SHED NO TEARS...THE AFTERMATH

Shed no tears for 26/11 for the resilient spirit of Mumbai will soon forget all the horrific incidents. The victims and martyrs will suffer no less. The news channels that now glaringly show the funerals of the brave heroes will soon switch over to Rahul Mahajan's latest love interest or to Abu Salem's love life or even some equally insignificant happening in some rotten saas bahu serial. Mumbaifolk will carry on with their daily chores and dreary lives maybe with a hint of fright stored at the back of their minds , ready to pounce at the earliest rumour. Our ministers (who never did anything rather than fight amongst themselves) will continue to do what they do best....all those things that i need not mention. Soon we will all go back to fight over casteism, regionalism and religion , thereby forgetting that the terrorists took advantage of this very situation. Bloggers will blog , newspapers will print, tv channels will broadcast and it will all be stored away in some archives either hard copy or in our memories deep down.

Unless...... unless.....we shed no tears....Coz this is not the time to shed tears, for they will take away the pain and anguish of the recent happenings and make you feel better. It is not the time to heal. It is not the time to recuperate. It is the time to fight back. It is time to fight the system which we ourselves are corrupting. It is time to hold back those tears and channel the anguish towards a better tomorrow. It is time to lead from the front and work our way out of this mess if we dont want our children to point out to us and ask why...why didnt we act?..why?


This is what you should do :

1. Dont accept OR GIVE any bribes. Corruption begins from the very grass root level and that is what is eating away into our moral and social fabric.
2. Dont spread rumours (however jocular) especially in times of crisis.
3. Be alert. Keep a watch for antisocial elements, any strange happenings or people in your neighbourhood.
4. DO NOT , I REPEAT DO NOT GIVE IN TO INFLAMMATORY SPEECHES GIVEN BY POWER HUNGRY POLITICIANS. HOW MANY MORE YEARS OF HISTORY LESSONS WILL IT TAKE TO MAKE YOU UNDERSTAND THAT THESE PEOPLE ARE TAKING YOU FOR A RIDE.
5. Develop a sense of intellect and participate more in discussions and debates. Read, listen, look, understand, research before you comment or act.
6. Respect the environment. Do what you can to save water electricity, paper and everything else that need not be wasted.
7. DONT REITERATE THE STATEMENT OF " WHAT CAN I DO AS A SINGLE PERSON?"
Believe in your individuality and develop a sense of confidence and pride in what you are. At the same time develop a feeling of love for the Nation that you belong.

And then....when we accomplish all this.....then cry your heart out. Then you can weep tears of remorse, for had we acted earlier , we would not have faced this tragedy

Whats new?

Whats new if you ask me....pretty much.
A new painting started.
A new split up routine in the gym , a nice pretty lady too, trying to know her.
A new diet regimen.
India winning matches in a row ( you dont get to see that often)
Sensex dropping further down the drain ( there goes my investments)
Speaking of cricket...here's a new funny blog on cricket...a bit of ol' English humour http://blogs.cricinfo.com/andy-zaltzman/?addata=blog_az_comms

Mushroom salad

I tried my hand at making a mushroom salad today ( yeah , I can cook a bit). Turned out quite nice. Thought I'd make mom a guinea pig first, turns out she hates mushrooms. I cant quite comprehend how someone can hate mushrooms. Its just one of those things that should be worshipped ( chili sauce and mozarella cheese being the others).

Here's the recipe though:

Ingredients:
200 gm button mushrooms sliced and diced ( like the ones in the pic)
1/2 an onion finely chopped
1 tomato finely chopped
1 cucumber sliced/julienned ( if you can)
salad dressing /lime juice half a cup
salt to taste
2tbsp olive oil

Method:
1. Saute the onions and the mushroom in olive oil on low flame for 5 mins. Add salt ( as per your palate or your blood pressure)
2. Add this to the cucumber and tomato in a salad bowl
3. Add the salad dressing / lime juice . Toss as you would your boss's brains ( if he had any)
4. Experiment on someone.
5. If the person does not choke on it, its safe and you can enjoy it.

In case you plan to try it out, let me know how it was.

Meanwhile check out these cute mushroom lamps http://www.geekalerts.com/?s=mushroom

No travel blog this....

My trip to delhi was nothing short of an adventure. Going all the way to delhi for an entrance exam is itself an ordeal. But the Rajdhani experience and the company of friends somehow compensated for the trouble at least one way. The return was a disaster though.
The AIIMS entrance was a tough fight. I don’t really care about the results, all that mattered is giving the exam. The exam was an eye- opener, I could really gauge my level of knowledge. The trouble began after the exam.

4.15 pm : My waitlisted ticket for the Rajdhani had dropped from 218 to 1 AND STAYED AT THAT. It was highly irritating to see my number waitlisted at 1 and I was even more frustrated when the TC ( THE DUMB GUY) said that I couldnt even board the train. It was a frantic run to the ticket counter to cancel it.

4.29 pm : There I encountered shady touts who were scrambling around whispering “reservation, cancellation, kidhar jaana hai?, confirmed milega”. Not wanting to pay them 500 bucks extra for a ticket , I decided to cancel it myself and stand in queue for another round to book a ticket for my journey back home. That was when I was enlightened by the ticketing clerk that all trains were packed till the next day.

5 :30 pm : Im stranded at New Delhi railway station with my luggage. Ok plan B – Air travel. I started looking for a travel agency. New Delhi – the capital of India has no travel agencies close to its railway station. Only touts hanging around. I was in for a bigger surprise though. I walked for a good ten minutes and found all shops closed ( it was a Sunday) and people getting stranger by the second. The only shop open was a Beer bar. A few paces later a skinny guy approached me “ saab, time pass karma hai kya? Jo chahiye who milega, nepali, telegu tamil , malu, gujju, 15 se leke 26 saal ke umar tak milega, acchi ladkiya hai saab. Dekhne ka paisa nahi saab, bas ek baar dekh to lo” It took me only one second to realize where I was and only half a more to turn around and run. I had unknowingly ventured into a red light area.

6.00 pm : Finally found an agency and booked a ticket, but now he tells me that he wont accept a credit card. I run to locate the nearest SBI ATM and stand in queue (man I hate these queues). I rush back to him only to find the tickets ready but not the taxi to take me to the airport. A good fifteen minutes later , the travel guy arranges a vehicle for me and Im off.

6.40 pm. : I have to reach the airport by 7 pm and the driver is trying to do his best, but you cant really fly out of traffic can you? ( not yet). Just when I was thinking that nothing more could go wrong, the car came to a halt bang in the middle of the highway. A few jerks and pushes later it finally relented and the driver sped off

7.00 pm : I am at the airport on time , but my flight is delayed ( yes I took an AIR INDIA flight). So its another long wait.

9 15 pm : flight takes off.

11 .45 pm : Im out at Bombay airport, where I discover that Taxis and rickshaws charge you a bomb to take you anywhere. More money leaks from wallet.

1 .00 am : Im home and I crash.

Happy Diwali everyone

I awoke to an eerie silent morning. Eerie because its diwali and I have grown up with diwali crackers bursting from 4 am in the morning, much to the chagrin of our neighbours. Is it because of the recession or is it just the overall bad mood in the air? Or have people started waking up to realize the bad effects of noise and air pollution? I personally believe that crackers only stand for child labour and pollution. The deathly silence followed till afternoon where I only heard an agonizing cries of a dog ( I later learnt that a himesh reshammiya song was playing in the neighbourhood).
I was confused whether to rejoice about the prevailing better sense or to mull on the sadness of a dull festive season. Just then I heard a huge bang followed by squealing, screaming kids. This was followed by the extensive ‘laar’. More crackers filled the silence with a deafening roar.
Ahh… its diwali !!!

Golden years

"Yipeeee!!!", I heard my younger brother scream as he flung his school books at the far corner of the bedroom. It doesnt take a nuclear scientist to guess that his Diwali vacations have started. I am already envious coz its been a while since i ever experienced anything close to a vacation ( study leave doesnt count).
Nostalgia takes me to my younger days ( not that im too old now), where we kids used to frolic in the society garden the whole day. The same kids who had a hard time waking up for school, were up and about by 7 am to play cricket, much to the surprise of our mothers.
By afternoon ( if we ever came home for lunch) it would be time for 'FUN TIME' , the great show on DD2 ( yes ...there was a time before cable TV )
Evening were spent in all sorts of games like lagori, tag, hide and seek ( yes...there was a time before PLAYSTATION too). I remember the huge jamun trees in our garden, we would have a great time picking those and end up staining all our clothes and faces a deep stain of purple( there was a time before mall hopping too).
Badminton and volleyball was reserved for the nights with focus lights.
Not really keen on returning home at night, we would even have a small camp fire thingy with the usual dose of ghost stories. Diwali was a time for fire crackers, sweets, new clothes.
The entire holiday was spent in mirth, festivity laughter, games......happiness....limitless joy.
By the end we would realise that a school project was pending and would spend the last night breaking our heads on it.
It literally brings tears to my eyes when I reminisce those golden times.
I wish..........I wish I could turn back time....at put it on a still mode.
I wish.........

HINDUISM ???. NOT REALLY?

My dear Hindu fanatic friend,

It is nice to see that you care for our religion and would do anything to help preserve it...be it burning someone alive or rape a hapless woman...or displace some poor guy from his home and livelihood.
Its nice to see that you would go up in arms to prevent conversion but wouldnt really care a damn about farmers ( hindu or otherwise) comitting suicide .
It seems nice that you have discovered that Christian evangelists are luring poor people by offering them bread and shelter and making them convert.

But at the same time what are we hindus doing? Why cant we help out the needy. Where are all our great leaders when hundreds of kids die of malnutrition? Where is the help when people are trying to come to terms with great natural calamities?
What are we really achieving by thrashing some poor guy whose first thought in the morning is how he can feed his child today?

My idea of hinduism was a non violent, tolerant religion that taught us to live like brothers.

If someone builds a tall building and you want a bigger one........is it wiser to build a taller one or break down the floors of the other one?

At this time I am reminded of a quote by Mahatma Gandhi

" AN EYE FOR AN EYE ...MAKES THE WHOLE WORLD BLIND"

BLING BLING !!!

One look at my gold chain and my boss asks me “ are u malayalee?” Of course I am………. which other breed of bling obsessed individuals can you find on this earth?
Males and females alike are always adorned with 3 sizes of gold chains; thick, thicker or thickest.

Though my gold chain may only be a tad thicker than normal, its nothing compared to what south indian brides adorn themselves with.

The amount of jewelery a malayalee bride wears would probably put Snoop Dogg to shame.
Check out these jewellery ads. Sometimes I wonder whether a gram more would break her neck.

Given the current price of Gold, I pity the father of the bride, who will burn a hole not only in his pocket but maybe through his trousers and leg too right upto the bone.

Clean Your Crap

"Yuck , our roads are so dirty", my friend exclaimed. I looked at him extremely stupefied and with a tinge of disdain. Isnt this the guy who just chucked his chewing gum wrapper bang in the middle of the road? Of course the roads are dirty , and we are the ones making it so most of the time. How often do we care to keep that chocolate wrapper or that empty mineral water bottle till we reach a dustbin? When do we start cleaning our own mess?
I suggest we start now.
Start with ur own home. Dont leave your towel on the chair and your socks on the floor for your ever hardworking mom to pick up. She could do with a little rest and you could use the exercise. Clean up your study table. Learn to pick up your own dishes. At least try to wash them on your own. Incorporate a sense of cleanliness and responsibility into your genes.
Its not only about cleanliness, but also about tidiness. After you work out at the gym , do you leave the dumbells on the floor for someone else to trip and fall on his face ( or on the other dumbell). Wake up . Exercise ur brains along with those biceps.
I would really love to hang all those paan eaters who run around painting the roads , walls, cars, and what not A BRIGHT SHADE OF DIRTY RED. Please try spitting straight up above ur head into the air next time, thats probably the only place left (and you will get what you deserve too)

WAKE UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!,
CLEAN UP YOU OWN CRAP!!!!!

The saint and the sinner

We come across the vilest of beings in life , and at the same time we meet people who would rather breathe less so that the world gets more oxygen. We hate the former and maybe love the latter kinds. Often we harbour prejudice and hatred towards those who have hurt us by words or otherwise. But what comes of this pent up hate? Nothing fruitful of course. It always ends up in a vicious cycle. Hatred leads to frustration or anger and we end up doing things that we regret later in life.
Rarely do we think that everyone is a human after all. Nobody is really perfect and it takes all kinds to make a world. The positivity of a fellow human is always relative to the negativity of another. The saint and sinner are both important. Every person has a different trait, a different character a differently personality , a different background, different circumstances in life and when there exists such huge differences, there is bound to be friction.
Be it your colleague at work, your subordinate, your senior or just a total stranger, clashes are bound to occur in life. Its an unavoidable part of this intriguing network of life.

But we have to learn to live by one dictum alone: FORGIVE AND FORGET.
There is no better revenge than forgiveness. The world would have been a much better place to live in if everyone learnt to forgive.

Who am I to preach? I’m a person who has kept a lot of prejudice against my enemies, hated them for what they did to me, and even gave back something with disastrous results.
Trust me, ….its not worth it.
Its much more easier to forgive.

Lord of the garden

My Mom’s gardening skills have finally paid off. The Brahma kamals in bloom last night are a beautiful witness to the fact.
This pretty flower blooms only at night, lasts in full bloom for a few hours and withers by morning. It has a mild but very nice fragrance. Supposedly a harbinger of good luck, it is revered by some as Lord Brahma’s flower, hence the name.
Rumour has it that unmarried girls who look at it, get hitched very soon. So for all u spinsters out there, hunt for the nearest household with this plant and keep a watch on it.
As for my girlfriend, STAY HOME GIRL!!!

sometimes

sometimes....we must love someone
sometimes ....we must accept their hatred

sometimes ......it feels like heaven
...and at times .... a hell that couldnt be worse

sometimes ....we must give time a chance....
sometimes ...we must wait.....even if forever.

sometimes ...we must know that destiny plays games...
sometimes....we must give in .....

sometimes ...we must let go.
....and let the sand slip from our fingers

sometimes.....the world is so selfish.....
that you cant help but wonder.....
whether love has a meaning....

sometimes.....life feels like a noose around your neck
sometimes ................it is.

In anticipation

Waiting for her was not a new thing for me. I was habituated to her “always 2 hours late” schedule. Not that I enjoyed waiting, but the mall provided a rich source of live entertainment while I hung around endlessly.
Pizza hut was brimming with people from all ages desperately trying to gain calories which they would later work hard to lose at the gym. The apparel stores had the usual crowd of females and their bored male counterparts. Boredom usually made their minds (and their eyes) wander towards those nearby ( usually another female), often earning a gentle ( or harsh) rebuke in the process.
Then there were kids, the spoilt brats. As if sex and violence on TV wasn’t enuf, mall culture had taken up their lives like a slow virus. Teeny boppers, tweeny boppers, pre teeny and all those short of a neonate; prancing about , window shopping, hanging around, giggling, texting, yakkin on the phone and the likes.
Wonder what my kids would grow up to be…though there was a long time to think about that.
She had not arrived yet, 2 hours were fine, but this was getting a bit more for my patience. Have to make a face when she comes. But what would be keeping her?. Had her parents found out and dissuaded her from coming? It was only a few months since we’d been seeing each other, and for obvious reasons; like any other couple; we had decided to keep the relationship a secret.
Maybe she was stuck in traffic? Or did one of those pesky aunties catch up with her on the way to enquire what and where she was going? No satisfactory answer could appease those gods of gossip, for they would spread an illicit rumour anyway.
Or maybe she was involved in a accident? I shuddered at the thought and tried to take my mind off it. My roving eyes finally rested upon a couple who were having an argument. Though the words weren’t quite audible, it wasn’t difficult to judge that they were very close to what people would call a “Break up”
Which took my restless mind back to thoughts about her. Was she angry with me? Had I done something unacceptable in the near future? Was I being a total jerk in some sort of a way that only women would understand? Had I put our love into jeopardy due to some thoughtless careless act?
Would she leave me? What would I do then? Where would I go? It was not only hard but impossible to imagine a life without her by my side. Without her, my life would be a deep void. An endless pit of despondence.
My maudlin contemplation was abruptly broken by a light tap on my shoulder…………I turned around ………….and her bright smile shone a new ray of sunbeam into my life.

The tulip & the stone

She tells me not to dream ,
...but my dreams are all I have

I watch her from the shadows
as she unbinds her silken tresses
...a sight to behold...taking my breath away

I see her amongst the roses and the lilies
as she daintily glides by
caressing each flower with delicate love

And when she spots the amorous letch ,
she frowns with disdain.
she is a pious dame
and Im a love besotten poet..

She tells me not to dream......
but my dreams are all I have

I hide my face in shame
for I'm the blacksmith's son
and she's the princess of the chateau
she sleeps in beds of satin
and I lay on a floor of stone

We are children of different Gods
...all the same
...and yet none at all


She knows my love for her..I think…
but she is held back by her own.
and my arms cannot reach the High towers of gold
that my angelic princess cruelly hold


She tells me not to dream...
...but my dreams are all I have

I shall have to wait
...for an eternity maybe...
...writing maudlin verses...
...till death do us part...

She tells me not to dream...
...but my dreams are all I have

First love

A gaze of few seconds...
..but eons pass in between.
Time freezes over .....
....like the sequence of dream
Eyes to eyes we touch...
..and the soul feels it too.
Like the dawn of a new morn...
...a spark ignites within

Then a veil falls in between....
...and the vision fades away
...thats how first love is maybe..
...like a light shower in May..

letter to a friend

Dear friend,
We meet all kinds of people in different phases of our life.some good , some bad ( or even grossly evil..), manipualtors, liars , backstabbers...some angels, helpers, selfless individuals, some who remain friends forever, some who remain in memories....
I have always enjoyed making friends all throughout my life.I have never learnt to hate, always gave love, with not much in return.
People have always taken me for granted, backstabbed, and even taken advantage of me.
But I have never stopped making friends......because ...for every ten stones that I have got , I have got a gem like you.
The purpose of this letter is not for gaining sympathy or to cry my heart out....
It is to tell you how much i appreciate Your friendship...........which I will always treasure....today , tomorrow and forever
THANKS FOR BEING A GREAT FRIEND

HAPPPY GOAT ( OR WHATEVER)

First of all.... a HUMONGOUSLY HUGE THANKS to all my friends for remembering my Bday.


I had a gala time receiving calls and sms till my mob battery got drained. I had to keep people on hold while i took other calls ( sorry R___ for keeping u n hold so long)

All the friends I have earned over all these 26 years ( oops I revealed my age) have been the best gift I could ever receive ( metaphorically speaking of course.......i would rather have a playstation 3 ) . All this love and affection has made me a happy goat ...or whatever that animal is in the above pic...


Today I would also like to list out all my achievements over the past 26 fruitful years.....

............................................................ummm............................................................
.............................................................................
..........................................................duh....................

....................................DAMN!!!!


TILL NEXT TIME.....

For all my dear stingy friends who cant avoid things that are free.. check out this site for sending free sms. By doin this , (I have upheld my status of being Kanjoos no 1 ...and I dont regret it at all)

http://www.160by2.com/

u can log in directly by using the widget on my page ( see side bar)

I keep getting tons of pics and other useless stuff via forwarded mails , though i trash them reading th first two lines ( most of them are the same mushy mushy crap ....or the "send it to 400 people or a donkey from swaziland will kick ur butt" kinds....

some of them are pretty neat though...check out the wild life pics.....Im not posting all of them ..only those that at least look genuine....( cant trust these mails...ever since they invented photoshop)

back to the gym

Finally I have some spare time to breath , which I can use for writing (I'll breathe later).
Just back from a gruelling workout at the gym, I can barely lift my hands to type.
But there's nothing to beat the serotonin induced euphoria after a heavy gym session. The workout session is itself quite enjoyable when u have good trance music playing to full volume. The beautiful ladies are a bit of a distraction though ( do we mind??).
Lets hope my hard work pays off some day, and I morph my flabby body into a well chiseled one some day. Maybe not Arnold ( may his tribe increase), but closer will do.

To all those interested in building a good body...a few tips...from one who has experimented and researched a lot:
1. Join a good gym
2. have a good diet
3. take enuf rest
4. work hard...be regular...stay focused.

Pearls before swine

My newspaper reading is limited to the comic section. There is nothing else worth reading anyway ( and my intelligence is somewhat limited too..) Stephen pastis’s PEARLS BEFORE SWINE tops my favourite list . The arrogant, selfish RAT, the tame mild mannered PIG, the smart GOAT , the predator CROCs and LIONS and other characters of the comic bear an uncanny resemblance to people I meet daily ( I really do!!!! ) ..... try reading a few strips I'm sure u too would have a sense of 'deja vu' (not the rite word maybe , but i just wanted to use that word)
To know more about the characters and other stuff , chk out this link
http://www.comics.com/comics/pearls/html/cast_PearlSwine.html

This one really hits the nail on the head… A BIG SORRY TO ALL BLOG WRITERS ( ...I know i'll have a price on my head after this ..)