Marriage Stress

Got a glimpse of the beauty pageant Miss Universe while switching channels and watched it to see those beautiful faces walking down sharing their experiences.

It reminded me of my days as a kid when I watched the pageant thanks to my cousins (read this link to know about them). While I looked at those pretty faces exuberating confidence as they walked, my cousins looked more interested in the Q&A rounds.

They would try to answer the questions as if prepping for it when they have their day to shine. I would too being part of the group. The most that I enjoyed after the Q&A was the swimming suit competition.

This year event however took the cake away with its announcement of the winner that made one wonder if they were watching a reality show wherein to spice things up, one would do something not expected that would create hue & cry and gather much needed attention.

I know and have seen how marriage can cause serious stress to women given that she is the one who is leaving her home and enter a new one with new members to call her family and a husband to be her companion for life.
Guys too can get stressed about marriage as I am seeing one right now. Watched his engagement video and he was the one with the nerves while his fiancée smiled throughout. His marriage date was six months ago and now it will happen in the next two months. Hope he is able to smile throughout his marriage or else we will never let him forget the day for years to come.

How often do you bargain when making a purchase? I admit that I am bad at it. I have a friend who excels in it. Has a flair for it as he keeps pushing till the other person gets tired if not irritated and agrees. What amuses me that he has the purchasing power to buy at fixed rate still he would haggle to bring the price down. Is that how one saves money?

It’s the last week of the year and as each day passes by, one wonders about the year gone by, the hits and misses. The times for celebrating the year end with a bang.

Wish you all a Happy New Year and hope all your wishes come true.

The Call Center Guy

I was immersed into the world of imagination as I listened to him & his adventures of a hunter (if you know what I mean). It happened all by chance when a cup of coffee can lead to such a revelation. Albeit, I take it with a pinch of salt knowing that guys will be guys and they like to boast their exploits like anything which can be a figment of imagination . I for one would never believe unless I see some proof.

These days I feel like I have become the call center guy. No I have not joined a call center nor have any girlfriend to spend that much time talking. It just that these professional commitments takes such a toll on my phone that it keep dying on me, thrice to be precise. It reminded me of the talk of my friend who had worked in call center who was so tired of picking calls that when at home, he won’t even pick up the land line ringing.

Old age is considered to be another childhood where the grown ups become kids. I would second that having seen people act like kids to get their work done. One of my recent interactions with one such person proved the point who almost made it a point not to listen to the words that came out of my mouth and insisted that I do as he said.

Why do they have to be stubborn to a point that they end up bullying people to do as they want? At the end, one has to come around to accept the reality. In my experience there are very few people who actually listen and others just prefer to give away their orders like they have earned it.

When I hear about the dating stories of couples, what amazes me on how nowadays girl spends money on the guy instead of the opposite. Have to say girls have come a long way. Its not easy for them to date a guy and make sure that their family does not comes to know about it. I know a girl who does travelling of two hours up & down just to meet her guy. The guy did that once and fall sick....

My work place has been hit with the iphone craze, Almost everyone I know now has an iphone. A colleague bought then another and it spread like a wild fire. All of this was put to an end by another colleague who got the latest model with the highest storage straight from the US. That put an end to the frenzy situation. 

Hide & Seek

I can feel the chill in the air when the wind blows be it day or night. The arrival of winter in a city like Bombay can be felt now but not earlier. Winter season meant only less heat but not this time.

Reminded me of the day as a kid, when I had woke up early in the morning for an NCC (National Cadet Corps) event with my teeth cluttering and the oil on my hair frozen. That was my last recollection of the winter I felt in Bombay.

Hide and Seek was being played out outside my office building. It first started with bike parking that used to happen along the compound walls near the entrance. There happen to be traffic policemen of around 8-10 ensuring that bikes were being taken away and fined people with no proper documentation. It seemed odd given that the road was away from the main road.

This ensured that the bike parking was turned into car parking. Next it was the turn of the illegal eatery stalls that was set up near to the building. Since they are hand in gloves with the local officials, they had ensured that their stalls were not taken away even as a beautification drive was carried out. Next day they are back at their usual places.

Wonder who won and lost….

Not sure how many watched the Olx ad about the husband & wife where the husband sells his car so that his wife can have a car too. She felt her independence was being fringed upon due to her travel woes. Seriously, I think a wife will have more important things to talk about then making her man buy a car to make her feel independent. Comfort food for thought anyone?

I came across a magazine on my desk and wondered if the owner would come forward to take it back. As it laid there for days, I decided to have a peek and read about the “Nyoma Incident” that took place between the jawans and the officers of the Indian army. Never knew something of this nature had taken place and people unaware of it.

Had a farewell of a colleague in the past week and I could not help laugh at the turn of his events. He had put in his papers a month back but yet to get an approval from his manager. Every time he approached her, he would be told to get back later.

Soon the weeks turned into days even as the sight of approval was nowhere to be seen. The irony part was that his day of farewell was announced by his team without no official confirmation from his manager. We chided him to start his farewell speech asking his manager to first approve his resignation.

Anyway, he did manage to get her approval on the last day of the job. Phew!!

Came across this ad during a movie commercial in the theatre and it certainly touch a chord.

Do watch it!

Intolerance Around Complicated Love

Last week, everyone was voicing their opinions strongly, condemned others and took sides in almost all of the whatsapp group that I was a member of.

I will be honest that I have never seen people raising their voices even when the nation has been struck with corruption, tainted ministers holding Govt. positions or misuse of public fund or inefficiency of Govt. to work towards the welfare of people. Yes, it did came as a shock when I saw people reacting.

All this happened as Amir voiced his concern on the growing intolerance in the country and the conversation that took place between a husband & wife in the midst of it.

It was good to see people raising their voices, but instead of pay attention to the topic highlighted they targeted the man who said it out loud. From banning his movies to watch to calling him a traitor and what not.

This proves that half information sometimes can end up creating chaos than seeking out complete information to understand the situation.

I don't think anybody tried to find out why Amir said that and in what context. If you are one of those, please do watch the complete interview on this link

Thank god for people's memory as everything soon returned to normalcy and my whatsapp group with its forwarded jokes and what nots...

Why do love have to be complicated? Why is that guys have to bait the girl before telling her that he likes her? Why is there no easy way to it? Why?

There are certain things that I am good at and one of them is table tennis. Had a go at it after a long time and feels good after sweating it out.

Nothing gets better than to end the weekend with bunch of friends hanging out together which happened last week. The irony part, the friend who actually did manage to arrange this was not part of it as his bestie was getting engaged on the same day. 

That brings my attention to another friend who has ditched the second time and would keep everyone wondering if he is coming or not. He will make you think that he will be reaching and then wont turned up. Any reason for doing that?

I would also like to share my appreciation for the municipal corporation for coming with up with the bumpers on road. These bumpers are small in width and height compare to the normals one. If you are driving in night on a bike, you can surely expect a bump when you go through this as they are not visible in ill lighted areas. I did got one...

Diwali Dhamaka

Diwali was over but the look of the office was still deserted as if people had the blues to join back.

The Diwali dhamaka happened post Diwali when work came in like anything that drives you mad.

I almost forgot to tell about buying a new phone. It was too be arrived two weeks later and driving me crazy. It had ruined my sleep and I started dreaming about it too.

The arrival brought me immense pleasure but then came the technicalities of changing sim card, moving one’s contacts, moving my files, etc. No easy way to do that.

If that was not enough, my colleague could be heard saying out loud to people about my new phone. I so wish to strangle him badly…

How good are you at laughing at yourself when someone makes fun of you? Do you take it in stride or get anger at. I will be honest to admit that I am not too good at it but only a few are allowed to take a jibe at me J What about you?

One of my colleagues found an innovative way to get his home loan cheque that he is pursuing for the past two and half months. The problem was that he had good relations with them and found a way to avoid it getting sore.

I must admit I am amazed by his methodology which seems to be working as he is getting calls from them and the cheque too is now ready for handover.

It rained and the weather just got better to have some ice creams…

Good Over Evil

It was Diwali week and you know it’s around when you see the lighting devices on the people’s balconies/windows and buildings with laterns. Who can forget people on a shopping spree…

Got to see the Marathi movie Double Seat and it’s a heartfelt movie about a family’s struggle to buy a home of their own in the city of Bombay. Do watch it, recommended.

Took time out to read blogs of others something that I have not done for a while. Glad I did it, coz there were a few bloggers who came out of their hibernation.

I connected with my ex colleague who can pen beautiful poems. This was before I started writing. Albeit she has stopped writing & does not mentions the reason behind it. I tried to cheer her up and hope she would write again that would help her get through the phase she is in.

Met a college friend after two years, our place of hangout will be the railway platform. It can be a lively place if you want to watch life moving at its pace or maybe some pretty faces…

Moral choices, do they make you regret later in life and wonder what would happen if you had gone ahead with your other choice. Was it worth making a moral choice? Would love to hear about it....

Chicken Pulav & Police Raid

I kept dozing on and off in the moving bus till I saw the time on my watch. I knew I was going to be late to my office.

My mind started working on the excuse that I had to give to my boss as I was coming from Goa to Bombay and going to be late. The other fact being that my colleague was also there besides me, so it was going to be for the two of us.

It happened to be the first time when the bus got intercepted by the police to check if liquors was been transported by passengers. It seemed that few people did carried it along with a permit, yet the police took it and no fine was applied. Found it odd as never come across such raid earlier.

As I tried to get back in my routine life, I read about the killing for beef eating. Sometimes people just end up taking steps they can never take back. All I could think that it was politically motivated given elections were to happen. I did had a healthy debate during lunchtime with my colleagues on it and no one was ready to take a stand except me given that we all were from different religions. Strange times ha!!

There was a time in the week that I felt that there should have been a clone of me just like in the movie Multiplicity and take care of the work that I have in hand. I wonder about the people who say they get up at 4/5 am in the morning, do workout, read and take their time out to get their work done. I would do the same if I had people working for me. I wonder if we should switch places so that they can know what it’s like to do everything on our own.

One of my friends said he was going to bring chicken pulav parcel. So we gave him money to bring for us too. He informed that the rate was 20-30 bucks higher which we were okay with. What we were not prepared when the parcel came in. It was half of the dish we ordered.

I was left with empty stomach even though the pulav was delicious. I think I can have more of it…

Dress Code

I was seated inside my office when the security guard opened the door, looked at me and started walking forward towards me and said “Sir, this is not allowed.”

My only argument was that I was going to leave in two hours so it should be ok. The guard won’t budge and I ended up changing my three-fourth and out came in denim trouser.

This happened when I was going to leave for Lonavala Apparently guys are not allowed to wear knee length trousers even though girls can get away wearing knee length or even shorter skirts even on a formal day wear. Apparently they can also get away wearing causal looking clothes and claiming they are formals.

I happened pose this question to the bunch of boys of why we are not allowed to wear shorts when girls can get away with it. Seemed like a valid point/question.

“Maybe because of the hair” One replied. I looked at my legs again and wondered were the hair on my legs grower bigger than the hair on my head. Yes, I was wearing three fourth that day and it was our unofficial cricket tournament.

Seriously, I wondered hair on legs? I thought having hair on your body was supposed to be a sign of your manhood. Not going to say excessive hair like on Anil Kapoor’s chest. Maybe he is the closest descendant of our ancestors.

Am I supposed to wax my hair now? Will the corporate world would make it a rule that if a man wish to wear knee length trouser, their hair should be waxed. It just made me imagine and yes I screamed when the strip was pulled up from my leg.

Girls are the ones who are supposed to do that to look pretty, not the guys.

Then again in this age of metro sexuality, I have seen guys caring facials creams in the washroom. Friends wondering if they should play in the heat as it will make them go darker. Heard stories of guys hair removal techniques and do at home bikni waxes too.

My next question is, where have the men gone?

That will be another topic. For now I feel discriminated that as men we are not allowed to wear shorts to office. What happened to the law of equality which is tilted towards the fairer sex  :P

The women in the office can only get delighted that we will be their piece of object whom they can check out. Not that we don’t when they wear skirts.

It will be a win-win situation JJJ

Any one there for taking up this cause with the corporate world?

P.S.: This one was long over-due and I am so glad I was able to write on it.

Marriage: Western Ishtiyle

Came across news of Russell Crowe refusing to divorce his wife of 12 years.

I find this news unusual. Mostly, because when was the last time you heard something like this.

It looks like Russell really cares for his wife and would really like to give another try to his marriage. I find it very inspiring coz you never get to hear news like this especially in the western societies.

The concept of marriage in a western society is very different than ours. For them it’s okay to date that starts right from the school which might cause some serious heartburn for girl’s dad over here.

Dating is okay over there and that’s how you end up finding partner for life.

It also does raise a lot of questions.

Like if you are dating from your school days and yes that also involves sex too, would you give all that up for that special woman/man when you can have all the fun and sleep around with anyone you want?

If you are married to the person you love, does it stops your urges of your physical needs or checking out the opposite sex to only wish and act on it after years passes by…

Let’s be honest, marriage asks for commitment when one forgets why they married when years passed by. Unless you can keep the love alive.

I wonder how it works out to stay loyal, committed in their marriages. Otherwise it’s pretty easy to stray outside marriage when lust lingers around you.

Divorce does no good to anyone including the children who carry the scar for the rest of their lives.

There are so many couples who give up too easily when it could have been worked out. Lives are then spent on what if?

It’s nice to see someone trying to work things out.

In the end, even if it doesn't, at least you know that you gave your 100% when you had the chance…

The Affair

Vijay caressed Chitra’s body all over as she felt the sensation of his touch that made her breathless and scream.

He looked at her as their eyes met and lips locked as they embraced and lost each other in the eternal time.

As their act got over, she turned her back on him. He looked at her back and pretty face and then made a move to be on top of her and asked “Why can’t we be together for the rest of our lives? You know I love you”.

“Is this not enough?” she asked as she wrapped her arms and legs around his body and kissed him.

“No” he replied. “I want you to be my wife” Chitra moved him away as she got up, started getting dressed and said “You know it’s not going to happen”.

“Why can’t you leave your husband and come to me with your kids? You know I have not got married for you” “Maybe you should then she replied as she draped her saree looking in the mirror.

“What about you?” A naked Vijay asked as he got up. “That’s up to you. We can continue like this or…..” Chitra replied as she adjusted her saree.

“We can. You know I cannot live without you” he replied looking at her through the mirror and planted a kiss on her neck and embraced her tightly from behind as they both smiled…

The Year 2014

A whole year has gone by and am wondering if that happened in the blink of an eye.

It feels like yesterday when I told my friend that the year had begun and planned for certain goals for accomplishment.

The year was a mix of everything like every potboiler Hindi movie. Be it drama, romance, suspense, thriller and the masala to keep the audience glued.

The highlight of the year will be my visit to the doctors. It must have beaten my no. of records of visit to them in my entire lifetime.

It started with swollen face (which till now is a mystery), dengue, cold, and then ending up getting my skin scraped when my bike skidded.

I have already started to go for morning walks (don’t ask me why I don’t go gym-ing or jog, I am a lazy person so walk itself is a big effort:) ) Hope to continue with it for a lifetime. The best part about going for early walk is that you can listen to your surrounding and yourself in it.

I got to use my bike only this year which I bought at the end of last year due to stupid company policies. It was worth the wait. I am completely enjoying it and loved the road trip to Lonavala. Hope to undertake road trips in the future too.

Another good thing this year brought was an award. I’ll be honest that I always vied for one in the past even had made to nomination list. Realized that it takes more than work to have your efforts recognized. It was completely out of the blue and yes it feels good. Then again they have lost their meaning…

Went on trips after a gap of two to three years and thoroughly enjoyed it. I am wondering if I should have more of drunkard friends now coz they are the ones who are always ready to go as against the ones who don’t. That what my experience says….

The best part of the trip was the planning part, we would consider a place, and then it would keep changing and then would plan somewhere in India and then abroad and finally back to the place considered in the first place. It’s like taking a world tour with your friends and imagination and coming back to the present having fun.

I am a pessimist (comes easily) who has been trying to be an optimist (trust me it’s not easy). I see things practically and I could say my logic is undeniable:). I keep forgetting that I am a human and yes need to see the humane side of it.

Marriage seems to be the buzz word that is doing the rounds. If you are one of the girls who think that they are the only ones who is asked when is the marriage, you are wrong. Guys too end up at the receiving end.

Our Indian society is so worried about singles staying single that they want to see them get married at the earliest.

I also amended my ties with a close friend with whom I had stopped talking for about a year over a small tiff.

I can see positive changes in me and hope to continue that in the future.

Hope you had a great year too and looking forward for the next.

Wish you a Happy and Prosperous New Year.