The Moment of Truth

Hadn’t thought reality TV would come up with this.

There is a show on Star World called ‘The Moment of Truth’. Kind of like the game ‘Truth or Dare’ that is one of the most popular games played during “sleepovers”, apart from Dumb Charades – except there is no “Dare” component to it.

So you have a bunch of participants who have to speak the truth to win $500,000. Simple?

Yes.

But it has the potential to wreck families and break marriages.

The questions that are asked are dangerous. Sample this :

• Have you ever regretted marrying your husband?
• Do you still have feelings for your ex-fiancee?
• Are you still physically attracted to your wife?
• Have you ever cheated on your husband? Etc.

A polygraph (lie detector) is attached to each respondent that announces whether his /her answer is correct.

I don’t know to what extent this show is stage-managed but $500,000 seems a paltry amount to me to risk breaking your marriage and your home. I’d think it would take much more money than that but going by the number of people who participate on the show, people seem to be lapping it up!!

Sad, Useless Pieces of Sh*t

When will Indian society finally mature? Why do Indians have a sadist urge to control other people’s lives even while theirs is falling apart at the seams?

It bothers me a lot, and after having moved to Calcutta it has started bothering me even more.

Why is it a big deal if a girl lives on her own? It doesn’t mean she doesn’t get along with her parents, or that they’ve disowned her or thrown her out of their house.

If she comes back home late does that automatically means she’s a whore?

If male friends stay the night at her place that doesn’t mean she’s sleeping with them or having a group orgy!

Why is it an issue if her boyfriend stays over? It’s her place, she pays for it, she can do whatever the hell she wants with it as long as she isn’t inconveniencing her neighbors.

So what if she wears a short skirt or a see-through top?

SO FUCKING WHAT???

It’s no one else’s business but hers. She can live her life whichever way she wants to! Why don’t useless aunties and old hags with no work to do, no purpose in life, and who spend all day sitting in the balcony looking at who’s entering whose house and who’s leaving whose, find something better to do with their miserable, pathetic little lives?

It makes me angry. Very angry.

If I had my way I would first ask them to find out who their husbands/married sons were sleeping with (IF any woman would care to sleep with them, that is) & then to take that kitchen knife of theirs, their knitting needle, or their walking stick and stick it up their own fat arses!!

Keep Off The Grass

I recently read a book by an Indian author that I quite liked. I was desperately looking for a funny book to read, when a friend suggested this one.

A Yale valedictorian & hot-shot investment banker from Wall Street, who is also the son of Indian immigrant parents in the United States, quits his job as he is sick of making money for rich people & of the monotony of his life working at Wall Street. Instead he decides to enroll at IIM Bangalore in an attempt to connect with his roots & infuse some excitement in his life.

As expected, his parents throw a fit as they can’t fathom why their son, who has everything going for him in terms of career, would decide to give it all up & run back to the life they ran away from. His colleagues, who are just as disillusioned with their lives, admire his guts & give him a thumbs up, while his ex-employer makes him an open offer to come back whenever he chooses to.

The guy heads to Bangalore in search of a new life with more meaning, where his first encounter (right off the airplane) is with another IIM student, Shine Sarkar, who lives to smoke pot. This gives you an idea of the events that are to unfold. On the first day of class itself, our protagonist, who thought he would outsmart his classmates (after all, he graduated from Yale with honors, didn't he?), realizes that he can’t come up with a single intelligent question to ask during class or with a single quick answer! And there starts his decline.

His batchmates hate him. They perceive him to be one of those “lost American kids” who give up all that ever matters (a job in investment banking on Wall Street of all places, a six-figure dollar-salary etc.) in a foolish attempt to find his “soul”.

Gradually (actually not SO gradually), his grades start to plummet as he stops caring about b-school, his days are spent smoking pot & listening to gyan dispersed by Shine Sarkar (a brilliant IIT graduate who spends all his time drinking & smoking hash, yet manages to ace his b-school classes & who later turns out to be the son of the Finance Minister of India). He ends up finding himself in situations he had never dreamt of finding himself in – a prison cell in Bangalore (having gotten caught with a stash of marijuana in his car), a one-night stand with a Danish hippie in Dharamsala, a bizarre encounter with a cannibal on the banks of the Ganges in Benaras & peddling soap (as part of his summer internship with an FMCG major) to the formidable Raja Bhaiyya. He survives the two years of cut-throat competition at the IIM & ends up in a place he would never have thought ending up in during his years at Yale or Wall Street!!

The book is an honest attempt to make you laugh till your sides ache. I thought it would be one of the many ‘Five Point Someone’ wannabe books by an Indian author but I was surprised to find that it was not. The basic premise is the same – both books are set at two of the most competitive campuses in India – but the experiences & the events are totally different. I also feel that Karan Bajaj is a much better author to read than Chetan Bhagat. The latter, I feel, is more hype.

So if you’re looking for a breezy weekend read, or a light funny read after a hard day at work, pick up ‘Keep Off The Grass’ by Karan Bajaj. For those who are not too fond of visiting bookstores, the book is available for download here. Have fun reading!!

The Magic of Harry Potter

I guess this post was long overdue. Have been wanting to write this since I read Moonshine's post on Harry Potter.

I love Harry Potter. All seven of them!!

People who haven’t read the books often ask what’s so special about Harry Potter & why would sensible adults be so possessed with a bunch of kids frolicking around in some school of magic (SOME school of magic??!!)?

To begin with, everything about Harry Potter is special. The fact that he is the son of extremely brave & gifted parents who gave up their lives trying to save him from the evil curses of Lord Voldemort.

That he had a deprived childhood living in the 'cupboard-under-the-stairs' in the house of his self-centered aunt & uncle who want to have nothing to do with him (since he is the kid of a witch & a wizard) but reluctantly agree to raise him because they have no choice & his fat cousin Dudley who is always bullying him.

That his parents left him a fortune (in wizard currency, of course :) yet he is grounded.

That he has powers that can destroy THE MOST evil force in the world of magic (Lord Voldemort), yet never uses it to his unfair advantage.

That he has friends who don’t think twice before risking their lives for him.

As for people who think Harry Potter is about a bunch of kids frolicking around in a school of magic & is therefore, escapist fare …anyone who has read the books would know that Harry Potter is about much more.

It’s based on the basic premise of good vs. evil that all of us believe in and teach our kids. It’s about knowing right from wrong, and standing up for what you think is right even if it is proves dangerous for you. It’s about character. It’s about helping those in need. It’s about being a good friend & a good human being.

I also love Harry Potter because of JK Rowling’s imagination. She has created this enchanting, magical world that very few people in this world would be able to create with theri writing. Such is her imagination! And what’s even more marvelous about the books is the fact that what you imagine while reading the books is very different from what another person does. This is also why I’m not such a great fan of the movies. What we see in the movies is the director’s vision, not ours (though I must admit I associate Harry Potter with Daniel Radcliffe now).

The other brilliant thing about the book is the way Rowling has built up the characters. There isn’t a single character that isn’t fully etched out, and every single character is likeable. You like Ron & Hermione as much as you like Harry. You dislike Snape & Malfoy as much as Harry & his friends do. You feel terrible when Albus Dumbledore dies, and even worse when Fred & George are killed. You feel anxious every time the scene is set for Voldemort’s appearance. You respect Professor McGonnagal as much as the students do. You feel sorry for Neville. You love Hagrid but like everyone else in the book, you wish he was a little bit smarter. It’s tough not to love the characters in the book.

Instead of trashing Harry Potter books as escapist fare, we should be appreciating the books for the author’s imagination & the imageries she evokes. After all, isn’t it short of genius to come up with a game called ‘Quidditch’?

To invent terms like animagi, auror, Azkaban, Quidditch, Quaffle, Bludger, Snitch, dementor, hippogriff, Hogsmeade, Hogwarts, Griffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, howler, muggle, mudblood, O.W.L. (Ordinary Wizarding Levels), Parseltongue, Whomping Willow etc. that become part of the lexicon of Harry Potter readers?

To have your characters spout inane ‘curses’ like these and be able to make the readers eat out of your hands:

Accio! - Summons an object)
Alohomora! – Opens locked objects
Avada Kadavra! – Killer curse
Crucio! – Torturing curse
Confundus! – Used to confuse the opponent
Expecto Patronum! – Creates a Patronus
Expelliarmus! – Disarms opponent
Impedimenta! – Slows an advancing object
Locomotor Mortis! – Locks opponent’s legs
Lumos! – Creates light at the tip of the wand
Petrificus Totalus! – Binds the entire body
Reducto! – Blasts objects away
Stupefy! – Knocks out opponent
Wingardum Leviosa! – Makes an object fly

Yes, I’m a sucker for Harry Potter (to the extent that I once had a Harry Potter blanket & a Harry Potter towel – gifted, of course), have converted many into Harry Potter readers & tried (in vain) to convert a few (such as a colleague that Moonshine knows all about), have read all the books twice over & still can’t get enough of them!!!

The Tale of the Missing Cat

The missing cat has been found!

The mom took it to some part of the neighborhood and abandoned it. It was supposed to find it's way back home on its own. A lesson in growing up apparently!!

The Truth About Cats & Dogs

Let me start this post by saying that I hate cats. Apart from pigeons. I absolutely HATE ABHOR LOATHE CAN’T TOLERATE them.

Remember the Bingo! ad with the Norwegian model who’s cribbing that her cat walked out on her? Now, a dog would NEVER walk out on his master. So bottomline is…cats are loathsome creatures that cannot be trusted.

This friend of mine has 14 cats in his house (I can’t even stand being around one, he lives with 14! Imagine!!)

He has a big house so accommodating all the billis isn’t a problem. This weekend one of the baby cats decided to go missing & my friend was worried sick because he really loves his billis. I found it almost comical that he was so worried about the cat but I was asked to shut up because the poor thing might be suffering somewhere.

Point.

So dear friend spends all day worrying about the missing cat, I spend all day shut up & the big round cat can’t be traced.

He’s still not found the cat. Come to think of it, I do hope it’s not suffering. As my friend said, “It’s not about being sensitive or insensitive to animals. It’s about how you feel for them, and if a pet you’ve raised goes missing, it’s like your child gone missing.”

Why aren’t there more such sensitive men in this world?

PS: When I asked my friend why cats often go missing while dogs never do, he said it's because cats are more adventurous by nature while dogs are dependant and essentially, cowards. I think he's right.

Make Over

The blog has undergone a change!

This blog is an extension of me, so like me, it was craving change as well. In template, ofcourse. The content will continue to be as random, irreverant and (sometimes) brazen as it was.

I have also decided to shut down one of my other blogs 'Lux Libertas'. Started it with a lot of gusto but I couldn't come up with substantial things to say at regular intervals. Also figured that random & funny is much better than serious & thought-provoking. Hell, I think enough at work & so do all of you, I'm sure :)

So here's to more random, funny, sometimes sensible, rarely emotional, often girly blogs. Heck, whose line is it anyway!!

St. Paul's Anyone?

During the most recent parents’ visit I learned that my parents almost sent me to boarding school at St. Paul’s, Darjeeling when I was a kid.

Apparently, it was my mom’s idea. According to my dad, my mom, who studied at Loretto Convent, Darjeeling for a few years, wanted to enrol me in St. Paul’s so she could get to visit Darjeeling often. Can you imagine that??

That’s THE MOST selfish reason I have ever come across to put one’s kids in boarding school. I mean, did my mom not love us or what???

Anyway, on knowing this I seized the opportunity to take my mom’s case (to those who know me, I don’t spare even my mom :-).

As mom started feeling guilty, my dad started gloating, since apparently he was the one who put his foot down and refused to send us to boarding school.

Now, one must never let dad gloat. Dad gloats - rubs it in mom’s face – mom starts getting emotional – a harmless joke turns into tear-laden sessions of “you guys never try to understand me, whatever I do is never enough for you guys, you take me for granted, you don’t give a rat’s ass about me ya di ya da”. None of this is ever related to the conversation that preceds it, I know, but that’s how moms operate.

Having said that schools such as Doon School, Welhams, St. Paul’s etc. have a legacy attached to them, and it would’ve been kind of cool having studied at St. Paul’s.

Gordon Gekko in Wall Street

If you want a friend, get a dog....It's all about the bucs, kid. The rest is all conversation.

The Judge Affair

Every channel you tune in to these days has reality shows being aired. All kinds of reality shows…singing shows (let’s not even bother naming them), dancing shows, cookery shows (Anthony Bourdain, Nigella Lawson, Jamie Oliver), action shows (the Fear Factor variety), bitchy shows (the Get Gorgeous-Splistvilla-Big Boss kinds), talent shows (America’s Got Talent), Game Shows (Paanchvi Pass, 10 Ka Dum) etc. The ones I want to talk about are the dance shows such as Nach Baliye, Jhalak Dikhla Jaa & numerous other dance shows I don’t bother watching.

My question is…on what basis do they choose the judges for these shows? They are as random as they can get!!

Take for example, Urmila Matondkar who was the judge on the last season of Jhalak Dikhla Jaa. That woman is W-E-I-R-D. Do you guys remember how she used to speak (Hindi especially) & her facial expressions? I used to constantly wonder what part of Earth she has come from!! She was like an overly-botoxed-key-in-the-arse-doll. You key her & she’d start making weird faces & talking in this weird accent that does not belong to this country or any country for that matter!!! She’s hosting another singing show I think (where the whole big happy family sings) & she’s even weirder in that show!!!

Then there was Shilpa Shetty on Season 1 of Jhalak Dikhla Jaa (along with Sanjay Leela Bhansali!!!). On what basis was she selected as the judge for the show? Just because she was practically jobless at that point of time (pre-Big Brother) & had plenty of time to spare? Come to think of it, how did Sanjay Leela Bhansali qualify to judge a dance show??

There was another show with Kunal Kohli (the guy who directed Hum Tum & Fanaa) as one of the judges. Why??

Malaika Arora Khan has made a career out of judging reality shows!! I think it’s because she’s willing to spill her boobs all over TV that she’s hired over & over again and put on the judges seat with minimal clothing.

I mean, does the fact that you have a couple of hit “item” songs to your credit automatically qualify you to become a reality show judge? Do you know all there is to know about dancing because you shot a 5-minute song over 3 days with 1 million re-takes?

The joy of lazing

Today has been a lazy day. We didn’t have work due to a bandh so I’ve been home all day (What a waste...I hate staying home on a day off!!)

I had grand plans for the day, among them:

• Blog
• Finish the book I currently reading
• Watch one of the movies I have recently purchased
• Clean my cupboard
• Clean my bathroom
• Put naphthalene balls among my clothes
• Change the sheets on my bed
• Make a list of groceries to be purchased

And what I ended up doing :

• Woke up at 11.30
• Had tea & read the newspaper till 12.30
• Ate
• Blogged from 1-3pm
• Ate
• Slept
• Ate
• Now am contemplating what to do with my life (God, I can’t handle twilights!!)

Any ideas?

Happy to Make Your Life Miserable

The ‘Happy to Help’ campaign is all about customer service, right?

Let me say this loud & clear - Vodafone SUCKS!!!

Ever since Hutch was taken over by Vodafone, their services have gone to the dogs. I have had numerous interactions with Vodafone customer care executives where I have literally felt my blood pressure exploding through the roof. Today I had one such interaction.

I moved to another city so I have a new corporate connection. Now my understanding was that if you have a corporate connection and wish to get international calling facility activated, you don’t need to pay a security deposit. This was the case with my previous account – I had international calling facility without having paid anything.

I called Vodafone customer care today to get international calling activated on my new connection & the executive told me that I had to pay a deposit of Rs. 1000. We haggled for about ten minutes over this, I repeatedly asked him to confirm, screamed at him & just when I was about to bang the phone on him, he said that if I wait for 3 more DAYS I could have the facility activated without having to pay a deposit…because apparently, you can do so after 3 months of owning a connection!!!

Any halfway-intelligent person would have shared this information earlier on in the conversation. Only a dimwit would wait for the customer to get totally pissed off & start screaming at him before he shares this information!!!!!

Vodafone seriously needs to look at the IQ of the people it hires for it’s customer care centers, especially since they’re trying to differentiate themselves from other mobile service providers on the basis of their customer care. DU-UH!!!

How could the marketing minds at Vodafone have missed such a basic principle??!!!

They also need to improve the communication skills of their customer care executives. Their understanding of the English language is NIL & God only knows what they speak!!

A customer does not interact with the marketing, brand or the C-level executives of a company. They might be geniuses for all we care. Customer service executives are the point of contact (for any company that has a customer service center), so if your customer service sucks, YOU suck!!

Here’s another example of Vodafone absurdity…They gave me a credit limit of Rs 500 with my new account. Just because I had switched circles. Not withstanding that I have had a Vodafone account for the past 4 years with a credit limit of Rs 10,000!!!

I mean, who the hell comes up with such retarded policies??!!!

Dear Vodafone, since you seem to have a bunch of imbeciles working for you, let me help you out with this one…you don’t need a Harvard or Yale b-school graduate to tell you that keeping a customer happy is essential to sustaining your business. The supposedly brilliant IIM/ISB graduates you hire should suffice!!

You're welcome...and HAPPY TO HELP!!!

Quick update

Parents are here for the long weekend so haven't had the chance to read/write much. Suffering from, how do you say it, blog-drawl symptoms. So here are some scribbles ...

*******

Phelps won his 8th gold in a single Olympic. WAYYYY TO GO!! For a kid who was diagnozed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) at the age of 7 & was repeatedly called "immature" by his teachers at school, this isn't bad at all, aye?

The guy can eat! Apparently, he devours 10,000-12,000 calories every day & swims it off!! Errr...looking at his daily diet, I'd assume he consumes more calories...

Breakfast - 3 fried egg sandwiches with mayo, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce & fried onions; 3 choco-chip pancakes, 5-egg omelette, 3 sugar-coated slices of French Toast; bowl of grits; 3 cups of coffee
Lunch - Half kg. enriched pasta (enriched with what...extra carbs??); 2 large ham & cheese sandwiches on white bread with mayo; energy drinks
Dinner - Half kg. pasta with carbonara sauce; large pizza (!!); energy drinks

Did I hear you say Goddamn??!!!

*******

A horrendous piece of news I read this morning...

49 babies, many of them less than a year old, have been killed in clinical trials for new drugs & therapies over the last 2 years at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

49 babies!!!

And no one made a whimper.....

*******

I've made the most of my parents' visit & purchased a number of things for myself/my house this weekend, among them
1. A bean bag...YAYYY!!
2. A wrought-iron bed (I was jumping on it to see how much it....errr....shakes....and my parents went "What are you doing? How much would you be shaking the bed at home?")
3. A 2GB memory card for my new digital camera
4. Along with re-chargeable batteries
5. Speakers for my laptop
Before you yell "Brat!!", I paid for them. Just tagged my parents along for reassurance, helping the indecisive me to make a decision & lug my stuff back home! :D

The 'People' Effect

It’s true! When you spend a lot of time with someone, you start behaving like them. I have this friend who is completely neurotic about people walking into his house (or even their own house!!) with the shoes that they wear outside. He insists, even yells at people who walk into his house with their shoes on. And I’ve been spending a lot of time with him. In fact, I always give him grief for being neurotic about such a small thing.

So yesterday, my parents came to visit me. My dad, who was visiting my new house for the first time, was so excited that he walked in with his shoes on, and I yelled “Daddy, take your shoes off!!!”

He came running back and I was like “Oh my God, I’m behaving like A****”

So, I tell you…be careful of the amount of time you spend with people!!

Where is the body fat???

Randomness

Don't have anything particular to write about but am feeling funny & random, so I guess randomness is the order of the day.....

(Warning : This post has adult content but parts of it are fit to be read even by children under 5 years of age)

• Don’t give advice to people in need when you have loads of work/are getting late for something. They will keep explaining their situation to you, will not leave you alone & you will get irritated (happened to me just yesterday)
• Climbing ten flights of stairs after lunch (or anytime)…..BAD IDEA
• Do not support boss while he’s playing TT. It won’t earn you any brownie points
• More importantly, don’t TELL boss you’re supporting him for brownie points!!
• People with bad hand-eye coordination (such as me) should not try to play TT. We should stick to carrom
• If you complete your work before time, don't tell boss you are done with it. You will get dumped with more work. Sit on it, hatch eggs, take a print-out & dress it up if you want! But don’t tell boss
• Male bosses are nice :)
• Clothes become tight when you become fat
• Remember people’s birthdays. Sometimes really cool things can happen. Like two of your closest friends can share the same birthday (double celebrations, right?) while you remain oblivious to it
• Olympics is cool
• Expect to see interviews of Abhinav Bindra’s maid, dhobi, milkman, newspaper delivery boy, even his dog (if they can make him talk) on TV over the next few weeks
• Do NOT expect the Abhinav Bindra euphoria to last beyond the next One-Day/T20 cricket series involving India
• If you’re a chick, you can go from ‘ecstatic’ to ‘manic depressed’ (or from +1098765432 ft. to -9908765324 ft.) in 0 seconds on certain days of the month. F*cks you up, I tell you!!
• If you have a phone that needs to be charged everyday, charge it. Or carry your charger with you. 'Coz without a phone you will feel decapitated. Then don't tell me I didn't warn you!!
• If you drink water straight out of a bottle, learn to drink without spilling it on to your blouse. Wet boobs = Men will stare
• Nevermind. Boobs = Men will stare
• It’s nice when you get caught unsuspecting in the rain sometimes
• Sometimes you just need that bar of chocolate or that chocolate pastry...or those bitchass stilletoes...or that blinggg handbag...or that sexy halter...okay, so you get the drift :)
• Good work/fast work attracts more work. Learn to chill in life if you’re done with your work. Life is beautiful
• You’re never too fresh from a holiday for another break
• You’re never too tired to complete one more slide if it involves being able to avoid a working weekend!!
• Do not play cricket if you don’t know how. Especially with boys. The ball will come flying from nowhere…front, back, side, below, above…and give you bruises. And if you DO play with boys, be ready to get bruises.
• On another note, life is ALWAYS headed SOMEWHERE. It’s never directionless. You might not know where it’s going…you’re not God…or forces…or a spirit (whatever you believe in)…but it IS most definitely taking you somewhere (that you will know in good time).
• There are some things in life that are perfect the way they are. For everything else, there's Austin Powers!!
• There is always a time & a place for everything
• Including sex. It’s called ANYTIME and ANYWHERE!!! :D
• There’s no concept of ‘always’ or ‘forever’ in love
• Life goes on
• Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar? He stole the cookie from the cookie jar. Who me? Yes you! Couldn't be! Then who?
• Mommie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Twinkle twinkle little star...How I wonder what you are...
• Not everyone who says they love you, do. At the same time, if someone doesn’t say they love you often enough does not mean they don’t. Look out for actions
• Is this mating season for dogs? I've been seeing dogs mating on the streets everywhere!!
• Dogs are cool. Cats are NOT
• Cats are evil, evil things
• Pigeons are shit birds. All they know is to eat, rotate their heads on their imaginary axis & shit on poor hapless people. They should just die!!
• So should rats, lizards & cockroaches
• We should love animals
• Don’t lie. Just tell people the f*cking truth or you'll have major ass-covering to do later
• A squint can be cute if it's on a cute guy ;-)
• You never know who will walk into your life & when! It's one of those random, bizarre, crazily insane, psychotic, inexplicable occurences in life!!
• Mumbai is the coolest city in India. No other city comes even close
• Never let go of a guy that can give you 'The Big O'. There are plenty of nice, understanding, caring, sensitive, funny, honest, intelligent men in this world but it's very difficult to find a man who can help you reach 'The Big O'

Highlights of The Weekend

1. Played with a pug (the Vodafone dog) named Samsung. I first met him 2 months ago when he was a little baby. Kept meeting him on & off as he belongs to someone in my neighborhood but got to play with him for the first time yesterday. In just 2 months he has become such a BIG FAT dog!!!!! In fact, he has become so overweight that he was having trouble breathing. Poor baby, that dog! What’s wrong with his owners…can they not see they’re overfeeding him??!!!

2. Gave a piece of my mind to someone that I thought needed it desperately. And what a feeling it was to be able to decide that I'd had enough, turn around & give them the finger!!!!!

3. Realized (for the gazillionth time probably) that I’m lucky enough to have an amazingly cool set of parents. Since I started going to college (which I think is a fair enough age), they have let me do what I wanted to, never questioned my decisions & always supported them. They have never asked me what I do with my money, who I go out with, what time I get home at night, why I get home so late on days I go out with friends etc. They have never cribbed about how I hardly ever come home, how I get irritated 9 out of 10 times I'm talking to them, throw a tantrum & hang up!! LOVE YOU GUYS.

4. Also understood that there’s someone in my life who cares for me MUCH MUCH MORE than I realize, and definitely more than I do for him. Always puts me & what I want before himself. I take him for granted all the time, subject him to my mood swings almost every day, give him loads of crap, get pissed off with him over the littlest of things, cut him no slack...yet he puts up with all of this without ever giving it back to me. I think you have to be really lucky to have even one friend who cares so much about you. I must have done something really nice/been really good to someone to earn this.

Anyway...back to fun things!!

5. Had delicious Chinese….Can’t tell you how much I love Chinese food. I miss 5 Spice every single day :(

6. Had the most yummy crunchy melt-in-your-mouth chocolate cake. One cake split between 2 people only. Can’t get better than that!! :D

7. Played cricket with the boys. Yes….FINALLY they let me play! That was because I hid the only ball they had!! MUHAHAHAHAHA!!! And got 2 bruises in the process but that's okay 'coz I feel like a dude!!!!!

A Proud Moment

Dial 'D' for Destiny

I’m a firm believer in the saying “Everything happens for a reason”.

Many people trash this philosophy. Essentially people who don’t believe in destiny. They believe our destinies are in our hands. It works for them. Fair enough. But my life has been full of events & occurrences that were completely out of line with my plans. John Lennon knew what he was talking about when he said “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans!!!”

I can’t explain the events in my life except by saying that there IS destiny at work. That life already has a plan for all of us. It’s been true for me - as I believe it is for countless other people - academically, professionally as well as in my personal life. I’ve known just what I wanted & how I wanted to go about attaining it. I’ve put efforts in that direction but hey! I ended up in a completely different place!!

So what do we do? Do we leave our lives completely up to this invisible force called destiny that we have no control over, or do we continue to make our choices in life, continue working towards them & watch our plans fall apart right in front of our eyes, while we take consolation in the fact that at least we tried?? Because after all, you can’t just take what’s dished out to you. You can’t sit & pray for the good things in life to fall in to your lap. Isn’t that what we’re all taught growing up…in school, at home? Maybe it is to instill a fighter spirit in us…maybe it’s done to teach us to never give up hope.

Whatever the reason, this is one of those questions that has perplexed the human mind since time immemorial & will continue to do so for generations to come. Do we TRY to command destiny (and fail miserably, every time falling prey to frustration but picking ourselves up valiantly again) or do we let life sweep us up in its wake?

Think about it, it’s fun!

Here's some more...

Spot the beach!!

These pictures are of Shankarpur which is about 4 hours from Kolkata




There's supposed to be a beach beyond the fence!!



Don't try to spot me COZ I'M NOT THERE!! :D



There's supposed to be atleast a 500 metre distance between the sea & these sand hills



The waves came all the way to the shops on the beach...Never seen the sea so crazy!!

That feeling of happy-ness

I’m really happy!! You know the feeling you get when you’ve accomplished something that meant a great deal to you? The subject of my happiness is a little banal as it’s related to work but it’s worth writing about nonetheless, I feel.

I prepared a presentation that my boss loved!!

To put this in perspective…I’ve recently joined a new company (a little over 2 months ago). The kind of work that this company produces is very different from what we did in my previous company where I worked for 4 years!

The first presentation I made wasn’t all that good. That’s what I felt though my boss differed :-)

My boss made quite a few changes to the presentation in terms of the insights being offered to the client. The client appreciated the presentation, my boss congratulated me but I wasn’t too happy because ultimately, it was my boss’ work that got appreciated. More than that, the reason I wasn’t happy was that I felt I hadn’t lived up to my boss’ expectations. When you join a company at a relatively higher position, there are certain expectations from you as opposed to when you join as a novice.

The reason my insights weren’t that good was that I had never worked on that product category & that type of study before. Nonetheless, I was a little disappointed and was hoping I’d be able to do a better job with my next presentation. And a better job I did!! :-)

Before you scream “EGO!!”, let me tell you ego had no role to play in this. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do a better job on newer kinds of studies and meet my boss’ expectations. I think I have managed to do that….my boss did not suggest a single change in the presentation. Rather, he said it was excellent!!

If that’s not reason enough to be happy, I don’t know what is!

Now I can happily go on my weekend trip to the beach. Man, how much I miss the sea after leaving Bombay! When you’re in Bombay, you take the sea for granted. It’s such a BIG part of the city that it becomes a part of you as well. I’ve spent a lot of time hanging out at Bandstand and Marine Drive. I always knew I’d miss the sea but could never have guessed how much!!

So I’m really excited about this trip. There are 12 of us going & I hope we have a BLAST!!!

So…over & out for the weekend. Hope you guys have a fun weekend as well.