Dew drops........!

2010-06-15T02:19:00.000-07:00

Vehicle Registration Process Hyderabad

Residing in one of the major cities in India can be pain at times. It’s pretty unlike your native home town where you can always manage to find some distant relative in a particular department and get the work done without any trouble. This is exactly where so called "Agents" comes into role in Hyderabad. From rentals to train tickets and from license to passport they play as our "Deus ex machina". But sometimes they are blood sucking parasites asking mind boggling sums of money for the simplest of tasks. And we self sufficient and lazy intellectuals give in to their absolutely inappropriate demands.
Very recently I bought a new vehicle and I needed to file its permanent registration. The agents asked me varying sums of money, most likely depending on my appearance. I think they asked Rs.2000/- when I just woke up and met one of them at 8AM in the morning and Rs.3000 - Rs.3500 when called them to my office. To my surprise the actual fee for filing permanent registration of a four wheeler was only Rs.650. The agent was basically asking rest of the amount for my ignorance, impatience and laziness. So I gave the task a try myself and trust me it wasn't painful at all. Here is the course of actions required to get your permanent vehicle registration done.

1. There are n number of RTAs in Hyderabad. The office that I visited was RTA Kondapur.

2. Required forms to submit:
a. Form 20 – 1 original (1 more copy if the vehicle is financed from other party e.g. bank etc.)
b. Form 22 – Original (Declaration from the manufacturer that the bought vehicle is as per the standards)
c. Form 21 – Original (Sales certificate)
d. Temporary registration slip - Original
e. Life tax receipts – Original
f. Vehicle Invoice from showroom – Original
g. Insurance certificate – photocopy
h. Date of birth proof (Passport/PAN/High school certificate/Birth Certificate) - photocopy
i. Address proof (Passport/Ration Card/Electricity Bill/LIC certificate/Bank statement of last six months attested by the bank manager) – photocopy (Attested copy in case of Bank statement)
j. Self addressed envelope (Will be used by RTA people to send your RC)

3. Please ensure that the dealer provides you a,b,c,d,e,f from the above list. Also collect the insurance note from dealer as sometimes it takes time for insurance people to deliver the insurance policy certificate.
4. Take all the forms as listed in point 2 and submit it to the respective window counter.
5. After verifying the form they will take Rs.625. The officer at the window will staple the original receipt and its copy with your documents and give it back to you.
6. He will then ask you to sign on an electronic pad to put the same signatures in your RC.
7. There after you take your forms to the MVI (Motor Vehicle Inspector). Usually he is a police guy sitting outside of the registration window in an open counter.
8. Give your forms to that guy and he will ask you to put the pencil impression of your engine and chassis number on the form (Put your form on the engine/chassis number and rub your pencil on top of it to take its impression.)
9.Take it to the main RTO officer (as instructed my MVI). RTO officer will just verify the forms once again and will ask you to get the vehicle inspected by the MVI.
10. You again come back to MVI and ask him to verify the engine and chassis. MVI will come to your vehicle to match the engine/chassis numbers you have mentioned on the form.
11. That’s it. He will give you back the original receipt and you are free to go.

Couple of things to keep in mind

1. Take all the forms in original as sometimes the officers may ask to see them.
2. The physical presence of the vehicle and the person to be registered as its owner is compulsory.
3. Do not forget to take a pencil, pen and a stapler. I remember asking a pencil from a guy and he said “Sorry I can’t give it to you”. People can be real jackass in needy hours.
4. Keep proper change and give the exact amount when the fee is asked. Window counter guy really appreciated that.
5. Counter opens at 10:30 AM, so be there by 10:15. In later hours agents hog the queue. Imagine each agent submitting 10-20 forms.
6. Sometimes the MVI isn’t present, so just be patient as the inspection is done only till 2 o clock and if you come the next day for inspection than you have to pay the registration fee (Rs.625) again.
7. Be polite to the officers. After all you wouldn’t have much time to spare and those guys won’t mind spending hours for an argument.
8. We usually prefer Saturday but RTA is closed on even Saturdays of the month.
I hope the contents of the write up will help some of you.

-Anupam

2009-10-14T01:26:00.000-07:00

विजय पिपासा

यदा कदा या सदा सदा,
क्यों तेरे मन में क्लेश जगा
जीवन की क्षणभंगुरता में,
आत्मग्लानि और द्वेष भगा

एक मात्र कटुपल की निंदा,
जो तेरा उपहास करे
कर स्मरण हर्षित स्मृतियों का,
जो संग तेरे उल्हास भरे

समय कुटिल हो, भाग्य जटिल हो,
लक्ष्य तेरा अटल अविजित हो
एक एक कर पग भरता जा,
ध्यान रहे बस चित पुलकित हो

भाग्य द्वार पे कपट प्रहरी,
प्रतिपल द्रिष्टि रखते हैं
हर प्रयत्न पे तेरी अच्लित,
प्रेरणा की पुष्टि करते हैं

काल चक्र के बंधन में जब,
लगे अंत हो जायेगा
कर स्वतंत्र ले मन अपना तू,
तन स्वतः स्वतंत्र हो जायेगा

कभी गिरा जो नीर गगन से,
मिटटी में मिल जाता है
कभी वही जब पड़े सीप पे,
मोती बन इठलाता है

विजय श्री एक मृग तृष्णा है,
बुझ कर भी जो बुझे नहीं
ले टटोल अंतर्मन अपना,
छुपी मिलेगी तुझे वहीँ

~ अनुपम

2008-06-08T01:15:00.000-07:00

Happy Feet (Link to the picture album)

It has been a tough, slogging like an ass kind of, last couple of months at office. So for a much needed break, I was quite desperate for a trip. However to my surprise I didnt know that rest of my group will prefer visiting fairy foreign lands or sit like a duck at home due to minor Back Ache (in air quotes). Anyways I chalked out an itinerary for 7 days trek to Pindari Glacier, one of the famous northern Himalayan glaciers that sprawls over more than 3 Km. I gave it a thought and perhaps breathing in a perfect solitude at an altitude of about 13000ft was something that doesn’t happen often in a lifetime. Somehow I knew that it was time to pack my rucksack and dust off my trekking boots alone.

First Step (Hyderabad - Delhi - Haldwani - Bageshwar - Loharkhet, 6800ft)
At every juncture the journey gets tougher or may be in a sense it gets better. One gets to travel with every possible means of commutation. Flight to foot. My father arranged a guide and on 26th may we were off to Loharkhet ; The base camp. Although I was proud and always considered myself as a mountain person but making mockery of my sentiments, that initial 5 km hill trek took all the sweat and pride out of me. It was a surprisingly cool May night in Loharkhet, an unremarkable concrete hill-village perched inside a vast forest of oaks and pines. The sky was clear and a million stars seemed tacked onto the inky blackness. It was a tiring journey from Hyderabad to Bageshwar but now we were firmly in the mountains and my eyes had already started becoming dull.

Steep rise (Loharkhet - Dhakudi, 8600 ft)
It was a tough trek for the day as we needed to walk about 11 km at an elevation of more than 65 degrees. We started off at 5:00 am but soon the entire valley was doused in a neat sunshine. On the way I kept nibbling edibles from my back pack, as my guide kept on uttering Greek and Hebrew names, pointing villages far in the mountains. The serpent like tortuous tracks were covered in fallen leaves, sunlight filtered through the canopy of trees and the tap-tap-tap of Himalayan woodpecker, always seemed to ask questions from the hidden corners. It was hot in the sun and as sweat started trickling down my forehead, we walked hard to find and halt at a lonely tea stall. Just after catching a few breaths and reinvigorating ourselves we headed for rest half of the day's trek. As we got higher, the murmur of the tea stall conversation faded away leaving just the rustle of leaves and the gentle whistle of the mountain breeze. Even though I was far too excited about the trek, but due to such a tough and steep mountain terrain, glacier at 13000 ft, my destination 3 days hence, seemed impossibly far away.

Into the snow (Dhakudi - Khati- Furkia, 10000 ft)
It was 4 am and pre dawn had already lit up the sky. As I poked my head out of my tent I could see a gaggle of Bengalies wearing monkey caps and shooting pictures of the sun lit snow covered mountain peaks. Around 10 am we reached a village called Khati. The eyes of village school kids glittered with a mere glimpse of an unknown traveler, and the way they greeted us in their local dialect was something I admired all along my trek. The village too had a patchwork of terraced fields planted with wheat and potato stretching down from the village to the point where mountain fell into the valley and the dense forest took over. The next part of the trek was an high altitude trek where air becomes thinner and its not easy to breathe and keep up a high walking speed. I took out my rain gear as I could see an ominous envelope of clouds hovering over our track, although It didn’t take long for mother nature to cover all the adjacent mountains in a thin sheet of rain. Soon mercury receded to sub zero levels and to my amazement, in the month of june I was standing in a snow fall.

On top of the world (Furkia - Pindari zero point, 12600 ft)
We were trekking at an altitude of more than 10000ft and most of the fir trees seemed to have disappeared now. It was a muddy stoned pathway framed by some shorter species of flowering rhododendrons. As I huffed and puffed, the local porters with their mules came skipping down the path and quickly disappeared around the bends. Waterfalls, glaciers, torrents, grasslands, gorges, snow covered peaks; all seemed so unreal reminding me of the sets and scenes from "Chronicles of Narnia". In such a bleak environment my mouth literally dissipated a thick cloud of warm breath, as if I was continuously taking puffs of marijuana. Mektoli, Nandaghat, Nandakote and East Nandadevi peaks, which had seemed so distant from Loharkhet were now magically put up in our touching distance. Finally at 9 am we touched the zero point of the glacier, beyond which a trek rookie like me wasn't supposed to go further. I respected the mountain and suppressed all my heroic intentions to explore higher into the glacier. As we stopped panting, an absolute silence blanketed us. Even wind seemed adhering to the code of silence here; blowing without any hum what so ever.

At dusk we reached back to Furkia. Due to a quick snow fall, the village looked full of spun sugar houses, their grey slate roofs thick with puffs of a perfect icing. White candy floss bushes, with round snowballs crowning their thorny edges, and all Christmassy cedars were lined across the track. It felt as if they were welcoming me back as and when jolts of light wind blew away fresh snow off their evergreen foliage on to my head. It didn’t take long for the night to swallow the entire valley. Candles started flickering inside the tents, a deep chuckle of nightjar rose from somewhere in the forest piercing the dead clam of the night, and I stared at the stars which looked liked fireflies in a far distant world.

2007-10-04T01:33:00.000-07:00

Random thoughts.....

Just wondering what to pen down. OK lets start with some weather details..! Over the years its been a real important matter of discussion in any genre of conversation. Mom-dad to their working children, some desi folk sitting abroad to his office peers in india ("Its snowing here, is it still hot in india?"), wife to a husband, in laws to out laws, .. ahhhh. let me say "etc etc" to cut short this neverending list of relationships........

Rain's almost gone and its October. Autumn is at the door step and around me a lot many things seem to be in a high. Spirits of cricket fans, Sethu Samudram Project, Sensex and surprisingly, with the kind of slinky soft screams I hear in the middle of the night, I am sure even my neighbours are in a complete high these days. But I hardly see myself being carried away by such a pervasive phenomenon of "Changing season/Changing acts". My memorist mind always cling on to a thick callus of frantic mermories from the past that prevents me from changing my life any further. Lets not discuss them here.

At times I feel love's in the air. Not because I hear sun birds chirping Beethoven's 9th symphony; not because the mild autumn breeze gushes past gently tickling my hair and certainly not beacuase I see more people lingering around in a public jogging park, seen in unusual spots in enigmatic positons doing everything else but jogging. Its just a feeling and it doesn't need any evidential proof to justify what you feel. Although imaginations/feelings sometimes keep you gay (as in meaning "happy") without doing much. But its expressing them that requires much of an effort. There is one social networking site that has this one nice feature to provide a real nice opportunity to all despo junta to scribe all their honey soaked messages to all the gender 'F' profiles. I was ghastly surprized to find same one liner scrapped for one of my friends by fifteen different guys. "Will you be my friend?". "She has enough friends you sucker and why the hell she would want to be friends with you clumsy morons" was my first reaction. With such a lame and "cheapastic" (new term to be included in OED) one liner I doubt if those losers can ever pick a woman.

But I won't wonder if I see my friend dating one of those punks. You are never sure of anything until you see that happening. India wins 20-20 cricket world cup 10 days earlier, only to be thrashed by Aussies in 50-50 ODI at home. You give in all you hard work in office, only to find your two year juniors are drawing salary more than you. You are one articulate,crafty and smart guy, but in a theatre you find yourself flanked by another bunch of guys from work or college, while some goon as sloppy as a sidee villain from 70's movie, enjoys corns and cola with one of the hottest chicks in town. However I wish if people could stop insanely bitching about life and cribbing about not getting the unseen pleasures they always dream about. Being alive is a reason enough to be happy and gay (no meaning imposed, its upto the reader to make out). Its a darling life.

2007-08-06T04:06:00.000-07:00

Pursuit of happiness

Yet another weekend passes by, and as a true opportunist I never miss weekends to curse life one more time. Shelled myself in a self made cocoon of satisfaction, everyday I start my quest to attain eternal happiness. But I wonder if I need someone to educate me that neither it lies in staring at my 17' TFT screen, time & again hitting a 2 X 1/2 feet block of plastic (called keyboard by many), nor at the phony accolades I get when I happen to resolve some priority bug in a piece of software code with the help my "Miraculously Gifted Brains" (My parents and even I didn't know that for 24 years, but my boss figured it out with in a week of my joining his team. How? It adds to all the unanswered questions that the world has).

Week starts with a complete playacting. Office space looks like nothing but a set ready for shooting soap operas. Greet everyone gleefully and smile as wide as possible, until the person in front can't notice your last corner most molar tooth. For the first part of the day aka ACT - I, I keep on spilling words like 'Please', 'may I', 'of course', 'sure', 'I am obliged', 'all yours', 'good morning', 'what's up' as if that is all I have learned since my kindergarten. But hats off to the people around, they do a more commendable act; behaving in very similar and genuinely - insincere manner. In such a hypocritical environment, every one of us fits in so neatly; almost as good as the right pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Perfect...!
ACT - II opens up in a meeting hall where everyone's busy showering heavy corporate jargon volleys. In most of the meeting, by the time we come to conclude, we would have left the topic of discussion down some where in the abyss of Mariana trench, only to find over selves equipped with a couple of some more new jargons and nothing else.

'The 'Action Items' are set for the future 'Road Map'. With such a 'process oriented' 'thought process' I think we shall meet the 'deadlines' for sure.

Tired and exhausted I would have already added grams of caffeine to my body fluid by the time I get to ACT - III. Its time to leave for the day and being blessed with a limited corporate vocabulary, I try real hard to practice all the nicest of phrases one says while bidding byes. The camera rolls and action..! I deliver a bravura performance, but again the show stealers are no one but my office mates. With the perfection they do it, I am bound to think that, of all the people in the world, for them I am the first person they miss the most. Except for the fact that later I do think if they are trained formally on an acting course. Once done my part, I dash out of my office like a bullet leaving the barrel. Fast and fuming. Nothing changes for all the five working days except for the date at my office table calendar.

Friday nights seem the best. I sleep by with an anticipation of an awesome weekend. But by the sunday after noon I get to know that the weekend was more about watching junk cinema and eating junk food, rather than finding happiness. All you ask for solitude and all you get is loneliness. Oxford defines them as synonyms but I hope you understand the difference.

With such a wonderful (obvious pun intended) week passing by, here comes sunday mid night. I walk up to my balcony, watching night sprawling it self all over the city. Some days it's as haunting as a demon, but certain days it's a beautiful woman, stretching her arms to embrace me for the eternity. It's all black apart from the twinkling lamppost that's fighting hard to counter the darkness. I stare and smile at the lamp as the sudden gushes of wind tickles and teases it. Sudden ring on the phone gets me out of my imaginations. It's an old friend on the other side. Gradually we get lost into a conversation that talked about nothing but the good old time. Done with the phone call, not long after, I couldn't believe that my eyes were wet and as I gasped and closed my eyes, a tiny tear drop some how escapes from the corner of my eyelids. I didn't know why. I wasn't really sure. But there was something I was sure about. The fact that, I was n't acting at that moment. I guess I was happy....!

2007-07-20T04:08:00.000-07:00

"Above Average", certainly above average:

As far as buying a book is concerned, I am quite particular. I take reviews from all around the globe. All sorts of media and friends. Not that I have n't been fooled out in past with my sources of information, but this homework at least gives me a trifle satisfaction of being somebody "who plans things first". Above Average; An another book by an IITan? It certainly gives an impression that it will follow the same league of "five point someone" (FPS), "Night at the call center"(NACC) etc. Same genre, same college masala, may be in a different style but, put together it won't be different to one of those new "Rajshree Production" films which come up every year but somehow you feel like you have seen it as many times as you have seen yourself in a mirror. On the contrary I bought it with my pure intuition of it being good, and to say, my guess work didn't disappoint me for the very first time in years.

Above average; is about a guy who worked hard to get into IIT Delhi, yet he is not very sure if this is what he wants for his life. Its about how he meets people from all walks of life in a single hostel, its about how he looks at the world and plans to interact with it. This 300 page narration is full of trivial moments which seem as if they do not hold any significance in the main story line, but once you go though those lines it feels as if you have been a part of them sometime back in your life for sure. The entire plot has been written in such a class fashion that its impossible to believe that its an entire fiction, except for the fact that its not. Unlike FPS and NACC where you happen to find a bunch of out of the world coincidences and characters keep coming in the main story; "Above Average" defines a perfect balance between the events and the characters. Bagga, bobby, bhavna, aparna, neeraj etc. Everyone's slice from the story seems to be tightly coupled with that of the protagonist "Arindam" aka "Rindu". It seems as if author wants to live his past by narrating this story. He has immaculately carved out every single detail from his past and portrayed it on the canvas with a pinpointed perfection of a top notch artist. Going through the book makes you feel like living his life once again. I believe, even author also wants the same and in the effort, he has definitely succeeded to a commendable extent. His narration takes you through the entire range of human emotions. There are lines where you can't help smiling or even giggling.

" Two Dutch chicks, yaar, giving it to whoever asked. Rocksurd shows up. Total maggi Noodles scene man, Done in two minutes!"

"We worked out our way through the stack of parathas, each one feeding the other. In my head I found myself calculating the number of different ways in which four people could feed each other"

And there are lines which completely leaves you in a mist of awe. You are left with nothing but appreciating the beautiful way they have been penned down.

"We sat in silence. The sun has almost set. A grimy grayness colored the horizon, making it look like the collar of a dirty shirt. Across the Ring Road, headlights twinkled like a string of Diwali lights"

"Taking a deep breath I spread my arms out and turned slowly through three hundred and sixty degrees. As I whirled slowly, up on the highest point of the hostel, I could sense the desires and the aspirations of everyone who had ever lived here, in this city by the river. I could touch the joy they had felt and the sorrow life had bought them, I could touch their fortitude and their despair, and more than all of these, I could touch their hope. I wanted o embrace it all. I wanted to embrace them all."

The only shady thing about the book which I could find was the way the author jumps back and forth from his Mayur Vihar narration to his college frame. Some parts in the story are so intensely interwoven that you certainly look forward to come out of the web as soon as possible. But hats off to Bagchi that he knows where exactly he should tickle the nerves of a reader. Just when you think of skipping the page, you find a line that nudges the reader's interest back again in the favor of the narration. With Harry Potter's last part of the saga releasing today, if you are not one of his fans as I am, Above Average is the book you should find as a perfect recreation for the weekend. Certainly a better book I have read in recent times.

2007-07-11T22:23:00.000-07:00

Being CPM, before being Oracle- Part I

August 05 when I (Anubhav Hirani) joined the firm. Though the charecter's name might seem a little fictious but I changed them so as to keep my self from being reminded of the company's policies once again. Yaa, Renu does that a lot, but God bless his good intensions as he never wants any of his team members to be in a legal soup. Though the idea is little far fetched but a good manager naver takes chances against such odds.

It was a typical monsoon morning when I stepped in to the premises of the firm for the first time. Heavens were wide open and it was pouring as if the almighty wanted to compensate for all the draughts in last one decade. I was wet and soaked in water but anyways I made it to the venue just in time. Shyam Raju was in full swing with his presentation.
Post joining formalities I was asked to report to my team's manager. The paper clearly stated "CPM" as my team and as manager it was "Kkkki............." (A little SRK touch). I never liked the idea of working with a woman bossing around me. Not beacuse of the male chauvinistic attitude, but because of that fact that women are far dilligent than the men are, and they would always want you to be on the very same page and pace. I walked across the halls to finally find my team's bay. A young guy greets me and says "Hey Anubhav, welcome to the team, I am your manager "Kkkki....." (Though he said it perfectly but somewhere I heard SRK uttering it once again). Kirti was a perfect blend of boss and a buddy. Apart from having a unisex name, Kirti was more of a complete man. He played every damn thing, cricket, swimming, soccer. Sometimes he will engage you in cricket discussions and take you to unoccasional treats, making you see the best of office life, and sometimes when the RUP is on the way he would make you work with your asses stuck to your seat.
Shithil was one of the members whom entire team adored the most. I still remember one of our classic conversations. I asked him "I was put in a team called CPM, my manager belongs to EPM, I am working on DHM which is a part of EPF, and some team mates are related to EPB and PSB. Where I really belong to?" He rasied his eye brows, his eye balls rolled to see the roof, he took a deep breath and just like a saint he told me, "As every way and every means lead to the almighty, so every such name EPF,EPB etc etc leads to CPM". Well that was the most inarticulate explanation I still smile at sometimes. Those days little tiffs between Shithil and Topi used to be the highlights of the team. They were the best of chums. I never saw Topi in such a gloom how I saw him the day when Shithil left the firm.
Pornanathan aka Porna was a visionary who always thought about the future no matter how dangling his present was. And if you find Super star Rajni has a panache, then he certainly had that too. Porna had some skills like vollyball, computer games but he wasn't known for them. What he was known in the team for were his 'V' talks and his being patient even after he was being bullied a million times. That guy really had some patience. On the contrary I still remember Topi and Porna calling something to Suneet Makkar and he didn't talk to the entire team for a week.
Its been almost two years for me in the firm and not many of the old faces I see these days. Almost all the people from that era are a part of two of our lunch gangs; First Nirbhay, Uttam, Nadeem.X.Kumar, I and Makkar, in the order of when thet joined or may be in the reverse order of when the will quit. Second Topi, Topi L, and Raneesh.X.Kumar (their answer to our Nadeem.X.Kumar). It sounded weird to me as their names were added with a surfix 'X'. But the way they took pride adding that X with their names, I thought asking them 'Why' will certainly hurt their sentiments. May it be it was some kinda X factor they possessed which only the Oracle HR could see. And there was Paresh, a common player in both the teams, who was never sure which manager to talk for his one on ones. May be as a sign of protest he never went to lunch with any of his team lunch gangs.
Quite often our lunch discussions takes us back to the old times of CPM. In two years more than 70% of the old team did quit. Some left for better opportunities, some because of the rifts with their peers and managers and some left just for the sake of leaving. Somehow things never stop. With new faces in the team, new cake manager, new party manager and new projects, team is again up and as cheerful as ever. But in the middle of my work, a single glimpse on those empty seats makes me remniscent of the people who once used to own them. Cycle of Professional sentiMents, and may be thats what CPM really stands for; despite of the fact that the words 'Profession' and 'Sentiments' do not go hand in hand.

2007-06-25T04:30:00.000-07:00

Glory and the grief

23 June 2007: The budding guitarist inside me was just twelve guitar classes old and it was quite too much to ask him to perform on stage. One part of myself said "Yes, why not. As if someone performs as good as Bryan Admas right from the first time he lands up on stage ". But the other part said (the rational one) "You really don't want to make a fool out of yourself infront of so many people. Do you?". Both of them seemed to have a point. I always kept my strumming up to myself or a couple of friends, but going live up stage and performing infront of the unknown crowd, was something as terrifying as zombies surrounding me and all I have to defend myself is a water pistol. My idea was; go up stage only if you are good enough to present yourself. But may be this way I shall never come out of the shell. Moreover I do see every punk considering himself good enough to bump on stage, and undoubtedly I was far far better than them.

It was 1700 hrs and the show started. With every performace my heart was bumping as good as a tennis ball on a clay court. My performance was kept somewhere in the last slot and trust me when I say "By the time I had my turn, that day I closed my eyes and did remember atleast one fourth of the total 3.2 million gods that my religion has. Atleast I never knew it was this easy remembering their names". I saw a man donned in a white robe with something that looked like a magic wand in his hand. I could see a deep well besides him and he was constantly pointing at me to jump into it. I obviously didn't like his idea and I pretended as if I never saw him. But that was one highly obnoxious fellow. To my amazement he started shouting my name and started pulling me to the well. Being a Harry Potter fan I thought may be if I snatch his magic wand I shall be able to make him incompetent enough to let me go. Here I snatch his wand and thuddd... my team mate spats me on my back. Hell... I was napping for last half an hour at the front row seat and waked up my good friend, only to find out that I am just inches away from the stage, holding a mic and master of the ceremony is calling me and my team up stage.

I introduced myself to the crowd and told them the song which we were going to play. Being up stage I did realize that it needs something more to be up there and only being good, is not at all good enough. May be untill this day those punks I talked about had something that I never had ; GUTS. We started off with "dooba-dooba rehta hun". I fumbled with the chords and vocals and the song went on just ok. Though crowd clapped but I knew that it wasn't worthy of such a praise. Next we started off with "Kya mujhe pyar hai (Woh Lamhe)". As I went on with the chords "Em, D, C, D" the crowd started singing themselves. It got better, better and even better. One guitar, then three, then seven, all going in a sync and tuned to the perfection of harmony. People loved it and so did we. We did give an end to our maiden stage turn up with "tu hi meri shab hai" and I was so exhilarated to find that people went gaga over our performance. Finally there was somthing to be happy about for this day.

Saturday night, high with the much accoladed performance; my dad gives me a phone call, just to leave me shattered. He told me that my ten years old pet got passed away just a few moments ago. My dad didn't say a word more and clicked the phone. All my friend were living the moment to its happiest, but I wasn't really sure how to feel. Though I managed to smile and laugh at times but no one noticed, I was crying rivers inside. Seldom life, takes you to the zenith of happiness and the very next moment you find yourself in the depths of grief. Truly, thats the bitterness that it always asks you to face. Indeed one of the saturday nights that I shall carry down somewhere in my memory cells, for a long time to come.

2007-01-08T02:22:00.000-08:00

A much awaited journey

Rajasthan" is a cradle of the distinctive Rajput tradition. The Rajput code of chivalry, which celebrates valour and generosity in men and fidelity and modesty in women. It may strike visitors as quaint and anachronistic, but its roots lie deep in the heart of Rajasthan. The cultural products of this tradition -- the magnificent cities, palaces and fortresses, its patronage of the arts and crafts, remain to invite admiration and appreciation from everyone. So, one fine day, out of no where we decided to hit this "Abode of Princes". And, once decided, then there was no turning back.

Irrespective of any religion, with us, there are two yearly rituals. First, taking CAT (no offences meant to anyone) and second, start planing for a trip when ever we start listening to the christmas bells. I knew that, never the less, the planing part will be as good as it has been all these years, but i didn't have a tiniest of hope of it getting executed in this same calendar year ;) . But may be travelling was in my cards for this year. The very next day we started enquiring about the train tickets for "Delhi", where we were suppose to be meeting rest of the crew. The trains were damn over booked as if indian railway has started free shuttle services. Had it not been our tez-tarraar train travel agent getting our seats confirmed, the first part of the trip would have been more fun, sitting next to the lavatory of the train compartment for consecutive twenty six hours. However the journey from Hyderabad to Delhi was not that great. Some weird people bugging us and babies singing all their cry songs one by one. And to add on more to our misery, the chilling north india and the train running late by three-four hours was nothing but a toping on the cookie. It was 9:00 pm and we reached delhi. It was misty, foggy and bone cracking cold. But inspite of all these odds and thins perhaps the feeling of already making it half way through, induced an extra dose of enthusiam. We just took a couple of hours at some friend's place to reinvigorate ourselves, met rest of the crew and we were all set for the much awaited voyage.

We took off for Udaipur at about 1:00 am in the night. After already gone through a tiresome journey, covering 680 kms more in a strech of 15 hours was nothing but a nightmare. However Sonu bhaiya (our cabbie) made it lot sooner then we expected. The whole night went past in restlessness; twisting and turning at my own seat. I wanted a sound sleep and may be i was missing my bed too much. We reached Udaipur at about 12:30 PM. A dim sunlight and mild wind gushing past my face. The weather couldn't have been any better. Once done with our boarding and lodging arrangements, we started exploring Udaipur.Visting Bokaro ki haveli, lake palace, city palace, saheliyon ki something and shopping for some traditional articles, almost ate up our whole day. The season was on and the city tourism was at its peak. And with "Liz Hurley" getting married shortly in Udaipur, every localite was as happy as "Arun Nayar" might be. May be a toast with wine was the perfect way to sum up the day one (Lets keep the fact apart that we struggled real hard to open that wine bottle). With alchohol taking over my nervous system, i touched my bed and slept as if i have never ever spelt before.

Next day we left for Chittorgarh at about 2:00 PM. We halted at a typical highway dhaba with jute woven cots spread all around, some old hindi number and sharp scent of spices in the air; as good as one could find in bollywoood flicks. Our stomachs were utterly delighted as they were already clamouring for food since the afternoon. Damn hungry we were, that we ordered everything and to my amazement we finished everything that we ordred :). It was just a couple of hours we stayed in chittorgarh, visiting the great Chittorgarh fort, meera mandir and listening to all the hitorical and folk tales about the place. Sacrifice of Rani Padmini, legend of meera bai, reign of kings and the extreme loyality of their soldiers, might look like a fairy tale but once you visit these places, all such shady truth from the past comes alive infront of your eyes. Atleast i did see that, feel that. We reached Jaipur at about 11:00 PM. The city was already slept. In the middle of the night with the nipping cold blocking our throats, we started the hunt for our boarding place.

Next morning everybody was so tired to wake up in time but it was the last part of the trip and we really didn't want to finish up on such a sleeping note. Our cabbie aka "Sonu bhaiya" arranged a local guide (may be the dumbest of guides I shall ever find again) and we began our day out in Jaipur. All those ancient monuments made me remnisient of my primary school history lessons. Its literally a different feeling to know about something and to be able to really touch it. We covered all the forts by the evening and we could sense that the begining of the end has already begun. We shopped around for an hour and took off for the Tradiatioal Rajasthani Fair. Perhaps that was the best place to bring our trip to an end. Every thing that has a begining has an end and so does the "good time". With blue hearts we too accepted the most annyoing fact, that the trip was over. Staring at the complete dark fog out of the cab's window, anybody hardly muttered a single word. We were on our way back to delhi, and may be it was just the night and the cab's head lamps that did rest of the talking.

It takes long to plan something good, but it feels equally short when you live that something good. Indeed, certain memories are so tangible that you can even touch them and feel them for the eternity. After all "Life is not about the moments you breathe, its about the moments that take your breath away".

2006-06-20T03:09:00.000-07:00

My unremitting quest to know - WOMEN

"Planetary Metabolism - The complex web of biochemical and ecological processes that occur within the biosphere, and the interaction of these processes with the lithosphere, atmosphere and hydrosphere."
Do you find it complex enough to understand?? If yes, then forget about understanding women; then forget about understanding this friend of mine.

Sadu..! That’s what her sister calls her. Though pretty often she is very unlike what her sister calls her, but trust me sometimes she truly is. She makes me yawn when she keeps mum for hours on the other side of phone, she makes me throw my head on a brick wall when she doesn't understand petty little things which I really strive hard to make her understand and it feels the cacophony of the highest order when at times she shouts at me from the other end of a call inspite of being atleast 1000 miles apart.

Understanding her has really been a toilsome task. Though I have never ever been good at understanding people, but boy-o-boy with this lady had it not been my assiduous zeal, I would have turned all my hands down on the day one itself. But I guess may be its the entire "Women Species" who finds a flare in keeping their characters mystified. And with all that happens around us I do realize that men do appreciate this typical feminine characteristic. I have never seen her physically, but every time I just draw her semblance in the air its not all the time very same. Its been quite a some time since I know her but every time I talk to her she is altogether a different identity. Her attitude, her vocal gestures, her way of interpreting things and even the way she giggles most of the time, changes with our every other phone call, leaving me with a tons of unidentified traces of her personality. Every thing changes but her damn luscious voice. She could have done a lot better as a singer though, rather than being a technical consultant for cars, provided every person had auditory receptors as good as that of mine. Ok, no kidding..! How good is she at singing?? I just say "As good as Pied Piper with his pipe".

With such a traces of her on my mind, even I don’t have very definite picture of mine on that end. On a very next occasion she finds me a different identity, though I do my very best to be the very same ME. Everyday she discovers sharpness of my voice varying 30-40 decibels, my sense of humor going from superb to pathetic, my pics rating down from awesome to awful and myself degrading down from articulate to a dumb bore creature. Somehow at the end of the day she makes me stand in front of a mirror and identify myself to make sure that its very me and no one else. May be this perplexed character of women that I am yet to explore is what sometimes creates a rift between us. At times perhaps its the woman inside her makes her behave in such a fashion which I call weird or may be its the man inside me who interprets a very usual feminine gesture as weird.

Then all of a sudden from no where in between of our silent conversation she says "SORRY" in a low subdued voice, very much like a three year old girl apologizing to her teacher for not completing her homework; and it breaks all the ice inside me. Gosh..! She isss a sweetheart.

2006-05-30T01:42:00.000-07:00

PHOENIX - Rising from its own ashes

If you think you are beaten, you are;
If you think you dare not, you don't;
If you'd like to win but you think you can't,
You can almost be certain you won't....!
If you think that you'll lose, you are lost,
For out in the world you will find
Success begins with a person's will;
It's all in the state of the mind......!
If you think you're outclassed you are;
You've got to think high to rise.
You've just got to be sure of yourself
Before you can win the prize...........!
Life's battles don't always go
To a stronger or faster man;
But sooner or later the man who wins
Is the man who THINKS he can.

When its all about challenges in life we all tend to skip them rather facing them. With most of us being in a state of failure and grief, the above lines quoted by someone anonymous in 19 century, doesn't hold ne good. We all have learned how to make a living but may be we are far away from knowing how to live a life. But anthropology is a science of exception and we do have life stories of certain people which time and again preach us how to stand against all the odds in our life and make our way through.

LANCE ARMSTRONG...! Deadly desease strikes a promising cyclist, but against all odds and thins he not only manages to get rid of the affliction but comes on top of the sport. Certainly with such a script every one would dissmiss this story as a trite melodrama. Unbelievable, except its true...................!

Right from his childhood days he had aversion to all the academic stuff. Perhaps he knew he was born to be an athelete. At the age of sixteen he started making his mark in the cycling and by 1991 he became a thorough professional. Finally in 1996 his determination and a great zeal for the sport made him world number one in the field of the cycling. Since then its been all about Lance Armstrong whenever and wherever the cycling was discussed about. But... life wasn't that easy for him. Every success demands its own outlays.

Here comes 1998 and disaster struck him when his doctor tells him that he has testicular cancer which is spreading to other organs aswell. He was forced off his bike while he was seemingly on top of his game, and it seemed as if his life has changed for ever. He aggreed for some chemotherapy, though he was frightened but yet optimistic. As ne other individual, cancer left him scared, physically aswell as mentally. It took months for him to recover from his bed but at that point of time returning to the game seemed to be a unfathomable task. Though he was damn determined but the life ahead wan't easy either. He grabbed his bike again and participated in a winter cycling contest in Peris. People thought that its the end of his career when he pulled back from the race due to excessive fatigue. But Lance had all together different plans. He thought its not the right time, rather a bit early to be back into the sport, why not just ride the bike alone for the time being.

Then came the year 1999. He was again back on the start line of "Tour de France" championship. Though his presence itself was a victory for himself and for all the cancer survivers everywhere but Lance wanted it in a bigger manner. And then the history became witness of how he rode on to the glory of winning his first "Tour de france Title" with an immense lead to the one who came second in the race. And from here onwards there was no turning back. Later he added six more "Tour de france" titles to his list and got every possible sports award at every possible ceremony. Thats how the phoenix rose from its ashes, a hero was born and his story became a legend.

I say, life is as good as a chess board. Every white sqaure is surrounded by its four black counterparts and so is with the black sqaures having four adjecent white squres. As good as a game of chess, life is also all about making ur moves, choosing ur squares, making ur decisions, and finally unleashing the warrior within and fighting against all the odds you face in the vicissitudes of life.

2006-04-08T03:43:00.000-07:00

THE FIRST THING I EVER WROTE APART FROM MY EXAMS:

Its been more than one and a half years since i met her for the last time. Though i desperately tried to come out of her memories but inside i was still doused with them . But somewhere down deep with in me, i accepted that she is nothing but a beautiful history. But they say destiny plays and yesterday afternoon thats exactly what happened with me.

Usually i attend all my personal calls from my cubicle but yesterday somehow the n/w was a problem. So i just went out of the wing and started conversing with one of my frenz. Five minutes past and suddenly i found a girl signing the visitors entry register. I couldn`t c her properly as it was her hair covering her face . I turned around and continued with my call. Suddenly i heard some one talking to the security person with a voice so familiar. 1,2,3 and i turn. Holy Christ..... its was she. For a second i thought its nothing but the effect of damn hot hyderabad as one generally start hellucinating in such a heat. She looked at me and our eyes got locked for a few seconds. May be she was trying to make sure that it was me as i have now grown my hair nearly 10 inches more . I kept on staring at her with my mouth so wide open that people could have seen even my oesophagus.

My goodness,,, her grace was as scintillating as ever, her face as fresh as the drop of a dew, eyes as killing as ever yet so innocent as of a one month baby. I was so utterly surprised that i could hardly speak to her as we started walking down to the ground floor where she finally had to talk to HR abt her cadidature's status in 'Oracle' . For a second someone shouted with in me 'Bingo..! She is going to join my firm', but i behaved as if it was no big deal, but may be it was the biggest deal so far. I hardly said ne thing as she kept on telling me abt her city and her interviews and i just kept on hearing her mellifluous voice. Damn.. its a hell lot of difference listening to her in person and on a cell phone. Damn... i will sue telcom people for this. It was 1/2 an hour since i met her and it felt as if it was 100000000'th part of a second. Finally she left as she was too tired out of Hyderabadi heat and early next day she needed to get back to her city. May be this was the best half an hour i ever lived being in 'Oracle'.

It was just i started coming out of that one and half year old setback, and c; her single glimpse made me remniscent of something which I really strived hard to get rid of. Its not that i didn`t like her being here, perhaps if some one would have told to grant me one wish, may be i couldn`t have asked for more. I shall be the dumbest person on this mother earth if I would ever build ne hopes/thoughts of her being back here because of me. But sometimes there is some gut feeling which always keeps you motivating to have someone may be you are not destined to, may be you are worthy of. Isn`t it ?
Huhh.....so thats it, guess i could not collect proper words to explain all this, but i am sure, had it been 'Ruskin Bond' in lieu of me, it would have been the greatest shortest tale ever.