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.

In Search Of God

“People break down into two groups:

When they experience something lucky, group number one sees it as more than luck, more than coincidence. They see it as a sign, evidence, that there is someone up there, watching out for them.

Group number two sees it as just pure luck. Just a happy turn of chance, I'm sure the people in group number two are looking at those fourteen lights in a very suspicious way. For them, the situation is a fifty-fifty. Could be bad, could be good. But deep down, they feel that whatever happens, they're on their own. And that fills them with fear.

Yeah, there are those people. But there's a whole lot of people in group number one. When they see those fourteen lights, they're looking at a miracle. And deep down, they feel that whatever's going to happen, there will be someone there to help them. And that fills them with hope.

See what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs, that sees miracles? Or do you believe that people just get lucky?”

— Mel Gibson in the movie Signs

When one visits places of worship, you will find faces deep in devotion praying to the Lord and sometimes making you wonder if your devotion to god is less than theirs.

You will always find people around you showing their blind faith to the extent of keeping fasts, doing certain rituals or following certain customs that shows their love for their god.

The question is does it work? No one knows as they are open to all kind of interpretations. Believers and Non-believers will have their way of proving that.

We all have our experiences from our childhood where we are taught to pray to god who will protect us from the evil and gives us strength in our trying times.

A mental mindset that we also happen to imbibe in our adult age and when questioned why you pray to god, the answer comes out like the ones when we had to by heart the answers to pass our exams.

Question why do you believe in god and do you believe in his existence?

This will draw a blank for a few and others would repeat their answers like a true follower. It does make one wonder if following blindly without understanding/questioning a right thing to do?

If someone was to question why you believe in god, what would be your answer?

A majority of us pray to god for the well-being of our family and yes fulfillment of our desires and protecting from harm. Ever thought that you pray so that you protect your self-interest?

Never must have occurred that probably god wants you to worship them for who they are rather than taking out the laundry list and handing it to him to take care.

The existence of god is a subject that no one would prefer to touch. No one knows how we came into believing in god or in higher form. It’s like theories revolving around the Big Bang that brought our planet into existence. To put it mildly, one would question who came first the chicken or the egg.

Ever thought if god was the figment of imagination of our novel writers in the past who wrote books that today we considered sacred not knowing if truth is all what is written there to be true.

It’s like a book that is published which has its fan following and then their own interpretations and of course versions of what it meant and books on the characters involved.

What though needs to be stated that is we look for ‘hope’ when we pray to god to help us deal with our day to day struggle.

Believing in god gives one courage to and strength to fight the challenges that lay ahead.

It’s up to you how you believe and follow your god as there are no wrong ways but putting blind faith and following rituals/customs without knowing the true meaning is certainly not acceptable.

People often fail to differentiate between god and religion. Religion is man-made and god a mystery.

To find god we need to look deep within us as we find ourselves we find him.

The Blackboard

I am wondering where to begin with….

When your life becomes a big blackboard one can draw anything that they like and will remain so unless you decide to go for something better.

I realize that I have been holding the chalk in my hand for quite some time. Though I have been conscious now that I can draw whatever I want.

The only flaw of the blackboard is that it decides the lines that will stay around it and the rest will disappear as if they never existed.

One does not have any control when that happens. (You should read my earlier post capturing this phenomenon).

I understand that one does not have much of a choice when the lines drawn across disappear in thin air.

It’s when you take a step back and look at the whole picture, you realize that all along the drawing in your mind turned out something different then you visualized it.

I wonder if looking at the picture, you wonder if this was better this way or could have been better.

As for me, I am still wondering as the picture does not look complete to me. I do though have let go of my stubbornness and let the drawing take its own shape into a picture.

I guess I am going to surprise myself when I take a step back and see the white lines making its mark on the blackboard.

Maybe letting the lines grow on its own gets to you and changes your outlook. What do you think?

To My Friend

Friends are forever they say but it only sounds good in proverbs not in reality.

To keep in touch with friend, you need time and time is money for some. Even if you make the effort to stay in touch, it’s not necessary that they will too.

With the advent of smartphones, the world has become a smaller place and one can stay in touch with each other on real time basis through apps like skype, whatsapp, etc. The distance barrier becomes a mere line drawn on maps of the world.

Still you will find friends who would choose to disappear on you. No matter you how much you try to get in touch with them.

I have such a friend.

She has gone AWOL on me and my attempt to get in touch has been futile. She had informed me beforehand that she will do that but I took it as a joke….

We had met three years back, when I had resumed from my leave and found a girl wearing a while salwar sitting on my desk. As I went to her and told about it, she got up and sat at a different place.

Turned out she was a new joinee.

Few days later she approached me once when she had a query and observing her I thought she was a quiet one. That was it and we hardly had any interactions on day to day basis.

We had a change in the seating arrangement and she ended up with a desk behind me.

I take time to open and don’t really recall what lead one thing to another and we hit it off instantly. We could talk on so many topics/subjects that I start to feel that God finally listened to me and have sent some like minded being to mingle with me.

It does feels damn good when you find such a person to talk to as it can be considered as a rare find.

She liked to read books and watch movies that I enjoyed too. We used to end up chatting at the station before we departed different ways.

In a very short span of time, we become close friends say in a span of three months. For me, that’s nothing short of a record for making friends in such a short time.

Like every good things that comes to an end, this too had come to an end. I got moved to a different location and yes, we still kept in touch.

I have noticed that every time a girl becomes a good friend, they drift away from me in such a way that I cannot contact them. This has happened twice in the past. I was seriously hoping this should not be the third time.

If the fate is written, you can only watch it happen not change it.

I met her the time when saw came to my office and thereafter she went on leave, never to return.

Though we still stayed in touch, she informed me that she is going back to her native place to settle down over there and yes her family was finding a match for her.

She finally did found one whom she said yes. Her marriage got fixed for which I was happy but then she informed me that she hated the idea of being away when the people she knew were here. She indirectly hinted that she might not stay in touch as it would not be easy for her.

I did tried to cheer her up and informed the ‘importance of staying in touch’ & ‘friends forever’ and thought my words made her understand my point. It was not meant to.

I texted her on her marriage day and then tried getting in touch with her after a few weeks but the numbers were disconnected. There were no replies from her online account either.

I ended up losing my friend.

It’s been two years now that we have not been in touch with each other. I still miss her as she had become one of my closest friends and we had so much in common.

That reminds me that we share our birthday.

This is for you my friend, hope you are living your life happily and god blesses you for your wishes and dreams to come true.

Wishing you a Happy Birthday.

My First Motorbike Road Trip

Ever thought of a travel plan with your friends where you decided what you are going to do and then come back with happy memories.

Except in my case, nothing ever went according to the plan and will be memories that we will use on each other to chide.

It was a routine office day when one conversation let to another and we were conversing on going out on such a good weather of rainy season. Everyone got hooked and places were discussed to go. This went on for quite a few days and finally it was locked on to Lonavala.

The part of arranging transport for our journey turns out to be a tedious one. We were six people and one car was not going to be enough so we discussed on it and renting a bigger car was out of question as budget of the trip would have going high.

As we fixated on the date we were going to depart and confirmation taken from people; that one backed out. It was the guy on whose car we were going to travel started dilly dallying saying he will let us know. We had a back-up car with us but six people were going to be a problem.

Finally, the guy confirmed he will not be able to join. As we worked on an alternative, one of the friends suggested that we go on bikes since three of us had motorbikes. Everyone was game for it and it was decided that we will be going on motorbikes.

To be honest, my heart came to my mouth as I was going to be one of the riders. I have passed through those roads as kid with my Dad driving the car on our way to our native place. Who can forget the ghats? Ghats can be a nightmare if you were not a good driver.

Ever seen a traffic jam on a steep slope where you lose your foot on the break and you will find the shortest route to reach the base of the ghat. Memories of my previous trips came back to haunt me with my inexperience in driving in such roads.

As the day passed by my heart beat started to beat faster than usual. Somehow I managed to get rid of my negative thoughts as I discussed our journey with my friends. Later on, I was looking forward to go on my first road trip on motorbike. I was so excited that I could have left a week early than the scheduled date :)

Got my bike serviced and it was all set to burn some rubber.

The day arrived when we were going to embark on our journey. Before we could leave, one of the bikes got stalled and was nesting on the mechanics garage for repair. Two more people joined us and another friend bought his bike along.

Once it got sorted we began our journey by gassing up our bikes and v roomed our way to our destination.

I was also the official photographer for the trip as I made good of our short breaks in between by taking snaps.

We were supposed to be stuck together while riding but that did not happen. The guy who knew the route would speed away. While I and my friend would tag along, the other bike was nowhere in the picture.

It was supposed to be a two hour ride but we took more than that. We would meet at certain points, get together and then again be on our way.

It was evening when we reached the ghats, the road were not that scary from the one that I had seen. The roads leading up to it were beautiful. We even made a stop on top of the ghat and screamed with our lungs out.

We reached our destination around 8 pm and our journey was still on as we searched for accommodations. The climate was just awesome with chilly breeze blowing.

It was 11 pm in the night when we finally found accommodation and then went for dinner and stayed up late in the night.

The morning was another day to look forward to as we went to sightseeing and had fun which never went the way we expected.

It was in the evening we decided to head back to Bombay as we took with us the adventure of coming on a road trip on a motorbike.

The best part of the trip was one of the biker search for ‘power’ fuel which led him to 10-15 petrol stations but none to fill up his gas tank. He (who was the pillon rider on his own bike) and another friend reached all the way on reserve fuel and it was simply hilarious to hear their both conversations.

I really enjoyed the road trip on a motorbike and this could not have been done any other way. I am waiting for another road trip to happen. I guess there is no turning back ha :)