Musings, facts and fun

"I am going to die" .. Thoughts continued to jolt in Jay's mind as tiny droplets of sweat trickled down his forehead; gently circling his eyes only to fall off the edges. His fists were clenched, eyes closed hard and mouth reciting a prayer. . He had been tied up at his torso to a chair for the last 8 hours and he was already on the verge of breaking down. The only thing he desperately craved for at the moment was to get out of the shackles. His eyes now looked frantically in search of an opening, a hope. There was a small window located about 3 feet from where he was tied but the view outside managed to only sicken him. Scared to death, he yearned for fresh air. He had been given a stale sandwich as lunch but he hardly cared about it. He wanted freedom. He wanted to live and to breathe. Food could wait. There are some moments in life when you feel pathetically helpless with your future appearing bleak. Jay was going through one of those disastrous ti...

Before I say anything, lets teleport ourselves to eavesdrop on a couple of conversations; which will hopefully get the point across the table: Scene 1: Two newly met male colleagues discussing about their families. Person1: “Hey, is your wife working or not?”. Person2: “Naah, she doesn’t work. She stays at home.” Oh hell, not working! What do you think she is doing round at clock at home? Who magically cleans the dishes spotless, puts the baby to sleep, irons your clothes, prepares steaming food waiting on the table when you go back from your work? Why does working only have to be stepping outside the four walls of the home? If you are 8 hour leased to your company, she is working out as a 24*7 employee though within the home. Scene 2: Two ladies meet after a long time at a restaurant post college. Both of them talk for hours telling each other about their lives and careers. One of them explains her situation to the other: “I am good for nothing. After a...

This post a’int about cricket or my comments about it. With my limited knowledge in the domain, I know I would only meet derision if I venture to do so. This is rather going to be something I keenly observed in last year’s world cup and very much relates to how connected we are to the game. India loves cricket, and that, dear lord, I would say is an understatement. Okay, so if I ask you to reminisce the days of the cup, what thoughts cross your mind apart from India’s crowning moment? Well candidly I am sure you would also remember some other incidents too while watching the matches :P. What are those? Well read on.. Watching matches are times when you realize your secret powers. How one casual gesture of yours in front of the TV can lead to sixers. And you would be repeatedly staging the same hoping that the boundaries don’t dry out. This gesture can be as small as flipping the channel, a finger crossed or probably a little painful ones like standing on one leg and more of the lik...

I am amongst those people who don’t like air travel much but yet happen to use it a lot. Having lived my college about100kms away from home, I haven’t really traveled a lot of long distance journeys coz I never needed to. And now when I do need such journeys, time crunch stops me from resorting to terrestrial transports and SpiceJet’s direct flights are my only saviors.. My favorite mode is still rail.. the clickety clack sound, the beautiful views, especially if you are travelling in southern India(I love the green terrains), the slow rocking.. for me this all surpasses the convenience that air travel boasts of. Flying definitely has its own benefits; for guys who might want to relish the pampering by young beautiful girls, they should definitely weigh this option over others but oughta be careful while choosing your airlines too :P. Still nothing beats having a cup of garam chai in a whistling train going though valleys and tunnels, than having a platter in the air gazing at a ...

I was looking through some files on my old laptop when I came across this piece.. its actually a poem written in April last yr when we were at the verge of leaving collg ( infact as most people know, I have not been into poem writing much, but I dont know what was going through my mind when I penned this one) It is not very good as a literary piece, but happens to be something really special to my heart. And seeing that its nearly 1 year since this was written, I decided to post this to my blog. A lot of things have changed in the past 1 year since we left Allahabad, and I just soo much wish those days can come back.....  I also wish I could tag all my gang here, but blogger apparently doesnt give that option yet as fb does :) Here it goes... " Through frailties, through life’s thick n thin You all stayed by my side as an angel akin. When every miniscule of joy got quadrupled when together we laughed, When every shred of tear ebbed wit...

There is one thing that my last post made me realize.. I had written my last post in a jiffy, not caring much about what thoughts went in or how the sentences were framed or even were they framed at all or not :P, but quite surprisingly it proved to be one of the most popular posts on the blog that invited the most number of comments :) :). So I have decided to again walk the same lane of chalking out a random post, and see if the commenters also follow suit or not :D A few days back while googling, found that its R.L.Stevenson’s birthday. I definitely owe the guy because Treasure Island happens to be one of the first novels I have read, I also remember reading a Hindi version of the same that was titled ‘Khajane Ki Khoj’.  Speaking of Hindi versions, there are times when you come across really funny translations of English to Hindi, be it the name Dum-Pishach for Dementors(Harry Potter contagion is on after all :D) or think about the uncountable instances that you cou...

Life has its own set of ups and downs. There are times when the Lady Luck shines on you with all her might and then there are days when everybody leaves you in the lurch and just walks away. Who else can vouch for this better than my own blog. There was a time when it used to see regular updates, sprawling   visits and then there is a time now when the tides have turned against the poor guy and it is lying in some obscure corner catching dust.. no updates.. no visits… sigh.. :( I am well aware that no matter how hard I try, but still it is going to be futile to fish for any excuses and muster some convincing reasons for the long hiatus in posting to this blog. But better late than never. I have finally wielded my pen (or my keyboard to be precise) and it is high time I break out of the shackles of apathy that have overtaken me of late. But settling down on a topic is again a task herculean in itself. I think it will be better if I just etch out a couple of random things around ...

The realization dawned upon me today that it is now ages since I have penned something down. Decided to settle down and post something for the sake of it. :P So finally the convoluted story has come to an end(thankfully!), and I have landed in the pearl city. And it feels great, but missing many people and things..:( A lot of people have posed questions on me like how do I find Hyderabad, how is the weather etc. etc.. But breathing in conditioned air most of the time has robbed the sense of weather from me.My take for the weather now is constrained to reading the ac controls, and concluding that today the mercury stands at 22.5 degree centigrade and tomorrow also it is deemed to stand there.. :P Talking of weather, the Shiva nagari Varanasi doesnt seem to be appealing to Lord Indra yet. Nature can be sometimes so erratic, its whims hard to fathom and nuances difficult to predict. But I ask, is there something really predictable in this world, when even sometimes the small piece of co...

I have finally decided to rekindle a lot of hobbies of mine that were deeply in slumber for the past 4-5 years. When one’s pastime becomes watching movies all day long, it is really heartening to be able to reclaim some of the old knacks after a long time. I recently stumbled upon my stamp stock book while skimming through some of my old possessions at home. I realized that the book hasn’t seen any addition in the last few years. The book had become all dusty but it still housed the 600 odd stamps that I and my cousin brother had collected. There were some more stamps that did not fit into the book and were kept seperate, but I wasn’t able to locate them in the house. I decided to scan some of them so that I could have the pictures saved with me always, lest I forget my hobby again :P . Well of course any reference to this hobby of mine shall be rendered incomplete without paying due gratitude to those warriors who endured my pestering for getting overseas stamps, and to those who...

They said once, ”All Roads lead to Rome ”, and now they would say, “All rails lead to Bengal!”! I guess this is one conclusion that I could make out of the long list of announcements delivered by the Railways Minister. I tried listening to a small excerpt from her budget speech, but it went invain because of her accent, as I had to spend most of my time replacing all ‘bhat’s and ‘bhy’s with whats and ‘why’s :P. Well February, the shortest month, bustled with a lot of activity, mnik and the budget did muster a lot of heated discussions for themselves. But amongst all the budget and movie talks, February 2010 at the end, would be remembered for the Big magic weaved by the Little Master. His miraculous double ton was serenaded with joy by cricket fans and non-fans, Indians and non-Indians alike. Hail Sachin! Infact, even the parliament members unanimously applauded the feat achieved by the master by thumping their desks. A scene where all parties decide something in complete unison, i...

Most of us are waiting with bated breaths for Feb 12, not for hugs or teddies or something else of the ilk(its Valentine’s week no doubt), but SRK’s big shot My Name Is Khan hits the big screens this day. Of course, some other really important occasions coincide with it (some birthdays n some anniversaries to be precise) lest I don’t get a beating for not mentioning :P. Naturally this makes the momentous day even more special. Well SRK fans have waited for this one moment: re-unison of the ever-charismatic pair of kajol and Shahrukh and that too in a Karan Johar movie, an icing on the cake surely. But definitely for the producers its going to be a tough call considering all the protests pouring in Mumbai. But I respect SRK for not bowing down his integrity under all those threats. Anyway there are a lot of things buzzing around these days, if you skim through the happenings. Its not just Google Buzz that I am talking about. But other things that are causing long range ripples arou...