The time between ending a book or series and finding a new one is the most unproductive…. I scan and scan and scan the bookshelf and Netflix just to realize I have very bollywoody tastes and the world today has a very dark take in fiction….
How easy were the 90s-00s when the powers to be decided what you’d watch on what day of the week! Monday night – Tara.. Tuesday – Campus.. Wednesday – hip hip hurray and banegi apni baat… Thursday – philips top ten… Friday – Rishtey.. Saturday – Disney hour and Sunday – BQC and Chandrakanta and Ducktales and Talespin…
Books also … Whatever the librarian wished upon you…
#NoChoicesSimplerTimes
It’s something else to watch a French movie in Hindi….
Try it.
It’s Sister Anita’s birthday. Annites…let’s take a moment to retune into the morning school assembly and her advice and the values she spoke about. Let’s be the individuals she taught us to be and make this society kinder, more tolerant and better than we found it.
Happy Birthday Sister Anita! We love you and we miss you.
Wouldn’t the real lockdown challenge be to post selfies with all your exes? #CoopedUpCreativity #SelfieChallenges
(sitting with a popcorn bowl in anticipation; if only I could really tag people here :))
Random wisdom from a rickshaw driver “Madam. … sara Bangalore traffic ka sirf teen reason hai…kuch admi fear se chalata hai…kuch mobile phone pe aur kuch ego se” – sums it up pretty well…#ORR
Rejection 101 this Valentine’s day : The journey begins with Bangalore rickshaw walas. However pretty, rich, accomplished or desperate you look…they WILL ignore your frantic hand waving and pass by…and by mistake if one slows down for your pretty eyes or fancy purse…all you got to say is “Bhaiya Bellandur” … and … they’re gone…faster than flash.
“All girls my sister but not you” – Best pick up line on the back of a dented rusty dusty old indica taxi…. Perks of evening crawling traffic… Free entertainment
I remember writing essays on “India in 2020” in school days…Seemed so far away then…Used to imagine a technically Utopian distant time when hunger and disease would have been eradicated and the border issues resolved…when distances, both societal and geographical would have shrunk and humanity would be a step closer to finding the meaning behind it’s existence…But….well…2050 now…maybe the children of today will turn out to be more powerful…wiser…kinder…if we do manage to leave behind a livebale earth for them….there’s hope.
Happy new year! Let this year be the year nationalism takes a backseat and people across the globe begin to dissolve borders, scientific, geographical, political and psychological..Let this year be the year we as a human race accept our shortcomings and stop defending the errors of ours and our fathers and instead start to make amends…Let this year be a year we all grow…not in our bank accounts or in our careers…but in our minds and hearts…to be better, more logical, more comprehending, more understanding, more accepting, more loving and more tolerating people.
Exiting Delhi airport at 31 degrees…I stood ten minutes and began huffing and puffing and sweating and swearing and there I saw a Punjabi uncle patiently standing in a three piece suit with a calm smile…. Bangalore weather spoils you big time!
Best time to be in Bangalore?
Navratri….
Why?
One can reach office in 20 mins without having cursed, honked or mentally killed anyone 🙂
Happiness is being honked at by the guy who’s known you longest since you left home and made the exact same career and academic blunders as you, in the midst of an over crowded bumper to bumper traffic of outer ring road with a brand new shining orange bullet and a dj dancing lights helmet and getting to talk in Gujarati on a bleak Tuesday morning… Maja padi gai! #KnownFor13Years #Joy
You know your day is going to be good and the planets are aligned in your favour when the first ola ride that you get doesn’t reject you when you disclose the destination! #LifeGoals
#BBMP #Singasandra Ward #BengaluruTrafficPolice
One simple question…Maine apka kya bigada hai? Impossible roads, impossible traffic, burning garbage, lack of policing, no street lights, no foot-paths.
I am a law abiding tax paying citizen who takes all my civic duties seriously. I decided to stay in the county because I believed it is mine and I owe it my education. But you guys have made living impossible. I spend four hours commuting, putting my life in danger every time I step outside the house, not knowing if there is a road beneath the water logged puddle or a man-hole. I put it in danger every breath I take. And for what? I am the average “IT” guy. And the economy is held in place by thousands like me. If I quit, you crumble. Do you want me to quit?
Me, my mom and her mom were sitting in my drawing room… I complain “people here are so old fashioned, in the lift the other day, this lady asks me “who’s your hubby” in that typical tone”, my mom’s mom chirped in “ene kevanu America gyo che”, my mom is like going all feminist “kem pan..” my mom’s mom “e to avse ne koik america thi, ene paini leje, ema khotu su kidhu” – now that beats the standup comedian we were paying to watch on amazon prime! 🙂
Facebook has a weird tendency of making Friday nights worse : Tells me my most liked picture of 2015 is that of my mom 🙂 So much to feed narcissism
Apne yahan to speed breakers par bhi khadde hai….double protection?
All it takes to break a brilliant confident day is a salesman taking a moment to size you up as you enter the cafe and asking ‘Maam, do you have kids in the classes between 4 and 12?’
Lived the most expensive four minutes of my life… Cost me my best room mate’s wedding and 16k… #IndiGoAirlines horrible reaponse…. Bangalore airport is like kumbh ka mela in the four to six am slot and the airlines staff seems to be rooting for you to miss the flights…
After foir and a half years of struggling through the ups and downs and successes and failures of research ideas… The thing that makes me cry on the day of my defense is two Ola auto rejects….five tandem auto rejects and one brilliant driver who changed his mind after a km and dumped me in an uber less zone…. Karma…seems to bite you in every impossible way
Wish “Har din diwali” just took a new meaning … The daily office commute that takes 60-90 minutes one way just got done in 15 minutes two days in a row!!! Now that is what I call a Happy Diwali
Some of the single user SUV drivers in my area’s single lane roads are so influenced by the jeannie from “I dream of jeannie” that they think if they blink their headlights twice, honk and wish it, the oncoming traffic will disappear “poof”
….And then I read this on a jet blue brand new Alto crawling at 1kmph at KR Puram junction on a wednesday evening in bumper over bumper traffic : “Low altitude flying machine” 🙂 Indian men and their misplaced optimism! #ORRTrafficWoes
If the wind energy generated by the incessant waving of the bangalore traffic policemen to indicate a green, could be harnessed, probably the electricity deficit of the city would go away #ORRTrafficWoes
If I had one superpower, I would want it to be so that every time I wish it and blink while dio-ing, the horns and tires of all the enfields and avengers (yes! those road bullies) in a 1 km radius of me would burst.
My Chinese manager : I saw that Indian movie
Me : Yes .. Bahubali… (Rolling my eyes, not here too! )
My Chinese manager : Something like Dangle, here (shows me the mobile screen with Dangal’s ad)
Me : Ah! We’re going to be the best manager-employee pair ever!
#DangalOverBahubali
You know the m-sarkar is doing something right when you see aloo-jeera and strawberry lassi in a breakfast spread amongst congee sausages and myriad seafood in Shanghai! #BeingAuntieNational
Rickshaws in my area have a serious identity crisis…With their butts lodged staunchly in the slow moving four-wheeler traffic jam queue, they in ostensibly poke their noses in the zooming two-wheeler line…halting all traffic – Vehicular schizophrenia or just plain jealousy? I wonder!
“Monkey See. Monkey Do”. – Dr. House
I used to think, every single time I got waxing done, that I have met and vengeance against me has been taken by those I wronged in my past lives, reborn as the waxing helps in the salon. But no, Karma has various genders it seems. Why should those I wronged in lives I don’t remember be women in this?. And so I joined the gym. Every single minute between 4 and 6 seems like a drop of blood shed for lost and forgotten crimes.If you seek revenge, become a gym trainer – indeed a license to kill by counts (or atleast burn away a part off them 🙂 )
As years go by and I encounter a new world each year, it hits me how one person, enabled so many of us to reach new heights, explore, be fearless, polite, love, have faith, be empathetic and be confident. She isn’t here today, but her teachings live on as hundreds of girls of St. Ann’s Jamnagar achieve great things each year, in their careers, society and family. Let’s spend a moment and remember the best teacher and administrator ever – Sr. Anita. And let’s resolve to be better people each day, each moment.
I saw a cockroach roaming near my feet….
Three years back I would have been startled, immediately got up taken a broom and snapped the life out of it….
Five years back I would have shown off in front of my terrified roommate, calmly chased it around the room, swept it outside the window and sent a strongly worded mail to the warden about pest control…..
Eight years back I would have jumped shrieked ran out of the room to get the night warden, seen it being taken out of the room, called up my mother and cried myself to sleep in the darkness, dreaming of a crawling creeping monsters….
Twelve years back I would have shouted for dad and marvelled at his heroism as he caught the creature by the mustaches and scared my cousins for fun…..
Today I just glance at it scurrying about and pity it for having to work the same hours as me…..
Alas!The boredom of growing up
The first time I was happy to belong to the fairer sex was yesterday at security check on Bangalore airport. I had ten minutes to boarding and the men’s line was miles long….women on the other hand didn’t have one.
“aje bestu varas che, chalo uthi jao.. aath vagya” – mummy na shabdo thi nindar khulti… varas ma be divas nava kapda perva madta…ek aje… peri ne pappa sathe scooter upar saga vala ne sal mubarak keva nikadta… kone tya gaya te to khabar na reti…pan hose hose dry fruits khava ne kesar badam varu dudh piva nikdi jata… pachi das rupya panch rupya vees rupya ni note nu bandal bhegu kari ne piggy box ma jama karta… aakhu ghar madi ne jamva bestu ne pachi std phone chalu thata… badhani sathe ekaj vaat….beta su kare che…kya dhoran ma avi….fatakda foyda….kyo number avyo…ketli moti thai gai…jaldi aya avo….saru…letter lakhis…badhane yadi apjo…avjo…. ane emaj divas nikdi jato… mistan farsan rangodi ne fatakda…. vaya gya te divso…vaya gya te loko… gaam badli gaya…. ghar badli gaya…vaad dhora thai gaya ne sal mubarak happy new year thai gayu…. pan mann haji te divaso yaad kare che… sal mubarak mitro.. tamaru varsh khub anadmayi bane evi subhechha..
Dementors on bangalore…. anybody have a patronus? 😦
(Only for those who know Gujarati) Soon my brother’s wedding is coming up and I am going to meet a zillion relatives I haven’t seen in more than two decades. I am sooooo looking forward to this conversation with all the 40 + aunties
XYZ Aunt : Tu Ambasana saheb ni moti k nani baby? (In Gujarati also, there is a word ‘baby’ – I am sure the person who coined it must have been dense, myopic and highly optimistic. Even if you’re 30, you’re still your dad’s surname’s ‘baby’)
Me : Masi, nani..
XYZ Aunt : Pan dekhay che to moti ho..
Me : (Squirming with rage, still smiling) hm…
XYZ Aunt : lagna thai gya tara dikri?
Me : (Squirming) Na, PhD karu chu..
XYZ Aunt : (Has no idea what that is) Pan mane to lagyu engineer che, nokri na madi dikra?
Me : (Wanting to run away) Na masi, bhanu chu..
XYZ Aunt : (Laughing aloud) Le haji ketlu bhanvanu tare Ketla varsh thase.. Kya bhane che?
Me : Masi, IISc, Bangalore, paanch.
XYZ Aunt : Acha (having no idea what IISc is), Bangalore to bau dur ne.. paanch varas? Aa sema PhD kare che dikra?
Me : (Smirking with sarcasm) Masi, Computational Electromagnetics (The expression that follows is priceless, we Gujaratis, some of us, don’t like people to know that we don’t know something, and so in a moment, the question mark goes to embarrassment to false pride to disgust and eventually defeat)
XYZ Aunt : (Staring as if I am a retard, gives up hope and turns her back)..aaj kal ni chokario!!
I am a minority, everyday I get nudged, jostled, pushed and ignored by those having more power, when I shout the policemen ignore, when I wait, I see the rear view mirrors ogling at me as if I am a martian, I am proud of what I am, I have speed, power and agility…. and I wish someone would fight for my rights… I am a cyclist in a metro!!
Sunita Krishnan… What courage….That’s when I realize the futility of my work… Man is the greatest enemy of humanity it seems…
Bangalore weather is like a five year old’s mood… goes from smiling sunshine to cloudy tantrums in a nanosecond… highly irritating.
Friends got me through the first sem finals… House M.D through the second… Game of Thrones through the first conference paper… heavily relying on Sherlock’s 3rd season to get over with the comprehensive… (and I just managed to make Ph.D sound fun 🙂 )
Seeing Bangalore on a cycle makes one feel so much powerful….it’s like you’re actually winning the war against traffic… just skimming past all those BMWs and Audis…stuck in the jam… and disregarding signals as if its your sole birthright…. a wonderful last weekend ride… with two wonderful ppl…
Why can’t guys in real life be as witty and funny as chandler or as dumb and dashing as joey….every time i watch friends…. it makes me fall in love with a new character
Sometimes… she could not fathom when she stopped being his morning sunshine and night’s sparkle to a detestable weekly walk … [An excerpt from my never might be published book :)]
…And the morning began with a bad tempered monkey claiming my well earned breakfast with his menacing appearance on my table and a swipe of his hand in my plate of mouth watering idly-wadas…and inviting his friends to feast upon the abandoned plate of food and glass of bournvita… a well earned 35 rs into the monkey’s stomach…
Songs … music…poetry…just re-create memories… of people gone by… places deserted… institutions left… relations broken….mostly of people no more…
Rains…Clouds….Cold…. Sleepy weather…I wonder how people in Bangalore ever cast away their laziness…All i want to do these days is snuggle up in my chair, on the sixth floor with the terrace door open, draped in a soft cozy rug…with a hot mug of coffee and a novel… and soft music without a care in the world.. 🙂
I just realized…. Fire Flies are the most amazing creatures on earth… On a cloudy dark night…. in the middle of an unlighted wild path… you can sit for hours looking at them sparkle… it’s almost like you can touch the stars… hold them in your hand…
I envy those who have faith…who believe in a greater power… these people can find reason where none exists… and reason always explains all that goes wrong… most skeptics look for reason to find peace…and that’s why I envy the believers…they find reason in their belief.
Friends are… people who’re completely unfazed by your ego, have a high disregard for your work and degrees, claim total and complete ownership of your time and assets, take the privilege of saying bad words as if they’re showering you with honors, people who care for you more than yourself, hate your enemies and bosses more than you, know the stuff you like to do, want to see you smile always and cannot tolerate your whining for a moment….
You always fear what you don’t understand…. (Batman Begins)
Finally! My tryst with exams is over…. After a terrifying battle of over 20 years…. we have come to peace with each other…
What we fear – Happens!
I don’t understand what people have against songs in Bollywood movies…Some of them are so beautifully pictured… dil hai chota sa… sooraj ki baaho me… tu bin bataaye… nahin saamne tu…. mai kya karoo…kabhi kabhi aditi….chayya chayya….lots more.
A couple of years back… there was this extremely wise sms going around on valentine’s day “Newtons law of somethin .. For every idiot…there is an equal and opposite idiot…Singles are people with unmatched intelligence ” 🙂
As I grew up…I realized that the stories I heard about friendship and love are more unbelievable than the fairy tales….Fairies may exist…more likely to find them than to find true friends or true love.
A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it. ..Rabindranath Tagore.
I read this below the number plate of a bike…it’s kind of wisdom that you don’t find often at such places ..”Break up in love is a wake up in life” bad English but good philosophy
There should be a law against breaking hearts !!!!!
“Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned”…. William Congreve
“This too shall pass”…..For those who are having a good time….Beware….And for those who are sad and dejected…..Here’s hope….just round the corner….
Yet another college…yet another room….yet another city…..but this time….i guess i am finally in a place i can boast about…IISc…lovely campus….bangalore…a wonderful city…
Last two days in DA…I actually am feeling as if I am leaving from home once again…My room seems sooo familiar…so homely…I cant believe I might never see it again….Some class mates…some teachers…some places…I might never sit in this cafe again with these people….so many carefree moments have I spent on these roads…rains…winters…good times…bad times….Its so not fair…to settle down and leave again once more…This campus these people..these teachers…the labs…the class rooms…the trees…peacocks….basket ball court…badminton court….the gallery outside my room…the corridors…each and every corner of this world…is going to be a past now…and i still cannot grasp the fact that I’ll no longer be here…
I didn’t know how important my mobile phone had become for me. It was my alarm clock…my camera…my std-pco…my music player…my radio…my bestest friend ever…we had come a long way together…it had heard and seen me cry, helped me in the worst of emergencies…reminded me of so many things…helped me capture some of the best moments of life…missing it like hell.
Greatness lies in humility, in straightforwardness, in simplicity, in honesty, in basic human goodness. If a man with international recognition, who has spent his life and academic career across five countries can pick up a mop and clean the floor in front of his students, then that according to me is greatness personified. It needs no aesthetics, no gloss, no attitude, no power.
How many thoughts come to the mind when u look at the stars in the summer sky, clear…sparkling infinite…it sets of a train of thoughts…what i realized is…how many trillions of people…for how many trillions of years must have sat at the same spot as me and stared and thought and lived and died…and how many trillions more would do the same…gave me a sense of dwarfness…that whatever i do is trivial…that it has been done before and someone else will do it again…and the world will go on with or without me…that sense of being a grain of sand on the sea bed…
What value does a curse word or profanity of any kind add to the expression in any language? It merely shows how downright pathetic a person can think..then also why do most people enjoy it’s use by self or others…is a question haunting me since two days
Run run run….fall…get up…jump over hurdles…run run run…get ahead…the winning line is just an arm length away….run…and whoosh… im in a khadda just ahead of the red line…. conclusion of my life.
Conflicting Proverbs : Absence makes the heart grow fonder x Out of Sight Out of Mind
It’s a good thing that our parents don’t ever say they’re tired of us..the day that happens…i’ll understand the meaning of the word ‘Alone’
I never knew the colours grey black white and a dull orange can create such beauty…..should have looked at the sky, the moon surrounded by soft grey black clouds and it’s light dispersing to create a unique shade….can’t describe in words…the moon…a lone star and clouds….
There’s rarely a more happifying sight than looking at a tiny squirrel nibbling colorful frians…free food, free time…no care…no hurry…lucky guy.
The only constant is change….wish i could differentiate it.
All it takes for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. – Martin Luther King Jr
Came across this and it’s pretty evident
I guess at the end of the day…it’s only parents and family who love you as you are….rest all of them want to change you into the person they love 😦
Happiness comes unannounced……it’s common wisdom that it’s like a shadow….stop pursuing it and it’s there beneath ur feet……well it’s true.
Once in a while….dreams do come true.
Responsibility is the second side of the coin on which freedom is printed. You want the freedom to talk take the responsibility to talk sense…you want the freedom to change take the responsibility for designing the change…if you’re afraid of taking responsibility for your actions, and every time that you need to justify you put your head low and close your eyes…then you’re not human. you’re not alive. you’re not thinking….
Sometimes I feel ‘Life’ is a small child throwing water-filled balloons at me. Sometimes I am able to dodge them, but most times I get hit without warning 😦
When I was a kid…I did not understand what ‘tolerance’ meant…because i didnt know differences could exist. Now I value it as one of the greatest virtues an individual can have.
It’s strange, how some old school songs and rhymes and melodies transport you to another world….Thanks to youtube, i can do it as often as i please now…
It’s difficult to analyze people…..but it’s even more difficult to not analyze people!
In every walk of life you make friends….school…neighbourhood…college…hostel…work…sports…social networks….but for me…School friends top the list. Any opinions?
An almost full moon…shrouded is soft greyish white clouds….a windy summer night….a long empty road ….. whispering trees and no work…
Sometimes it’s not as simple as a yes or no…right or wrong….good or bad…white or black….it’s about weighing options…it’s about a give and take between happiness and success…it’s about ethics and ease (though it shouldn’t be)…it’s about growing up and taking responsibility…..i hate it.
Simplicity in life….Humility in actions….Dignity in conduct….Honesty in everything…sincerity in work…loyalty in relations…..tolerance in differences….joy in giving…..and above all…..love….unconditional…..unending…unselfish….I learnt This From Sister Anita… A life truly worth celebrating…Happy Birthday Sister.
Celebrating Failures….is fun sometimes…and so is breaking rules….sometimes
‘Drop Expectations !’ …Osho…..Well can someone tell me how exactly?
Indifference is dangerous…..i can deal with smiles and frowns and tears and anger…but i can’t handle indifference
Change is inevitable……But….Sometimes it’s just too much too fast.
I envy people who don’t get affected by other people.
Friends are the best part of life…. u can laugh with them, at them, get angry and leave and still come back to open arms and smiling faces, u can tell them anything about urself and still not feel vulnerable…they can make u laugh through ur tears…they can forgive the stupidest of ur actions.. they can b ur surviving force in bad times .. they can be that one push to ur success..
Sometimes…….it’s a choice between following your convictions and taking the standard route….. unfortunately i always happen to choose what others don’t.
Home is always an escape….A haven in confusions….A different world pure and safe and beautiful…in itself….I love coming home…It’s the one place that never changes.
Appreciation or even acknowledgment of a good deed….in itself is a good deed. And it is very easy to forget to do it…unfortunately.
Sometimes it’s just not about you…..sometimes you should take the back seat and let someone else lead…..sometimes you should just keep quiet…..sometimes it’s someone else who needs you….sometimes…..that mirror should turn into glass.
I would rather write an obituary than a paper in IEEE format!
Winter evening… cool breeze…. a tinge of cold…. golden shade of the setting sun… an endless road…. chirping of birds…. and a friend to walk with! what more can anyone ask of life…
Academics is unfair… It’s not that “if u know it u can present it”… it’s “if u can present it means u know it”!
Home is heaven… Hot food twice a day… unlimited snacks… Your own room and bed… no sweeping…watch what u like on TV… scooty…and best of all FAMILY.
Intentions speak more than actions…. a good excuse for all the inaction.
🙂 Smile. it’s probably the easiest and nicest thing to do..
Life can be so simple if we want it to be so
Dreams Unlimited 