Wah Taj!

Sometime back, I was posted in Agra for a month. And towards the end of my stint, I finally found the time and more importantly the right mood to take a trip to he Taj...

I entered through the large gateway and caught the first glimpse of the famed monument; expecting to be thrilled and awed.. but I felt nothing...


the whole trip was a big disappointment and the only thing that made me sit up and take notice was the workmanship and the amazing dexterity with which the carvings were made with a great degree of perfection and similarity...

and so, a weary me came back to my dingy hotel room and uploaded the snaps. and lo! the awe and wonder suddenly appeared out of nowhere... the snaps were great and the Taj looked awesome in the pics...

I the underdog...

The feeling is there... I can't ignore it... Of late I’ve really begun to feel like I am the underdog… my best friend's voice rings loud and clear... "you are a loser Rakesh!! you are just a loser" of course, he was just kidding then… now all of a sudden, it all seems so true; so real...

Well, can it really be true... What could be the reason??

Depression… running out of steam... or is it just Monday morning blues… I do not know… and I do not wanna know… coz I am scared… really really scared… of what the real reason could be………………………………………………………………..!!

Creativity!!

a lil old but hilarious nonetheless. More such creative pieces here.


pic courtesy: hummerlimousine

backwasss timepassss

If you have nothing better to do and are bored to the core.. u might as well do this…. Have fun guessing ppl’s age….

ageproject

A rat in the rate race....

Of late, this quote keeps coming to my mind... you might win the rat race, but you are still a rat..

and I've just started the race... or have I?? when do we exactly join the rat race.. while we start work? or did it start from the moment we entered school and struggled to get those marks and win all those competitions....

pic courtesy: too much coffee man

Bihar Blues...

A couple of months back, I stepped into the big bad corporate world. I joined one of the leading FMCG companies in the country.. Now one thing about the sales & marketing profession is that you get to travel a lot...

From being a person who has hardly stepped out of his home state (save for a coupla visits to Bangalore and TamilNadu), I got to travel to a whole lot of places... have been literally living out of the suitcase (well, a backpack & a duffel bag in my case) for the past few months... My current project has taken me to Haryana, Rajathan, UP and finally Bihar... (I've some beautiful pics of the Taj and some forts in Rajasthan which I'll upload soon)

And so that's how I ended up in Bihar.. The beginning was pretty bad, with my train arriving a good 7.5 hrs late... and due to flooding, I had to switch cabs twice before finally reaching my hotel... But things were not as bad as I had thought them to be... My work has taken me to interior regions of the state... It is very beautiful.. acres and acres of lush green paddy fields meet the eye... reminded me a lot about Kerala (except that there were no Coconut trees here)...

It was my first time visiting a flood affected area.. Felt really bad for the people... Crops were destroyed, they homes ruined and livestock gone astray... the only place that was not water logged were the roads and so one could find, people living on the roadside on temporary tents and their cattle tied to the nearby trees... Hope the situtation improves soon...

Despite a few mishaps.. such as the cow that charged at me while I was in Arrah (Bhojpur) or the one at the wholesale market in Gaya where my foot got stuck in a foot deep trench of slush and cow dung and vegetable waste... (and quite a few more) it was a good trip... I got loads of info for my proj... professionally, it was a good learning experience and above all I got an idea about how the other side of India lives... they are not concerned about the Sensex touching 17K.. or about whether India will win the next match.. it is a fight for survival for them.. when will I get my next square meal... how will I rebuild my home... how will I find grass for my cattle...

Amid all the rejoicing about India Shining, the booming economy and the India@60 charade.. spare a thought for these poor souls...

Now what makes this worse for me personally is that I myself will not do anything about it... A blog or two and a nagging feeling for a few days.. But then its back to busy life in Bangalore going on to my next proj and an endless effort to meet those all important KRAs and rake in the moolah... yeah! I'm indeed a rat in the rat race...

that knotted feeling in my stomach...

I'm really feeling strange.. of late, I've been travelling alone from one place to the next, everyday.. I guess this lonliness can do all sorts of things to you...

I really don't know what to do.. its just work work and more work... from one unknown place to the next... I guess, the wanderlust spark that I had in me has died down... All I can think of these days is settling down in one place for good...

[I want to write more on this... get it out of my system... but the freak sitting near to me in the cafe can't stop peeping... gosh, I feel violated.. lol ;) ]

things going good... things going baaaaddd.....

a day of mixed emotions actually.. anyway, its been ages since I've posted anything.. thought I'd do something about it.. and as usual, I hope to be more regular this time round as well....

went back to college after a while... its been a while since I've seen a good round of quizzing.. felt good to see the old folks... walking along those familiar paths, once again with ma old buddies...

Went to see a movie today.. its been almost a year since I've been to the movies with Anas... quite a contrast to 3 years ago when a movie a week was the norm... this time we went to an old theatre near his native place... no a/c, no balcony, no dolby and the works... but the simplicity of it all was a welcome change... the movie was kaiyoppu... a good friend tells me it is partly based on director Renjith's life story... the star-cast was refreshing... felt good to see Neena Kurup after a long gap... the first half of the movie is awesome... Renjith creates an atmosphere filled with literature and mature romance... but the second half is quite the anti-thesis... felt really strange after coming out... am seeing another movie Anyar just get out of the kaiyoppu mode...

*pic credits- nowrunning, indiaglitz

Gosh! I am so naive...

Dunno why.. but I have become all the more docile these days.. And because of this tendency of mine to get uncomfortable at the slightest instance, I always tend to agree with people.. and lo! people have taken advantage of me.. why am I so naive??

and of late it has been happening quite often.. I really must stop trying to please everybody...

"depressed"... for no reason at all....

Dunno when it actually hit me... I realised it around 7 in the evening yesterday during the Advertising & Sales Promotion class, when my prof was discussing about the Nerolac ads... I suddenly felt depressed... not quite recovered yet... the midnight walk didn'y help either...

Anyway, have kept the F.R.I.E.N.D.S routine on a halt... Into Prison Break these days... Finished Season 1.. Season 2 seems interesting.. Can't wait to get back to my room to watch more... Apart from the reason that the show is pretty good and one additional reason is that the protagonist is a structural engineer for a change, not yet another computer geek or electronics genious....

Gotta go.. time for class....

Swimming, Diwali, my Autobiography & a Reunion

Its been a while since my last post... Well, quite a few interesting incidents has happened since then... Classes have been more or less irregular with sudden bouts of free days followed by intense schedules... My B'day came and went... Made a fool of myself volunteering to dance along with an Odissi danseuse during a SPIC MACAY event... had a great time dancing the Raas during Navrathri... and a few more other incidents... had made a few entries... but never came round to completing them and so those posts never saw the light of the day...

Coming to the recent past, I've not been having any classes for the past few days... not doing anything constructive though... Have been trying my had at Sudoku, for which I suddenly developed a liking last week... Else, I've been watching Coupling episodes back-2-back...

Friday evening, we went to Sea Queen for dinner... Our original plan was Fortune but due to a wedding reception, their restaurant was fully booked... Anyway, I saw my old college-mate there... Was seeing her after a long time... felt good... By the time we were done with dinner, which saw heated debates on the topic of champagne and the accuracy of wikipedia, it was nearly midnight... Sea Queen is facing the Calicut beach and offers a fantastic view... Before heading back to campus, we went for a long walk on the beach... The sea was pretty rough and feeling the mist rise as the waves lashed onto the rocks was amazing... The dinner was also significant coz me and a close friend of mine made up after a fight which had happened sometime back... It was good to start speaking with him again...

On Saturday, went to NIT swimming pool in the morning.. quite ironic that in the four years that I've studied there, the only instance when I visited the pool was during a treasure hunt... I still did not swim that day... But next time I well... Anyway, the good thing was that we had our lunch from the NIT Canteen that day... I simply love their shell-fish preparation... I used to gorge on those during my engineering days...

We had our Diwali celebrations that evening... The campus looked beautiful, all lit up... Especially the 'circle' near my hostel... The pooja was short for a change... And we had a lot more sweets this time round... The fireworks were a little less grand when compared to last time, but we had great fun nonetheless...

Sunday, was spent watching Coupling and trying to write my autobiography... Not that I'm interested in publishing my life story or anything... It was part of a course Discovering Self and was meant to be more like an introspection... But man, it is really tough... I could muster up just a few pages after sitting for 3 hours straight... Anyway, dropped it the moment I heard that the submission deadline was extended owing to the mid-term exams which starts tomorrow...

And so, I went out again yesterday evening... It was a mini reunion of sorts...We met at the beach... I am a beach person... I can spend hours sitting there, feeling the wind in my hair (which is falling faster than an avalanche) and just staring out into the sea; with the sounds of the gulls and that salty/fishy scent... Just four of us mallu civilians from college... Bino, Akku and Mithun... It was good to meet the guys once again... We talked for quite sometime... Bino has become the numero uno when it came to gossips and info... By the time I returned to campus, it was almost time for dinner...

Resumed watching coupling and studying a bit... Ok, I think I better wind up... Got a big exam tomorrow...

So long then....

Gosh.. I feel sooo.. happy

Man.... I really do feel a lot happy today... Am I drunk... Nope... Have I doped? definitely not... Dunno why I feel great!..... Discovering Self course has been a great experience.. Am greatly enjoying it...

Decided to go over to Taj for dinner as they were having a Punjabi Food Fest and we also wanted to show our friends from France who are on student-exchange from ESCP EAP, Paris; a taste of Punjabi cusine... The food was good.. I normally donot like the Taj food, but greatly enjoyed it this time... and we went in the Sumo rather than the usual jeep.. so the return journey with the cold night-time air was intoxicating... man.. I am on a high!!

FROM TOP LEFT...

That's myself; Akshaye; Anchit; Frederic; Chinmay; Paro; Rita; Bala; Anne; Bivudh; Arka & Kiran

Hellew Coffee...

For a change, time is going pretty slow these days. My classes won't begin until Tuesday and so I have loads of time to spare. With Orkut and tonz of movies on the campus server, passing time has never been an issue :)

Anyway, got bored of hanging around the hostel all day and so went to the city with Siam (my friend) yesterday. He had to buy a shirt. Since time was not at all an issue we went to a lot many stores, before settling on a blue striped shirt from the Indian Terrain showroom. Tried looking for a shoe for myself, but got scared off when I saw the price tag on a particular Adidas shoe which I really liked... Maybe in another year, when I start earning a buck, I would get my hands on one...


Many of the shops were still giving out their Onam discount offers in a last minute attempt to finish off stocks.. So, I finally bought an electric kettle. Having subject myself to the horrors of the canteen coffee for over a year, it was time I finally yield to the pressures of my tummy and buy a coffee maker.. Since, a coffee maker was a tad bit expensive, I settled for this 1.8l electric kettle. Bought, a pack of Nescafe and some sugar from the local shop... And now its coffee time!! (even though it is DIY...)


Also, went to Al Bake to round up our trip. We were pretty tired after all the walking and so gorged on Shawerma. Arabic food never tasted better... And today, as I sit typing this, my mind is already thinking of options for tonite...its been raining cats and dogs for the past few days and so going out options are limited...hmmm... praying for a really bright idea to click...

Back with a BaNg... (i hOpe)

Its great to be back... musing at random...

A lot of things have happened in the past few months... Came back from Calcutta.. fell in love in Kerala again... monsoons started... and a hectic 4th term came and went... went for a 3 day trekking trip (though we spent a good amnt of time sleeping in the tents)... Onam came and went... and finally I await the starting of yet another term tomorrow... hope it is not as action packed as the one that just got over... Hopefully I'll get time to breathe (and blog; of course!) coz I have taken only the min: credits this term... hoping to catch up on a lot of things like jogging; sleeping; blogging; movies; calling up friends; movies; books and a helluva lot more...

What prompted me to write today was the train journey from home by the Mangala express... unlike all my previous trips, this time the train was actually on time and the compartment was nearly empty... after reading a couple of articles from the latest issue of Outlook Traveller (yep, I'm an armchair traveller - BIG TIME)... I just started looking out through the window... It had started to drizzle and the landscape was all clean and green... man! Kerala is gorgeous...

That's when nostalgia hit me... about a long lost friend of mine... well, not exactly long lost coz we met sometime back.. but nonetheless long-lost... a friend who meant a whole lot than just a mere friend... we really did connect at a much deeper level... but that was "then"... what happened to all those feelings? somewhere along the way, we grew apart... now the distance is too unfathomabale to revive that old passion we had... friend, I really miss you... friend, I wish you were here with me... friend, I wish we could take all those long walks like we used to... friend, I wish we could talk for hours like we used to... friend, I wish we could play pranks like we used to... friend, how I wish you were beside me at this very moment... Oh! if only wishes would come true... if only....

what a walk...

well... I did take a walk and boy was it good or what... IIMC is blessed with a lake and by the time I reached its banks it was refreshingly windy... a jolly good experience, I'd say...













Inspired?? Sure I am... but not enuff to make me work.. Maybe a good dinner will fix that.. Plng to eat out and give the mess a miss...

In need of some inspiration...

Dunno how much longer I can hold on. The Calcutta weather is as horrible as it can get. The words hot and humid get a whole new meaning here...

Got lots of work left to be done. But what to do, me not just feeling right. Not even the least bit inspired to do an ounce of work. Maybe I'll go for a walk. That might just be the right receipe to cool off my nerves...

teri khubsoorti main hum Fanaa ho gaye...

AAh.. what a day... went to watch Fanaa today... due to the muliplex issue, had to go to a local theatre. With a melee of local crowds cheering and old plastic seats, the theatre was a far cry from the cozy (but ridiculously expensive) INOX theatre where we usually go... but the movie more than made up for all that...

With fantastic locations in Delhi and Poland, it is a real visual treat.. Fanaa is the story of Zooni (Kajol) a blind Kashmiri girl who falls in love with Rehaan (Aamir Khan) a tour guide with a dark secret on her maiden trip to Delhi...

Well, the story ain't that great.. nothing novel and easily predictable.. but the performances are fantastic.. Man, Kajol looks absolutly fantastic... Fanaa seems to be a perfect comeback film for her... And Manish malhotra has worked his magic again with the costumes...

And I never realised Aamir Khan was that old.. esp in all the closeup shoots in the beginning... Also wish there was more of Shruti and Kiron Kher... Two very lovely ladies...

Me, an out and out Kajol fan... waiting eagerly for her next release...

And Now.. I'm a beauty contest judge...

Well well... its not every day that one gets to be a beauty contest judge... Isn't it...

Of late I've been frequenting Crosswords, a bookstore in the shopping hub of Calcutta. Coz, its one store that allows you to read to your heart's content, for a long as you want, without chucking you out even if you don't buy a thing. Plus its got an inhouse coffee shop.. Great combination, ain't it folks..

After doing my usual rounds, I was sitting down on one of their cute lil cubical cushioned stools, browsing through some DVDs when a beautiful girl approached me with a cute smile and one of those mechanical "Hellow Sir" greetings..

"I'm doing a survey for a beauty contest, and I would like you to give me a little help.."(sure!) She hands me a sheet which has headshots of about 20 contestants.. "Sir, (all smiles) all you need to do is look through the photographs and choose the contestant whom you think is the most beautiful, stating you reason.." Dudes, how can I say no to such an offer! That too coming from a girl who was no less beautiful...

Eventually I chose one who had this big dreamy eyes... And with that she took the sheet back.. flashed her smile again.. and scooted off hunting for more men..

So, that's been my lil stint with the pageant industry.. as for the girls, may the best contestant wins...

What killed the video star?

Yawn.... its a lazy summer afternoon... Ever since a bug bit me a couple of days back leading to a series of allergic reactions, I've been a lil grumpy. I look really funny though. A very normal right side of the face, as opposed to a red, swollen and chubby left side. All this has reduced my wanderings pretty much within the hostel itself. Because I can't show up at the office looking like this, I've been doing my project from my lil non-descrpt room in a hostel at IIMC.

Anyway, coming back to the topic at hand.. well, I was getting tired of sitting in front of the computer all morning. Decided to give my poor sick self a lil break. Dashed to the Coffee Day Xpress outlet just outside my building, grabbed a Cappuchino and rushed back to the safety of my room. (Calcutta is very hot these days to venture out in the afternoons). Put on an ole fav of mine... "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles

This song has the ditsinction of being the first video to be played on MTV on its debut at 12:00 am on the first of August 1981.

Was googling for a pic for this post when I came across this interesting link. Incidently, a parody of the same song was released in 2001.. "Internet Killed the Video Star".. Its pretty neat. Do check it out.

Well, as for me.. I better get back to work.. :)

On haunting memories and things that can't be undone...

Life is a roller coaster ride.. With many ups and downs.. In its wake, life brings along many instances that remain etched in our minds as memories.. memories to live by.. memories to reflect on.. memories that lift your spirits and those that haunt you for the rest of you life..

Some people say that things happen for a reason.. But I don't know why such an incident happened. Is it so hard to resist temptation? Or is it that I have grown so weak that I have absolutely no will power and contol over my emotions..

Reflecting back, I am still not sure how it all started.. What went wrong.. Was I wanting it all along.. and was it an explosion of repressed emotions.. Was it wrong.. Or is it just another event in the bigger scheme of things.. what will happen of me now..

Worse, its not the first time that this has happened.. And yet, I am not able to come to terms with it.. not able to acknowledge that it happened.. dunno how I was able to shrugg it off as if nothing happened.. Its high time for a "talk"...

Dear friend.. I am sorry that it happened.. and believe me if it could be undone, I would try my best.. but your silence is killing me.. and this guilt is too heavy a burden to carry on my shoulders..

But one thing I'm sure about, that this memory will haunt me for a loong time from now.........