'phir milenge'...

(8) should b able to smooch well... do i have to get to the minor details???... lol

laterzzzz

thank - you

2006-01-26T07:07:00.000+05:30

i wish to thank all of you for remembering me on my birthday... its been a wonderful day and my phones have been ringing all day... this wish was sent by zombie... thanx girl... n ofcoz loads of cards from my wonderful friends... thanx uttara, k00kie n vinci for writing a post for me... thanx all of u who called me (id rather not put in the names for security reasons :p) n those who wished me here n my blog... thank u all the bloggers who jumped from k00kies blog just to wish me... thank u saby for offering ur place for a party... we'll try to adjust at some place convenient to all...

n now bday wishes... happy bday rohan... lol hope u come here to read this... happy bday rohit talwar... i know its early... will wish u on d-day... but id as well post abt it now... u know how infrequent i m with my posts...

thank - u all once again... laterzzzz

tagged by wanderer

2006-01-18T18:20:00.000+05:30

m i wierd???... hmm lets see....

(1) when i was in college n had my exams in 2 days time (be it boards) i had to read a novel n not study at all...

(2) have majored in economics... n could never study economics without my walkman n music... id even carry it to my library... no music no economics

(3) have not purchased a lipstick since 4 years... i do use one sometimes but then most of them r gifted

(4) am a non perfume person... i have so many perfumes lying on my dressing table... but never remember to use them... i got this awesome hugo boss which is lying gathering dust since 5 years...

(5) i can b online for 15 hours a day n not b tired at all

(6) i can cook a full lunch (dal, roti, sabzi, rice, desert) in half an hour... lol i wonder how i do that though

(7) i can get dressed for a formal party in 15 mins... heh even my husband takes longer than this...

i guess this is enough for the day...

laterzzzz

kites kites everywhere...

2006-01-14T11:22:00.000+05:30

"dheel de dheel dede re bhaiya is patang ko dheel de....
jaise hi masti main chaye is patang ko kheech le..."

i m sure all bollywood fans would know this song... its a famous kite song... todays sankrant... or uttran... the festival of kites...

this is the only indian festival thats got a fixed calender date... 14th january... n its a favourite among kids n adults alike... i remember when i was a kid we'd start preparing for this festival a week in advance... dozens of kites would be purchased... manjha would b got... phirkis bought for the manjha... for those who r not well versed with these words... manjha is the thread that is tied to the kite... n phirki is a kind of a roll on which the manjha is wound...

we'd sit all day tying the kanni... (where the thread is tied to the kite)... n those who have never flown a kite would not know how important this kanni is... its purely a geometric calculation... even if theres a centimetre difference ur kite will never fly right... so all of us mathematical experts :p would sit all day n tie this kanni... this was obviously pre sankrant preparations...

on the day we'd b on the terrace... n take dabbas of til chikki, kurmura chikki n pop corn... mom would wake up early to make them... everyone makes them on sankrant... n they r real yummy... n thn the kite flying session would start... i was always the phirki holder... (never learnt the art of kite flying)... so my bro would fly the kite n id hold the phirki... n give dheel... the minute nyones kite is cut everyone around would scream... "kayapo cheyyyy"... n there would b so much noise n excitement... it was real fun...

but if u really want to check out the kites u should goto ahmedabad or surat... huge kites in different shapes r flown there.... there r kites that r flown in the nite with lanterns in them... i have heard that on this day there r so many kites in the sky that u cant see an inch of the sky there... all colourful n beautiful... lunch n snacks r on the terrace... no ones seen in the house... there r even kite flying competitions wheres lakhs of rupees r given away as prizes...

the only sad thing about this festival is the number of birds that r hurt... hundreds of birds r killed because of the manjha which is made up of crushed glass... pigeons specially get so many cuts n wounds... there r special organizations who actually look after such pigeons n request people to get wounded pigeons to them... this is the only reason i have given up kite flying (or rather manjha holding)... it saddens me seeing so many birds die just for a days fun n frolic...

but then we can always have chikkis made of til (sesame) right??? so all u guys come over to my place.. i got loads of chikkis made just for u... n believe me they r damn yummy... come before they get over....

laterzzzz

choices are constraints

2006-01-07T08:09:00.000+05:30

an article from the economic times dated 05.01.06...

• PARAMAHAMSA SRI NITHYANANDA

NO CHOICE in life is without a cost. Each decision to choose something necessarily costs us the option of keeping something else. In most cases having the cake and eating it is just an illusion. In many cases we choose the wrong option. Without the power of foresight choice is a gamble, and as with most gambles odds are theoretically even. Since human nature is to mourn losses far more than celebrate gains, end result of a sequence of choices is mostly dissatisfaction. Why must we choose? Why can’t we accept contradictions in life? Choices appear to give us freedom; in reality they constrain us instead of liberating us. It is our ability to work with the seemingly opposite qualities in life that leads to fulfillment and happiness; not the power to choose between one and another, since there really is no choice. Many seek to give up material life in search of a spiritual Truth. For them it is an obvious choice between what they think is a debilitating life of women, children and possessions that precludes any possibility of their ever finding lasting happiness and peace. Not so. There is no need to choose between a material life and spiritual satisfaction. Both are perfectly possible to achieve together, as they can and do coexist. A story in the Mahabharata goes thus: A young sage gets up from his morning prayers when a passing crow’s droppings foul him. In anger the Sage looks up and burns the crow. Satisfied with his power he walks to the nearest house and seeks food. The lady of the house is serving her husband and makes him wait. When she comes out to give him food, he stares at her in irritation. “Do you think I am a crow that you can burn,” she asks. Startled the Sage asks her how she knew. She tells him to go to a person in the nearby town who will explain. After a search the curious Sage ends up at the town’s butcher. The butcher asks the Sage whether the housewife sent him. The Sage is startled again and asks the butcher how both he and the lady knew things that only the Sage knew. The butcher explains to a chastened Sage that the mere performance of their own dharma had made both of them enlightened.
To be enlightened one does not have to choose between material and spiritual life. All one has to do is to live in the present with no regrets about the past and speculations about the future. Life is all about living with contradictions sensibly and in balance.

happy new year

2006-01-03T09:51:00.000+05:30

wishing u all a very very happy new year... thanx all of u for ur wishes n cards n offlines on my messenger... so heres m000nie wishing all of u a fabulous year ahead... thank u once again...

bye n laterzzzzzzzz

xmas musings

2005-12-26T17:34:00.000+05:30

(a post for all my catholic blog friends... n special wishes to fay n anna... n saby who asked me write something happy n xmassy... thanx for the blessings saby)

i dont even remember wat was my age when i first learnt my 'hail mary'... its such a lovely prayer... we used to say this one in school all the time... n when it was christmas... it was such a wonderful experience...

there was a chapel in my school... we'd go there every morning n pray... it was such a beautiful n serene place... i remember the cross right in the centre of one of the chapel walls... n the face of Christ... so beautiful... even when i knew he was suffering...

i m not a catholic by birth... but my early years of life have been influenced a lot by this religion... i had many catholic friends... i studied in a convent school... my tution teacher was a catholic... n i remember going to churches with my friends... i can never forget the byculla church (also called Gloria Church)... its such a beautiful church... built by the British... a stone edifice... with wooden pews... n candles n glasses... n a wonderful cross... i would specially go there during christmas... to see the stable n the decorations... n hear the choir... n the wonderful carols they would sing... my favourite being 'silent night'... let me sing this one for u..

Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon Virgin Mother and Child
Holy Infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace

Silent night, holy night!
Shepherds quake at the sight
Glories stream from heaven afar
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia!
Christ, the Saviour is born
Christ, the Saviour is born

Silent night, holy night
Son of God, love's pure light
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth

i also remember this place which was called 'village'... it is near my moms place (dewdy u know abt this place?)... we would go there especially during christmas as many of my catholic friends stayed there... the minute u enter this place u feel as if u've landed up in a small goan village... small bylanes... piano music emanating from many houses... a huge christams tree... which would b decorated with beautiful twinkling lights during christmas... u have to see this place to believe that it exists in mumbai... n ofcoz the stable... it was so pretty... with small cut outs of animals... n baby Christ.. n Mary n Joseph.. n the three kings... wowww.. i miss those days when i was a kid n such things would make me dream of another world...

i also remember the last day in school before christmas vacations... we'd have a party... n then there would be a play enacted on the three kings n how Christ was born... every year for my 12 years in school i have seen this same play.. but it was always so new to me... the story was the same.. most of the actors were the same all the years... but how i used to enjoy it.. i remember the minute i used to enter the hall id try to get a seat nearest to the podium... lol i was silly i guess... but is was such fun...

n the best thing about christmas that i remember were the sweets my tution miss would get me... aww naah.. not the regular fare... she used to specially make me some sweet from gauvas... i dont even know its name... but it was real yummy... id harass my mom to make them for me too.. but they never turned up right... heh... i would tell my mom "only my most fave teacher can make these sweets... its not ur cup of sweet" :p...

hmmm these r my musings of christmas' that i have spent when i was a kid... i miss those days... they were the happiest ones thats i remember.... m planning to visit mom in a day or so... n u can bet i will go n watch the decorations at the 'village'... lol

merry xmas... n a very very happy new year to all of u...

laterzzzz

learning from death....

2005-12-20T15:31:00.000+05:30

there r some episodes in our life that we vividly remember... even if years n years pass by... its been 5 years now...

i remember this day 5 years back as if it has happened just yesterday... if i close my eyes i can even remember the expressions on the faces of my family on this day... the look in their eyes... the look of sadness... the look of losing someone close... knowing that he was dying...

id like to requote a verse i had posted long back... its a verse by gulzar... it goes like this...

who knows,
when and where it will strike?
i m more scared of life.
death is okay
it strikes only once.

i saw my papa die right in front of my eyes... he was holding my hand... he was scared... i could sense it... scared not coz he was dying... scared coz he was worried what would happen to us??... but i think he knew we would b ok... we had a wonderful family... who would see to it that we never had ny major problems in life...

my mom... i remember her those days when he was real ill... not once did she cry in front of nyone... the strength that she emanated those days was amazing... all day she'd b with him... while i would run away from all the pain.. go away to my office... just generally be away from home... i would cry in front of her... but not once did she shed tears... i have learnt so much from her... to b strong n practical in life... thanx mom i love u loads... :)

my brother... he is younger to me... i still wonder how he coped with all this... looking after dad, taking him to the docs, looking after the family business... n wat not...

my family... every single day they would visit my dad... 4 months to be precise... for hours they would talk to him.. laugh with him.. cry for him when he wasnt looking... i m so thankful to them... without them i dont know what we would have done... one important thing that i have learnt is how important a family is...

my uncle... he never went home for days together... would stay with papa... all day he would sleep n night he would stay awake with dad... dad could not sleep... he was suffering from cancer... his legs would ache... all nite my uncle would stay with him... help him in his pain... i can never forget what he has done for us... he doesnt have a daughter... when i got married i asked him to b my dad (for the ceremony of kanyadaan).. he cried when i said that... hes my papa now :)...

my friends... tas, darsh, manish, preeti, nirav, my boss and all my office colleagues who saw me cry all day... n supported me... thank you all for being so lovely to me... i remember that day when every single one of you came to see me n help me with my pain.. i remember all your hugs n words of support...

thank you all once again... i have learnt a lot from all of you... all of you have made my life richer n better... i will never forget what you guys have done for me...

n for my papa... i can never forget him... coz i m what i m today because of him...

love u papa where ever u r... :))

laterzzzz all

the power of hurt....

2005-12-15T19:30:00.000+05:30

it is said that people who r close to u hurt u the most... or rather they have that power... even if they dont mean to do so... n infinite number of pathetic comments from anonymous has never effected me... but one unmeant for action of those close to me has hurt me a lot... thats wat happened to me some days back...

let me narrate the whole story... my idea of quitting blogging isnt real new... i have been thinking about it since a long time now... not because i dont have nything more to say... its more because i dont have much time... to write or visit blogs n comment... i had spoken to invincible about this too... but he asked me to go on for a while...

but then something happened on tuesday which actually got me to write the last post about me quitting... there r some of my blogger friends who met up on saturday... n it was a real fast decision... they generally stay in the same vicinity so they met up... i read about this on invincibles post n i was hurt... i know i was being real mean n silly... but it really hurt me... n naah not because i wasnt even asked.. thats ok.. people forget... but what hurt me was that even after meeting up no one told me about it... i guess i was expecting a lot... i dont know... but i guess its just a human trait...

so this is wat led me to actually write up the post... the one saying goodbye... but little did i know what was going to happen after this...

the love n affection i have been showered by all of u has left me speechless... i dont know what to do... all day i have been contemplating... n i think this is the time i m going to pray to God n thank Him for giving me such lovely n beautiful friends... n those of u who i have never interacted with too...

so heres a message to all of u...

*st00nie... awww gal i m bak dont u cry now... n thanx for loving me... :)

*L... yeah mann i m bak..

*poison... u got ur reason here... but m bak..

*invincible... i m really sorry for blasting that day... n i m saying this again... its not ur fault... things happen... we have to live with them... thanx for the beautiful apology u have written... i really appreciate that... n remember i will never forget u... please dont go...

*puneet... no thats not the reason y i called it quits... but that led to me calling quits faster than expected... awww but i m bak... cant see everyone crying...

*mich... aww baby m bak...

*tanvi... lol sweety m bak... when r u coming back??

*anonymous... aww forget it!! :p

*sittingnut... u r right... i m not giving up such wonderful friends... thanx for visiting even whn i do not know u...

*johnny... i never even knew u abused me... lol so forget it... n thanx for visiting... i m bakk... aww by the way.. next meet u r surely invited :p

*rohit... thanx rohit.. i aint quitting nymore... how can nyone deny so much love???

*saby... thanx for the offer... lol but i hope u dont expect me to accept u as a teddy... i got mine already :p... oh n i like the song u wrote on keshis blog.. thanx again...

*bnb... awww this isnt ur last comment now... u better visit again... thanx sweetheart..

*uttara.... aww girl hugsss.... i know u must b feeling so guilty... i m sorry too... i m back now everything will b fine.. i promise...

*thanu, my unveilings, icyblue, varkey, still figuring out, vanathi, autumn storm, vivek, nikita, pradster, dinesh, de vile, manish, niki, phoenix, random thoughts, nanyaar, kerry... i dont know ny of u personally but it is really to know u all care so much... thanx all

*am00nie... awww girl i m bak... n the wounds all healed... lets rock blogsville with my 00nies :p...

*gangadhar... yeah i m bak.. thanx for remembering me...

*dewdrop... i know i was being childish then.. thats y this post... i m bak... thanx for being so wise... i think blogging helps us to learn a lot of things... n this is something i have learnt...

*kr00pz... hi m bak... thanx for the love...

*ashanthi... aww thanx girl.. but please i have had enough of personal posts... lol.. i'll visit for sure... n yeah m bakk..

*optimist... lol thanx... yeah i m bak... ohhh n ur vote did matter.. thanx again..

*divya... awww i dont have ur number girl... dont worry... i read ur offliners on my YM... n pls pls dont cry... i m bakk...

*kiran... i dont know u girl... but i think i owe u all an apology... i m really sorry for all this.. i never knew all this will take such a turn... thanx for understanding...

*cheesy... i m bak girl... :)

*z00nie... awww i m missing u... i know ur busy but i m still missing u...

*k00kie... i have left u last on purpose... i just dont know how to show how much i love u... all i got for u is thanx... i yeah i m bakkkk... yippieeeeee....

ps: i spoke to puneet, uttara, vinci and strawy last night... n i m really thankful for all of them to show n shower so much love on me... guyssss please lets forget all this.... n i have a request to all of u... please stop all this pin pointing... i personally believe that all this is not nyones fault... its just a little misunderstanding.... lets all forget this...

we have to learn from such episodes... i have learnt how much u all mean to me... n how much i mean to all of u... n now one more thing we all have to learn is to stop this blaming game... please please lets all get back together... hugzzzz.... one special hug to strawy n puneet... who went to all the trouble to get my phone number n calling me... thanx guys i was really surprised n elated...

laterzzzzz

bye

2005-12-13T21:46:00.000+05:30

m through with my blogging... m00nies off...

thanx for all ur support.... will never forget u guys and all the love that u have showered on me... will keep on visiting ur blogs if i can...

laterzzz all bye

bachelors in 'phekology'

2005-12-11T16:49:00.000+05:30

'phekology'... a total mumbaiya terminology... i dont think people who aren't mumbaites even know that this word exists... n others who know this word must definitely be hindi bollywood movie fanatics :p...

so whats 'phekology'?

in simple words it means to go on bluffing... on and on you go and dont even realise that people are calling you a 'pheku'... n ofcoz if u habe ever noticed theres a very animated version of showing that someone is a pheku... all u have to do is spread out your palm and shake it in front of the bluffer saying 'lapettt'... people will realise the guy is a pheku all the way... lol

i have met some such people too....

(1) mr shyam : we were in college when there was this new guy who joins college... shyam... a cute little guy who was always talking and laughing... so one day we asked him 'hey shyam where did u study earlier?'... n he very proudly says 'cal'... now ofcoz when one hears this word some of the first things that strike us are sun, sea, chicks, hunks n hollywood... wowwww... california... that was pretty impressive... some months later one of our other friends happened to talk to his mom on phone... this guy had his dads business going in california... so he casually asked... 'aunty where did shyam live in california?'... his mothers like 'california??? shyam has never been to california... all these years he was in calcutta'... awww calcutta!!!... cal!!!!.... duhhh

(2) my uncle : awww ok hes my favourite uncle... n he can bluff like an expert... if u ask me bluffing around without the other person knowing what u r upto shows how talented a 'bluffer' u r... i remember we were kids... n we had all gone to pune for some trip... all as in my whole family... so we were approximately 15 people... n we were at some river front... it was some sort of a tourist place... so there were many people around... n my uncle was in a funky mood... he gathered all of us kiddos n asked us to follow him... n ofcoz we were given strict instructions to keep our faces straight n not show that we knew him.... then he stood under a tree n started a speech... he went on n on about the place n its history n y was it so important... as if he was an expert historian... in 2 mins time all the tourists had gathered around listening to his bluff... n asking him all sort of questions... n ofcoz when uncles so good how can my brothers b left aside... they asked him real smart questions n he answered them back as if he was their teacher... lol i m sure this would have gone on n on... but my father interrupted this 'lecture' n shooed us all away... lol hats off to my uncle...

(3) mr sarosh : wowww... there is this kind of bluffer too... one who spins such tales that they r impossible to digest... ud just puke away this guys tales believe me.... 5 years of his tales in college n i had had enough :p.... one day we were all just sitting in class with nothing to do... we were in our last year of college... this guy enters n say 'whew!!! i m real tired'... so we asked him if he was ok... hes like 'dont ask me that... i had to go for n interview to calcutta'... (lol whats with calcutta n bluffing i dont know)... but ofcoz we were confused... he was seen all over college the earlier day... so how could he have gone to calcutta n be bak in say 30 hours????... so we asked him how did he go... 'oh dont ask... i got a call from asian paints... they have an office in calcutta.... i said i have to attend college tomorrow i cant come for an interview to calcutta... but they were so adamant on interviewing me that they called me back in half an hour saying... pack your bags n get to the airport as soon as possible... we got a chartered flight waiting for u there... call us from the airport we'll tell u the details then'.... mannnnnnnnnn chartered flight my foot!!!!... lol... do i even have to say we puked out this whole tale :p... heh

so have u met ny such 'phekus'?.... aww come on u must have... lets start with the first one who reads this... we can all laugh on the cute phekus n puke on the crazy one... so what r u waiting for... ur time starts now...

laterzzzz all..

ps : m sorry for not being regular with my posts n not blog hopping too... m real busy these days n this is going to go on for a while now... so my 000nies pls excuse me... bye

impressive...

2005-11-27T17:39:00.000+05:30

i was impressed... thoroughly impressed... this was the first time i had attended a page 3 kind of a wedding reception... n to tell u the truth till i reached there i didnt even know it was such a high flying thing...

everything was awesome... like a fairytale... with candles everywhere and first class service... great food and superb hosts... beautiful clothes... awesome cars... the saris... the clothes... the most wonderful jewellery.... n best of all the elegance... (i have attended n number of rich peoples weddings but most of them r a gaudy show of money n status)... this one was different... but this wasn't what actually impressed me... this was nothing compared to the 2 people i saw there... let me tell u about them.. ofcoz most of u know them... no no... not most of you... i guess all of you...

let me start with mr azim premji... the chairperson of wipro... if i hadn't looked closely id have missed him... a thorough gentleman i must say... he was talking to someone there... but the radiance he emitted was awesome... not a hint of pride this man has got... he had a wonderful aura about him... and the thing that impressed me the most was that he would smile at nyone who would pass by him... for a person who is on the forbes list and is among the richest men in the world he showed an unusual kind of modesty... very impressive...

the next one was even more impressive... mr anil ambani... do i even have to introduce him??... when i saw him there i was totally zapped... there he was in a normal chudidar kurta when 90% of the men were in suits... he was talking to all guests as if this was his own family wedding (my relative is a director of his company)... there werent any visible bodyguards around... again for someone who practically runs the economy n stock markets of this country this is really shocking... i was looking all around for his bodyguards... looking for subtle clues to know who they could be... but i didnt make out ny... n i am sure if i had the guts to go n talk to him he'd surely have said a hi... :)))... one thing i like about him is his discipline... the amount of weight he has lost is astounding... he didnt eat nything i guess... (for a gujju person who once loved to eat n eat this is surely commendable)... i had once read his interview... n he said that he woke up at 5 am everyday n started his day with a brisk walk and exercise... again knowing how tight his schedule must b n how many late nights he must b having this is simply admirable... the man is truly a winner all the way... thumbs up to u mr ambani... it was nice meeting u...

i m glad i made it for this reception... i didnt really want to go coz i didnt know nyone there... n if i remember clearly i almost didn't go!!!

laterzzzz all...

prejudiced!!!!

2005-11-22T10:03:00.000+05:30

i do this all the time... in fact all of us do this... we dont even think if we r right or wrong... n i think its a clear case of being prejudiced...

"Prejudice squints when it looks and lies when it talks"

isnt this quote true?? how many times do we fall for this??? isnt it a kind of trap??? we fall into such a trap so easily... n its rarely that we can get out of it...

i have been through this many times... there is this neighbour of mine... a very beautiful lady... whenever i would meet her for a while she'd always talk about her kids n home n how her mother-in-law harassed her... n hit her... n abused her... n fought with her... id feel so sad for her... infact everyone around knew of her problems... and everyone would empathise... whenever i met her mother-in-law (after knowing this) i would never talk to her... if she spoke to me i would answer her in a syllable or a sentence n move away.... i would always wonder what sort of a person she was... i had heard awful stories about fights n abuses... n i was sure this lady would one day do something rash...

so now if we look at my thoughts here we'd definitely say i was prejudiced... thats simply because i never spoke to this mother-in-law... how do i know what kind of a person she is?... i know only the one sided story... couldn't it be the other way round where this 'beautiful' lady was fighting with her mother-in-law?? or abusing her???... how do we know whats going on in her house?? its simply a matter of being biased towards what i have heard... n also because she is 'beautiful'... well looks do matter somewhere i guess... i have met people around who say "shes so pretty how could she do nything wrong!!!"

but its been sometime since i know her... she speaks rotten about nyone and everyone... her next door neighbours dont speak to her... she fights with everyone around... n so now i know that somewhere she could also be wrong... i am not saying that shes the only one whos wrong... or her mother-in-law is always right... its just that we sometime think only from one perspective... n we should learn not to do that.. learn to think from all angles.. n last of all try not to come to conclusions without hearing the whole story out...

laterzzz all

the reader (chocoholic???) in me

2005-11-14T09:35:00.000+05:30

the minute i stepped into the bookstore i was enthralled... i didnt know where to look... should i move towards my left?? or right?? or shall i go diagonally opposite???... oh everywhere there was something new... something different...

it reminded me of the chocolate house i used to dream of when i was a kid... reminded me of hansel n gretel... n their chocolate house... i used to dream of a house like that... chocolates everywhere... dairy milk... 5 star.. kit kat (at that time they werent available in india.. so had to rely on my aunt who'd get them for me from dubai).. double decker.. toffees.. cakes.. pastries.. n of coz i couldnt have forgotten gems...

what a fantasy!!!... books as well as chocolates... ones got twists n the others got taste...

take for example some of my favourite books...

1) if tomorrow comes by sidney sheldon : a very very cleverly written one here... lots of unexpected twists n turns... reminds me of these assorted chocolates.. u never know whats inside them.. :p

(2) harry potter - j. k . rowling (didnt like the 5th one though) : hmmm this one reminds me of five star... its a book for kids n i have loved this chocolate since i was a kid...

(3) kane n abel - jeffery archer : a very nice tale of friends turning foes... reminds me of munch and perk... well their advertisements in india are always vying to cut down each other

(4) vanity fair - william makepeace thackeray : a tale of deceit... its about how a girl tries to deceive her best friend for the sake of material things in life... a bitter experience makes for a bitter chocolate...

(5) chicken soup series : such cute n lovely stories in these books... many of them get me sobbing... but i never get enough of them... so id love to call them gems... gems of wisdom n love...

(6) pride and prejudice - jane austen : a classic... such a wonderful story... makes me want to go for horse riding n take long walks in the woods... so how about a dairy milk??.... this choco makes me feel nice n fresh after eating.... so id link this book with dairy milk

(7) the monk who sold his ferrari - robin sharma (still reading it) : hmmm i dont know where this story is going to lead... but reminds me of mountains n himalayas... so swiss chocos it is... yummy :)

(8) love story - erich segal : oooooooo loves in the air with my most favourite ferrero rocher.. do i even have to say more about this one???

(9) cinderalla : i have loves this story since i was a kid... every young girls fantasy... glass slippers n chariots n gowns n the prince... total royal treatment... belgian chocos it is... royalty demands a royal taste right??

(10) lord of the rings - j. r. r. tolkien : well well... this book is one hell of a read (no pun intended).. lol it took me six months to complete... well i was a little busy then but this book is awesome... fantasy fights n what not!!!... reminds me of the dark chocolates... when i eat them i dont know if i like them or not... :p

so what do u think about these books??? have u read them?? tell me about the books that u have read... can u compare them with nything else???... how do u feel when u goto a bookstore??... so tell me about the reader in u...

laterzzzz

ooooooooo la la

2005-11-03T10:34:00.000+05:30

10 things that make my dil go ooooooo la la

(1) when i see someone with very very sexy eyes... (chk abhishek bachhans eyes........ totally ooo la la)

(2) i love good hands... urghhh naah not those muscled arms but nice hands specially wrists

(3) dimples... n i can bet my hubbys got the best i ever seen :p.. he gets one only in his right cheek.. (move over shah rukh khan).. lol

(4) guys who wear this thin chain in their neck with 2-3 shirt button open... oooo darn sexy

(5) straight hair with a little flopping over their forehead.. looks so cuteeeee

(6) smile.... awww not the toothy one ofcoz.. but a lil smile which says loads... total turn on :p

(7) ny guy who can drive a car with confidence... duhhh i have seen so many guys who drive as if they r either scared of killing someone on the spot or they r giving their driving exam... so urghhh

(8) someone who can z0000m a bike superfast... heh with me sitting at the back ofcoz... ud not believe me but i had hardly ever sat on a bike before i got engaged... lol n now i m addicted to a fast bike ride... totally awesome... i love the feel of breeze zipping across my face n whipping up my hair... whoaaaa

(9) nyone who can flirt without being obvious or gross... an art i must say... not for everyone...

(10) n last but not the least... someone who smooches well... some of the smooching scenes in our movies r so awful id rather they learnt how to smooch from their hollywood counterparts... or mayb from me... heh just kidding :p

lets play tag:

all my 00nies... come on wat makes ur dil go oooo la la... out with it :p

n thanx for the response to my last post... will get in touch with those who have shown interest...

wishing all of u a very happy new year n eid mubarak... laterzzzzzzz

wanted : an aspiring writer / author / novelist

2005-10-29T11:04:00.000+05:30

hmmm m sure ur all wondering if m00nies gone bonkers... ufff but naah... m really looking for someone who can write...

m looking out for someone who can write a novel... a world best seller kinda thriller... if ny of u can or know someone please contact me on mystic_muse_2000@yahoo.co.in ... oh n all my 000nies try getting someone for me... ask around if u can...

requirements :

(1) someone whos unconventional
(2) someone whos crazy
(3) someone who can put ideas into words
(4) someone who is a dreamer
(5) someone who has a flair for doing things differently
(6) someone who is willing to work online
(7) and most importantly someone who has the time and passion to write

thank you all... have a happy diwali n a blasting time all of u...

laterzzzzz

away

2005-10-23T19:15:00.000+05:30

hellooooooo... i know its been long... but m real busy with diwali cleaning n preparations... n i m going out of town for a while... will b bak on thursday... so till then laterzzzzzzzz n hugzzz n miss me ok.. :p

selfless love

2005-10-13T13:20:00.000+05:30

i knew her since i was a kid.... i remember the day she married my neighbour n came to my building with hopes of living happy ever after.... i guess this is what every new bride dreams of... a loving husband... wonderful kids... happy family... and believe me when i say this she had everything of this...

a very wonderful husband... he was my papas friend... oh we'd have lots of fun... he'd take us all to nariman point... only kids haan... n blast the music... n we'd all party out on ice cream... soft drinks... corn... chana masala... n wat not... his kids... gayatri and sagar... awww they were so cute then... we'd take them along too...

all in all we had loads of fun with him...

and one day it all ended...

it was mid-night... we were asleep at home when we heard the door bell... his mom was at the door crying... saying he had dies of heart attack...

dead!!!!!... we were all shocked... all night there were people around us... we children of the building kept his kids company... awww u should have seen their faces... they were so confused... asking whats wrong with their papa... n we didnt know wat to say... the girl atleast understood... she tried to explain to her bro... but all in all i just can't forget their faces...

n his wife... she was heart broken... such a lovely lady... i was a kid then myself... id ask God y He did this to her... she was crying all night... she didnt even have senses to see if her kids were ok... we had to call in a doctor to help her... again a very sad experience of my life...

years passed... her kids were growing... money wasn't a problem for her... quite a well off family... she started looking after their family business... looked after her kids... made them into wonderful people... well they r still kids as of now... but their maturity level is fantastic... i'd say growing up without their dad made them very mature... and understanding...

the girl is in college now... boy is still in school... and they r beautiful kids...

and now what about their mom???... what about her life???... id always wonder about that... didn't she have the right to be happy?? didn't she have the right to smile??... whenever id see her i could see the sadness in her eyes...

then life changed for her too...

some days back when i went to meet my mom i got the best news about her... she's remarrying... i was so happy for her...

she had gone to US some months back with her daugher... there her mother-in-laws nephew proposed to her... his wife had expired some years back... n he asked her if she'd marry him... ofcoz she couldn't answer then.. she had to consider her kids too... her daughter didn't mind... she called up her son... now considering he's still in school i was surprised by what he asked her... these r the precise words he told her... 'mom i don't mind if u want to remarry. but i hope no ones forcing u to marry him. i just want u to b happy.'... n i think this shows how selfless their love is for their mom...

sadly her in-laws r still against the match... they have refused... but her kids forced her to go ahead with the marriage plans... she flew off to US 3 days back... but as of now she has to keep her kids in india... school and college had to be considered... next year the boy will go off to US... i don't know what the girl has in mind.. i spoke to her yesterday about her mom... n the happiness i saw on her face and in her eyes made my cry... lol ofcoz they were tears of happiness...

i hope her mom gets her share of happiness that was denied to her all these years... i am sure she'd never forget her former husband... but as the saying goes... life has to move on... and i hope all the people who r against the match will realise this one day... n open up their orthodox minds to this world...

cheers to her n her kids... :))))... the only thing i m sad about is i couldnt meet their mom before she left... id miss her for sure...

lol i m still so overwhelmed... id just say laterzzzzz

(mis) adventures

2005-10-06T11:07:00.000+05:30

hey hi all... oops sorrie for the late post... have been real busy... i know u guys missed me loads.... aww i missed all of u too... loadssssssssss.... but as u know i was away... so heres my post on my trip to the queen of hill stations in maharashtra... mahableshwar...

whenever anyone speaks of mahableshwar the first things that come to my mind are strawberries and mulberries... yummy.... the best u get in india i guess... its a lovely hill station nestled in the sahayadri mountains... quiet and serene and beautiful... known as the honeymoon spot around mumbai... theres a pretty lake called lake venna where u can do some boating... its also known for horse riding ... n ofcourse... the best is the sweet corn here.... yummyyyyyyyyy... but enough about the place... let me tell u what i was upto there...

day 1 saturday : morning 5.30 we left for the place... its about 6.5 hrs drive if u take ur car... but as we left a little early we reached in say 5 hrs :D... psst 120 kms/hr drive on the mumbai - pune expressway helped a lot... hehehe... awesome drive.... we had booked a hotel from mumbai so we didnt have ny tension of searching for a place there... (urghhhhhhhhhh biggest mistake).... damn when we reached the place we found that the hotel was 12 kms away from ny sort of civilization... duh n i should mention here that there were 2 cemeteries on the way too.... awww k00kie i remembered ur post on spirits... heheh... so i asked ra to change the hotel... but unluckily it was saturday n every place was full... so that night we had to spend at this creepy place... duh!!!!!!.... lol n u know what??? i woke up in the middle of the nite n the place was pitch dark... i was like "raaaa wake uppppppppp i think i have gone blind... i cant see nything".... hehehe he asked me to shut up n goto sleep... awww me hugged him tight n went to sleep :p... urghhh forgot to mention wat we did all day... we went to venna lake... (i wasnt keen on boating so skipped that)... got onto a horse n rode for a while... whoaaaaaaaaa i love riding.... went to some other well known places n then bak to the hotel early... didnt want to risk meeting some spirits on the way rite??? ;)

day 2 sunday : woke up early.. packed everything and left the creepy place... sigh!!!... checked into a better hotel... nice rooms... nice place... went shopping that day... went for a drive again n then back to venna lake... we sat there watching the fog swirling about... was nice n cool then... very beautiful n serene.... oooooo n very romantic... back to hotel... watched tv... uh ohhh it started rainging... he wasnt well too... had a bad bad cold... duh!!!....grrrr my secret plans were gonna go down the drain... hmm yeah yeah i know u must b wondering wat plans... awww come on it was a secret rite... so m not telling as of now... read on...

day 3 monday : again up early... sigh!! it had stopped raining... got to get the plan into action... morning went to panchgani... thats again a hill station some kms away... quieter than mahableshwar... had lunch there... got bak to the hotel... rested a while... when i knew he was sleeping i went out to the market for some shopping... got bak... stowed everything i had got in the car... woke him up n asked him to take me out... so we went to this awesome place called lodwic point... its high up n u can see only valleys around... very beautiful... n then it was action time...

aww ok lemme tell u wat i did... had a champagne picnic arranged for him :))))... hmmm both of us r non drinkers... but luckily i got some non alcoholic champagne in one of the shops there... grape n peach flavor... so y not?? :D.... got out the glasses... champagne... n toased... "cheersssssssssss"... lol we drank like crazy people... finished the whole bottle between the two of us... n since it was a monday no one was around... so blasted the music... danced... sang.... got some pics clicked... n thn got out the pastries n chocolates... lol yeah even the fererros... heh my parties n picnics r incomplete without fererros... :D.... yummy...... n then i gave some cards, a gift too n ofcoz flowers.... n he was like "wowwwwwwwww".. heh... surprise surprise... uh oh then it got real foggy... so we had to wait while till the fog cleared... 10 mins... n then we drove back... picnic over :((... had a pathetic headache... lol ok not coz of champagne... my head was throbbing since morning... went to the hotel n slept at 8 30... heh n i slept all nite... crappy headache... urghhhhhhh...

day 3 tuesday : hmm was up early again... quite fresh... had to leave so got the packing done... checked out of the hotel... n got ready for the long drive home... urghhhhhh the roads were bad... we took the other shorter route to mumbai... lol n it took us 6.5 hrs to get home... duh!!! shorter???.... n was i tired.... but then had to go out for the evening... navratri (festival of dance in india) had started.... so got home slept for a while.... n then out again for dancing :D... oooo la la :))))

hmmm so mayb my next post would b on navratri.... lets see...

so heres all i did... adventures as well as misadventures... but it was fun... n we had a great time... 23rd to 26th we r going out again... awww not alone... this time family trip.... lol guys miss me ok... heh...

oh by the way... pearlie... wat happened to ur arm??... duh i know u love n00nie but u dont have to break ur arm coz he broke his sometime bak... urghhh... silly gal... hows ya??... take care sweetie... oh n u want passes for 1st road juhu dandiya just send me an email... i got extra ones at home...

n wat abt mah other 00nies???... uh oh i know havent really got around to visit ur blogs... but gimme some days n will get bak with a bang...

duh z00nie m still waiting for ur call... kya hua???...

until then bye... muahh n hugssss.... laterzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

eloped

2005-10-05T10:44:00.000+05:30

MISSING POSTER:

m000nie a beautiful young lady is missing for few days. She is our family member and we cant live without her. Her greatest features are extremely pretty eyes and a very beautiful soul. If u find have her in ur posession please return her safe and sound. Contact k000kie on:

1800-Lost-And-Found-000nie-hunnies

or else this 000nie will die in few days.. :( sob sob sob!

k000kie-in-near-death

this is to inform all my 000nies that i m bak... awwww k00kie no need to die... :((((

psst... i had eloped to mahableshwar with my love... but i missed all of u so much that i got bak... bak to all my 00nies...

heheh... a long post on my (mis) adventures will b up in a day or so...

k00kie, v00nie, z00nie, cheesy, puneet and fay... thanx for mishing me so much... m bak just for all of u :)))))

laterzzzzzzzzzzz

happiness

2005-09-27T10:38:00.000+05:30

No one should ever ask themselves:
why am I unhappy?

The question carries within it the virus that will destroy everything. If we ask that question it means we want to find out what makes us happy. If what makes us happy is different from what we have now, then we must either change once and for all or stay as we are, feeling even more unhappy.
this is an excerpt from a book i have read... n i think it is true...
why should we think we are unhappy???... i think all of us should try to b happy in whatever we have... this fast paced life has made us forget what it is to be happy... we want more n more... crave for things that r unwanted... this leads to us feeling unsatisfied... we feel we dont have so many things... but do we ever realise that our wants r all materialistic???.. do we ever realise that we could do without these things we crave???
y not try to live with what we have n what comes our way rather than want more n more??.. y not b satisfied???... i know its very difficult to b satisfied these days...
take for example shopping... we just go to buy a dress n what all do we look for??... we check the shoes... we check purses... we check jewellery... n buy so much thats not really wanted... if we cant afford it we crib n crave... n again get unhappy about it... n if we can afford it we buy it wear if for a while n forget about it.... is this what we r looking out for???... is this the sort of happiness we want??
i think we should crave for happiness on a more spiritual level... happiness should b such that it brings us peace... makes us glow... makes us smile... makes us want to see others happy...
awww life can get tough sometimes... we might feel unhappy... might think this is all crap... but then i guess after a while we should bounce back... try to b happy... try to make others happy...
so lets make a pledge today... lets make a decision today...
i will always try to remain happy... will always try to forget my sadness... will always smile... and last of all will make others smile too...
laterzzzz :)

love

2005-09-23T13:50:00.000+05:30

hey i m in love :)))... missed him so much when he was away... hes back n i m very happy... so guys loves in the air for me... wat about u all??? ny luck??? come on out with it :))))