in retro

It indeed has been a very long time since I blogged the last.
A few things have happened since then.

I put in my papers @ work a few weeks ago. With no other job in my hand, my alliance with my employers will sieze to exist from July.
If I look back at my decision(I do not enjoy doing this but..), the only reason I find that compelled me to do so was boredom, a sense of dissatisfaction resulting out of uninteresting work. I think I love programming but unfortunately it had become a seasonal affair, pretty much like mangoes in the summer. Most of the time my work involved cleaning someone elses shit(read bugs). I understand that most IT work in India involves maintenance projects and pretty much every IT guy/girl spends his/her time doing what I do. But I realized that this is exactly what I do not want to do all my life.
In short, I was not at all enjoying my work.
As a direct result of which I was not giving my 100% to the job and not giving it enough justice as I used to when I had started out.Things had become so predictable and mundane that going all the way to work seemed as a punishment. A punishment let out by social pressure.A pressure to stick with a secure job. A pressure to earn money.Parental pressure.Peer pressure.

Life is surely going to change after this. I forsee the so-called good times giving way to difficult times.You know it from the reactions from the people around you. The kind of reactions I get back when I happen to tell my quit-story vary from bafflement to empathy. Some say it is a silly decision and some happen to plaud it by terming it as a bold one.I feel it is a mixture of both.Its a silly-bold decision :). Anyways coming back to all seriousness, I know I need to ignore the negative vibes and carry forward the positive ones. I also am completely aware that it is a risky affair to quit without any other job in hand or say when having a future as uncertain as a Bollywood movie but I say what the heck !?! If I am not taking risks or for that matter following my heart @ this age then when??? I am happy I did it and must say that I am one lucky ass as currently I do have the freedom to do my own thing thanks to the fact that I do not have to support my family as such.Touch wood.I know many people who do not love their jobs and want to quit but just cannot with all the attachments.

What next?? This is a big question and answers still evade me.Although currently Army aspirations are running high in me and I have an aim for the next few months i.e to clear the CDS and then the SSB, the future still seems very hazey. As the selection process takes a while to complete, I need to find out what I want to do in the meantime and or rather full time if I do not clear it(unfortunately I just have one chance to get through to Army).Do I want to go back to IT or rather the corporate world? Rationality tells me that I am equipped to do programming and that is what I am best at currently and hence should go back. But somewhere down the line I do not feel like doing so and living the cubicle life all over again.
There are two things I find my interests pinning down to. To work for a startup firm which has an informal work culture and a real zest for cutting edge technology work. A workplace I could feel attached to.Never felt that attachment with TCS. Second thing would be to work as a travel writer or rather just as a traveller. Writing travelogues for magazines coupled with nature photography and the freedom to explore the whole of India would be ultimate fun.I know I am not a great writer or something but I also know that I am not bad one either. Also I have an eye for photography and hence think that something of this sort would give me more satisfaction.
But yes, I would contemplate on all these only if I do not get to the Army.Army is the place I want to be. A mere thought of going for the SSB gives me that adrenalin rush. Man!!!! I just want to be there.
Lets see whats in store ahead.....

Would like to end this post with a very profound quote I recently read.
"A short cut to riches is to subtract from our desires". How true!!

introspection

Does everything I want to do needs to have a REASON?
Isn't "being mere happy" a good REASON to do something?
or
Is it necessary that "being the HAPPIEST" should be the REASON to do that particular thing?
How do I differentiate between "this-is-happy" and "this-is-happiest" ?
I understand that Man has the power to be subjective to be able to differentiate such things, but some "happiest" things then might have just have turned to be "happy" now and viceversa.So how do I come to a conclusion?

How do I accept or absorb when people in my close bracket do not advocate my beliefs? How do I react when they start perceiving me in an incorrect manner?
Should I ignore them or Should I try to reprove and convince them?

These and many more.
Questions.Questions.And more Questions.They keep coming at me perennially, almost everywhere.They dont even leave me when I am in the Loo.

Another question my dear mother recently probed me with.It was part of a conversation which went something like this...
Me:Aai, mi Army chi exam dyaycha vichar karat ahe....(mom,me planning to give an army exam..)
Mother(..with a totally aghast look): Kay??? Kashala??? Armit gelas tar tuzhyashi lagna kon karnar????( what??? why??? who the hell will marry you if you join the Army???? )

One thing is for sure.Even if I happen to find the answers to the numerous questions above, the answer to the last question, asked by my mother, is what I am interested in the most.

enjoiin saturdays!!

Here on Blogger, @ this eventful hour I declare that Saturday is the most lovable day of the week.

I started enjoiin today before the day had actually set in, doesnt mean that I woke up early...just that i slept late..caught up with the idiot box and surfed the web.

Woke up late @ around 10:30 am or so(.. dnt care to remember). Heard the news that Pramod Mahajan has been shot, and the immediate thought that crossed my mind was "oh-he-is-in-the-limelite-now".Never been so cruel and heartless. I regret it and pray that he recovers to normality. Happens,I mumbled and continued with the unpleasant morning chores minus a bath, minus a disoriented search for ironed formal attire.

(offtrack)
Watching my mother and the media go frenzy over the breaking news this morning was quite understandable. That all the channels would go bersek the whole day was anybodys guess. I scowled @ my mother in an attempt to make her understand that its his life and the matter was altogether a personal one, not necessary for public scrutiny. But she is my mother and started jumping channels, completely ingnoring my gyaan.
(/offtrack)

As I browsed through the TOI, particular BT, realisation struck me that I havent yet watched the flick Being Cyrus. Another critically acclaimed movie and I did not want myself to feel the same about it, the way I had, when I had missed out on Hazaron Khwaishein Aisi in the theatres. Didnt care to call anybody, had my lunch and drove myself to the nearest multiplex. To my pleasant surprise the ticket was just 70 bucks(..mind you, i am still in TCS and offsite) . Met an old friend of mine, Subbu. Is currently lazzin around in the city after two gruelling yem-bee-yae years.He was with his friends. Me alone.
Abt the movie..hmm.Brilliant short movie, kept me guessin as it unfolded the story of a weird Parsi Family. All the actors are commendable to say the least.Thats it..no more review from my side..as there are critics paid for the same...please read them.No, wait!!...cant help commenting that Dimple Kapdia was sexxxy as ever.

Back home now, I am pondering over the possiblity of catching up with some friends later in the evening.Might just make this Saturday more enjoyable than I would have thought of.

So, a lazzzzzy morning, ghar ka khana, a good movie, and some catching up with friends is all that one needs for a Great Saturday.

back from kashmir

M Back!!!!!!!!

Yes, I am back after an amazing, awesome, unbelievable, awe inspiring tour of Kashmir.
Havn't been able to get over the hangover yet and I dont want to get over it ever. Starring @ the pics incessantly instils bouts of nostalgia in me, time and again.Those images of calm and surreal lakes along with strikingly beautiful, pine forested, artistically snowclad Himalayan peaks in the background are permantly etched in my memory.

I want to go back there.I will certainly go back there.

off to kashmir...reporting from delhi

After years of planning,anxiety,aprehension about touring Kashimir:The Paradise on Earth, the day finally arrived when me and and my family finally set off for the experience of a lifetime.

Here I am, blogging from the Delhi Airport,thanks to an MTNL kiosk, to kill some time only because my connecting flight to Srinagar is still 3 hrs away.

Starting off early @ around 5:00 am,we reached Mumbai Airport pretty early, thanks to my overcautious father.Checking in with a TOI in my hand,I walked over towards the gate no. 4 exit.Was quite amazed to notice that the television screen was a CRT in the age of Plasmas and LCDs.This surely left a sour impression on my mind.Long Live AAI and Long Live the India Tourism Industry.
Boarded the huge Airbus A300, an Indian Airlines flight, which to my surprise, and contarary to the previous experience @ the airport, had beautiful hostesses onboard.Seems our PSU airlines have started grasping the tricks of the trade, albeit slowly.Better late than never.
During the flight, I spent my time having breakfast(strictly veg..no idea why??) and later on browsing through the in-house magazine of Alliance Air.The magazine was a good read, primarily for the adventurous expeditions described all throughout.Reading through the mag, I dreamt of backpacking someday without a care in the world.

I need to log off now before my parents come searching for me..:).Will board the Delhi-Srinagar flight in sometime and from there on we and our tour will be in the hands of Kesari tours.

I hope to have an experience that I would cherish for the rest of my life.
Cherio!!

browse control!!!!!!!

Thats what takes up pretty much of my day @ work..:)
Have been web browsin quite a bit of late....the web, the newsblogs and stuff like that.

One such place is Orkut, where in, I regularly stumble across phunny, whacky profiles and testimonials.Talking about testimonials, they can get pretty smutty if one is not very careful with the words used.One such testimonial writtten by a guy(fortunately) for his friend, in trying to praise his cricketing abilities read something like this:".....likes cricket,balls like wasim bhai,karnataka express...".There you go!!.You see,if not careful,testis(pun intended) can go awry..;)

Now that sleaze talk has crept into this post, I cannot help but mention this piece of news I read today.Teachers and the likes of them in Amrika are in a sort of a dilemma.They do not know if they should just tell or show while teaching stuff about sex education?
For me, the process of learning and unlearning started way back when I was, I guess in the 6th class or was it 5th???? Does it matter?? No.But what mattered then was, how quickly I learnt "things" and how good I was @ spreading the (incorrect)gyaan all around me..:D.I would not mind schooling again if they start showing things instead of just telling them.

Talking about sex is one thing and coming to terms with the unexpected aftereffects is another.Methinks it is this that has taken toll of Tom Cruise's brains and made him go totally insane following Scientology.Here is some pure(couldn't find a better adj) crap of a news.Katie Holmes, Tom's girlfriend, is about to give birth and she has been adviced to practice silence during child birth. Along with providing placards that would remind Katie to keep silence ,he is going to provide her with ipod that will play calming tunes all day long.I call this the epitome of religious fundamentalism.:D.Its time Katie gives Tom some mungi treatment(for the uninformed,it is putting red ants on the tip of the erect crotch,a third degree punishment practiced by the Ugandan police) and make him understand what is pain.

But not all women would advocate that,rather they prefer being beaten up,more so the African women, because on an average 40% of them think that "wife beating" is acceptable under different circumstances.Most bizzare of those is when they happen to "burn the food".Read more here.
As for me,I would not mind indulging in the mild form of "wife beating" popularly known as "spanking".Would like to know what Indian women think about this ..;) ;)

Too much of crap for a single post.Ye baat kuch hazam nahi hui.I better stop this before Hugh Hefner comes calling for my vulgar writing skills.:P

i 've some company!!!!

Now I know, why I am still single.
It is not that I am sad or happy @ being one.Just the feeling that one gets when one thinks that, may be the grass is greener on the other side.But I found this piece (@ the bottom) while browsing through OutlookIndia site and its surely left a smug smile on my face.



It is not me but the stats that are responsible for my singleton!!!...:D.
Only time will tell, how long will yours truly belong to the 20(lucky/unlucky) group ?

my engagement with reading

"The art of reading is to skip judiciously"-Unknown

Came across this quote and my mind quickly started relating to it.Of late, I have taken up heavily on reading,be it blogs,books,or the web. Earlier, it was the tube that kept me occupied but now it seems as reading is also getting its due share of my time. I dont know, why I never did this amount of reading during my school and college days? May be because the focus was more on academic pursuits and less on anything else. Another reason could be, none of my close friends was into reading, also never did my folks put me into this habit. But I am still happy that it have finally started reading.It is never too late you know.

But as the quote above implies, it is very important to make ones choices with respect to what one would like to read, be it books as a whole or things within a book.

Months ago, I laid my hand on "Ignited Minds" written by our great President.I must say it is a must read for every Indian, young and gunning. It just makes you feel more passionate about being an Indian. All said, I still skipped a chapter of that book which was on Saints and Seers of India.Not sure exactly why I did this, may be my agnostic nature came to the fore.

Likewise, I am less drawn towards books by the likes of Jeffery Archer/Sydney Sheldon.Although I accept my limited ability to comment on them, I perceive them as a factory produce, a novel a month aint for me.:( . But I do not rule out reading fiction completely. I never will. I got an English,August few days back.

I also loathe the self-help/management kinda books. Learning how to live/manage ones life/work through books is an absolute silly proposition(MBAs and the wannabes will kill me). Although I have read a few of these kind, I have been quick to realize that implementing those profound thoughts has never been possible for me. Its better to live the way you are, pretty simple, do things as long you like them else procrastinate until you are in a soup and then come out drinking it.

I prefer reading books that are humourous and light in nature. I loved reading P.G. Wodehouse's first book on the Jeeves series(have to get the next one), Dilbert's Principle by Scott Adams(not complete as of yet), Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams(just started on it..). I just love their metaphors and sarcasms on real life. Basically anything humourous is easily enjoyable.
Same goes with the blogs I read, light and crispy. I find GPS's blog very light as he describes his daily chores in Banglore almost very poetically. Aneekets blog is interesting for its weird weird posts.My daily dose of humour comes from the blogs I have mentioned under the heading 'My Dose of Humour'.

Though I am not very much into reading stuff that dwells into various social,economic,psycological issues(it is tooo heavy for me..:D..i do not think i am among those advanced,exalted species..), TOI,Rediff,blogs by JAM Mag Editorand The Great Bong help me keep abreast of developments/views on these fronts.

All in All, I hope my new found engagement with reading grows stronger,helps me shrug incorrect perceptions and eventually culminates into a long term relationship.Relationship...hmmm ...GOD,when will I have a heterosexual relationship??????????? Damn!!!

nothing serious....just a few garbled thoughts

aye sala..abhi abhi..
hua yakeen..ke aag hai..muzhmein kahin..
hui subah..main jal gaya...
suraj ko mein ..nigal gaya..
roobaroo roshni...roobaroo roshni..heyyyy

It is not always that I get addicted to a song as much as I have been to this one.The last instance when something of this sort happened, was I guess after listening to the song Fanaa from Yuva.But I think this time it seems more stronger.And I am loving it.

Some things have kept me amazed and amused around the last fortnight.

The amazing things....
I am amazed about how some guys have way too much luck with girls.This capricorn,who pretends to work in my office but flirts heavily on orkut is a philanderer defined.Though this chic magnet, as some call him, is a mere grad ,very unassuming and down to earth kinda guy, he has become a serious competition to guys with lot more on their resume than his.He does stuff thats weird.His art of scrapping is down right incomprehensible atleast 95% of the time but still sensible chics happen to respond.If someone happens to visit this guy's scrapbook,50% of the time one would find scraps from chics you would lick my ass for and the rest would be envious scraps from useless guys like me.If you are still guessing who this guy is,it is Arvind Shanbag for u.

The amusing things....
I have always enjoyed my way back from work through the forests of Ghodbunder,not just because I am returning home but more so for the cool breeze that blows during the ride.But recently, things have not been this pleasant,primary reason being the small bus that we have been riding in lately.Two adults just cannot manage to sit comfortably in a single seat.But to overcome this,me and my good friend Arvind have had a few tricks up our sleeves.They are pretty simple.Get first up on to the bus,grab a unsited(ya I am getting pretty liberal with words) seat and sit on the outer edge of the same.The next thing you do is "Act".Act as if you've had a real bad day @ work.Strike up a yesteryear actor Manoj Kumarisque pose,just so that everybody else trying to find a seat will pity and think on these lines "Let me not disturb this guy...he seems pretty worked up today".And the next moment you find the poor fellow cooling his ass somewhere else...:D.All this sounds pretty simple yet amusing,and has been successful almost 9 out of 10 times.

Some thoughts about the change in the name of my blog.
I have always nutured something I call as the "Change Mentality".Was contemplating to change the name of my blog to make it sound more appropriate with my personality.Yes Yes, I do have personality that is very much common.The word "Procrastination" defines my sense of being.I am, for the matter of fact an "incurably" disorganized,distracted,hopeless LAZZY BUM...and thats were the new name comes from. :)