Hello Again

I have been consumed by work. The company I work for , stresses a lot on some elusive concept called 'Work-Life balance'. I have seriously lost track of which is which. Is work = Life or is Life = Work? i felt i just could not go on without taking a few moments to think about. This is one equation everyone tells me I must Master.

Once upon a time, i was the typical engg college-having the time of my life in a heavenly place-give a damn abt the world kind of person. The change been gradual and i never knew when i changed. I've now become the typical B.E-recruited by a big brand-slogging to make myself known kinda person. 'Fun' times in office have replaced FUN time in classes, I miss the college canteen every time i enter the office cafeteria. But i'm still enjoying my life-work-or-whatever-you-will-call-it.

So i've come back to the old love of my life.. writing.. Hello again world.. you'll hear from me soon and often enough now..

@ Home in Hyderabad

we're finally settled.. even though we still dont have a fridge and keep throwing food away every alternate day.. we have a place to call home.. its an amazing flat we have named 'The Disco House' . we have bright blue and yellow textured walls in some parts of the house .. and we have friends with ideal bouncer dimensions.. and we have music and lights.. so the disco house it has become.. :)

our landlord is called Chakradhar.. he is one of the most accomplished men i know.. he owns a grocery / vegetable shop, has rented out two flats with brilliantly coloured walls and also possesses unmatched plumbing and climbing skills.. he climbed up on my roommate's commode to fix her geyser.. what he doesnt possess is good sense and probably knowledge of english.. the lease has our names as MRS ketaki gupta Mrs sneha Dutta and mrs pankhuri patni.. but what the hell

The house has some more absurdities but we're taking everything in stride. It's a new life with the old people I love. And I hope we'll get through it.

Palolem... :)

not many people i know can boast of having been intercepted by police in the middle of the night.. on a national highway

i can.. :P

it was this on time we made a last minute plan to go to Palolem, a.k.a south Goa and in snehaspeak- Non Party Goa

We began our journey well by getting on the wrong train, one that would take us to Madgaon and not Cancona..
we compensated for that by getting off at a station we knew from experience was an hour's drive from the Palolem beach.
Which in turn led to us getting off at the most incorrect of times, 2 a.m .. the Time of No Conveyence in Small Towns..
we were welcomed very enthusiastically by an Auto Manager, who after duly informing his driver "NAI,, Firang nai hain.." asked us for 2500 bucks
.. i leave u to imagine what we felt like.. not to mention we had very bravely come with only not warm clothes and it was chilly..

so we somehow managed to end up at the deserted bus stop.. as luck would have it, the only vehicle there was a fish delivery card.. stinking of.. yes u guessed it..
fish!!
the guy took our request for a ride seriously.. and scurried off to wash his filthy truck and make it a little more approachable..

well.. for a sheltered little child that i was.. this was the biggest adventure i had ever been in.. not that i have been in many..
crossing an interstate border in the middle of the night .. in a stinking fish delivery cart is not something i get to do everyday..
in spite of this tight little knot at the pit of my stomach which was causing me to remember Sai Baba every 5 minutes.. i was enjoying the ride..
the back of the cart was open.. and i could see the road as well as the sky.. i swear i have never seen so may stars..

it was a good thing i was thinking of Sai Baba every 5 minutes.. the police caught us at the border.. Technically , we were not doing anything wrong..
but i guess we looked like ppl who wore money necklaces.. the inspector duly demanded "ledijj ko leke kidhar jata hai?? "
our poor guys were both even tempered and mild..they politely and unsuccessfully tried to explain the situation to him.. we were stuck there..
but since 2 of us had parents in ministries.. we couldnt risk calls at home.. even though that would meet immediate release..

finally after threatening us for at least half an hour, writing down all our names and reg numbers at the back of a dilapidated notebook, and taking our
chief warden's number.. and unsuccessfully trying to cane our stupid looking driver.. he let us off.. it was more than evident that he was trying to
get us to warm his pockets... we had not taken greedy cops into account while fixing a budget for the trip..lol.. i dont know if we beggers even had a budget

it was 4 when we reached the beach.. and started hunting for a place to stay...
everything was pretty uneventful compared to this.. unless u consider sleeping off on a random verandah eventful..

my friends appreciated the happy hours and i think we rated almost all the firang females on the beach..

it was the best trip i had during my stay in manipal.. :)

oh and we broke the shower of our bathroom ..

Happy...

i've always wanted free time.. not that i'm particularly busy with anything, but i had always wanted days when i could wake up and while still snuggled in my blanket, look at the sky outside and wonder what i'd do with the day lying ahead of me..

i had always wanted the feeling of not having to hurry, having no particular place to go to, and choose where i wanted to be at a particular time.. and then be there..


i had wanted days where i can do completely crazy things without having to worry about things waiting for me afterwards..

i had wanted long walks in the cool breeze.. to look at fireflies in bushes and think that the sky had too many stars and some of them fell off.. to listen to crickets and find rhythm and music in their sounds..

i had wanted walks on the beach , writing my name on the sand.. looking out for blue balloons , seashells and tiny crabs scurrying around.. and funny though it may sound fill up a crab hole or two.. to stamp on the foam thrown upon the sand by the waves.. and look out for shapes in it..

i had wanted to look at the sky and find dogs and bunnies and monsters in the clouds.. running in and out of huge castles in weird shapes..

i had wanted to spalsh in puddles of rainwater..

but most of all i had wanted someone i could do all this with..

i've done each and every thing i just mentioned.. and i'm happy.. [:)]

Home and Hogging..

yes.. one of my very sweet friends who posted a comment about my last entry said i had food in my thoughts... when you live in a hostel.. you are a weirdass if food does not occupy an important place on your priority list.. well.. i know drink does.. no comment..

i am back home.. and guess what the first thing i ate was??? ok dont exert yourself.. masoor dal and hot steaming chawal... mmmmm... after months of bulletproof chapatis in the mess, your heart yearns for nothing more than these delightfully simple delicacies..
and i greedily look forward to two months of exaggerated and extended gluttony.. :)

and yes jd.. i guessed it was you... :)

Hari Bhai and the Hot Dog Guy

Today we got a measly lil' sandwich for tea.. i dont know whats come over the mess management committee.. its messing up big time! there was once a time when i used to be proud of the generosity of my mess. but it seems those days are past. we have now progressed to the age of a-single-measly-little-sandwich-for-snack-and-off-you-go. :(

i unlike some of my other enterprising messmates, have not yet mastered the art of making the plate vanish from under the Akka's eye.. so i suffer in silence and dream of the legendary Hari Bhai and the Hot Dog Guy....

in a sleepy little marketplace of a sleepy little town called indore in madhya pradesh, there is a sleepy little shop, that wakes up at ten in the night.. and when it does.. boy.. what a roar u hear..

the owner of this shop is Hari Bhai and has been for more than 2 decades now.. stuffing an ever widening and ever increasing number of mouths with the most delicious sandwiches in the history of mankind,, no one has ever actually seen this magician.. its just the hand that delivers the sandwich to the waiting car outside that grabs your attention.. and such is the magic of his sandwiches that they can magically direct themselves to a tummy already filled with a five star five course dinner with amazing ease and accuracy.. and you'll still be drooling when your tummy shows the white flag.

there's another shop.. the size of a public bathroom (i know its a gross comparison.. blame the person who made it.. and trust me its not yours truly.. :P) in a place called CHAPPAN DUKAN (the 56 shops.. i wonder, if owing to its size, its even counted as one of them..) its the smallest shop in the territory and yet has the biggest business.. JOHNNY HOT DOG.. needless to say.. if you're as hungry as i am, you'll already be having visions of hotdogs with hands and feet dancing around in circles... ahem.. must stop.. i'm almost drooling over the keyboard..

well, i've never been to either of these shops. but i've spent many evenings of the last 2 years listening to the glorious tales of these great magicians.. of late, i've been thinking.. a trip to indore has become imminent.. :)

cheers to my little foodie friend who's regaled me with all these delicious tales for the past two years. she forbids me to mention her name here. but those of you who know me personally will know who i am talking about and will definitely some time or the other seen this little person's eyes go as big and round as saucers while her mouth is trying hard to accomplish the almost impossible feat of delivering the dialogue without letting the slurp get in the way.. :) may you remain sated and slurping for all times to come.. :P

and cheers to the hero's of the day.. Hari Bhai and Johnny.. you shine forth in the dark ages of the miserly messes and lead us hungry souls to ful"FILL"ment..

examine this..

temme something.. do you ever notice an ant's trajectory (dont know if its the right word..) as it walks from one end of your bed, or table or the floor of your room to the other? have u ever counted the number of lil' bugs under the tubelight on and around rainy days? have u ever noticed that your wall vibrates when the musically inclined peson in the room next to yours is indulging in his inclination? do you ever feel like counting the number of bikes that cross if your room faces the road.. do you ever have this sudden urge to arrange and leaf through some long forgotten pile of old magazines?

these are the things exams make me want to do..

i'm pretty sure its the same with many other people.. such urges surface violently from unknown corners of your heart, shatter the calm surface of your pool of concentration and leave you restless and helpless with a vengence..

have you ever noticed, the weather is at is breeziest, coolest and most enchanting best exactly the day before your most irritating paper? (any paper for that matter) and the day the exams get over, it goes back to its most sullen, hot and hateful self.. especially in the manipal even semester..

i wonder why it is so.. and trust me, wondering and discussing your mind's wanderings with friends is another divine way time flies.. :P
some of the most quality "bakar" happens during prep or exam times, bright ideas that never see the sunlight after the exams strut about in their moment of glory during such times..
the number of "i wish"s and "if only"s.. the maximum number of murders and dates and parties are planned during exam times..

and then we are cruelly brought back to earth..

exactly my case.. i better go study.. random variables are extending their tentacles across the room.., AAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH