The world of my dreams and my thoughts

Quarter Life Crisis

2008-05-29T05:51:00.000-07:00

This is one of the forwards i got from one of my close friends and liked it very much, that i thought it would be great to put it here for others..

BEING IN TWENTIES - SOMETHING

It is when you stop going along with the crowd and start realizing that there are many things about yourself that you didn't know and may not like.
You start feeling insecure and wonder where you will be in a year or two, but then get scared because you barely know where you are now.

You start realizing that people are selfish and that, maybe, those friends that you thought you were so close to aren't exactly the greatest people you have ever met, and the people you have lost touch with are some of the most important ones. What you don't recognize is that they are realizing that too, and aren't really cold, catty, mean or insincere, but that they are as confused as you.
You look at your job... and it is not even close to what you thought you would be doing, or maybe you are looking for a job and realizing that you are going to have to start at the bottom and that scares you.
Your opinions have gotten stronger. You see what others are doing and find yourself judging more than usual because suddenly you realize that you have certain boundaries in your life and are constantly adding things to your list of what is acceptable and what isn't. One minute, you are insecure and then the next, secure.
You laugh and cry with the greatest force of your life. You feel alone and scared and confused. Suddenly, change is the enemy and you try and cling on to the past with dear life, but soon realize that the past is drifting further and further away, and there is nothing to do but stay where you are or move forward.
You get your heart broken and wonder how someone you loved could do such damage to you. Or you lie in bed and wonder why you can't meet anyone decent enough that you want to get to know better. Or maybe you love someone but love someone else too and cannot figure out why you're doing this because
you know that you aren't a bad person. One night stands and random hook ups start to look cheap. Getting wasted and acting like an idiot starts to look pathetic. You go through the same emotions and questions over and over, and talk with your friends about the same topics because you cannot seem to make a decision. You worry about loans, money, the future and making a life for yourself... and while winning the race would be great, right now you'd just like to be a contender!
What you may not realize is that every one reading this relates to it. We are in our best of times and our worst of times, trying as hard as we can to figure this whole thing out. Send this to your twenty-something friends... maybe it will help someone feel like they aren't alone in their state of confusion...
We call it the "Quarter-life Crisis."

Kissa Kiss ka

2008-05-23T00:21:00.000-07:00

Well I know that you would be wondering why I the world I’m writing on this issue of kiss, no I haven’t got my first kiss as yet from any girl cause I’m not having any girlfriend as of now ;). Kiss can be of many forms, the kiss given by small kids, or the kiss given by parents to their kids showing affection or the first kiss given by a girl/guy to his/ her partner. Actually there are many styles of kissing, French, Indian, check a peek Hmm affection it is but it can be of many types.

Now what is the kissa I’m talking about Is what happened few months ago. I had exams in the afternoon and was just having a final glance at the books while sitting in my balcony and suddenly a car comes and stands in front of my house gate, this car was one of the pretty luxurious one’s, the guy sitting in the drivers seat was also well dressed. Ab hua ye ki I had a curiosity as to who is this person and that too stopping in front of my house, there was no traffic on the road and there was no reason I could figure out to have a stop gap, so I stood up and while I was seeing the guy in the drivers seat pulled a women (or girl I’m not too sure) towards him and engrossed himself into a French kiss :O which lasted for a minute I guess, after which he promptly moved to his destination, Keeping me dumbstruck. Did someone say that there is very less privacy in Mumbai, well seemed so….

Happy Diwali

2007-11-07T04:52:00.001-08:00

Hi all
Its back again, the festival of light. Wishing you all a happy and prosperous diwali. Let god shower all the blessings on you and your family and fill your life with joy and happiness.

Wishing you all a Happy diwali

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

2007-10-08T07:18:00.001-07:00

Your Dominant Intelligence is Spatial Intelligence

You've got a good sense of space and how the world around you looks.
You can close your eyes and "see" images. You have innate artistic talent.
An eye for color and shapes, you're also a natural designer.
Since you think in pictures, visual aids and demonstartions help you learn best.

You would make a good navigator, sculptor, visual artist, inventor, architect, interior designer, or engineer.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

Orkut - Bringing world close yet so far

2007-10-06T05:13:00.000-07:00

I'm updating my blog after a very very long time. I neither had time nor any topics to write about. Initially i used to blog since most of my friends had one and it was kinda race against them, or probably moving along with them in this fast moving time and world. But now its more for me, i just couldn't share few things to my friends but had to vent out few things from my head so thought this would be a better platform. Since most of the people who regularly visit my blog know that i'm busy and maybe wont turn here for a good long time.

They say world is round, very true with the invention of Internet it has not only made round but also small. So if someone is hooked on to Internet then you are sure to find them the only thing that will differ is the time. Google as ever comes out with very great things and one of which is Orkut. I would have joined it much much later, but thanks to nagesh and abhijit i joined this next thing called Orkut. I know most of you reading this would be having an account on Orkut, and probably many a friends too, well thats what it was meant to be, a social networking site.

Initially it was just another site, but things changed when i stared to get new friends, even some of the long lost friends of my school days and this went on to change my life to a great extent. It was not only chatting online but also meeting them offline, face to face, know them through meets and treks. This even happens today but i just can't find time to join them due to my concentration towards my career. While this happened i can say i was addicted to Orkut, probably more than 8 hours a day you could find me online on orkut. While there were none to chat i started to explore orkut. It was really fun to go through scrap books of others (I know its not ethical but you have agreed to keep your informations open for public), knowing things which only very few were aware of, sharing these findings with my newly found friends. Even today i did the same thing, while searching for someone, hoping that he had joined orkut i came across one of my friend who had left orkut quite a long time ago and didn't really had contact for a long time, even though staying in the same city. More shocked was i to find my friend committed, well its a good news . So it was again the desire to unearth few more hidden secrets and after going through scraps of many a people i could pin point it to the person with whom my friend was committed. The most startling was to find that it was none other than one of my friend (and the least expected one) and was in the same circle and known for a long time. I'm excited and happy for them but only thing remains that when it is disclosed to the other people. I'm sure the people who are in touch with them would know about it. So till the beans are not spilled (even i'm not too sure of it, and since they happen to be my close friends its may go the other way if it were not true) by them, i'll rather keep my mouth shut.

Just like waves come and go in the ocean, friends have come and are going away, the only thing i don't know is how far they have reached.
I don't know if i'll ever continue this hobby of mine but till (i unearth some more findings) then have a nice time.

Marriage - Love or Arranged ???

2006-11-04T22:27:00.000-08:00

Marriage, as we read this word it brings in smile on our face accompanied with the thoughts of an occasion for fun, celebration etc etc.. The views are different to different people, for some it’s a source of some quick income, for some it’s a heavenly accord that is being decided by god, for some it is to have steamy nights after long days hardwork, for some its to have a partner who will be with you till you live or she lives sharing all the happiness and sorrows and also be a supportive partner in your life. The views or definitions vary from person to person. In one of the discussion with my grandfather, he told me that "be it love marriage or arranged marriage both have to compromise otherwise you will not lead a good life together or rather the marriage may not be successful". There are majorly two types of marriages one is arranged and one is love marriage. If it’s an arranged marriage then its like one of the Hindi movies "Stay Happily married ever after" which would be in a loop condition throughout generations. But when it comes to love marriages rules are different from couple to couple. If I was to sit and argue on love and arranged marriages it would go on from dawn to dusk but still the argument will never have a conclusion unless someone backs off or agree to each other’s points. Anyone would give me an example of the so-called arranged marriage ending up in utter failure to a grand success and the same with love marriage.

Some of the questions that arise in my mind is that why do we bother so much on these issues, well we have to, it’s the question of whole life you see, its not like changing your clothes or television once its old or you don’t like it, you will have to live your life with her. So why can’t we try live in relationship!!! Naah its not meant for our society, it was made by the westerners and they don’t suite to our traditions and values etc etc. Now if I were to say that I like a girl and end up in a love marriage then I would have two set of people with different set of views, one would be those who are ok with this thing and would support me, on the other hand there would be people who would be raising tantrums and would pester, torture me to change my decision. Now the question is who are these people to decide for my life. After marriage it will be me and my wife and my parents who would be living with me and these people don’t come into picture at all. Arey as somebody said that man is a social animal, he has to live in this society and he has to be in tandem with the society. Very true, man has to socialize but for this has he to sacrifice his wishes and happiness??. There is a small sector of people who I don’t know what happens to then but talk a lot about these issues. I have heard people discussing that "To ve, tane love marriage kornu ghetile"(Ahh he.. he ended up in love marriage) or " Ti ve dhaunu vardhika kornu ghetile" (Oh she ? she ran and got married). They even make fun of them too and some even cross the limit of hypocrisy as to they wouldn’t allow their children to mingle with the couple, its ok if they are aware that their own kids had a high school or a college love affair. Now being in mumbai for about 2 and a half year and seeing life which runs rather than moves, where people are least bothered about the person staying in the opposite door and the most common statement "Fast life" and "Uber cool " lifestyle is the funda of people about life. Some people pretend to be broad-minded just to show that they going along with the changing world and are cool about these issues, but to what extent they themselves don't know. Seeing the lives and mindset of people from the small city where i came from to the metropolitan lifestyle there is a big difference. One thing common is that they want to emulate someone else, like the small cities want to be like metros, and the people in metros want to follow the westerners.

Now coming back to the issue if the love marriage were to fail there would be the same people coming back and laughing at this point too, adding some salt to the wounds. Recently I read in an article that about a wedding of Indian couple who stay in UK in which both of them didn't knew that there are any categories or types of marriages like love and arranged, the reason was simple they don't have bifurcated the system of marriage into and arranged and love.

In the end all or some of these things go into minds of people of my genre who are in a relationship or want to be or are thinking about getting married. But the best solution to these aspects I dunno as of now, maybe a bit more of experience of life, some more news can get some feasible solution.

This day that year - Day 2

2006-11-01T06:38:00.000-08:00

Sorry for taking such a long time to finish of this part even after repeated reminders. I couldn’t complete this due to unavailability of time. So here is the second and the concluding part of my experience “This day that year”.

After catching some sleep in the breezy night I woke up at 7 in the morning and went out near station to take toll of the situation, but it was still drizzling. There was no point in returning back home as most of the places would be still flooded and having just a little above 100 rupees I thought of going to the nearest STM to withdraw some money for some urgent requirement. Hoping against hope that the ATM would be working went to old panvel. Most of the shops were closed and hotels too. There was nothing to offer to eat at any hotels or the road side tapriwalas. I reached the ATM center only to find “This ATM is out of order, please nearest ATM center” displayed on the ATM screen. With no other ATM machine nearby I started to walk back to the station, luckily I found a place where there was something to eat. By the time I reached there he had only one samosa and he was preparing vadapav. Having the single samosa and a plate of vadapav. On the way back to the station I took some paracetamol tablets for emergency sake. In the station there were very few people and I could get a place to sit on the chair which is meant for waiting purpose. Sitting there I was listening to radio hoping to get some news of the situations around. It was nice to hear the RJ’s helping out people in locating their near and dear ones instead of playing ads in between songs. I couldn’t continue this long as I had to keep a tab on my battery too, so it was better that I had kept it switch off. Finally when the rains stopped I thought of going near my house. I could see about 2 to 3 inch of mud on the road which I normally used to reach home, most of the people out on the streets, some trying to find milk or eatables and some cleaning up their house which was filed up with mud which had come with the water. Reaching near the road near the garden I could still see water which had not receded yet. On inquiring with some people nearby they told that there is still about 6 to 8 feet water on the road and I had to cross that road in order to reach my home. It didn’t strike me that I could use the highway route to reach my home. I stood there for few more minutes and could see people helping others crossing road even with water at neck deep height. Finally I decided to go back to the station and try going back home a little later but also thinking about the damage the deluge would have done.

At about 2 in the afternoon I started back again but this time from the highway route which is very long one. Though there was water at thigh high level I could manage to reach my home. On opening the door I could find most of my belongings standing back at the entrance door. I had to struggle hard to open the door since it got bloated due to the wetness. It was a complete mess with mud all over the floor and most of my books, clothes bags in drenched with mud. Even the almost full LPG cylinder had floated to some other place in the water. With very little water, which I got from the still falling rains I cleaned the whole house and the clothes books whatever I could, getting it to some better position than earlier. My neighbors were also busy in cleaning their house. Finally after about two hours of cleaning I could get rid of the mud that lies in my house and moved on to my aunt’s house for that night. I had it cleaned finally only on Friday since water was supplied for the whole day and I could do the remaining cleaning of the house.

This is one experience I will not be able to forget in my life, though it was a real bad experience it had thought me something. Maybe next time I could handle such situations better.

This day that year - Day 1

2006-07-26T04:49:00.000-07:00

By reading the heading most of you might have got an idea what this post would be, also with most of the dailies and news channels relaying the visuals of the event that happened this very day last year. Most of us who were staying in Mumbai might have gone through similar situation or maybe even worse. So this post is basically what I had been through on this very day, the details about the next that is of 27^th July, I will write in a new post tomorrow. I wanted to write this experience of mine a long time back but later on thought of posting it on this very day.

I used to stay in Panvel at the time of this deluge, and also at ground floor. The day began as usual waking up at the same time and getting ready for office, there was a change that it was raining since early morning, and the road a few meters away from my house which was my normal approach to the railway station was flowing with water at 4 ft. so I had to take a different route to reach the station, it wasn’t raining that heavily but it was raining. I caught the train and reached my office which is about 15 min by train that is in Belapur. Even at office the day was like any other day. By the time it was afternoon it started to pour heavily and some of started to get concerned about the rain, but everyone including me had the same thinking that it will stop soon. It was also the birthday of one of our support staff members and we had a small party at our office premises. Maybe this birthday I might not forget for a long long time. The area outside our office had already started to flood and the water level was rising to the silencer level of most of the two wheelers. By the time it was 4:30 we had got orders from the higher officials to vacate the premises as water had started to get into the ground floor of our building. By 5 PM even I thought of moving out of office. We came to know that the trains were not running and we had to take a bus till Panvel. I and one of my colleague who also stayed in Panvel moved out of office. When we reached ground floor we could see almost 2 to 4 inch of water on the ground floor, even though it was at considerable height water had managed to come in. The electric personnel’s started to shut down mains as they feared of short circuit or electrocution. The water level outside the main entrance was about 3 ft. we both somehow managed to come through the water and obviously we were wet till our thighs. Somehow we managed to reach the highway at Belapur, there were a lot people stranded there without any transport system available, and those which were coming were full till the doors, also there was traffic jam which is very unlikely in this area on any given time of a day. We stayed there for around half an hour for a bus but we couldn’t board any. The police personnel’s present there made a point in sending the ladies first in all the available transport systems. Finally we got a chance to go on a truck. It was raining heavily with wind, and over that we were in an open truck. It was very difficult to manage the balance and also hold the umbrella in position after a few distance I closed my umbrella as there was no point in keeping it open. We got down at Panvel highway and walked along the road and we moved to our homes. The road to my home was still flooded with water. Somehow I reached home and I could see water in front of my house.

So finally I reached home but there was no electricity and I started with lighting candles and just thinking of having some snacks and evening tea. It was 7:30 in the evening and after changing my dress I was out at my entrance door to see how the water is behaving. It had started to fill in some of the houses which were at a lower height, I knew that if this continues it won’t be long that my house will also be filled with water. At about 8 PM the water started to come inside my house. But something in me knew that it’s going to be worse, so I decided to move out of my house and go to my relative’s house which is Vashi, I changed my dress kept all the belongings at a pretty safer height on my kitchen platform and put one set of dress in my rather small bag and stuffed it with biscuit packet and a bottle of water and moved out of my house. When I came out of my house the water level was about 4 ft. I crossed the same path to reach the highway still unaware what is stored in for me and also couldn't judge the gravity of the situation. I was still hoping that the rains will stop in some time and the water will recede and everything will come back to normal. Reaching the highway I found that no buses were stopping there, so thought of moving to the bus depot and catching the bus from there. I could see the ST busses coming in to the depot but no busses moving out of the depot. I thought of having some food and ended up with vadapav, the only thing available at that moment. I purchased some packets of biscuit which would be good atleast till the next day as reserves. After waiting for about an hour heard the rumor that the train service have started, I got a company till the railway station. We both were hoping against hope that the trains will start, but to our bad luck or good luck the trains were not plying. It was 9:30 pm by then, there was an announcement that arrangements were made at the schools in that area for peoples affected by flooding, but the approach roads were full with about 6 to 7 ft of water. I tried to see that if there was any approach to the schools mentioned, but there wasn’t any. A person was standing in that heavy rain with flooding around for his company bus. I casually asked him why are you standing there to which he told that the company bus is coming to pick him up. I told him that there is no way that any vehicle can come till there that night. He agreed after knowing the fact that the water is indeed very much and made way to his home. Meanwhile I moved back to railway station which was luckily not flooded with water. The foot over bridge was occupied by nearby slum people. I decided to see a place to atleast sit on the railway platform for that night. Luckily I got a place there to sit but the platform was open, I started to feel cold since I was wet and there was breeze along with the rain. I couldn’t stay any longer there and moved near the ticket counter area as the rest rooms were given to ladies. Luckily had some newspaper of that day and finally I sat there near the ticket counter to avoid the cool breeze. It was 12 in the night I was awake and saw that my mobile network was still working, but it didn’t last long and even that too went off. I could see some more people stranded like me trying to call their near and dear ones and telling them that they are safe and would reach home as soon as this rains stop. Some of them were smoking cigarette to overcome cold. I couldn’t control my sleep and slept there itself in sitting position.

This was the experience of this day, the experience of the next day will be published tomorrow.

Its rainy season again !!!!!

2006-05-31T00:14:00.000-07:00

Most of the people in Mumbai and various parts of India might have not forgotten the day, this very rain played havoc in their lives in one way or the other. I can still not forget how I spent the whole night at the railway platform of Panvel just waiting for the rains to stop, remembering the nursery rhyme “Rain rain go away little Jhonny wants to play some day, Rain rain go away”. The seasons changed form rains to winter to summer, and almost all of us were cursing the scorching heat of the summer with the added fact that we had to face power cuts too. Now finally rains came yesterday, the met officials claim that these are pre monsoon showers and the actual rains are expected in another 48 hours.

Yesterday while coming back home form my office I could see the sky filled with black clouds, now that was a sign of rains but I have been seeing then for past two three days, they came and went. But today it was determined to do something, while walking on the road I could see the lightning strike and also could hear the thunders. This was a sure sign that it’s going to rain today. I could feel few droplets of water falling on me, I could smell the fragrance coming after the first showers form the earth, it was tantalizing me. Later on it started to rain and I sat by the window of my house and enjoyed the view of the rain, also I could see many people near their window enjoying the rains. On the building opposite to mine I could see some kids coming out of their house and enjoying getting wet in the first rain. I couldn’t resist getting wet in the rain, I stood in my terrace under the rain till it stopped, I could see more people enjoying getting wet in this rain. I could even see a 60 year old man sitting over the compound wall on his banyan and pajamas and getting drenched in the rain while his wife stood under the building’s parking area seeing him getting drenched. Almost everybody I could see had a smile on their face from small kids to teenagers like me to oldies.

Maybe this is the way god has made the nature, so that people truly and fully enjoy every season as it comes and don’t take it for granted. The summers were harsh but the rains have given more enjoyment and smile on everybody’s face than grief, similarly spring season is enjoyed after winter. This really give the message that there always a “Silver Lining“. Maybe this is how god says how you should live our life, it will be hard at times but this is never permanent, the seasons will change so will life. So live life as it comes and never curse it there is light at the other end of the tunnel.

Have you traveled in such a bus !!!

2006-05-26T04:25:00.000-07:00

It’s been long since I wrote since I was busy with my other schedules.

This is about the fortunate travel in a state transport bus the other day. I had been to a party hosted by my cousin and it was night by the time the party ended and had to think of traveling through state transport bus to my house.

I boarded this bus which had full AC, FULL AC!!!, the seats were really superb they were all cushioned and there were some rocker seats too. But I didn’t had the fortune to get a seat on one of them. To my surprise there was fusion music played this was something like “sone pe suhaga”. It was a great treat to imagine sitting in a rocker seat with full AC and fusion music played on the ride to my home. I have to say that the road were really smooth unlike as they are know to be with “manholes” rather than pothole and the bus was cruising on these roads. These whole things had a soothing effect and I couldn’t control my eyes which were already heavy.

Now that you have imagined the whole journey I would like to give you some facts too. Here the AC meant Air Circulation and not Air Condition as you might have imagined, the seat were literally swaying like the rockers and the person sitting on them probably couldn’t hold on his heavy eyes and had a lovely nap till his destination, and the fusion music created was by the loose glass panes, nuts, seats, body and doors, chimes were produced by the conceal fitted on the roof and I can bet that nobody can ever reproduce the same fusion music. I still think of the lovely trip I had.

Have you experienced such a journey??

My life rating..

2006-03-31T21:21:00.000-08:00

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	6.2
Mind:	6.2
Body:	7.8
Spirit:	6.7
Friends/Family:	3
Love:	2.1
Finance:	6.5
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

The Average ratings ..

Life	: 6.4
Mind	: 6.4
Body	: 7.0
Sprit	: 6.3
Friends & Family	: 4.8
Love	: 4.0
Finance	: 6.0

Idli House venture...

2006-03-11T03:41:00.000-08:00

It was another venue for the konquerors (Myself, Nagesh, Abhijit and the new entrant Ganesh) to meet again, and the location was Idli house at King circle Mumbai on 27th February 2006 at 4:00 PM. Even this meet was not planned before hand and the sutradhar was Nagesh, we were to have a offline meeting there with Deepak whom I didn’t know.

As usual I had classes at Ghatkopar till 3:00 PM, and knew that the train lines were blocked at kurla due to some work and the fast trains will not stop at matunga. I called up Nagesh and my brother and we decided to get together at Ghatkopar and we’ll go together from there. Luckily we got the bus which was going to Tardeo, meanwhile Deepak had reached the venue before 4:00 PM itself, and we had a journey of half an hour to cover. Luckily the traffic was not much. We reached king circle and after getting down Nagesh told that the girls group that were in the bus were having a stare at Ananth (that’s me) and I was like “Why in the world would they stare at me I’m not that good or smart for such looks, probably they were eying you buddy”.

We reached Idli house and we had Deepak waiting for us there. Ganesh was on his way and we decide to wait for him to come, there came the person again and we were describing about the person to Deepak. We decided to have tea at the stall there and we were contemplating about the Idli house. After 20 minutes Ganesh had come there. Even he had a cup of tea, after a session of photography we went into Idli house our new venture, as everybody had heard of it but no one had tried it. Abhijit, Deepak and Ganesh ordered for Khotto (The batter of Idli is steamed in a jackfruit leaf shaped like a cup and can), Nagesh went for Oondi (Ground rice is semi- cooked and to that a tadaka of sesame seeds and kadi patta is added and the whole is made into a mixture and it is made into round shape with a depression at the centre and cooked) and I took Mysore Idli. Well one thing special was that the coconut chutney (a favorite of mine) was not served in a bowl of ½ cm in depth and 4 cm in diameter as it is customary with Mumbaia hotels, the depth varies from ½ cm to 2 cm . The waiter brought a big tumbler like container and “Poured” chutney with a big spoon, the quantity was for us to decide. There was pudi chutney with coconut oil over it. Everybody loved the cuisine, it was like we were eating a typical home made Konkani cuisine and eventually everybody ordered for a second round. There has to be a coffee or tea after such a cuisine and on knowing that there is filter coffee everybody went for that. Deepak liked the filter coffee and ordered another without sugar. There was a small dialogue between Nagesh and Deepak and I’ll write it that way to preserve the originality.

Nagesh: Deepak why didn’t you ask for sugar in your coffee ?

Deepak: The coffee is like godda pank (sweet syrup)!!!

Nagesh: Tu tamilian se hi shaadi karega!!!

Nagesh: They require a truck load of coffee and even a little of sugar (literally showing with his fingers) and still it’s sweet for them. Are kidney mar jayega, aisa strong coffee piya to.

We came out, and interestingly the bill came at Rs. 30 per head. Nagesh had a small chit chat with the person who was at the cash counter (son on the owner), and we had a formal introduction of the owner. Deepak wanted to go as he had a meeting with another group of his. We were waiting for Pravin Da whom I had heard about from the other people and had to meet him face to face, he a very active member on Orkut and known as Phatka master. Actually he wanted to join in with us but since he had upavas of Mahashivaratri, so he didn’t join us for the Idli house venture. He arrived in about 20 min, we had an informal introduction of all again. He came in with a plan of going walking to Shivaji Park and coming back so it would be a good 2 km evening walk. Everybody was ready for it, Nagesh told that he would be leaving us from the matunga station as he had to meet somebody. We started our walk he started to tell about his old day stories and how he and his friends would go walking around this stretch. He even showed the place where we can get Kulfi's even at 12 in the night. We went over the Z Bridge from king circle to matunga, we could see the railway workshop adjoining the bridge and even got a sneak view of the interiors. Nagesh separated from us at the matunga station and we moved on further. Meanwhile Pravin Da asked that there is a mall called Magnet there and his friend was telling him about visiting it atleast once, everybody agreed to it, I said “Neki aur puch puch “. He started to search Karnataka sangha hall and we saw it atlast after a big roam around here and there. Form there on we went into the magnet mall. It’s a good place to do shopping and especially ladies would love it, its got all from groceries to clothes to utensils et all but one thing is that you’ll have to look for is the cost, if the cost is ok with you then you can go and have a nice weekend shopping. They are not too high but maybe a bit (I didn’t went into details of the cost much but rather I was doing window shopping and accompanying Pravin Da in his new venture). We split into two groups me and Ganesh and Praivn Da and Abhijit. We both went on to explore the whole mall and later even went on to contemplate some ideas of marketing, Ganesh was sharing his lessons he had learnt at his company and I was sharing my own observations, but it was fun and most importantly we both wee enjoying it. I was looking at some of the items that are used for house decoration and was making plans to get some of those types for my new house. We moved out and Pravin Da broke his upavas with Britannia cheese over biscuit, which they were giving for marketing the product. Pravin Da was to go by bus as he was used of that but we were used of trains in Mumbai and it was the first choice over bus. He asked us whether we were interested in going to Shivaji Park, but since it was around 8 Pm in the evening we rejected that idea and Pravin Da also came with us till matunga station with us. The discussion on the same person came here too as even Pravin Da knows about the person. We crossed the Z Bridge again and we were at the matunga station and Pravin Da said goodbye to us and we were in the next available train. I split from them at kurla station as I have to change my train.

Traveling towards my house with the memories of the flavor of the Konkani delicacies we had at Idli house and also meeting two new personalities. One thing for sure is that after 2 years in Mumbai I can take somebody to this place to have this Konkani delicacies, and atleast nobody will tell me that you know nothing in Mumbai even after staying for 2 years. I would recommend the readers, who stay in Mumbai and persons visiting Mumbai to have a taste of the delicacies of Idli house. It will be open from evening 4 Pm to 8 Pm. Mornings are to be avoided as there will be a lot of rush at this very place. It would be a best thing to club a small time at Idli house and have a walk till Shivaji Park.

Images Courtesy Nagesh. Click here

The evening with Spirituality

2006-03-10T05:20:00.000-08:00

The plan to go to this event was organized in a hurried manner. On Friday 3rd march night, my cousin brother calls me and tells that there is an event or rather a musical evening at Bhavans college Andheri of Shri Upendra Bhat. He said that he will go via ghatkopar so I could meet him there and we could go together to the venue. I told him that you can call nagesh also as he stays there only and even he could join us, to which he said “Is plan ka sutradhar to wohi hai”( The main organizer of this event is nagesh). I said ok and the next day on a conference we decided that I would come to andheri station directly and these people will be coming together from ghatkopar. The target time was 5:30 PM as the show was to start at 6:00 PM. I reached andheri at around 5:20 PM but the these people hadn’t reached there. On calling them I came to know they were at chakala and it would take another 20 min to reach there. So instead of waiting I decided to do some window shopping. The items that were there tempted me to buy some but I decided not to go for them. In the meanwhile they had reached andheri and were standing near the McDonalds. I joined them leaving my window shopping halfway. The Konqueror group meet again but this time only the three base members were there and a new entry to the group of Konquerors it was me, nagesh, abhijit and the new entry of ganesh. My bro introduced ganesh saying that even he’s from mangalore (my home town) and you people can chat about yourself. There on we moved to have sugarcane juice, and we thought of walking the distance rather than taking bus or rick, as we would reach there earlier than those.It was about 10 to 15 min walk and we enjoyed chatting with each other it was like abhi and nagesh were in their own world and me and ganesh in ours. We reached Bhavans college at around 6:10 PM and we noticed that there was a board saying that the program will start at 6:30 PM. Further moving on we say another board with the event timing 7:00 PM. The venue was good one and the place where Shri Upendra Bhat was to perform was next to a shiva temple and the next day being Mahashivaratri. It was a perfect thing to have a bhajana sahdya the evening before Mahashivaratri. The show only began after 7:20 PM. How could we forget one person we three share in common and I feel this persons venture surfaces when we meet together. The surrounding was too good for such an event with trees around, and birds had come to their nests after a long days work.

One person came on stage to introduce Shri Upendra Bhat who is a disciple of Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, a vocalist. His voice was like our famous radio personality Ameen Sayani. He went on to tell about this show and when it came to introduce Shri Upendra Bhat he was reading a manuscript (along with mistakes). When the show started the birds started to fly around and it looked like they were encircling the shiva temple and offering their prayers to him. The flock of birds looked like white waves in a sea. The whole environment had something spiritual and it had a soothing effect, all I had to do was close my eyes and feel it.
After a few songs we went out to have something and nagesh told that we could try vadapav as he had already certified it as good. We all had vadapav and returned back to the venue but our seat were occupied by somebody else, so we had to sit behind. After one bhajan the organizer thought of taking a break and everybody had gone for filling their stomach so did Shri Upendra Bhat. We had the opportunity to meet Bhatji as nagesh’s father knew him and he was there on the stage accompanying him. We had already filled our stomach and we had to wait there till other’s had finished their break. Meanwhile we got our seat back. After about 20 minutes the show resumed and Bhatji told that he has got a lot of request of songs from the people gathered. In the second half of the show he began with explaining the details of various ragas and how and when they are used. He went on to say that nowadays the Bollywood music industry takes music from classical background and those songs go on for a super duper hit.

The song Saa ni pa … Tu cheez badi hai mast ( from mohra) “Ye saab to hame pahile sikhaya jata hai, agar koyi naya vidhyarhti aata hai to haam usse yehi dete hai aur che mahina yahi seekhane ke liye batate hai” ( We are taught the same thing when we join to learn classical music, and when any new person joins we give him the same thing to learn for 6 months)

“I had asked a person what is the next line of Dhoom macha le dhoom and interestingly they couldn’t answer that, today’s music are not like the olden days music which can be remembered”

Continuing this he went on to sing bhajans that were requested Baje muraliya and even one kannada bhajan of “Namamma sharade..”

Finally the event came to an end at around 10:45 pm. We moved from there, all of the other people had to take a bus but I had to take a train. I stood in the line for the ticket and in the mean while this incident happened there.

There was foreigner lady standing there and probably waiting for somebody, and a local lady comes there and starts to talk with her, initially I thought it was something casual but it was something different, as the foreigner was using worse words with her. The local lady looked rather an illiterate lady and with some screws loose probably. The worst part was the area got crowded there and everybody was there enjoying the treat instead of saying the local lady to stop, somebody even took snaps of the verbal fight. Later a lady ventured to sort out the fight and yelled at the people saying “Yahan kya tamasha ho raha hai kya, Dusara kaam nahi hai kya aap logo ko ?” Is there a play going on, you people don’t have any other work or what? She came back as her husband was standing there in the line and narrated about the incident. The funniest part was a person who was totally drunk got the ticket and while moving went on to praise “You are correct madam” literally swaying here and there.

Amidst all these I had been calculating about the time of the last train to panvel from kurla, whether I’ll get a train or not. Finally I got a train from Andheri to Dadar and from there to Kurla reaching just in time to catch the last train to panvel that night at 12:15 am. I reached home at around 1:30 am.
All this time while traveling I was thinking about the two contrasting thing happened that night one was a splendid performance of Shri Upendra Bhat and the fight that happened at the railway station which was rather useless altogether and over that the public stand there having fun at the verbal fight.

My Heart Broke

2006-01-27T23:55:00.000-08:00

I had met this girl who was short, slim and good looking. Soon we became good friends, somewhere I felt like I had started to like her. I didn’t knew whether it was love, attraction or just infatuation. But later on I found I loved her and I started to think how I would continue my life with her. I knew that it was not going to be easy but I knew how I would go about these things. There was a thought about the sirens that would be raised by my relatives and neighbors since it would be a love marriage. I knew that my parents are going to oppose this or maybe I could convince them that I could live with her happily. I was in two minds, on one side I was making my mind to tell her that I love her and how we could live together, though we would have to face some resistance from my society but I knew how we could handle this. But on the other hand I was fearing that if I tell her that I love her and she accepts it and if I cannot take it to the logical end it would be a utter foolishness and betraying her after she had really trusted in me. Suddenly she popped and told me that she met a guy and she actually fell in love with him and was seeing to live the whole life with this guy. As she was describing how she met him and how he was, I got suspended in my own world. I could feel my heart break, I felt like I was drowning in an ocean which had no ends to its depth. How could this happen so fast, so soon Oh God why only me. I almost had tears in my eyes but I didn’t want it to come. I was forcing a smile on my face and pretending to enjoy what she was saying and sort of supporting and happy for her. She went on and on about him, but I was physically there but mentally I was in a deep ocean which had no limits to its bottom, I was sinking down deep below. Suddenly my mobile rang I took it but there was no one on the other end. It was a welcome break to me as I could gather myself. I started to talk about her newly found love and how she was going to make her life with her newly found guy, the mobile shouted again by now I was half awake on my bed I lifted it and kept it down and suddenly I woke up as if electricity had passed through me. Looking around I was in my bed, I didn’t knew whether what I felt was real or my imagination. I could feel the dry tears on my face. Oh it was a dream which I just had, and it was not somebody’s call it was the alarm I had kept. I had a hearty laugh on myself. I couldn’t believe it that it was a dream I had but it had really shook me of my ground. The whole day I was like the people who have hangovers after a night of alcohol. Only near evening I had come over this whole thing and was feeling relaxed, happy with it. Every time I remember this I have a hearty laugh for this dream.

Kurlavale Kup LeGaye

2006-01-20T05:44:00.000-08:00

I had been to dombivli for witnessing an inter saraswat match on 15/01/2006, thought of writing it down on my blog. I thought that it would be better to pen down the things that happened off the field with some infield excitement and catchy moments, because I’m pretty bored of the cricketing column of the newspaper which are filled with cuisine called ganguly served in different magnificent dishes with some toppings every now and then. One thing for sure is that my narration wouldn’t be better or comparable to the expert columnist of the daily newspaper and secondly I don’t know much of the names of the people involved in this event. It would be incomplete without the names of these people but putting all the names would look like a census list which I was not there for. But actually I was hoping to get a place in some playing eleven just for the sake of playing which I hadn’t done for almost 2 years of the sport I savor the most.

Some history to start with.

This event was started last year and the brains behind this event were the GSB youth wing of dombivli. This year it was initiated, coordinated by two persons namely Nagendra Bhat and Prashant Kini, ofcourse there was the help from the elder members too.

How the day went for me

The whole event was to be started at 8:30 in the morning on a beautiful Sunday morning of 15/01/2006. All the organizing members and the team members of the first encounter were called at 8:00 am itself. So I was accompanying my cousin brother, the official scorer of the match. We reached a bit late though the teams had arrived for the first encounter of the day. All the arrangements were made the commentary box, the pitch etc. Now at around 9:00 am it was time to start the matches. As per our traditional values any event would start with a puja to god and breaking of coconut. The same was here the inaugural puja and lighting up of lamps was done by Mr. B.G Pai, Yogesh shenoy and yogesh shenoy’s father. After the puja at the commentary box it was time to break the coconut at the pitch, this was done by Mr B.G. Pai, after which the toss was done between the two teams who had the first schedule for the day it was between GSB dombivli and RSB dombivli. The toss was won by GSB dombivli and put the RSB team to bat. It was an easy cake for the host team though and the GSB dombivli team won in the end. I had the opportunity to be a spectator and that to be in the commentator’s box. One person was pestering our official scorer about the surety of wining of the RSB team (since her brother was also there in the RSB team). The commentary of the proceedings was done by Sai (Sainath pai) and Ashwin kamath.

The second match was between GSB Seva Mandal Sion and GSB kurla. The kurla team won the match but one exciting thing was the hattrick wicket taken by vignesh of GSB seva mandal Sion. It was a splendid piece of bowling with two wickets in last two balls of the first over and the third in the very first ball of his second over, this was the first time that any bowler had hattrick this tournament. This is a record set this year only, the commentators confirmed that even last year nobody had achieved this feat and Vignesh being first one to achieve. The third match was between khardanda and saraswat from santacruz. This match was another one sided match with santacruz team winning it without loosing any wicket. The commentary team was joined by Mr. U.P. Pai. One thing everybody would like to do is leg pulling of the engaged couples (yet to marry ones) and the same was here, Sai (recently engaged) was not in the team of GSB Dombivli as he had made up his mind to play in the longer version of the game (life) than be in he shorter version (Everybody would love to play a longer version of the game of life). Later on he was found having some practice of cricket with his would be wife. The intermediate moments of the cricket proceeding were filled in by singtunes and ringtunes of mobile phones (they couldn’t get a cdman as planned earlier). Both the organizers Nagendra bhat and prashant kini were looking a bit excited or to say somewhat impatient to see that everything worked as per the plan. At around 12 o’clock in the noon I thought of having some breakfast, it was missal pav and tea. Coming back to the game it was the last league match between the borivili team and the wadala team. The star attraction was the superb batting performance of guru who took on sunil of borivili to 18 runs in an over with 2 sixes and 1 four, eventually the wadala team wining the match and making it to the semis.

Now that the league match was over and the lineup for semi finals was ready it was time for some real action on the field. One thing I really appreciated was the voices of cats and dogs that were beautifully reproduced by Mr. C.N.Prabhu. when he did it for the first time I thought that it was from some mobile but looking around I couldn’t get one near the mike but when he did it the second time I came to know that it was him (I was sitting next to him in the commentary box). I didn’t have my lunch neither did any of the host team members. It was time for the first semifinal match between the host team (the winner of the tournament last year and the favorites for this year) and saraswat santacruz. By this time I had moved from the commentary box to a different place of the ground with some new friends who were introduced to me by Chetan. We saw the host team struggling to get some runs initially but later on they put on a respectable score of 58 for the loss of 2 wickets in 8 overs. It was time for the santacruz team for batting. The host team had made a good show of bowling till the last over, and santacruz team required 19 runs to win in the last over. It was difficult task to get those runs but not impossible. One thing for sure is that mihir will haunt even in the nightmares of one person who bowled the last over. Mihir took his team to an unbelievable victory by scoring the required 19 runs in the last over. This victory had the winning team in excitement (which was obvious) and resulting in an unwanted incident (one of the team member went onto uproot all the wickets with his legs, which I thought was unethical and not good for the spirit of the game too) later on there was a heated drama between one of the organizing member and the santacruz team. It was later settled down by the person admitting his fault and terming it was due to sheer excitement of the victory. The host team was low after an unbelievable loss even though they were in the winning seat. This is what the game is all about, as I have heard many a times that the “game is not over till the last ball is bowled”. It looked very true today in this particular match. I went for having lunch with my bro and my friends (old and new ones). The recipe was pullao, salad and kurma. It was really good to have it, though the home team didn’t enjoy it as they would have liked to.

The second semifinal match was between kurla and wadala. Though there was not much of an excitement as it looked like a one sided match. The kurla team looked solid in front of the wadala team, they made a good score and later on won the match.

Now it was time for the grand final between santacruz and kurla team. The kurla team won the toss and elected to bat. The kurla team as in the previous matches started of slowly but later on increased their speed of scoring and set a victory target of 65 for the santacruz team. The start was shaky as they lost their 1^st wicket early. One thing was clear that wadala team had picked venkat of kurla team as the target and were hitting the ball near him duly because of his sloppy fielding. They had taken almost 12 to 15 runs around him. After the change in field position of venkat another wicket fell. One thing for sure was that had it not been venkat bowling an over santacruz team would have scored more runs around him. The tormentor (Mihir) of the previous match couldn't take his team to victory, he got out due to a beautiful catch taken by Jaywant in the deep. In the end kurla team won the final.

It was time for prize distribution ceremony and the dignitaries were Mr. B.G.Pai., Mr. V.M.Nayak, G.S.Nayak, Ratnakar.Bhat. and Vinayak Kamath (Representative of youth wing). All the winning and the runner-up team members were given a momentary medals with the GSB Dombivli logo on it. The player of the series was given to Jaywant Bhandarkar, the best batsman to Ganesh Shanbhag and the best bowler to Rohan Nayak, all the three from the kurla team. Sai had called both captains for a small talk and the captain of kurla team confessing that last year when they were runners-up, he had made up his mind that they would win it this time. The captain of the runners-up team told that they would come next year and go for the kill for winning the trophy. Everybody was happy and pleased about the arrangements. One thing I could observe is that some of the santacruz team members had decided that they would go for the trophy next year. Now the big question does history repeats its trend? Well have to wait till next year for that.

The two key and important persons nagendra and prashant kini received three cheers from all of the youth wing members and me too, simply because the arrangements were top class and setting up the example ahead to other organizers the other saraswat teams were planning to match this level or even outperform.

The Karnala Konquest

2005-12-30T04:36:00.000-08:00

Well this is my first blog of my life, I was thinking what to write as a blog and thought that the whole description of the trek I had just some days before on 24/12/2005 would be a better one for my first venture in bloging.....

The plan was to meet at Panvel station by 8:30 am. All the members had reached before 8:30 Am, I reached a bit late though in time as per the plan. It was 8:30 dot in my watch. I had a formal introduction of the two new faces. One was an online group member and the other one was his best friend. We were totally seven to begin with Abhijit with a personality next to ambani’s (he was working in the same group before venturing in MBA at IIT) his two younger sisters. Fourth one was a special person who is known to have a hyperactive personality and passionate about photography, fifth was nagesh whom I was meeting for the first time face to face the sixth being his good old college best friend, lastly myself. One thing was that my cousin who is 14 year old though younger amongst all of us had the enthusiasm to go in for a trek comparable to ours. The journey began from Panvel we caught the shuttle bus to alibagh at 8:35 AM. Mr. Ramesh the hyperactive person had a bit of a handshake with the door of the ST bus and the handle almost coming in his hands. We reached karnala bird sanctuary at about 8:50 AM. A big group of people was already there who had also come for some expedition. The ticket cost was rupees 20 per person. We started to walk inside the sanctuary and we saw a board with the history of the karnala fort. I saw a board which said that “The birds are kept in cage for temporary period and soon it will be released from the cage” in marathi and we could see some birds captive in cage. Interestingly I had seen the same board about six months back also with birds in the cage. I don’t know how many months or years do these “soon“mean. What caught our eyes was a dead duck in a pond of the cage. Nagesh had decided to get this thing to the notice of the whole world, we took some pictures of the duck and we were to begin the ascent to the fort. From bottom we could see the thumb like stone of the fort. Three of the group members were having cameras and I was missing mine a lot, after a bit of imaginative and trick photography we decided to start with the ascent. We crossed the dam and started to move on. It was not much steep though and my 14 year old a bit happy asked “Is this the tuff path? It looks easy ”, to which I replied that this is just the beginning just see what lie’s ahead ;-). Again the photographers started their job and one of our group member uttered “Digital camera ka yahi problem hai”. After 10 min of the ascent the slope began to get steeper and everybody started to feel the slope. It was not so steep though, we had to use roots of tree and branches for climbing. Most of the group members were trying to conserve their energy to make it to the top. We made a halt for a moment in between were we could see the sun and also the greenery and the highway from the only opening between the trees it was really marvelous to look at. Most of us were a bit tired and thirsty but one person was in an urge to finish the trek and it was my 14 year old cousin sister. We started from this point and moved forward and we reached the plateau though it was only half way to the fort but the next phase was going to be easy one. The photography continued. Nagesh captured a burnt ant hill in his camera and we moved further. One thing special and most common was that we were linked to a particular group and we had the same thought of a person and we were talking mostly about the person only, the person might have got a lot of hiccups and yawns that whole day. Finally we reached the fort and the big thumb like rock stood in front of us smiling and kind of boasting about its height and firmness which every person aims of having. We had some creative persons in the whole pack and trying to give some life to the boldly standing rock. It varied from a king looking at the whole dynasty with proud ness and royalty to a queen having a firm beautiful face with a nakhani on her nose. We reached the fort at 11:45 AM with relaxed for some time, and thought of having lunch. Some of the group members were hungry. The lunch menu was a good one which included chapatti, methi paratha, cauliflower and batata bhaji. Nagesh had started to tell a real life story and the ups and downs that went behind the marriage of one of our group member while everyone was having their lunch. I sincerely hope that it comes to a happy conclusion. Mr. Ramesh was very much inspired and a bit enthusiastic in helping him in whatever way he can. Now the mood and tempo was set to hear stories from other people. The story about how the youth wing came up and how it got dissolved. Our eminent photographers thought of a photography session with photos in group, single and not to forget the two lions guarding the grand door to the fort at the rear end. We spent almost one and a half hour at the fort and finally decided that it was time to start the descent. While coming down near the main gate we could see a lot of school kids coming towards the fort and it looked like a group of small ants. We meet them in the middle and the kids were mostly were of high school level and had come here for picnic. We wondered what in the world did these people thought of having a picnic at the fort, some of the kids even had brought football, badminton etc for playing there. We even enquired a kid as to how many kids were in total? 400 was the answer, and most were thirsty and somebody told them that water is available at the fort!!!! . By 3:15 PM were near the base of the hill, we saw a water tap and most of us quenched our thirst. Our hyperactive ramesh was in some mood of taking the photo of the monkey, as soon as he took the photo the monkey made a peculiar face as if getting ready for a photo shoot. From there we moved on to the main entrance one the main thing we noticed that the dead duck was not there in the pond. At the entrance ramesh informed the security about the school kids and told them to count the number of kids they might be less. There were fresh honey from the forest on display and most of us took one bottle each. Mr. ramesh got some info that there is a hotel nearby and we decided to go there. In the mean time nagesh noticed that we hadn’t been talking for almost one hour about the famous person we knew and the talking began on the same person. We all walked for 1 km to find the hotel called “kshanbhar vishranti”. One thing what had all of us wonder was “how many minutes or hours does a kshana mean?”. We had ordered for vadapav and missal pav but after a good 20 minutes he comes and says that it is not available. Then we ordered for something else and that too we confirmed him that we will get it soon. We got it after about 15 minutes, the bill came in real quick time. The “Kshanabhar vishranti was converted to tas bhar vishranti” ( kshana means a moment to be precise its 75th fraction of a second, and tas means one hour in marathi). We stood near the highway for bus to Panvel bus stand, initially we couldn’t get a bus as not even a single bus was stopping there. We finally got a ST bus and we came to Panvel and as we had met in morning we separated towards our home. Nagesh was more than ready for another such event. But one thing was that everybody was happy with the expedition and made new friends.