Of a guy called Sharaf

Happy new year 2010 !

2010-01-17T21:44:00.000-08:00

New year came with a bang! Everything that can happen right happened - Superb weather, Miami beach, wild crowds and us. It was like enthusiasm flowing all around. I will love to remember the night for a very long time. Offcourse there was the fireworks up in the Miami sky, and there were some within our hearts and minds. Thankful to the lady that drove us home, safely.

We were at a bridge when the year 2010 commenced. As if the fireworks were waiting for the moment, and then it beautified the sky. The cars on the bridge just stopped and people rushed out to awe the majestic fireworks. I could hear the people cheered as fireworks put up some fantastic stuff out there. We gazed up appreciating the flowers, diamonds, colored sparkles dancing far above the blue-lit Miami bridge.

At the Ocean drive avenue the streets were buzzing with music, guys dancing and celebrating. Enter a road side restaurant and we were in the show! I can describe it with just one word - Wow!
A smirk can let loose laughter and that can bring out the 'wild' in us - I don't expect you understood that, however in easy way - we all laughed at each other.

Hope this year brings out the best in everybody, Happy new year !

Chicken Day!

2009-06-18T07:41:00.001-07:00

Today is a chicken day. Not that all chickens over the world will be going go-gaa or will be taking a day out but Vijayant is cooking chicken. He is the world's best cook, if you consider our apartment an world. Incat our apartment is a world in itself. You can find all kinds of characters there, except me. Of the nicest things that God have been giving to us, one of it is chicken. Every non-vegeterinian relishes chicken, I have seen no exception to this rule so far, atleast in our apartment.
Chicken has always been devoured with great interest. Believe me, every one has very high hopes and eating-aspirations when chicken is cooked. Probably, you must have guessed that I am being immensely entertained by the every thought of softly chewing a delicious chicken leg.

Time to be thankful

2009-05-30T17:57:00.000-07:00

"This moment is a miracle! I am thankful that I am able to enjoy this moment. I am in perfect health in a perfect weather at a perfect time!" - Syed S Sharaf
It was a special moment and if you ask me why I call it a treasured moment I have no answer. It was simply special for no reason at all.

Contextually, I was sitting at a bench near the Hudson river enjoying the comfortable evening. Lately I have been trying to be thankful for all that I have ( and I don't have). Then and there, I felt that I am lucky to be there relishing the moment with plethora of happiness floating around. On my left there were many many bubbles of happiness floating around. Oh! I could see them too on my right and it was everywhere.
This lucky fellow is thankful to have enjoyed the calm evening by the river.

Mr. Sudhakar

2009-04-01T21:07:00.000-07:00

'... he came and went' - Syed S Sharaf

I love this guy. He popped into your lives when one of our roomies went for vacation. Well remembering about vacation, I have a lot of tales to tell you guys about my vacation adventures; i will but later. Now coming to the point - let's get to know some good stuff( if at all) about this guy. As a matter of fact, tell good things about people is like trying forcefully to vomit when you are perfectly okay - very difficult. Still ....

- Sudhakar possessed godlike skill to cook chicken. A desperate cook and a desperate psycho.
- He loves Chicken tikka masala so dearly that he once paid $330 to have one !
- He didn't taste Chicken tikka masala again

As you like it!

2008-10-22T20:14:00.001-07:00

Many interesting incidents transpired last month and some of these would get etched into my cognizance and remain so for a long time. Firstly I met a lot of people, yeah a lot of them. Many are interesting and extremely friendly. They were strangers before, perfect strangers. Some became talk-mates for a few minutes and then got lost in this big world perhaps never to be seen again. Some people are extremely fantastic and I really feel lucky to be with them. They are, in all sense, luckier to have me too! I am a lucky man, you know.

I got a chance to pay back to the society and that is something new. We helped in leveling library books in a public school in New York City. I have been looking forward to doing some volunteering stuff but I haven't pushed myself much. Lately I noticed that my life was centered around myself only. I encircled myself with my problems. Helping others might help fight some of my problems. Everyone is fighting his own little wars. Why don't you join us?

In the evening Vijayant and I today chatted a lot about our childhood days – our heydays. It was good to be among our family and among a big gang of relatives and friends. We shared some nasty and memorable events and accidents of our lives.

Weirds

2008-09-28T03:02:00.001-07:00

Thats me!
Thats Alok!
Thats Vipin!

Alok’s day out

2008-09-17T20:28:00.001-07:00

Every day the Sun ruthlessly comes up the sky to wake me up. Soon after, I commence the century old morning drill – go to bathroom and do something there (I won't tell you what… you know the drill, don't you?), dress up tidily and then march to office. Well I have religiously doing the process for past five pathetic years. Today wasn't an exception. My day wasn't that bad but Alok was not that lucky – his day was worse. Not that worries of Lehman and Merill Lynch being vaporized bothered him however more importantly, luck wasn't at his side today. He is a guy who isn't concerned about petty things like –losing his first mobile phone, his laptop stopped working, losing his $300 camera , value of his shares of Lehman washed out. These rather frequent incidents don't bother him anymore. However today something really bad happened. I can reveal the tragic and comic incident nonetheless, let me give an analogy to give you a gist of the incident - You fly all the way from America to Beijing for Olumpics only to find that you forgot your $10,000 ticket.

9/11 World Trade Center Light Towers

2008-09-12T21:09:00.000-07:00

Taken on 11th Sep 2008 from Exchange place, Jersey City

Copyright by Syed Siddique Sharaf

iPhone 3G

2008-09-02T21:02:00.000-07:00

Having hunted for iPhone 3G though out New York City for one month I finally grabbed one. This is now my fourth girlfriend. The first one I bought way back in 2003 was a cute looking Motorola C300 with practically no brains. It was sleek like most of our New York girls. Colored mobiles were pricy then so I uncomfortably settled for my non-colored sleeky cutie C300. I was pretty much naive and forgot an important lession - 'Looks are deceptive'. She wasn't so friendly like other Nokia girls however she faithfully remained with me in my good and bad times for next one and half years. One afternoon she stopped ringing. It would not say it was a happy loss.

Soon after I fell for Nokia 6630. She wasn't slim and sleek but she was not very bulky either. Needless to say, I was already an enlightened man and didn't go for looks. I was happy. I like browsing internet on my new phone. Speed was slower than the slowest snail however I loved browsing internet on-the-go like in bus, sitting in a park, walking, on bed ... Camera in the mobile was such an obsession for me that I captured anything that appeared to be amusing. For me, it was my most prized possession.

I would have happily lived with her for another 999 years but then I was sent to USA. This country have very strange mobile-phone related rules which dictate a compulsory one year contract with a free mobile phone! I choosed Nokia 6133. I am not a guy that ditches one girl for another free girl but then you know everybody is allowed to commit one mistake. Anyway mobiles aren't full fledged girls so one can have two without endangering one's life. Infact I lived with two mobile phones that I loved very much - one for functionality and the other for its flip and slenderness. On one of my exciting and emotional trip to India I exchanged my slender mobile with the mom's. My mom's mobile didn't have work authorization and simply refused to work. She was adamant. Technically she didn't have an attitude problem but some band problem. Thanks to Vipin he gave his India mobile, as a work around, that didn't have this attitude problem ...sorry band problem. I would not tell you what happened to my sweet 6630.

Glamor of iPhone 3G now floods the technology world. Interesting things interests me. Not surprisingly splendid beauty of iPhone enthralled me and I made my mind to have one.

On August 22nd I had one! She is beautiful, vibrant and sexy. There's a lot to tell about her however you must have already heard about her. I wish I could show it to the person whom I wanted to show.

Awareness

2008-08-17T17:40:00.000-07:00

You are now reading this post. Doesn't matter how you got into here. Be prepared for a exercise which will take a few minutes of yours. It's a beautiful experience.

1. Close your eyes and ask yourself this question - 'How am I feeling' - about 15 seconds
2. Open your eyes and look around you. Become aware of things around you and also of sounds around you. Try to notice small things around you. Become aware of your body. Try not to think about the past or worry about future. If you mind goes to the past or to the future then come back by noticing things and sounds around you - 2 minutes
3. You may notice that during those few minutes your mind ceased thinking and there was silence inside.

So how did you feel ? :)

Life's little disappointments

2008-07-13T22:27:00.001-07:00

On my return way from office I walked past by NYSE and as usual lost in thoughts. Sometimes I wonder if I can be cured of the disease called 'absent-mindness'. Okay, that is not the point. Just then I heard a lady ahead sweetly saying 'Hi'; mind you that 'Hi' came from a real girl and not from one in my thoughts. 'Wait. why should anyone care to greet me? No not for me dear'
I moved on and crossed my lady but then my optimistic side of my mind took over. 'May be she greeted me. Perhaps I am lucky and its a windfall!' I eagerly turned back only to see my girl liplocked with her supposedly boyfriend. He could not be her brother so definitely he was her boyfriend.
I smirked and then continued ... Life's little disappointments, you know!

Resolutions

2008-06-16T18:29:00.001-07:00

Today is one of my most significant days. I made a noble resolution; I hope I can keep my resolution. For a long time I have been longing to make the resolution. However, I was unable to; call it laziness or unfocussed attempt, I was unable to. Hmmm …I can't disclose my resolution. To tell you what, prior to this I tested myself by keeping two resolutions for two months each. Those were trivial compared to what I made this time.

Prior two resolutions: Did you ever resolve to do something? I believe one should attempt to fight against oneself for betterment. Firm determination and belief are perquisites; I have them in me. For instance, I am a rice lover and prefer heavy lunch. Chicken over rice meal, which is sold near the Wall Street entrance of my office, has been my favorite. For $4 per meal, that is the best meal I can think of in Manhattan. Additionally I have Chipotle on occasions when my best meal bores me. Other disaster recovery systems are to-go packets, loaded with rice offcourse, served by many Asian restaurants that mushroomed near WTC. So you may have guessed what occur to this soul if he is to survive on salads for a month. Interesting enough, none but I coerced myself to live on salads.

Second resolution was to forgo using Gtalk for a month. I accept that was weird and uncalled for. Till now, I am bewildered on my decision. But Sharaf never fails to keep his word and I didn't log into GTalk. You know the worst ( or the best) thing that can happen to you by keeping resolutions is that they turn that particular (in)activity to a habit. Now I like salads. Many guys and girls are jealous of me. Well I am the thinnest guy on the group and most of them are intolerably bulgy. With the type of salads on my table they probably curse themselves looking at their heavy lunch-boxes, whatever. Again, after the second month I have to force myself to use GTalk and literally I have to convince myself the benefits (if any) of using GTalk.

So what about you? Did you ever resolve to do something in your life or challenged yourself?

Week full of movies

2008-06-15T16:23:00.001-07:00

I watched a lot of movies this weekend. 'The Happening' was perhaps probably not a good movie to start with. Nonetheless, the trail of movies began with it. Next in line was Indiana Jones – Kingdom of crystal skull. I revisited Mission Impossible 3. Then in the Sunday evening, I came across a movie 'Heaven must wait' in basket of on-demand movies in Comcast. Truly, that was the type of movie I would like to watch on idyllic Sundays. The movie is filmed in a small village in England. It is a slow movie with emphasis of relationship. A young man in Georgia comes to know that he inherits property in a village in England. He comes only to find that he inherits a shambled church. He decides to sell it and return however his life changes when he befriends local people. There is one more thing- there is treasure hunt in the backdrop but it didn't hijack the essence of the movie.

Indeed, it is a sweet movie.

The Others

2008-05-16T21:38:00.001-07:00

It's 10 at night and I am just over with the movie the Others. Wow I liked it! I found the climax particularly spellbound. It did negate all my assumptions I made during the movie. If you haven't watched it and you like startling surprises at the climax, then this movie will be up to your expectations. Mind it – it is about ghosts but definitely not a horror movie

This Friday wasn't really different from any other day. As a matter of fact, rains and cloudy sky made it more sullen. We did have some fun at office, however. Fridays usually fill people with 'get-out-of-the-office' attitude but contrastingly today people were in no mood to get out. May be because we are too overloaded with work and we guys are pretty sincere. We are the only people running the world, you know.

News - I am successful in refraining from delicious Indian food for a month. A month earlier I promised myself to stick to salads and fruits at lunch. The day before yesterday I celebrated by having Chipotle bowls with Jayesh. Jayesh and I decided to go for Chipotle today but alas rains damped our enthusiasm and above all Ashwini frustrated me by bringing her 'healthy' home-made lunch J. The work-load full day didn't seem to have an end. Luckily after a terribly long wait the clock struck 5:30 and hurray! Time up. Anirban, one of the busiest guys, didn't like the idea to go home but nevertheless he was forced to put off his work till Monday.

Emotionally yours…

2008-05-07T21:38:00.001-07:00

Certainly there were times when you would have found yourself emotionally disturbed and fiercely but silently struggling in the emotional storm. You were all alone in the battle with yourself. It happened to me many a times. I struggled within myself with none other but my mind. I felt entirely helpless against myriad sea of toxic thoughts and feelings – thought of uncertainty, thought of being ignored, entangled relationships, jealousy, possessiveness and sometimes disgustingly stupid unwanted thoughts. Surprisingly, under such intense scenarios I wonderfully manage to act normal if not stoic!

I felt under such lamenting situations, it is best to talk with a good friend with whom one can share innermost feelings and fears. Married people are lucky in this sense, atleast they are lucky in some ways! (this is supposed to be a joke). On serious note, one needs to be 'emotionally expressive'. Statistically, most unlucky people, like me, walk, eat and sleep in this planet alone.

A more practical way is to scan your mind for advent of emotional upsets. Let's say, if you are feeling angry you must tell to yourself that you are feeling angry. It helps. Then question yourself – 'What made me angry?' The whole idea is to know what you are feeling. Once you know what you are feeling you can counteract your bad feelings or at least you can prevent yourself from acting on those bad feelings. Mostly you would fail. I fail. No matter how much I give counter arguments to pacify my anger (against someone) it doesn't heal. However I am able to not act on those feelings.

I will come up with more detailed experience of mine…

Revival

2008-05-01T20:15:00.001-07:00

Appreciation breeds productivity. Someone motivated to revisit my habitual tendency to paint my thoughts in blogs. It is ironic that my enthusiasm in blogging vaporized despite the fact that I am almost always equipped with a laptop and connected to Internet. A ah , lots of distraction in Internet! A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. These golden words aren't mine and neither can be yours. I hope with this small blog posting I will gladly revive my habit of blogging.

Little things are beautiful

2008-02-24T20:02:00.001-08:00

Truly, little things in life are beautiful - a lesson that most of us take for granted. Not that I admire everything I see, however in lonely moments as I stare out of my window to see little children playing the sight brings smiles in my face. Then my eyes falls on a bird and I become standstill, my mind goes stoic and eyes cease to blink. My mind gets frozen and I persist to stare till the birds flies off. It brings mystic joy to my heart. I guess it may have happened many times with you too. Unknowingly, as you get lost in a sea of thoughts your eyes focuses on something for a very very long time. The funny thing is that you don't even realize this!

One afternoon I felt very restless in office and decided to walk on the banks of Hudson River. I kept walking and admired people who idly kept watching the river. A few were smoking and those people seemed to have all the time in the world. A lady with her husband ( probably ) and her adorable dogs peacefully strolled along the river. I didn't like the man accompanying her though. I got strange satisfaction in admiring the scenic environ. An old man smiled at me as though the gentleman knew me for ages. I didn't have to struggle to smile at him; it came from within. One interesting thing happened - an airplane high above went right went cutting across the face of our dear Sun and casted its long shadow on the high rise buildings nearby. Perhaps it lasted for a fraction of a second. My eyes captured it and there was a big smile on my face. I have seen planes casting its shadow many times but that day the act blossomed a smile on my face and rejuvenated my child-like spirit.

Lonely Walk

2008-02-16T00:43:00.001-08:00

Wind was chilling and blowing against my face as I walked out of the Wall Street. The famed street, like my heart, was deserted. The gigantic buildings that walled the streets looked shallow and spiritless. A few thoughts crossed by my depressed mind. Friendship is a beautiful thing. I wished that I keep walking perennially with a heavy sorrowful mind. Melodious songs played from my small music player poured into my ears and eventually swept me into another world. That day all songs seemed philosophical and touchy. The lonely soul walked away in the lonely street. Very few are devoid of the beautiful treasure.

As I entered Broadway, my eyes fell on a young couple in-front of me walking hand in hand. I smiled with a pitiful delight for myself. Lucky ones. That day I enjoyed the cold winter Friday night; I was happy when I was hurt. I carried a little wish within myself, safe and unheard.

Fight with sleep

2007-11-28T21:53:00.001-08:00

It is very frigid night and I covered myself with a velvet blanket. Believe me , there can be nothing that can make you feel good than lying on bed at a cold winter night. Not to mention, when you are equipped with a laptop then time just go by easily while you surf the same site over and over without an iota of boredom. Well, at the dead of night I sense that sleepy feeling is certain to grip me in a few moments but amazingly instead of eagerly giving up , I persist to fight with myself to be awake and clank at keyboard.

For lethargic people like me, sleepiness is a blessing. I just can't avoid it, no matter what. When I think I am sleepy, I am asleep. But strangely, now I tend to procrastinate what otherwise would be hallowed moments of sleep. Admitted that I want to write and the enthusiasm to write a blog kept me awake. I bet there would have been instances when u suddenly wish to do something of your choice at disturbingly abnormal times, like at midnight! And you do it because you love to do it. Something inspires you from inside that replenishes your energy levels.

Okay, temptation is too hard to resist, I'm indeed going to sleep!

I and Alok

2007-11-28T18:22:00.001-08:00

Life is an experiment and I never run out of experiments. Inspired by a sudden enthusiasm of blogging among my roommates, I resume blogging in so-called active arena called blogosphere. Well, its accepted that storm, like enthusiasm, lasts for moments until it fades. Not a new phenomenon, I also came into the wave of blogging and was in the zenith some months back. Attraction decreased and I got busy in mundane and not-so-mundane tasks of this earthly life, you understand.

Okay, read a blog of a friend of mine – http://al0kprakash.blogspot.com/. Not that its amazing or I'm in promotional business but its just that some people just simply love to copy; copy to the extent that they forget one little social etiquette – 'Copy but change a bit'. Don't take him to court and neither do I intend to do the same but you may, not compulsory offcourse, request that gentlemen to alter the title of his interesting blog – 'Of a guy called Alok'.

To prevent being beaten up by this gentlemen who also happens to my roommate, I would like to mention that he has beautifully depicted his feeling in an engineering student particularly in event of campus placements. Perhaps was one of the most interesting events in my college life and that of any engineering student.

Lonely Moments

2007-10-16T05:31:00.000-07:00

A lonely soul writing on a cloudy Sunday. I have to admit that after a long time I am currently enjoying a beautiful Sunday evening with none but myself. Every other past Sunday evenings have been somewhat busy with friends or sometimes shopping. However today, my evening is of solace, placating silence and no materialistic goals in mind. If that you call peace, it's it.

The Best Ship

2007-08-04T22:54:00.000-07:00

Indeed it was a very happy friendship day. A popular apothegm crossed my mind - 'There are big ships and small ships; but the best ship is friendship' - funny it is! I am a thoughtful ( or absent-minded) guy who usually gets lost in jungle of thoughts. But today, after having called a long lost friend of mine, I have embroiled myself in deep lovely reminiscence of interesting bygone days.

Certainly, there were many ships that crossed mine in the so-called voyage of life. But one such ship sailed right close to me. In this vast ocean, I am not often blessed or say lucky enough to get a ship in such close proximity. Anyway, a man on a lucky day is in always lucky. We sailed together for a long time. There were really big ships and some very small ships but the best ship was the ship close to mine. The vastly azure ocean and journey-to-nowhere became not only tolerable but also eventful. The sun grew brighter with each passing day and the winds became merrier. Our ships struggled on the ebb and relished the breeze of happiness.

The above paragraph is a scramble with somewhat-sensible scribbles from a not-so-insane person.

A visit to New York University

2007-06-30T16:03:00.000-07:00

New York University, as opposed to what we conceived, is segregated; departments are located throughout Broadway and Greenwich village. I and Alok set out to find there was no welcome-gate saying 'Welcome to NYU' , instead the buidlings encircled the Washington square park. However the location is splendid - proximity to beautiful park offers people an ideal place to hang out. We were amazed to see students studying in the park, sleeping and hanging out with their friends.

We sat on a bench under cool n comfortable shade, then I noticed an old man was decoratively working on a wooden small box and beautifying it with burned match-sticks. A few guys were trying to control a cloth ball by the legs. A fountain provided a relaxing place to calmly sit down and many a people even were sleeping there. Waters from the fountain creates a drizzling and cooling effect.

Yeah, a guitarist and a few good singing men entertained themselves and others. It was an ideal past-time and I could spent hours listening to them and chilling in the cool park!

30 minutes to IPhone!

2007-06-29T14:25:00.000-07:00

All hype in the air. People are charged with enthusiasm and curiosity about the cute-looking, multifunctional IPhone that is to be released today at 6 PM. I am eagerly waiting for the final countdown of the magical revelation. It happens that time seems slows down when we wait for something big to happen.

The little clock in my desktop shows 5:30 PM and another thirty minutes of restless wait and then I will rush to At&T shop at 82 Wall Street, which is the nearest to my office. Yup, expecting a lot of people there. Well well, no plans to 'see' iphone today as it will be another hour of wait before I get to see i-phone!

< After >
No doubt, there were throngs of people. I managed to take a few snaps to capture the amazing event. Not surprisingly, queue before the At&T showroom was unending and it swirled into nearby streets. Some sat down on the road and having a great time with friends. At the struck of six, the doors were flung open to the excited public, through people were let into the showroom in batches.

A visit to Central Park

2007-06-09T20:59:00.000-07:00

Central Park under the summer sun contrasts with that in the winter freezing breeze. Last time I went to central park in January when temperature was around zero degrees. Then, the park was unsurprisingly deserted and only a few loitering souls could be seen.I liked it - I looked at those leafless tress and wondered how they would look adorned with pink, violet and white flowers. I looked at the fallen golden-ripe leaves that carpeted the green grasses and wondered how would the ground look with many a people and children playing on. I admired the benches which whispered that never a soul sat on it for a very long time. I admired the never-ending twisty and swirling pathways leading to nowhere.

Yesterday we went to Central park and it was relishing with people all around! Tress are abound with flowers and fresh green leaves danced with the winds. People are enjoying themselves in the midst of natural beauty and children merrily playing and hopping around the illimitable grasslands. Air fills with slow palatable music from pipe and mouth-organ of musicians who entertains people with their talent.

Its lovely to spent time with friends in this majestic place in the heart of Manhattan!

You may enjoy photos of my Central park visit at http://picasaweb.google.com/sssharaf/CentralParkWithAlokNSwati

Experiments with my camera - Canon S3 IS

2007-05-16T21:06:00.000-07:00

Finally, I bought Canon S3 IS for $317. The next night I experimented with manhatan skyline and back-campus of our apartment. Particularly, I delved into technicalities of histogram, aperture control and shutter-speed to control exposure.
Here's a couple of photos taken during experimentation with manual mode.

Manhattan View

Exposure Time:1/30 sec
F-stop : f/3.5

Exposure Time : 1 sec
F-stop : f/3.5

Obviously, the latter one gathered a lot of light however it got blurred.

Back of my apartment

Exposure Time : 0.16 sec
F-stop : f/2.7

Exposure Time : 0.8 sec
F-Stop : f/2.7

Life's Little Hope

2007-05-10T11:41:00.000-07:00

Today is a hopeful day. Seems I impressed Lady Luck , check my Orkut profile below

Still waiting for my back account to bubble :)

6 Flags n Beach Play

2007-05-07T17:53:00.000-07:00

This weekend was thrilling! Our team went to 6 flags. Believe me, this was the most thrilling and frightening experience I have ever had! The star attraction was the Kingdaka which was simply mind blowing! An hour long wait intensified our already bubbling excitement rushing through our veins. Finally, we were seated and seatbelts were fastened and we were ready to experience the fastest roller coaster on earth!
3..2..1 and zooooooooooooom! Attained a terrifying speed of 128 mph in about 3.5 seconds and I found myself being catapulted like a rocket shooting 90 degrees into the heavens! A momentary halt at an height of 456 feet was breathtaking however my brain was stupefied with fear and experience like never before! With the same cruising speed we came down with our heads facing the earth and everything was over before any other thought crossed my mind.

Next ride - El Toro had flavor of its own and its the second tallest and fastest wooden coaster in the world! It was equally exhilarating and the steep curves and celerity scared me to death!

On Sunday, we went to Long island beach and contrastingly, it was quite relaxing. We played football daring high speed chilling winds. Water was too icy and venturing into the ocean was suicidal!

What an amazing weekend it was!

The Hope

2007-05-03T21:29:00.000-07:00

Hope is a strange thing. Sometimes, you decline to accept things that you have wanted the most. Then you repent for not accepting them and curse yourself. Later, you hope for better things, if not the best thing, to come and decline to accept things coming on your way, without realizing the fact that 'the best' doesn't really exists and would never come.

There's a thin line between hoping for better and greed. Put it this way - if your wait fructifies in the end, you 'hoped' for better; if not, then you were greedy. After all, the world is a strange thing!

$175 Laptop!

2007-04-27T08:08:00.000-07:00

Laptops to be available for $175 from October! Now we can perceive the advent of cheap laptops. No doubt it will be a boon not only for people in developing countries but also for people in developed countries.
I feel myself lucky to have studied in a school which have embraced computer education way back in 1994. To tell you the school was in a remote tribal place in Assam, a state in north-eastern part of India and surely Assam didn't come anywhere among the top technological states in the country. Despite all odds, school admin foresaw computers as potent power. I owe much to them!

In my engineering college, I found many friends who had not touched a computer in their lives. Ironically, the college has supposedly the best computer facilities in the country. Later on, with the power of computers and internet in their hands they have shone brilliantly in the area of computer technology and also in their careers; its fantastic! In fact, I owe much to the computer courses in my school days and believe that I wouldn't be in a successful career track if the school were not to open its doors to budding computers then.

Way in which these cheap laptops will alter the lives of children is unimaginable. Their usage will unleash creativity in children and may motivate them to study, which otherwise is quite dull except for a few self-motivated ones. Thus, it will help curb early dropouts. Another interesting possiblility is off-class studies. Children could be given CDs and they can go though study materials at home. In short, inexpensive laptops hold immense power to spread the light of education and knowledge.

According to me, these laptop are useful to school going children. These are of no use to children of parents who are below poverty line or of parents who struggle to feed their families. Education itself is unreal for them and let alone the $175 laptops.

In India, $175 translates to Rs. 7500. Though PCs are available for as low as Rs. 7500, however laptops would definitely steal the show.
Don't hate the color and shape of these weird looking laptops, infact they are made so to arrest black-market and theft that would surely arise after the launch.

Nicest Friday

2007-04-13T22:23:00.000-07:00

Today was one of the nicest Friday. My Multithreaded application got successfully instrumented and monitoring utility has successfully graphed the control flow; well, in layman terms, all my programs worked! Ah, good work needs good rewards, so after the office I thought of treating myself with the most precious thing - 'Time for Yourself'. With my iriver( a gift from Panda) plugged into my ears, I went for a walk exploring the Broadway and then idea of a walk on the Brooklyn Bridge excited me. It isn't very far from Broadway and it is just a few minute walk though the pavements adorned with pink trees.
There I saw lines of people merrily enjoying themselves, taking photos and walking by. Happy mind is one of the rarest treasures - I had it! I stood there to see the statue of Liberty far away and the buildings glowing orange under the Sun's dwindling rays. Here's some photos

Came home and dinner was almost ready. Happy minds need happy TV serials; so watched an animated serial 'Return of the king' and watched the movie - 'Adventures of Shark boy and Lava girl'. It has really been a fantastic day. Yeah, above all Mithun and I were able to connect our laptops via VPN. I have never seen so many things clicking in a single day!

Snow Skiing

2007-03-18T17:41:00.000-07:00

We went for skiing this weekend and its was electrifying! Hidden Valley, which is an hour drive from Jersey city, holds very good skiing terrain for experts and also for newbies. We reached there in the afternoon and had a sumptuous lunch. French fries, onion rings, chicken burgers, pepsi were way too heavy but I thank Suresh to remind me that during skiing I gotta have lot of backup energy! I never repent of gulping all those stuff then.

Off we headed towards the snowy uneven field. First, Suresh gave me and Mithun some basic sessions like how to lock/unlock our boots to the skiers, speed control and more important - how to get up after a fall. The last tutorial was the most handy of all since we repeatedly fell and some incidents were simply unthinkable. Mithun had a hard time in getting up after his first fall. Nevertheless, I too ferociously struggled on getting up after my first fall. As we kept on practicing skiing there were many expert skiers, including kids, who were performing nicely and we were awestruck to see them come down from steep terrains with beautifully maneuvered movements.

After having practiced in low-steep grounds, we ventured into steep, more curvy and difficult terrain meant for experts! Zooomed... and as I descent my speed increased and later it reached the speed of light in a matter of seconds. I was going down with incredible speed. Rock ice formations jolted me but I managed to clear them but then I face the curves which were equally difficult to maneuver.
"Make your skiers in a reverse V shape to slow down" - these words of Suresh echoed in my mind, but in no time...... dhamp! I fell. Wearily I got up and pushed my poles against the rocky ice to force myself down and there I go again! Ah.. I didn't reach the bottom but somewhere down the hill, I was again struggling to get up. After four such fall, I finally made it to the bottom. That was my first skiing in the expert zone!
On my second attempt I fell for three times and improved on my third attempt with only two falls. However, I wasn't able to enhance it further. Later, it got dark and was snowing lightly. The scenery was really splendid.

At about seven thirty in the evening, we all retired from the field and we had a fiesta in a coffee shop near by. Suresh and I had a chicken soup and Mithun had a onion soup to beat the cold. I also ordered a hot coffee and it was really refreshing. I was thinking to taste the onion soup but Mithun called the onion soup a mistake.Thanks! Yeah, french fries came for free. With took our aching bodies back home and slept as though we would sleep for a million years.

Snow, snow n snow

2007-03-16T16:02:00.000-07:00

After a dramatic day, again comes a snowy day

My foot on snow

Tactical but Practical

2007-03-15T21:21:00.000-07:00

To be honest, I facsimiled the topic from a well known TV program "Tactical to Practical" in History channel. The declaration is just to be wary about copyright issues and not to embroil myself in messy issues. However, the theme which I am here for, is unavoidably messy - Its about being politically correct and conceal emotions. Hard way though, I have learned to play politically, in the game of life. You may have face a number of situations when you say something but feel otherwise; situations where one needs to be a diplomatic ( or pragmatic) and need to conceal emotions in order to gain, often selfishly, something. A simple situation may be a meeting with your boss. You say something or propose a plan to appease him but you don't really mean it, or situations where you support your boss to materialize your ulterior motives. There are a lot of instances where you must have championed an idea or notion just because every other guy feels the same however, deep inside you feel the other way.

In corporate life, revealing your intentions and emotions could possibly have an adverse effect. A job may be not taste one but that should not evoke one's anger or any immediate repercussion. From different ( some horrible ) situations I have learned to be politically correct and get into a wait-n-watch game. Another reason not to get emotional is the fact that emotions often shadow logic. Quite possible, one might get wrong or won't have the full picture of a situation; a quick act or decision might transpire to be disastrous.

Yes, being politically correct is a tough job but it needs to be practiced and mastered! No one likes to get hurt. Its all about doing things in least offensive way. Many a times, I feel like punching the other guy who talks to me in a fashion I dislike or get irritated whenever I am assigned uninteresting jobs. I need to understand that constructive talking might solve the problem and a punch or stale arguing isn't required at all.

Hakuna Matata

2007-03-12T19:29:00.000-07:00

This was my finest Monday. Surely, I didn't find any girlfriend, neither Jeniffer Lopez proposed me nor Miss India begged me marry her; this was simply a great Monday. Weather could not have been better with temperature comfortably settled at 51 degrees and winds were kind enough not blow us off. The day in the office was superb with fantastic motley of work and free-time (mostly free-time).

As our pretty Sun shimmered beyond the sky-scrappers of the New York city, I strolled on the banks of Hudson river and sometimes stopped to appreciate the calm cold waters under the evening sky, ferries passing by and reflection of dim lights of tall buildings lit up the river. As the darkness came, I moved to Newport mall and bought a pair Nike sports shoes and a chicken pack to relish someday. After a satisfying dinner, now I am in bed ready to fall fast asleep. Could life be that better ?

No worries! This reminds me of an interesting song from movie The Lion King. If you feel that your day is going to be a Utopian one, live it fully. You never know when shall the day return; tomorrow may not be the same. Hakuna Matata!

Monday Phobia

2007-03-04T21:39:00.000-08:00

For the first time I seem to suffer from Monday phobia. Sure I have always being unwilling to go to office on Mondays however, today I am feeling reluctant if not desperate! Years till the next weekend

Saturday was a biggie day with hefty tasks accomplish. I got my state id, the task which got procrastinated thanks to my laziness. By the way, I'm not lazy but suffering from lazy syndrome lately. There was a mile long queue in the state-office which reminded me of the passport offices in India. However, there are noticeable differences in the queue - here almost everybody was in ipod, had some books to read or stuff like that. I had none so read the application form a hundred times before getting bored. On getting my prized ID, I treated myself with a Chicken Biriyani in an indian restaurant.

Then I got myself added to the lease and again the form-filling stuff invited me. However, there wasn't any queue and it was smooth except for my credit score. My credit score is still in the baby phase so my roommate's score helped me out without an increase in deposit. Phew! After a refreshing afternoon nap I was recharged again with zeal and enthusiasm. We went to a movie 'Zodiac' - its about a serial killer and the interesting but unsuccessful chase for him. Movie was nice but a long one indeed.

Got a taste of New York's night life when we went to a dance club - Webster one of the biggest clubs in New york. We hanged out till three in the morning. It was nice and I am thinking to take a girlfriend next time. Does that mean I would never go again ?

Riverside Walk

2007-02-26T21:48:00.000-08:00

I was onto a walk by the Hudson river in a beautiful cold morning drowned with mesmerizing old Hindi melodies when Mithun captured me, in a photo.

Rat Race

2007-02-26T21:01:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine, Amit, mentions about 'Rat Race' and intently desires to come out of it. Most of you must have instantly recognized the great race of life that I am talking about. It's the unseen yet powerful race in which we all, may be unintentionally, are a part of; it is a race in which we constantly compete against one another, compare ourselves to others, eager to earn money to secure our needs, and thereby sliding further into the race.

Wikipedia defines it as "A Rat Race is a term used for an endless, self-defeating or pointless pursuit." Though I have little contextual background of my friend's statement, I presume he points to the very purpose of life's struggle to materialistic achievement which ultimately brings no good to the 'rat'. We start our lives aimlessly and then the world forces us to aim at something in life. We imagine that if we achieve that 'something' we would be content and better off, least knowing the fact that sooner or later, there would be another 'thing' ahead of us. We proceed to the next target, aspiring to be a bit more secure and happier in life and that goes on.

For instance, in my eight standard we smart people were told that if we scored well enough at matriculation, we could step in a good college and have a good future. Getting into a good college was our mental horizon. We forgot that nobody has ever touched the horizon. We started off the quest for the horizon. After two years, I wasn't at the best college but dreamed that a reputed engineering college would heightened my prospects, never pondering what my prospects are. Two years later, I wasn't at the best engineering institute but felt that getting into a good company would, you know, be nice. The never ending story goes on and all I wish, like my friend does, to come out of the race. However, the more disturbing question is - How's life out of the rat race ?

Lands of Nandigram

2007-02-11T16:58:00.000-08:00

Tension in Nandigram, West bengal is heating up. This is a classic fight of industrialization vs Communism that the world have experienced off late. The proposed mega chemical hub is the trigger of massive violence that has gulped many lives - innocent lives. Here's the picture - Chief minister claims that the setting up of a chemical hub would be a blessing to the entire surrounding region economically, however the socialist group is up for rights of people to be dislocated for construction and for farmers losing their lands. So for so good, here's the catch - land acquisition form farmers to commence contruction. The government claims that they be compensated at market price. However, the government statements have been always murky.

Though going by sheer economics the chemical factories would surely bring prosperity to the neighbourhood by creating more jobs opportunities and fire ancillary industries to florish but the problem of poor farmers cannot be overlooked. Here are some of the statements from officials :

- Farmers and landlords would be fairly compensated at market price.
- They would be relocated in a convinient place.

Who determines the market price? We are definitely aware that the farming land is valued much lower and the prices are usually dictated by a group of people pricing evaluators who are usually corrupt and inefficient. Assuming that the farmers are paid as per 'market price' how about the relocation prices and not to mention the intangible price pertaining to the produce and fertility of the land. Perhaps these factors won't click at the minds of the price evaluators.

Place of relocation is also very imperative. Farmers make their living on the produce they cultivate and the quantity and the quality of the produce is very dependent on soil. So the choice would be vital to convince the people of Nandigram and also vital to future economic health of those farmers.

Interestingly, the Tatas are on their quest to manufacture the world's cheapest car at Sinpur(West bengal) priced at around Rs. 100,000 - somewhere around $2222. Particualrly in price sensitive society, advent of such low priced cars would bring a social revolution - a revolution in outlook of people as cars are objects of desire. Agreed that such cars won't attract the affluent group but we aren't talking of them, instead talking of less-fortunate people hoping to take their family for a drive home.

Got Sony Vaio

2007-02-10T07:08:00.000-08:00

Finally, after a long frustrating wait I got my Sony Vaio FE-890 notebook. Its cool. Actually, I would have loved a 14.1 inch one but none in the market had a good graphics card. Hence, I had to settle with a 15.4 inch widescreen one. Nevertheless, it looks good and screen, coupled with Vista animations, is awesome! To add to all, Nvidia 7600 graphics card is amazing - got to feel the difference when i played the Quake 4 demo game. Even with many applications open and the game fierce going on , it was really silent. Yeah, its an iota heavy than I expected but performance couldn't have been compromised for weight. Oh it weighs 2.7 kg that's roughly 6.2 lbs.
Yup, my notebook got a base score of 4.4 ( Please dont ask me what is really means )

I played Quake 4 and FEAR but mostly got beaten up badly.Miles to go and I had to improve my combat skills. This reminds me of Quake sessions with Shashi and Amit, the greatest quake (merciless)players that I have seen.

Ice Skating

2006-12-24T19:37:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, we went to Bryant part for ice-skating. It was really exhilariting and exciting. At the first glance, the skaters, with a thin blade at the soles ,were daunting. I was wondering how can I stand up on ground, let not speak about ice!

But, it worked, at the first shot. I was able to walk, atleast on ground. Next task was to face the ice. As I put my first leg on the ice ground ...bang! ... I fell. I got up strugglingly and tried to be on my feet I fell again. Then for next one hour, I forced myself out on the icy ground, I fell, I collapsed at the boundares, I banged on others, I pushed someone down as I slipped and I learnt to balance myself.

Oh the photos are shaky , but can't help. The guy who took the photos (my roomie) was himself a first-timer on ice skating and it is really amazing that he was indeed able to capture it.

Ok here's some lessons I learnt (for first timers only)

- You will never fall ( To comfort oneself - keep repeating it)
- If you feel that you slipped, be cool since at the end both your legs will slip equally and you will still be on your limbs

Skating at the Bryant park, near to the times square, is free but that bait attracts many people. Also you may buy a skater for yourself since renting one would cost $8.

Tea bags n Time travel

2006-12-20T14:05:00.000-08:00

Wierd! isn't it ? Let me unjumble it. In pantry I started making tea, an ardous process. Usual stages that goes into the making of a 'perfect tea' are as follows: ( @Copyright 2006-07 Sharaf)
- Get some hot water in a cup (at 40 C - that's what they call it hot water )
- Open a tea bag and dip it in the cup. Keep shaking until the color pleases your eyes.
- Get the cup into the microwave and heat it for 30 seconds.
- Sugar to taste. Don't want it? Go for sweetners
- Enjoy!
In the second stage as I was lazily shaking the tea bag in the cup of water, an interesting thought crossed my mind. Will employing another tea bag make my tea-color more deep, in other words, make my tea stronger?
"What are practicals for? Go for it!"

But just before I reached out for another tea bag, I thought to make some presumtions and formulate a hypothesis. So here it goes -

"The effect of adding another tea bag depends on the concentration of the tea on both sides of membrane. The membrane here is the filter paper of the tea bag. So if my cup of water is sufficiently concentrated then effects of an additional tea bag will be nullified."

After tirelessly dipping the teabag into the cup, I fired it and hired another tea bag. Dipped, took it out, dippped,took it out, dipped........ - the color didn't change. A happy man I was and I elevated my hypothesis to the status of a theory and just then I remembered reading a similar theory in the ninth standard.
How did my just-formulated theory got copied? Alarming na ? This also proves one point - Time travel!Surely someone must have travelled in time to the future, have seen me at work and have gone back to his time to publish it.
Okie, me back to home!

Timely Solitude

2006-12-19T11:11:00.000-08:00

Last week went well. My childhood curosity of the statue of Liberty was satiated when I visited the marvelled place last Sunday. It was spectacular; the arena was green and majestic, lined with trees which have shreded their leaves and have been eagarly waiting for Miss Spring. The Hudson river and the buildings on the other side of the river added to the scenic beauty. In an open green space, there were a bunch of ducks who were being chased by a little child. Then we sat down for a while by the river and let the icy winds play with us while we fed our eyes with the glorious view of the statue, the ferries on the river, the mischivious children playing with themselves and with quackling ducks and the evening Sun overseeing us. It was nice and surely, I will go for a second trip.

From the placid solitude, we went to the bustling pavements of the Times Square - large billboards, sky touching buildings and countless people. The varied colors of advertizements at surprizing heights stultified us. At Brynt Park, we were tempted to have an ice-skating session however, the queue was long and that burnt our temptation and decided to try it some other day. Walking down, endless neon-powered billboards entertained us and we found ourselves in the herds(appologies) of people running nowhere. Finally, our emasculated legs refused to cooperate with our unsatisfyed mind and we returned...

Miss Sonia

2006-12-15T14:08:00.001-08:00

'Sonia', the name that struck my mind as I was going through a post in friend's blog which talks about my friends's liking for a lady teacher and how her marriage broke his heart.
Okie, Sonia was a beautiful Hindi teacher in charge of the ninth and tenth standard, long back in the year '95-97. She was elegant, talkative and attractive and further,she was in her early 20's. It would not be wrong if I say that most of my friends(except girls) were, in some way or the other, inclined to her. Ok, let me put it this way- we enjoyed attending her class. May be, because she,unlike other mid-aged teachers, was friendly and charming. Incidently, I wasn't good at Hindi so I had no option but to get tutored by her. Like many of my friends, I loathed tutions then but now, when I go back in time, I feel those hindi tution-classes were definitely the most admired of all other crabby ones - Maths, Science blah blah blah. Ha ha ha ...

In the summer of 1997, she found her soul-mate and the news brought the souls out of us. She got married and hopefully live happily ever after. Time went on, she left the school for good and we got back to our tracks!

Cool Runnings

2006-12-15T07:40:00.000-08:00

A day before yesterday, I watched the movie - 'Cool Runnings'. Its a comedy film about four Jamaican guys that pioneered to form a bobsledding team and to compete in Winter Olympics. Ironically, Jamaica is a no icy country whereus, the game - bobsled is a real winter game meant to be played in snow-clad regions. As you might have guessed, the movie is about 'never-say-die' attitude and making it happen against all odds. Well the theme of the game is to enliven the spirit of sportmanship - 'Wining is not important'

At New York

2006-12-11T08:31:00.000-08:00

In the wee hours of 4th December I set on a twenty hour journey from Bangalore to New York- to the other side of the world. The itinerary, through a hopelessly long one, was interesting. The weather was clear and I was able to see the gigantic snow-clad white mountains near the Black sea and the azure Capsian sea. After seventeen hours of continuous flying, the plane landed in London. As the plane descended to kiss the London runway, the magnificent city was before me. Huge and beautiful buildings, gigantic flyovers and the greens, I got a nice panoramic view of the London city. Not to mention, it was really cold and the temperature was hovering around 10C. Then, little did I know that I was about to enter a city with sub-zero temperatures!

I had to change my flight and after a seven hour journey, finally I landed in New York; the city which I have always dreamt of and really, it is a beautiful and memorable experience of living in this great city!

Another Break!

2006-10-14T22:41:00.000-07:00

Nothing can be more blissful and heavenly than going home; thats too after a struggling five-month blood sucking project. On 21st, festival of lights ( Diwali) will adorn the skies and it willl be the day when I will fly home! - Away from Bangalore, away from tensions and fast pace life for three weeks!

Okay, this reminds me of summer and winter vacations that we used to have in school days. For a minute, just peacefully sit back, close your eyes and ponder when you had your last 'official' school-vacation? What did you do and how did you celebrate? Bet, it will be a pleasant recollection

As I go back in time, I have fading memories of I and my sister sitting before TV watching lots of movies and serials in Doordarshan - the only channel in those days. On Saturdays and Sundays we were entertained by lots of cartoons - some were Tom&Jerry, Alladdin(my favourite), Duck Tales and one adventurous cartoon of planes ( Ballo was one of its main character). The big lawn infront of our house was put to use for Badminton games by energetic enginners and doctors. They, all bachelors then, dwelled in a big guest house and often came up in evenings for friendly Badminton games.
I did many stuff like reading science books, mostly about Universe and stars and also wrote a few poems inspired by nature! Well in my town - Diphu, where I spent my best years, was blessed with scenic beauty. Perhaps, my so-called poetic talent had its roots in Diphu :)

Job Mailers

2006-09-23T06:34:00.000-07:00

Offlate,I have been going though the heap of job mails in my inbox. The commonality in all mail are sentences like "There's an exciting opening...", "...urgent requirement", "We are one of the leading"
What is an exciting job anyway? Some of my techie friends define it as "Job that requires you to put everything you have into projects" I agree, many ( including me) are usually disgracefully trapped in projects and office becomes their primary place of dwelling - then what about home? Well its where you keep your clothes and furniture for the sole reason that these aren't permitted to be kept in office premises! Work for 18 hours, eat while you muse on the logic of your program are some of the ingredients that goes into the soup of that exciting job!

One such mail mentioned something like "Need to be on 24x7..." - I failed to understand whether the mail was to attract people or to say "keep yourself off from this company"! Another one "...and to work in a high-paced dynamic environment with unknown requirements, deadline pressures etc."
And suppose I am one of those lesser known people who desire to shift to a not-so-popular company then I am in a mess. Guess why? All companies are either leading, one of the world's leading or simply the best!

"Please forword your CV in word format"- I am one of the rarest people who not only don't opt for pirated software but also hate Microsoft word. Undeniably, I will be ostracised in the job-fair. Crippled HR people find normal texts unintelligible and they are helpless without Microsoft word,that magically converts English in text format to English in word format. Worse, one mail read like "Excellent skills in Unix, required 5 years+ experience in C++ in Unix/Linux, Emacs, Shell scripting. Please submit your resume' in word format"

Current CTC: Not worth to mention
Expected CTC: 50-60 lakhs INR

Simple Life

2006-09-18T11:58:00.001-07:00

Listening to 'Back to your heart' in the dead of the night and feeling utterly nostalgic. The romantic music carried me back to good days far back in time... Anyway as time passes by, another day will come and another moonlight night

Happy Teacher's Day

2006-09-05T07:20:00.000-07:00

Miss Lata - Science&Maths teacher, Don Bosco School Diphu
Sir Sasi - Science teacher, Don Bosco School Diphu
Miss Istelly - English teacher, Don Bosco School Diphu
Sir Lebenos - Games teacher, Don Bosco School Diphu
Sir Damson - English teacher, Don Bosco School Diphu
Sir Sankaram - Hindi teacher, Don Bosco School Diphu
Sir Neelapadma - Craft and drawing teacher, Don Bosco School Diphu
Miss Durva - Social science teacher, Don Bosco School Diphu
Mis Anuradha - Maths teacher, Don Bosco School Diphu
Mis Sonia - Hindi teacher, Don Bosco School Diphu
Bhuyan Sir - Chemistry teacher, Diphu Government College, Diphu
Singh Sir - Physics teacher, Diphu Government College, Diphu
Mandal Sir - Maths teacher, Diphu Government College, Diphu
... and many forgotten names

Thank you very much for showing and leading me in the path towards knowledge. Certainly, you all have immensely helped me to reach the state where I am today. Thank you very much! As I recollect my childhood days, kindergarden classes, and fantastic college days I find that it was you who shaped my future... and in this long journey, you have shown me the right direction and encouraged me whenever I faltered.
Longing to visit my old sleepy school

Movie Mania

2006-08-27T21:19:00.000-07:00

After the Laurel and Hardy show, we crash landed in the world of Tom & Jerry! It was pity watching Jerry who was mercilessly tormented by the big fat cat - Tom. But astonishing Jerry slapped a tit-for-tat reply to every desperate move of Tom to catch Jerry. As you know, in the end there's always a happy ending – Jerry wins and Tom gets back to sleep! We also got onto our beds for a good-night sleep.

Came Saturday, we watched “Woman on Top” – pretty delighted movie – Penelope Cruz looked damn cute! Well its another thing for I fall in love with every other girl I happen to see. Ok enough of girls; sometimes Chickens appear far seductive than Mallika, specially when one is hungry (in literal sense) ; in the evening I and Thiyagesh were ready to feast on Chickens and so we visited our old good place – KFC and voraciously gulped eight pieces of crispy chicken. It won’t be surprising if the service people know us by name. To hell with people who foist stupid notions that KFC tortures chickens – to me, vegetarianism is a sin. Surely this will go for a debate which I shall explain at length some time later.

With a heavy stomach, we watch ‘Click’ – believe me it’s a awesome movie. It has been a long time since I have seen a movie adorned with comedy and a superb story line. Please do watch that movie. If you are in an impression that the movie is yet other sci-fi, you are wrong, you are wrong if you are thinking its yet another comedy movie. Actually, it beautifully brings some profound realities of life which every man has to give it a thought. A mush watch movie!

Sunday is always a beautiful day. Slept, ate and watched “Great Expectations” – lot of heavy things had been weaved in the story and I dozed off in the middle. Then in the evening we watched “Just my Luck” – I would say it’s a light non-sense comedy movie but not worth paying big bucks to watch it in theater.

Weekend with Laurel and Hardy

2006-08-25T22:33:00.000-07:00

This Friday evening, I andThiyagesh had little to do other than idling. After a tiring day, it was definitely a momment to relish and do nothing. Also, the thought of weekend ahead rejuvenated our otherwise tense mind.

Too much idling; After a long dinner, we enjoyed some black-n-white movies of Laurel and Hardy. Laurel's trademark scratch on his head is quite amusing. Hardy, as usual, never missed a chance to bully our little Laurel ! Now I am looking forward to see their last film "Atoll K" which was released in 1950.
Arthur Stanley Jefferson, better known as Stan Laurel was born in England in June 16, 1890. Its surprising to know that he worked with Charlie Chaplin, another great comedian. His first film was "Nuts in May".

His fat friend, Oliver Hardy, was born in Georgia, US. In his early days, he was inclined to motion pictures and then he decided to give it a try. His first film was " Outwitting Dad". Later on, he clubbed with Laurel and that marked the inception of the world-famous hilarious team "Laurel and Hardy".

On August 7, 1957 Hardy passsed away. After his death, distraughted Laurel nevered appeared on screen. His health detoriated and eight years after,on February 23, 1965 he quietly passed away.

"If anyone at my funeral has a long face, I'll never speak to him again" - Stan Laurel

Happy Independence Day

2006-08-15T09:18:00.000-07:00

Happy Independence Day! Today, India celebrated its 60th Independence day. Definitely, she came a long way ahead from 1947.
This week was undoubtly very tough and tensed following many terrorist attacks around the world and in India. Sadly, those people were unfortunately successful in unleashing terror shockwaves through out the Indian sub-continent. In my sweet state of Assam, there were supposedly three deadly bomb-blasts. Incidently, as far as I remember, during last 14 years Independence day was marked with boycott from varied anti-social groups and hence I was never allowed to take part official independence-day celebration, particularly in cultural events which followed after military parade. But offcourse, in school it was celebrated with great enthusiasm - we had a usual parade then a chain of cultural songs and dances. That day were one of those where girls looked prettier and smarter. We did nothing except ogle at them while they danced.

Shamelessly, I have never witnessed a flag hoisting ceremony in last three years. But today I happened to be a part of a small group of nearby residents, who encircled in a open patch of land - just a hundred meters away from my home. It was small but it had every ingredient of a large national ceremony - sense of dedication, respect for the nation and pride.

Think not to think

2006-06-30T08:20:00.000-07:00

Life teaches us many a lessons. I am sure all of you have faced problems, frustration and desperation. One hurting effect of these feelings could be, continuous mental suffering and trauma - for instance one may obsesively keep thinking about unpleasant situations and subsequently makes one's life misarable.
I have come across similar unpleasant situations wherein I used to torture myself by persistantly thinking about them. For example, a bad day in office would probably ruin the evening. At home, my mind would visualize or horribly create more disturbing situations and then struggle to find ways to cope with those fictious situations. Finally, I would end up with a fuss!

So, upon little thought, I wondered that I was inflicting much greater damage to myself than any of those situations would have, if they ever happen to occur! - the damage was far greater than physical injury - it was mentally breaking me down.

Then this philosopher, to cope with such addictive misutilization of imagination, came up with two vital concepts
- Problem Categorization
- Problem Isolation

Problem Categorization - Life will bombard you with zillions of problem. Almost all of them can be categorized based on their buggy sources. For instance, tension in office is different from day-to-day tension at home. Further, problems at home may be because of your partner, a real estate deal, payment of bills. Likewise situations which beset you in office can be categorized. In short, problem categorization will help you realize the source and aid you in tackling them.

Problem isolation - Next big step is to isolate them. Its even tougher to practise than the first! Once you have categorized irritating situations, attempt NOT to think about out-of-context problems. If you are at home, do not worry about disturbing matters in office. Even at home, if you are with your partner, try to abominate thoughts about your real estate deals.
"Its stupid", you may say, "how can I stop thinking ?"
My friend, its not about complete cleansing of the thought process, but its all about practically realize the sources of problems ( categorization) and enable your congnizance to tackle them, few at a time ( isolation ).

Anyway its difficult if not impossible!!!!

Beauty of Shillong and Cherapunjee

2006-05-31T09:35:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the wonderful photos of Shillong and Cherapunjee ( highest rainfall in the world) that I took on my trip.

Perhaps, the awesome sight azure-greenish mountains is the most beautific scene I have even seen. I stood amazed and speechless as I kept wondering on the mountains that stretched to infinity

My Mobile Blog!

2006-05-04T10:48:00.000-07:00

Just the way I aspired! Click from mobile and flick it into internet - presenting Nokia mobile blogging - NokiaMBlog!
There was little work in office today, so just happened to visit nokia's website for upcoming mobiles. To tell you, i get seducted by mobiles, they are just too obsessive for me :) Then i came across the new Nokia mobile blogging tool - for months I have been ferreting for a suitable tool which could post photos taken by my mobile to the internet. Truely, it satiated my long desire - Visit my Mobile Blog!
Its only hitch is that it doesn't preserve the original picture size; it reduces the photos to dimension of 320x240 pixels

Yeah I am going home on 6th May on a 24 day leave! Sadly, I am increasingly getting frustrated by mundane office and acrimonious work. So I believe the vacation will really be refreshing and help me to rejuvenate myself.

Lines from my Sister

2006-05-02T21:05:00.000-07:00

Here's a cute poem from my sister. It was even published in a newspaper!

Searching for a ray of knowledge
We proceed forward
Not knowing about the guide
We began to trust

Mistakes are in full swing
But never rebuked
Trying to become cosy
We begin to commence

As days gone; we came closer
Now came to time, lastly
The time of parting
Feeling this sense,
We woe a lot; but
Admitted the fact that,
Nothing is permanent after all

By –
Syeda Shabina Rahman

Ascent to the Nandi Hill

2006-04-15T08:53:00.000-07:00

It was 3'Oclock, Santosh, Thiyagesh and I stumbled upon the idea to go to the Nandi Hill, some 75 kilometers off the Bangalore city. As if this frowned the weather gods, it suddenly commenced raining and the blue good-looking sky quickly turned alarmingly grey and cloudy. Winds blew harshly and the trees started dancing fanatically altogether. But our decisions were like lines on rocks, we never faltered and went out braving the unfriendly weather!

It rained heavily but our bikes cruised like rockets tearing through the blazing winds and chilling air. We risked the slippery roads. Bikes gained speed and with it droplets of rainwater dashed into our faces likes bullets out of guns! After an hour of painful yet adventurous ordeal, the rain stopped. It was then we began to appreciate the majestic hills lining the road, vast illimitable green fields and inhabitat plains. Soon after, we found ourselves at the foot of gigantic hills!

Chilling breeze catapulted the estasy and the paranomic view of the earth was truely something to marvel. Then, we maneuvered through swirling roads that went upwards to the top of the hills.

At the end, we were at the top! It was lush greeen with sky-kissing trees and shrubs beneath them. At the edge of the hills, the view of earthly objects far beneath were simply awesome.

Click at the photos to enlarge them

<== Thiyagesh at Suicide Point!!!

Santosh at the edge of the world ==>

On the top of the World!

2006-04-02T09:15:00.000-07:00

Click on the photos to get a larger view

These photos were taken from 23rd floor of the Utility building. Bangalore refuses to settle for the horizons ...

Truely, the majestic and mind raveling beauty of mogul buildings interwined with green trees is simply awesome!

Waves of myraid buildings try to kiss the horizon!

Pavement in a college of a friend of mine

Bangalore through my Nokia 6630

2006-03-11T06:17:00.000-08:00

Here's some vivid photographs taken while loitering through the streets of Bangalore!

Majestic view of "Vidhan Soudha" - Karnataka state legislative asssembly

Some great and handsome buildings near-by !

After all, Bangalore is still a Garden City :-)

Valentine's Birthday

2006-02-23T01:40:00.000-08:00

To enjoy all the pictures, Click Here!!!

If Lady Luck wouldn’t have cursed Santosh, you would have definitely find him sandwiched between two pretty ladies on his B’day night. Alas on the contrary, at that night he was with four sexy guys – Amit, Eesh, Shashi and Me, who happen to be his roomies.

At 11:55 pm, Santosh bolted into our room bringing with him, a lot of chocolates. The tired and waned human, tortured in his office through out the day, was allowed a 5 min break before the ritual of ‘birth day bumps’ proceeded as usual. Amit and I lifted him while Shashi and Eesh delivered those crashing bumps making Santosh shout and waggle with pain!

Gleefully at the stroke of midnight we went to Café Coffee Day at the Bangaluru airport. Rather surprisingly, his face was mercilessly daubed with Black Forest pastry and you can see how the fellow was tormented! We had a real great time there.Fortunate fellow, to have his B’day on Valentine’s Day. He meticulously planned with his girlfriend to relish the delights of Valentine’s day but then, the next day, he was screwed in his office for 13 long hours instead :(

Next day, Valentine’s day – this day attracts idiots all over the world to celebrate for a disgustingly unknown and idiotic reason, or may be for the fact that we need an excuse to celebrate. For me, it was an excuse and so I celebrated!

To enjoy all the pictures, Click Here!!!

Unexplored Hillock

2006-02-07T00:35:00.000-08:00

Click here to enjoy all the charming photos!

1’Oclock in a sunny Saturday afternoon: Abruptly wished to fly away from noisome Bangalore life to some peaceful area. So we pinned down on Banerghatta National Part to watch some animals in their natural habitat. Amit, Santosh and I darted off braving the despicable traffic. After traveling for about 30 minutes, Santosh ran out of fuel. Unfortunately, the petrol pump near by was out of stock! Tired and fagged, we walked down to the next petrol pump some 200 meters away and got the bike started. Everything would have went fine if we weren’t got involved in a packed traffic jam for about an hour; seething under the blazing Sun, helplessly breathing polluted air and hopeless array of congested traffic was a real Safari in itself. As we touched the outskirts of the city, the roads narrowed and turned dusty. Dusty road made the journey more troublesome. It was just dust, dust and dust all around. Painfully, the road was punctured with big potholes which tossed our bikes high and hard

To satiate our empty stomach we halted at a resort ‘Spring valley’ wherein Chicken Biriyani, as usual, didn’t fail to entertain our hunger. Then we freaked out!

Santosh and I frustratingly struggled to control a small plastic stubborn boat in shallow artificial lake waters. Adjacent to it, there was an iron hanging bridge and to develop to-n-fro oscillations in cadence were pretty entertaining though!

Amit looked cool in his gigantic land rover.

Phew! At last we reached the National Park, but then it was closed! It saddened us and slowly we moved out to commence our return journey. Having traveled a few kilometers, I saw a huge rocky mountain and a rusty road, of some 400 meters, leading to the middle to the hillock.

It was 5’oClock in the evening and orange sun rays beautifully adorned the bald hillock and it was looking awesome. We were spellbound by the majestic scene.

Far and wide, there wasn’t any sign of civilization but three of us. Riding on the deserted road and slowly getting close to the huge stout rocky hill was really enthralling.

Holistic rays of the Sun overlooking the hillock is simply awesome

As we looked up, the peak was smiling at us, nonentity creatures. Slowly and warily, we moved up the acclivity and landed on the peak. Air blew hurriedly and we smiled! Big buildings, trees, houses were rendered insignificant.
Discovery demands names - we christened the unexplored valleys, canals and mounts. Up there, one can cherish the lush green valley of Amit, and Santosh’s canal and a mount of Sharaf.

Click here to enjoy all the amazing photos!

Storytime Guys

2006-01-31T23:23:00.000-08:00

“Empty mind is a devil’s workshop”, that’s how a popular saying goes. Empty brain or a brain plethora of thoughts, no wonder my mind has always been a devils’ workshop. Sleep is the most hallowed moment where devilish thoughts don’t happen to tickle me; but not always, even dreams aren’t spared.
One nice evening, I had lots of leisure time at my disposal, yeah illimitable amount of leisure time!

“Something useful Sharaf”, I said to myself under an impression that it would coerce me to so something useful in my leisure time. I thought and thought and finally:
“Mmmmm… Ok atleast not useless this time!” consoling myself after failing to get some ‘useful’ ideas

Nice mesmerizing and harmonious music of Enya(‘May it be’) in background evoked sweet remembrances of old bygone days. I was enthralled by the soft melodious music and the motivation to write a paragraph on memorable better times, got hold of me. Quickly, I took Santosh’s laptop and started scribling …

“It was 6 in the evening and the Sun was at the horizon. The four years of ecstasy and struggle was over. I was at the gates and nostalgically beamed my thoughts at some sweet reminiscences which seemed to leave a lasting impression on me. There was pervasive silence or perhaps. I wasn’t ready to listen anything. Breeze was gently playing …”

As if the Devil trembled at the very sight of Sharaf doing something useful, he sent Amit. He snatched the laptop and darted off to continue the incomplete story! It all commenced the act of adding masala to a story, a story which terribly deviated from the original thought to emerge and blossom into a colorful one! Manu bhaiyya wasn’t behind in inflicting damage either. In all it turned out to be a great spicy one.

Read the whole story: IT WAS 6!

Mind at War

2006-01-15T20:06:00.000-08:00

The sky was dark and gloomy. I was strolling towards my apartment after a grueling duel with FMS papers and occasionally I got lost in subtle but profound thoughts like – “Now what?, What should I do next ?” The road was long and dusty, filled with rubble and pebbles. “Ah, the road of life is all the same”
As I proceeded I happened to kick small stones and then watch them fly till they land on the same dusty road. A little further ahead I kicked another stone; it flew and landed on a drain which runs parallel to the road. Stones don’t move, we move them

The door was already open and I saw Amit comfortably lying on a bed and deeply engrossed reading “The world is flat” while Thiyagesh kept briskly walking to and fro. There was silence, pervasive silence and I began to feel uneasy. I collapsed on a bed out of tiredness and closing my eyes, contemplated the incidents which visited my life last year. Some were good and others bad. I devoted enormous time to prepare those creepy examinations. Yes, I faltered and perhaps failed, may be because I wasn’t sincere enough or may be I am not eligible. Pressure on me was gigantic and often was discouraging. Still I stuck to my decision to go forward. I find myself standing at a corner of the dusty road (of life). Now, I need to move on and change my course – stones don’t move, we move them…

Santosh moved in and then finally Amit, Shashi, Santosh, Thiyagesh and Bhaiya and I giddily chatted for an hour. Any topic - serious or funny, it is bound to culminate in girlie context. What about the girl next door, the girl I saw today in the office, the girl …!

At 11’Oclock at night Santosh, Amit and I went for a walk towards the Airport which was a couple of kilometers off from our home. The road, illuminated by bright halogen street lights, looked deserted and a few souls were seen loitering around. We cracked jokes through out our short journey to brave the shrilling January cold. Unlike the bumpy and deserted road, airport was noisy and buzzing with people. There were mainly international passengers as there are few domestic flights late night. Enthusiastically we rested at Café Coffee Day and enjoyed sandwiches, pastry and delicious Assam tea (a bit sentimental about it!). Santosh took pains to enlighten us about witty and arrogant intelligentsia that he had met in the US. He said those people are an asset to universities and enormously knowledgeable. Interestingly, we discovered that our friend Amit, has some quite a few good natured and lovely friends which whom he daily spends some of his expensive time! Also he is fired with the passion and urge to “Do Something”

Eid Mubarrak

2006-01-10T22:32:00.000-08:00

Some 354 days ago I was at Digboi, at my mother's home. It was Eid and we got up pretty early and looked forward to an interesting day ahead of us. My father, my four uncles, two brothers and I set out to a mosque roughly two kms off, to offer the Eid prayer. On reaching the vast field we saw there were hundreds of people had gathered and were eagarly waiting for the prayers to begin. Gentle breeze carassed my hair and we got lost in the ever increasing crowd. Praying in group holds a special meaning - it symbolizes unity and brotherhood - something which I had learnt in moral science classes long back in school days.

On returning, nasty little children and my cousins flooded the whole house! They played and jumped in giddy mood, women folks kept themselves busy in cooking dishes which emanated mouthwatering aroma and I enjoyed my time with those little children playing all round.
At about three in the afternoon, our entire hugh family sat in a circle and kept food items of varied kinds and flovours at the center. To give you a glimpse of the sheer size of people let me tell you the people present there - four uncles with their families ( three of them with family size of four and onw with five), our family, atleast five relatives and their families and many people from neighbourhood!
It was a mesmerizing day and I enjoyed a lot. Time past rapidly and we hardly realized when night sneaked in. People busily moved around the house, many visitors flowed in, and children kept untiringly playing and fighting with each other...

This Eid I am in Bangalore. I got up pretty early and went to mosque to offer my prayers. However, there was monotonous silence in my apartment and no hustle bustle. Feeling pity on myself I called up my cousin, who is in Delhi and happen to share the same disgusting fate - to live a lonely life away from home.
"What are your plans", I asked
"Will take a bus and roam through ring road, what else"
"Oh ok then ... i will also take a bus to the MG road", I conceded.

Happy New Year - 2006

2006-01-02T02:39:00.000-08:00

This year I received a lot of diaries as gifts. Naturally, I feel wholly thankful to the generous souls who have cared to gift them. On the other hand, I am wondering what should I do with them, or should I use all of them? First, lemme tell you I love writing diaries regularly and the last two years of my life have been laboriously but sweetly documented in my black antique diary. Sadly, last two months have been pathetically busy and painful so I couldn’t able to get my daily activities etched in my golden diary and the (painful) memories will slowly wither away into oblivion.

I received a diary from my company, a black one with a golden ring in the centre. Believe me, its superbly nice looking! As I was admiring it, my vision shifted to a poor diary in my drawer which I had received last year; it was hardly touched and used and its white pages are still empty – poor thing. But this year, I won’t desolate my diary – I have firmly decided to scribble heavy articles from HBR (business magazine) on it. Reading HBR is one of my frequent past-timers post lunch!

Also, I have been gifted one by a close friend of mine. Now, it was lovingly gifted to be used as a regular diary, however my choice will be the same old classic diary which I have been using it for last two years. So what to do with it? Mummm … I need to ponder on it. Anyway, I will surely cherish the gift as “Gifts are always to be cherished” - Sharaf

New Year Celebrations were on the low ebb this year and not like the last year where we had enjoyed a spicy and charged party. Instead, this year has sneaked into my life, quietly and silently. That evening, Shashi and I went to Leela palace and enjoyed its majestic and glorious milieu while we slowly munched our sandwiches and gloated ice-creams at Barista. Then at home, we cooked some sort of Biriyani. At 12’Oclock another year slipped in, accompanied with crackers and lights.

Crossed another station in the journey of life.
I can only hope that its farewell will be a never-forgetting and beautiful one!

Wishing you all a very happy new year 2006 !!!

A Stock of my Burnt Fingers

2005-12-30T22:22:00.000-08:00

Little knowledge is dangerous - it annoyingly materialized when I delved into share market on last Thrusday. I was at home and got up pretty late. Amit and Shashi were enthusiastically disecting the performance of BPCL and some other companies, which imbibed in me, the interest to venture into equity market.
Without taking the pains of knowing the brokerage charges I bought three ITC shares for Rs. 138.65 and finally sold them for Rs. 140.10 each. Phew! Profit of Rs 1.35 triggered a mental revelry but then a little later, I was slapped a transaction fee of Rs. 33.06 !

Next day, after I had burnt my fingers appallingly, I researched for gems in financial jungle, a finally stumbled upon KM Sugar Mills - bought 60 shares for Rs. 83 and sold them for Rs. 84 - a surprizing profit of 60!
"Every hill has a slope ahead" - Sharaf
Soon my profits plummeted from the heights when I short-selled 100 Arvind Mills 95.05 thinking it has saturated in its day high. Disgustingly, it slowly kept rising and with it my blood pressure. Sadly I was required to square-off it on 95.65 - got punched !

Utterly Random

2005-12-15T04:43:00.000-08:00

There’s nothing much of buzzing happenings these days. Its like, you stupidly pour a glass of chilling cold water on your favorite sizzler and then repent - that's how my situation is. So this post is just because I desperately wanna shout but if I do, then I would be shown the company door and I am too busy to marry another company. Fidelity pays but also sucks.

So my friend, how’s your life going?

Another day, a colleague just pats on my back and shots a rather unimpressive question “What’s up man”
“Roof”, I sarcastically answered.
He laughed boisterously and walked off leaving this little soul alone at his desk. If I didn’t happen to deliver the “roof” joke then probably Mr. Colleague would have glued for a few more minutes. Probably we would have gone for a cup of coffee to the canteen on the 6th floor where he would introduce me to a nice girl-colleague. May be, in a couple of months the Miss. Colleague and I would be very good friends. Incidentally, one fine day we would bump somewhere in packed MG Road, populated with people, software engineers and dogs. There we would relish a nice warm coffee and I would look into her beautiful eyes, slowly eye-to-eye looks would transmute our friendship to courtship.

In another six months, as my expirience tells, she would fly to the US on a critical project. Despicably, insane usage of the word ‘critical’ is profusely prevalent in software industry. The moment you append the adjective, your team leaders get agitated and engineers( laborers) emasculated.

A new country, new culture and a new boyfriend; and here another colleague, another cup of coffee and another Miss colleague.
Life goes on ...

My Chicken Biriyani Restaurant

2005-11-27T23:09:00.000-08:00

Irrefutably most software engineers, who live and die in Bangalore, grin about prices when it comes to satiate their stomach. It also depicts the rising and evolving food market catering to the high salaried customers. Interestingly, in past last decade this segment has seen a momentous growth which can be undisputedly attributed to the liberalization and drastic circulation of money and alternatively, it has buttressed the growth of processed food industry. So with the demand for processed food shooting at 12 percent a year, we can gleefully hope to see new players venture into Indian food market( including mine). Another exciting and high-cost blooming sector is flavor and fragrance manufacturing sector, however let's leave it aside. So, in terse, its growing north wards and people can certainly expect Indian processed food segment become the best in the world. However infrastructure needs dramatic enhancements to sustain the dynamism in the Indian food industry and particularly food packaging, refrigeration, distribution are some facets which needs to be looked at and on legal aspects, regulations need to be tighten to elevate the quality to international standards. hmmm ... but overall its shinning!

Since the tides of food industry are high, lemme discuss my earnest desire is to open a restaurant specializing in Chicken Biriyani. For those alien to the term “Chicken biriyani” - in simple terms, its rice cooked with some spices and chicken. My experience says people longing for quality food is on the rise and they are ready to shell out money. So my focus will be the high salaried persons in metros as this segment is likely to grow in coming years. The highlighting factors of my unique restaurant will be quality food, free welcome drinks, amiable environ and staff, and value-added services like pick-ups etc. A model of the idea is to be first materialized in a relatively inexpensive city, as Bangalore is monstrously expensive, and then to be replicated through out India. Additionally, I am looking forward to divulge in vegetarian segment as this cannot be overlooked, but in near future the focus will be on Chicken Biriyani. Further metamorphosis into a newbie company in processed chicken stuff is also feasible!
Funds please ;)

Joined Gym

2005-11-24T23:38:00.000-08:00

Not much of activity in pipeline these days and I am a free man, atleast for the next week. By the way, “activity in pipeline” subsumes tasks which are out-of-office so never assume that those eight daily hours in office are sort of honeymoon, infact they are tightly packed. Recently, I joined a gym and the credit goes to Amit who fiercely coerced me to join a gym for three months. Frankly, I got deceived by his specious lectures on quickly building muscles in just three months. Is this possible?

Day 1: We dashed into the gym to find a robust, well-built guy instructing some six fellows desperately stretching their bodies on huge machines. We worked out for an hour, mainly cycling, free hand exercises and above all we did some 12 push-ups and then on the thirteenth push up, my tired body simply refused to stand and collapsed. With that, we tiredly paced up to that instructor and proudly informed about our 12 push-ups, he smilingly told to carry out another 50! Amazed with that , I went back and with assiduously carried out another 3 push-ups and then quickly ran out.

Day 2: Again commenced with cycling and did a lot of stretching exercises which mercilessly left us panting. We could even hear our limbs crying aloud and so after a rigorous 45 min work-out we sneaked out of the gym.

Day 3: We trembled at the very thought of push-ups and didn’t go.

A Picnic long way back

2005-11-13T23:50:00.000-08:00

Never know how the feeling on being on picnic evoked in this busy official day. But as I look back in time, I surprizingly found that that it was on this day, 14th November, eight long years ago we celebrated our last picnic!

It happened long back in the frigid winter of 1997! – That’s when one day our teacher, Miss Lata, cheerfully announced the roadmap plan for a picnic !!!! I remember we gathered in chilling November morning at 4’Oclock in the school campus and eagerly waiting for our loving picnic bus. Also, the breeze was ice-cold and we strongly engulfed and encircled ourselves in our fat jackets. Pawan, Rohit and Sumit, were playing and friendly fighting when I joined the mess. Those were three of my close friends, now lost in oblivion in the journey of life. Wow! It was a moment to live!

Then we hopped into the bus and … oh! I forgot the picnic place! – All I can see back now is playing and singing in the bus. Well, to be sure, those were girls who entertained and also bored us with their filmi-songs in the four hour drive on a dusty and rustic road. On reaching there after a merry ride, the whole heavenly view was before us, believe me, it was bliss! A small rivulet cut across mighty and daunting rocks and we jumped into it to feel the freezing cold water prickle our feet! And also followed the unending stream till we found ourselves lost in the forest of rocks! Then we simply wandered through the woods and also risk going through a big concrete cylinder, overgrown with algae and shrubs, which seemed being desolated for years. Nostalgically, Pawan and I wrote our names on the bark of a huge tree thinking our names there would be perpetual and likewise, also our friendship; we were too innocent to comprehend what lay before us in this greater picnic of life!

Girls cooked and we ate! Wonder… if life can be so simple :)Then, the sun was going down the horizon and with it, our energy and the beautiful day. Then, we wished bye-bye to the woods, the rivulet and the sun and went back to our homes.
For some, little did we know that it was the last college picnic and still for some, it was the last.

Rice-o-Pot - my favourite Dish

2005-11-08T01:41:00.000-08:00

Its a nice and beautiful day - the Sun has hidden itself behind the clouds and the winds are truely sensational. You can feel the welcome note from the cool winds playing with your hair and a walk against the breeze is superb and enjoyable!

Today I am on leave so I am at home, lonely and happy. Its afternoon now and I am just about to cook my favourite dish so lemme tell you what my favourite dish is and let me also enlighten you with the fact that I am a nice ( but not-so-great) cook. Now I am going teach my favourite recipe to you, so be attentive!

Presenting the 'Rice-o-Pot' recipe - simple, fast and mouthwatering! - Okay okay .. a lot of advertizements here , I apologise and let's see what it holds for you

First take a couple of nice good-looking potatoes and peel off the brownish cover. Then slice them into eight pieces and you may also wash them if you find it necessary. Put some rice into a pressure-cooker and also pour double the amout of water into it, that is if you take one cup of rice then put two cups of water - that's a dictum! Also place the peeled potatoes into the cooker and light on the gas and put it on the grid.

On hearing the first shrilling whistle, light off the gas. Then patiently allow the cooker to release the pressure in its belly and then open the it. Assuming everything is okay inside, slowly get the boiled potatoes out, smash them and add salt to taste.
Take out the hot boiled rice onto a plate and mix it with a tablespoon of butter! Its ready and serve rice with smashed potatoes! - Amazingly simple and awesome, na ?

Honestly, I have been cooking this stuff for a long time and by now, my pressure-cooker must have been terribly frustrated watching this day-in and day-out. Obvoiusly if you are a health conscious person and wary about the "butter stuff" - culpable of adding fat, then don't worry; if you happen see me, a lean,thin and handsome creature , you would probably think where on earth did all the butter in me go? ... even I am confused!

Diwali - Festival of Lights

2005-11-01T21:06:00.000-08:00

We just celebrated our four-day long holiday and the people in Bangalore got a long and relaxing respite from usual mundane office-work. Let me tell you those holidays were for ‘Diwali’ – popularly known as festival of lights. Almost everywhere your eyes would fall on, you would see houses beautifully illuminated with diyas (a small lamp made of clay), and variegated blinking electric lights; children and the older ones firing fire-crackers, with rockets colorfully and sparklingly painting the skies and roaring blasts of bombs. All around, people in their colorful and gorgeous attire giddily moved around the streets and wished their friends and the shopping malls were packed with men and beautiful women in shopping spree!

Saturday was, as usual, a lazy day and I got up pretty late and it seemed that the Sun was also feeling lethargic and it didn’t glare on the festive and éclat junta down here on earth. Hesitantly, I went to MG Road to fetch some forms and again went into hibernation on reaching home. Ah, in the evening Rachit, a college friend, called me up and we both voraciously gossiped though out the night till our energy got completely drained. Then next day - Sunday morning was a beautiful day in the sense that I had no plans for the day and hence sleeping was the only job to be done and Monday was no different altogether! Off course in the Monday evening, I went to Mosque and prayed along with many people for about an hour. I felt very solemn and grave; the religious sermons from the head deeply touched my heart which again rejuvenated my faith and belief.

In Tuesday evening I, with a friend of mine, went to Brigade road to watch the jovial crowd. The streets were nicely decorated with beads of lights and when watched from a distance it looked like an arcade with glittering roof. Shops were adorned with coruscating lights and we could feel the flow of merry and excitement all around. Well, some shops were privileged to have us, although we weren’t that munificent and generous to all!

The stars, which kept silently watching us from far above, bountifully graced the land of lights; slowly, the lights faded and the crowd rarefied. Everything which has an inception should have an ultimate culmination and yet another day of celebration and revelry ended. With the disappearing crowd, we too disappeared to only celebrate another day!

Advent of Festive Season

2005-10-23T21:45:00.000-07:00

I am in the midst of utter silence since the house has lost all the merry and boisterous laughter that used to echo through the walls and enliven our spirits. The festive season is fast approaching and the town has adroitly dressed itself up with resplendently glittering lights, and you can hear the merry-making crowd cheering through the streets. With it, many have went home to enjoy the ‘festival of lights’ with their families and some are still counting on the final few days before the festival lights beautifully and gloriously lit up the town. Thiyagesh left for home last week, Amit did so and Shashi will fly off in another five days. A long stretch of holidays is smiling ahead but I will be here at Bangalore, some 3000 kilometers off my sweet lazy town and missing a lot :(

I met Aaliya yesterday. She was eager to go to a Dargah so she called me up and together, we went to the Dargah of ‘Hazrat Yakeem Shah Vali’ (hope I remember it correctly). Surprizingly, as we entered the gates, we were delighted by our sudden transition from the vociferous road, with tracks and cars blatantly passing by, to a placid place where we enjoyed calm and peaceful environ. We prayed and silently stood there for some moment and then went back to her hostel though the noisy road. Then in her hostel campus, we got comfortably seated on a shady bench rendered damp from the last night's rain. Reluctantly, I had to admit it was she who kept on chirping and that hopefully scared the silence away; I am not a talkative guy and had to ponder and construct sentences at times! For another two hours the Sun shone above us, birds twittered and we kept talking while I occasionally scratched off some green carpet of algae which covered up the sides of our damp bench and gleefully played with moist grass mostly by crushing it.

On the onset of evening the birds, after a tiring day, flew to their cozy nests and so I too bode goodbye to her and boarded a packed bus which painfully bumped to my home. On the way, I bought Chicken Biriyani to break my fast and also since it happens to tinkle my taste-buds the most!

I am Studious

2005-10-13T06:44:00.000-07:00

It has been ages since I had a night-out and probably the last one I had must been long back in the gloroius summer of 2003 when I ,as a student of Intrumentation in REC Trichy, spent the creepy late-night hours roting abstruse and incomprehensible formula to prevent yet another series of supplies which were given mercilessly in plethora - our dept was infamous for that!; at that time we dreamed of a time when we would attain Nirvana and get rid of the despicable cycle of cycle-tests and final examinations. Now, we again desire to live those moments once again!

Yesterday I had a night-out. Monstrous and seemingly inconclusive quantitative problems were getting over me and I, being a samurai, didn't choose to kiss the dust and hence tried deligently to solve those problems, you know what - I got so engrossed to inter the solutions that I forgot to keep track of time; when I saw the watch it was shouting "its 3'Oclcok"! Then Thiyagesh came in and we both morons talked about money and how to make big bucks and live an affuent life. Hey I bet, one day we two will become jealously rich and probably own a merc and perhaps buy a villa and a house somewhere in London, one in New York another in Amsterdam and perhaps if we have a lots of bucks left by then , a flat in Bangalore! Oh I will buy the most exensive mobile then and Jasmine will flaunt a cute smile when I say "plz pack this one too" ah... dreaming isn;t taxed. U need to wait to get to know Jasmine

My mobile is more of a clock than a mobile - with its speakers almost non-functional, it is now quietly but faithfully serving the purpose of a watch. It was 4'Oclock and exhausted Thiyagesh chose to retire to bed rather than gibble with this boring blogger. I cooked rice and with smashed potatoes and butter, it was simply delicious and gulped it with gusto! Lots of water went into my stomach, offered Namaz and I too retired and got lost into a merrily dreamy world!

Lazy Saturday

2005-10-08T02:17:00.000-07:00

Harsh mobile ringtone thrilled me in the dead of the night - itw's a call from my father to wake up this lazy soul to get ready for the fast. It was 4'Olcock by my watch and tried with assiduity to shake myself out of the cozy warm bed and believe me I had a hard time doing this! The sky was still carbon-black with a few stars twinkling high above. Then I sluggishly cooked rice and enjoyed it with chicken curry that I had bought from a small take-away restuarant adeptly specializing in chicken stuff. Ok did I tell you that my next mission is life is to open a chain of restuarants focussing in Chicken biriyani catering to high end customers ?
Having eaten the delicious recipe and devouring lots of water, I offered Namaz and jumped back onto my sweet bed and slept.

I was soaring through an interesting dreamy world when Shashi gave me a wake-up shake. I realized that I was travelling in my dreamy world for almost five long hours. Internet did the damage to my plans as I got addicted to browsing and never realized the time zipping past and Shashi set some very palatable music which even turned the mood to a mesmerizing one!

The Sun came directly right above our heads and we were still engrossed in going through arbit sites till I found the exigency to go to bathroom. Interestingly, today I am free from mundane tasks such as eating and I really find myself better with ample time at my disposal, otherwise the task of having lunch is quite a time consuming process - it goes through a decision making process to fix the restaurant and then the uninteresting task of going to it!

I am still glued to Shashi's laptop while Amit playing Counter Strike.

Blogging@Home

2005-10-06T06:42:00.000-07:00

The sun came down and with it, the daunting day finally ended - rejuvenating evening-winds revived the spirits of many a engineers like me. Ramzan commenced yesterday and I was fasting the whole day and rigorously counted each and every minute and eagerly waiting for the sunset to satiate my garrulous stomach. Well each year I make a firm decision to hold as many fasts I can but this laggard always fails. This year I decide to hold to it with tenacity but the future will tell :) On retuning, I bought a chicken biriyani and gulped it as fast as I could!

I was in the office when Shashi gladly gave us the news that internet connection has been established in our home.On reaching home I was dying to switch on the computer but by then I would have died out of hunger. So, after the stupendous meal I excitedly switched on the computer and happily got connected to internet! Browsing is a not new phenomena to me, as I have misused it for many a years – be in the college or in the company, but browsing with a peaceful mind at home is a different experience. Yes, I remember once we had a serious discussion on what are we going to do once we have internet connection at home – the idea of unrestrictive access delighted us the most! It was also noteworthy since we rarely have serious discussions.
Obviously, this is my first blog-post being written idly sitting at my home!

Emma Watson - my adorable actress!

2005-09-29T04:54:00.000-07:00

Many days ago, in one lazy and charmingly idyllic afternoon, I, Thiygesh, Shashi sat down to enjoy the movie “Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban“. Wow… we were glued to it and the magical scenes of wizardry captivated us; I like the movie and it’s a great movie.
Ok let's come to the point - Of all the great people, actress and men I like, my most adorable actress is Emma Watson – needless to say, her cute and refreshing aura is truly attractive and finely complemented by superb acting. And honestly, her sharply sparkling eyes are ravishing and I simple admire them and truly speaking I will love to watch her movies a hundred times to see her… again and again! It’s lovely to see her charming smile and wonderful to relish her sweet anger, and I confess that may be, I am getting addicted to her!
I guess if I could talk to her ;) … Watson, are you listening?
Picture stolen from Kutty's Blog

Beauty is skin Deep

2005-09-21T04:37:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, the exigency to get the forms and prospectus made me to get up pretty early. I wished “Good Morning” to Mr. Sun and he did so by shining more brilliantly and flooding me with heat waves. Then after voraciously swallowing up an egg puff from a nearby bakery, I headed towards SBI Bank to fetch those expensive forms. Probably I would have returned and went to hibernation for a couple of hours, but a SMS buzz from Panda altered the sacred and beloved schedule – his plan for a movie was irresistible to me and succumbed to his tunes; we watched the movie “James”. That’s a horrifically bloody and political movie which will unfailingly load you with tons of tension and dreaded fighting scenes. In all, if you are expecting a nice and sweet movie, “James” is certainly not the choice.

Then, as we came out of the cinema-hall we were enlivened by the cool Bangalore air and silently rambled in the MG road for an hour. Then went to “Lalittha” and greedily satiated our hungry stomach. It was 8’Oclock in the evening and the sky was covered with sparking stars. With heavy stomach we were retuning back to MG road when we found ourselves lonely in silence but our minds bubbling with many thoughts. Well, among the topics which kept buzzing in our minds, some were job related, work, friends and one was marriage

“What do you expect in the girl of your choice?”, Panda asked.

After a long silence, I replied “A nice girl” as I got tremendously confused.

“A nice looking, not so hi-fi and also not a dumb and and and … ok what are your expectations?” I cunningly placed the heavy load on him

“Hmm… “

We both didn’t have any concrete answer and continued walking on the lonely road leading to MG and under the aegis halogen street lights. Sometimes we jealously stared at a few couples who happened to past by.

“Beauty is skin-deep” Panda whispered to himself
“Yeah I have heard that long ago, it means the real beauty is lies deep within the skin… that’s within one’s heart” I added as I tried to be more sophisticated and philosophical
“No, I too had a similar impression” – Panda said, “It means beauty rests on the skin… and nowhere”

An interesting train Incident

2005-09-13T22:45:00.000-07:00

If you ask me about the most exhilarating incidents in my life, then I will always babble about the interesting train incident which happened in my 4th semester long back in 2003. Suharsh sparkled our sweet memories in his blog so I thought of sharing my feelings to make it more memorable. Please do read this – “Never trust word-of-mouth train timings!”.
I am the character “Shraff” is his superb delineation of the incident.

We (successfully) finished our projects at IIT-G which is beautifully placed the midst of serene landscape and blessed with Nature’s wonderful creative designs. After having met all our friends with whom we spent our playful days, it was painful and nostalgic to head towards our college at Trichy. Next day, we have to depart and among the sweets things we were carrying along, apart from our certificates and project work, were never-to-forget, interesting and naughty memoirs which were ineffaceably etched in our minds and heart. I, with my parents, was put up in a small hotel near the railway station and incidentally Panda, Mukesh and Suharsh - my project mates unknowingly and happened to select an adjacent hotel in the vast city of Guwahati.

Morning: We were dressed up and ready to leave when I heard someone shrilly calling me – I was perturbed and looked up from where the voice seemed to emanate. Oh it was our Hero – Mukesh sarcastically riddling me for being an early-bird while he was comfortably brushing his dirty teeth. Just an hour left for train “Kamrup Express” to arrive and Mr. Mukesh was placidly sitting at the corridor at the fifth floor! ‘Stupid Guy’ I thought and gave him my most appealing smile and quickly darted off to railway station. Out of my caring attitude, I had given the tickets to him so that being an outsider, he may atleast have some sort of comfort ness in case he fell into trouble-and fate conspired a nightmare.

Then we reached the crowded railway station and we hunted for a less crowded place to be out of the ruck and comfortably settled. Frequently, my eager eyes kept scanning through the packed station, jammed with all sorts of people and their heap of luggage, for my dear friends to arrive. “There’s still 20 minutes more” I comforted myself through I could feel my heart beat growing louder and my legs shaking with doubt. The very fact that my tickets were with Mukesh made me violently tremble with fear; however I pacified my mother and hopelessly assured her that they will be on time.

10 mins… 9 mins … 7 mins … and they didn’t appear. A shrill whistle of the train made be entirely nonplussed and dumb! I could see my limbs shaking and my mind going blank but then I realize, from previous semesters’ experience that the train would stop at Kamakhya”, a small station some 7-8 kms off and desperately trying to convince my freaked parents that I would search the entire train for them and get down at Kamakhya if those idiots didn’t happen to board the train.

A final terrifying whistle and off! The train quickly accelerated at the correct time and I was left panting at the berth and heading for a 3000 kilometer journey without tickets! With my fists tight, I ferreted the entire length of the never-ending train for those creatures and ready to grapple them with my strongest blows (I regretted the fact that I had never been to gym), but alas, I didn't find them and I was standing devastated in one of the couches...

Shit! The train arrived at the small station lined with crowds ready to dash into the train the moment it comes to halt; it slowly came to halt. This poor soul was biting his finger nails and left stupendously perplexed as the train would mercifully remain a silent spectator for another 5 minutes! I lost the scintilla of hope in me and was about to step down from the train but then, out of curiosity and intuition, my eyes swept through bustling crowd and I saw, far off, three men ( those laggards) hurling themselves into the train …

Later, I was apprised that our Hero Mukesh, who unfortunately possessed the tickets, never bothered to look at the tickets and stupidly deluded Suharsh and Panda on train schedule – he blindly advanced the departure time by half-an-hour! The misinformation robbed us of the moments that would have been anything but pleasant and charming… nevertheless, tattered jeans is dearly valued than the plain ones; a little spice in the soup of Life is always nice!

Gyan: At least take some pain to verify the arrival and departure time!

Worrying is misuse of Imagination

2005-09-08T21:24:00.000-07:00

“Worrying is misuse of imagination” – a lesson I learnt pragmatically. These days there’s a lot of tension perennially hovering above my head and to mention some, there’s some of job, studies and life that’s quite distressing me. Hopefully I have, in my diary, written about my days fraught with clumsy and saddening incidents; so when I look back, I find that those days, through very stressful and burdensome, shouldn’t have been that horrible if I had the power to color and brighten them. To tell you the most catastrophic thing that I have been doing was to imagine and figment unwarranted possibilities which perhaps would never materialize. That is, I would imagine a superb stressful situation which would fill me with animosity and magnanimity; or something like keep thinking about some past unhealthy thing which is full of tension. This mysteriously happened to be my best time-past and totally robbed me of mental calm.

I did some ‘root cause analyses’ and surprisingly found that if I cease imagining things then I will not languish further and it will also enable and actuate me to concentrate on many a pertinent goals which got clouded due to my obsessed habit and it will even motivate me to work for realization of dreams.

Some tips! - Don’t take the tension at office to home – practice not to think about past unhealthy things. It’s hard but will unlock many splendid feelings in you.

Sometimes I may go wayward and you need to occasionally remind me and aid in secluding the dirty business from mind. Also help others!

The Girl Next to Me

2005-09-05T02:22:00.000-07:00

Hey did I tell you that everytime I travel by plane my only prayer, in additional to reach safely, is to get a cute girl next to me and my favorite prayer answered this time! On my return journey during Guwahati-Delhi leg of journey, I found a cute lady in her late 60’s … hmmm well its true! She’s some 60 years old, so what do you expect anyone with sky-kissing hopes to react on such antithesis? … just look straight, look down and keep murmuring ‘Better luck next time’ to yourself and that’s exactly what I did.

But the black clouds over my desires suddenly shredded – in Delhi–Bangalore flight; as I strolled into the plane and curiously ferreting my place, I saw two extremely sizzling ladies comfortably sitting next to mine! My incredulous eyes again reconfirmed my seat number and it was undeniably correct. Needless to say, my heart beats shot up and I sat but then I quickly saw my old problem being resurrected – how to kick off talking!

I didn’t realize that I have surprisingly dormant creative skills until that day – to commence talking I requested the fair lady sitting next to me whether she would send a sms to my Mother. My bold step however, pumped a million liters of adrenalin into me and then she, slowly and reluctantly, typed the message and shyly asked the mobile number. Ah!!!! – If you ask all the bold things are done in all my stupid life, it will definitely top the chart! Yes I did it!

Here’s some (so called) romantic moments: It was 7’Oclock in the calm and quiet evening and we( me and the two ladies) could see the colorful horizon from the small window and it was resplendently lined with orange, subtle green and then azure blue! With cabin lights off, I was the very moment that I had always been dreaming and my only wish was to softly touch her nimble hand; but then, two tight slaps from her would be enough to make my dream a nightmare.

Naughty sneaks into each other eyes kept going which made that evening even more interesting and exciting. Sometimes I smiled whenever I caught her red-handed peeking at me and she quickly and inanimately responded – didn’t turn her head back for next 15 minutes.

Opps … I wish if I can meet the lady again!

Our Window to the World

2005-08-30T03:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we shredded our 18th century lifestyle to electrifyingly zoom to the 21st century! Didn’t get? Okay, we got a cable connection yesterday and thanks to Thiyagesh for his TV Tuner card and a computer off course, now our home has a working TV! Having said this let me tell you that for the past one-n-half year we, the inhabitants, didn’t have the pleasure of watching TV and had to kill our time by talking about anything worth discussing for – politics, job-change, hike, sometimes but not always, girls next door …

The technician magically appeared yesterday evening and I knew our assiduous patience fructified – we have been waiting for eternity for the angelic technician. Once the connections were made and loo! – The programs started and never stopped to entertain us and our first movie yesterday was ‘Identity’.

Freaked Out!

2005-08-28T22:03:00.000-07:00

The weekend has been really a roller coaster ride! On Thursday after the mundane office work, I darted off to Mukesh at his guest house. Well, he is in Bangalore for training and that guy is really enjoying the ecstatic tension-free days where there's nothing other than sleeping and eating, off course work has been happlily placed at the back seat!

The next day, which happened to be a holiday, has been immensely utilized in our expedition for friends. After a royal sleep at his guesthouse, we zoomed to Phillips where we met some of our old college mates working there - nice reunion!

Our fever for a movie was getting intense and somehow managed to get tickets for "No Entry" at the last minute. For anyone who desires to have fun and giddy this is a must-see movie. It's packed with fun and frolic till the last second and you will never cease to laugh. In all, it’s a superb hilarious one. The Sun went down and merry making people of Bangalore came out and the streets of MG turned magical with energy and ecstasy overflowing our hearts. We strolled in the streets enjoying the lovely bright boards, streets packed up with colorful people and smiling on happy couples, with their hands locked, who walked past us.

Come Saturday and we planned to visit the Infosys campus. I have heard amazing stories about its majestic buildings and eagerly covet to have a look at them and it was my day! Mukesh and I headed for Electronic City in a lazy and crazy private bus which stopped at every soul who cared to wave his hands.
Believe me, never have I seen such vast and splendid campus; it has been beautifully planned and maintained. The lush green open space adorned with a lake filled with colorful fishes is simply awesome and we didn't lose our chance to merry a boat ride. To me, it seemed more of a park! The vast food courts encircled with green landscapes is worth remembering and we cycled through its entire campus to have a glimpse of the campus of great magnitude. Mukesh was more of a guide to me in our exploration drive of the Infosys campus.

The little wooden decorative bridge over the lake reminds me of the sweet park in our college at Diphu where we have seen and lived our better days...

Food Dump

2005-08-24T00:29:00.000-07:00

Thiyagesh – a pragmatic food dumper and my Roomie, give him any amount of eatables and you will be amazed to see him gulp everything in minutes! Its lovely to see him metamorphose into a buddy with a stomach of infinitude capacity!

Last night, we ordered four relishing Chicken Biriyani – a home delivery, for sure as you know we four laggards are perhaps the laziest of this planet to venture out of our cozy homes in the rainy evening. After an hour of raging wait, they were finally delivered. Amit didn’t lose a second and hurled at the Biriyani. Me and Shashi, as normal humans, merrily started gulping and Mr. Thiyagesh started eating it at the rocket-speed and his eyes kept gazing at the chicken pieces as if those were the legs of a beautiful lady! We chewed, chewed and chewed and ‘some’ fans of chicken ( I don’t mean Thiyagesh) fiercely gulped and swallowed whatever their fingers could catch and greedy eyes saw. Amit nearly fagged out as he finished his allocation, but I and Shashi lost out and there wasn’t enough room in our small belly– finding out that Thiyagesh jumped in and simply wiped out our dear Biriyani!

We weren’t amazed as he had already frightened all of us before when this voracious creature singlehandedly ate the food of three men! – Read This!

I am Back

2005-08-22T00:44:00.000-07:00

It was indeed a wonderful holiday. On 6th, I took an auto to Bangalore Airport and had to bear the nasty security check procedures but in no time, I found myself in the aircraft! Mr. Sun was smiling brilliantly and as I peeped down upon our Mother Earth I saw splendid scenes of valleys, farms and amazing clouds which take unimaginable forms and some looked like bubbles hanging in the sky. It landed in Hyderabad and then touched the land of Kolkota where I had to change my plane which took me to Guwahati Airport.

Mother, father and my sister blossomed with joy when they saw me and my heart was flowing with overflowing excitement and alacrity! It was a good reunion and some scenes of nostalgic reunion some seven months ago flashed in my mind. We then drove to our small hometown – Nagaon, some 150 kilometers off from Guwahati.
Lazy days happily awaited me – there was nothing except eating and watching TV and again eating and sleeping. I got my old computer repaired and kept browsing some old bygone college-days files and pictures. The reminiscence of those merry college days totally captivated me and some nostalgic sweet moments evoked in my mind. Among the vast pool of old files some are projects, pictures, songs, games … yeah some are high-funda technical stuff which are now unintelligible to me – perhaps I was more intelligent than now. Not to mention, there are fascinating stuff like cool pictures of girls and all that girlie stuff which I had expediently kept hidden and secured with password protection! – All our naughtiness and ugly memorable days slowly came up, slowing and silently, in my cognizance.

On 11th we all set out to Digboi. The eight hour drive was badly irritating and we were nearly baked under the sweltering heat of the Sun, also the humid weather added to the torturous journey. Our bodies were sticky and we were entirely helpless against the heat. On reaching when I saw my Mami I remembered of Lulu Mama who passed away last month. The air was filled with religious discourses and it profoundly touched my heart. I felt sorry of my Mami who is left with a boy in Seventh standard and a girl in tenth. I was not able to talk with her as I was fiercely grasping for correct sentences and also for the fact that I knew if I talked about old things she would definitely cry. Every time my eyes felt on her, my heart tried to commiserate her and in turn made my eyes watery and filled me with utter despair. As I imagine how tough and enduring time will his family have in future, I feel the shuttering and fulminating grief piercing my heart.

On 14th, there was a big religious meet was organized to commemorate the death of my uncle. The discourses struck the cords of my heart and shocked my mind; it made me believe that I am totally lost and wayward. The right path is the path of religion and I am supposed to follow it and there I was infused with the sense of pure and divine knowledge – the knowledge of truth, that is, death will come to all and everybody will imperatively die so why not die in such a way so that after death we will be guaranteed a place in heaven?

My pledge: To be religious and to follow the path of Allah.

*** Will write about the interesting return journey later ***

Flying Home!

2005-08-03T01:17:00.000-07:00

I am at last flying home on 6th this month and will again be teleported back in this hell on 21th. Well this time there was a frustratingly long hassle on my leave term but I fortunately made my way. Frankly, a mere 15 day leave is definitely not something to smile on when you have been away from home for some seven long months, but then I consoled myself; nothing more important than home and so, now I feel I should have demanded for a few more days, but I felt something and conscience didn’t allow … don’t know why.

“Sharaf, enough being a good guy … now be a very bad guy” – a voice rings …

I guess these holidays will be somewhat solemn and will be imbued with an air of gloom and jeremiad due to the demise of my Uncle and I am getting nervous to face my Aunty for no comprehensible reasons; may be because I fear to face aggrieved people. Sadly I didn’t have enough time (or I was lazy) to buy clothes for my parents, yes hopefully Aaliya forced me to purchase a azure-blue salwar-cloth piece, with nice embedded flowery designs, for my Sister. It was mostly her choice and I just did the nodding when it came to swipe the card. I am ecstatically planning to enjoy playing with my little naughty sisters and brothers at Digboi – that’s my maternal home town. These days are fun filled and believe me as the days rail forward, harder it becomes to subdue the obtruding excitement within me!

Yeah, also need to take big decisions on returning back (to hell!) … will also try not to blog until 21st!

Dinner Conundrum

2005-07-28T21:44:00.000-07:00

People say in life we are countervailed and huddled with stupid problems where we need to make tough decisions but for we mortals, the toughest decision making process is – where to have the dinner today? Fantastically every night we four, Amit, Shashi, Thiyag and I happily reach home after a hard day work, and then an unanswerable question looms ahead of all of us – “where today?”!

Our regular resort is to dash off to “Kitchen” – a nearby restaurant which also has the privilege of being blessed by many a mind-boggling beauties, offcourse they are escorted by their boyfriends so we helplessly stare at them – that’s set nothing more than that. Yeah, sometimes I just manage to imagine being cosseted by one of them or even marry one … believe me imagination is not taxed!

To solve the increasingly complicated dinner-problem we decided to go for a restaurant exploration drive throughout Bangalore and we kicked it off yesterday. Anachi – the first one to be tried! We relished the bony crabs, liver fry and also the relishing chicken biriyani and this the first time I had crabs – they surprisingly don’t have flesh but some flesh-like materials are secretly hidden within their hard body.

So our next decisive step will probably be enlisting all the known and tried restaurants in paper chits, blindly pick one every night and happily enjoy the dinner there with gusto!

...Simple is beautiful !

Parimita

2005-07-18T06:46:00.000-07:00

There’s nothing lovely and nice than having an amazing and helpful friend! And the friend I am talking about is also chirpy – always talks and smiles. She is the mother of all information and the ‘know-all’ advisor who has stunning solutions to any of our love-problems. Little did we realize that one day, our wonderful and lively friend will go far far away – to the other side of the world.

Our sweet friendship started when I got into Maestro project and then I found myself beside a girl and we both set sail to discover a completely new technology (a grinning one!) Her ecstatic warm friendly attitude greeted me in the align office-environ. Though our companionship didn’t last for long, I got transferred to Chennai. With a heavy heart and weary eyes, I and my friend colleague Sridhar were kicked out of Bangalore and dumped into Chennai. The place once seemed horrible did show us many a beautiful days and showered new experience and reunited me with old college-mates and off course also, fate popped some unexpected cases and faces before us; perhaps new places place new faces in every newcomer’s plate!
Probably I won’t have been to Bangalore but fortunately or unfortunately, I was again recalled to Bangalore. You must be thinking that there was feeling of relief this guy’s heart on being called again. But let me tell you, I had a mixed feeling – happy to go again but extremely sad to leave the loving people whom I met, shared my feelings and above all, who gave the much needed companionship. Life comes with turns – some surprisingly swirling! – Again, I and Sridhar left Chennai for Bangalore …

Perhaps, destiny has chosen to get us back to the surprisingly great friend – Parimita! Confused – she the same chirpy talkative ‘girl’! And nothing changed, Sridhar and I found ourselves in a cubicle with that computer-worm (Parimita) and with a funny character Anirban. Well Anirban rightly deserves an entire thesis in his own merit, so I will elucidate him at length later. Yeah, then, that computer-worm slowly opened up and we realized the entire rainbow-colored and sweet nature in her. She has a boyfriend – basically an elephant when brought near to me! Sure, it’s not a fault to be thin, but yes it’s a crime to tell someone’s boyfriend an elephant! – From then, she never fails to address me as “Mouse” when fate brought him with me. Now, that elephant is Sambit. Nice fellow to chat with – and no offence please!
Days went by and we were having great times! A in-born singer, she has entertained us with many of her sweet songs and medley with Sandeep, another talented singer. There are times when we just got bogged down and went down and made the two singers sing for us while we, the spectators, kept slowing sipping coffee.

To tell you more, she’s a great advisor and a startling problem-solver! Then, like every girl has to hunt her prey, she wasn’t an exception – she got married on 6th May to Sambit - she entered another realm of life! Then coolly she flew off to the US.
Hoping that she will remain ever cheerful!

Medical Negligence

2005-07-14T01:38:00.000-07:00

Hospital: Indian Oil Corporation, Digboi, Assam

My maternal uncle passed away, he was in his prime when he had to leave us for no fault of his – negligence and wrong treatment was the culprit. Pathetically he complained about chest pain and then he was administered an injection which ultimately costs his life; this is a serious fault on the part of the hospital and I believe they should be brought to justice. When the painful news struck me I become totally nonplussed and dumb and I was grasping for some words to reply to my father who broke the news to me. I could only imagine the monumental pain that must have inflicted his family and my small cousins. Death due to wrong treatment is totally unacceptable and filled me with utter frustration and helplessness. He was normal on the very disastrous day and then a small complain of chest pain by him at night …

Severe negligence and incompetence of the doctors and attendance of the hospital Indian Oil Corporation of Digboi, Assam is shamefully despicable. I feel like trashing them or even …
Still, I can’t convince myself that he is no more and that it was the last time I saw him when I went home in January this year.
When I think of him, at the first thought, I get a presumption that it’s a horrible dream but then I try convincing myself that my uncle is no more.

Filmy night-out

2005-07-05T21:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday night, Shashi, Amit, Eesh and me watched the film “Hum Tum”; indeed it’s a tactfully crafted entertaining movie. It’s all about a naughty and happy-go-lucky guy who accidentally finds a plain-vanilla girl in his flight to New York and their friendship slowly blooming into a love story. Interestingly their first meet was disastrous and they quickly disengaged. But Miss Fate had different plans and again they inadvertently meet and after a long episode of funny and comic events, they finally realize that they are strongly in love with each other!
But why did it take eons for the realization? They didn’t express their heart to their loving partner!
Hmmm… then I wished if Miss Fate smiles on me and gifts me a girl, a plain-vanilla girl, a girl to fight, to sigh and to love!

So guys, if you don’t want to loaf around then quickly express your heart to your sweet darling. Well, I am also thinking so, its totally a wastrel to keep fantasizing my dot-dot-dot, but if she refuses then I am jobless!

Another weekend flew by

2005-07-04T01:00:00.000-07:00

Another weekend, this has been pretty sleepy and without much sound and frivolity. On Friday, the heavens were quite helpful as I did succeed in sleeping early – to tell you sleeping is hugely and gigantically a tough task specially when people like Shashi, my roomie, shouts at his maximum volume and to my horror he doesn’t have a volume control system at his neck.

These days, I find the ‘weekend’ business is increasingly cropping up at my blog – may be it’s a hint that the other days are really humdrum and imbued with not-so-exciting activities – yeah its sorry that I have to concede. May be since I started to work a bit hard and my habit of ogling at my pretty girls is in south-ward direction!

On Saturday, Panda and I merrily went to MG Road and watched the movie “Sarkar” – inspired from the film “Godfather”. After the emotional and action-filled film, we rambled through the streets of famed Brigade road. It drizzled and cool and refreshing air really energized and revitalized our minds (not our thoughts - they are dirty, always dirty … even God can’t cleanse them!). Not to mention, the dinner was amazingly hefty and Panda ate most of it, I don’t conceive how that little guy – Panda, can devour such huge quantities of spicy and hot food – truly baffling.
On, Sunday, I slept, slept and slept and why not? Sleeping is the best job, isn't it?

Shashi's Birthday

2005-06-28T21:43:00.000-07:00

Hey! on 27th, that’s on Monday we celebrated Shashi’s birthday. He was deeply interred in tons of work in office, so showed up at just 12’Oclock at midnight. Customs dictate to present him birthday bumps and he got two terrifically hard ones from that Eesh -the second one was a proxy for me!

Then It was a time for jovial celebration - Thiyag got a car from a friend of his and we set out for a stupendous night-drive, Amit sandwiched between me and Shashi while Thiyag and Eesh at the front. First we crashed into Café coffee day and relished a ‘Black Forest’ Cake and a supposedly ‘Fruit Juice’ which merely contains 5% Fruit juice! – and the rest? Fear not, the rest is plain vanilla water.

The deserted streets of Whitefield and Airport road welcomed the merry-making junta in the car, the music did its magic and we enjoyed the air, the traffic-less streets, the lights and offcourse, the moment. Two speed-breakers did really break our heartbeats as our car bumped and flinging us guys off from their seats.
Slowly (and safely) we reached home and soon traveled to another world.

The Tale of Dreams deep within

2005-06-26T22:14:00.000-07:00

Heard ‘someone’ dearly appreciated my poem “Dreams deep within” – Thanks a million! It’s certainly amazing that those lines, simple lines, are piercing though the hearts of many. Now, I am getting in zeal to tell you that those beautiful lines are written in my first year of engineering at REC, Trichy, those are beautiful not because of style but since it reflects my deep inner feelings towards someone and my melancholy emotions got imprinted my in diary. Sadly, the person to whom I dedicate the musical lines will not and never read them, still those lines are silently waiting and will surely wait for the reader to come one day and have a glimpse – then perhaps, the emotions erupted some six years ago and will finally culminate.

I believe, one day somewhere in this world, the reader will traverse through the unending and unimaginable number of pages in internet and bless my poem with tears in eyes and cries in heart – then my purpose gets accomplished.

Too much senti?

A Touchy Story

2005-06-23T01:47:00.000-07:00

A year of blogging has passed by. The ticking of time seemed very quick and the year has quietly passed, the earth has made one more round around the Sun which it has been doing faithfully since eternity. My Diary is half complete or optimistically half-full. There’s a lot of humdrum daily activities to be seen in my diary but some events get emblazoned – those are really sweet and remarkable events which are ought to be remembered or in other words, they are very nostalgic.

The lines in my diary says that the life of a software engineer is a mess dirtied with frustrations, malignity and recrimination but somewhere deep inside, there’s many a pleasant and breathtaking moments – if you ask me what are those then probably, I will tell you like colorful time spent with friends and friends who are girls.
Not a homo so I am getting enticed to discuss the supposedly friends “who are girls”! As I go back in time(Diary being the time-machine!), there has been a heap of changes that effectuated radical changes in me – like now I never get scared when a girl sees eye-to-eye on me, my feat remains on the ground when a girl comes near(too near) to “ask doubts” ( although something goes up – my interest what else???) or peeping over the cubicle at girls in adjacent ones or even instantly fantasizing people much older to me. Now, I am fearless!

Yeah ... the other day, I, Eesh and a college friend ( can’t disclose his name – probably his GF may read this! I don’t care about that Eesh) were enthusiastically discussing about friends “who are girls” then Eesh did some revelations and we came to a conclusion that it’s the hardest thing in the world to hunt for a “marriable” girl. A “marriable” girl is the one whom you love, her fidelity is undisputable, her horoscope complements yours and above all, the necessary condition – Parents don’t object (though valid for Indians only).
We all three are suffering – one investing a million dollars in a risky business, one investing time and the other in a process of forceful migration – from friend to sister!

What do I want?

2005-06-16T23:11:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, I feel being crushed and subjugated by the insurmountable hands of fate.
‘Why this happens only to me?’
Desires never go and accrue to incontrollable heights and so do the misery of failure and frustration. In this long and merciless race of life, somewhere I feel very alone and desolated. It’s like there’s everything surrounding me silently watching you, the moment your hands stretch out to catch it, the fate steals your dream and vanishes and making you imbued with animosity. But then, the fundamental question remains unanswered -“What do I want?”

… And probably, the toughest to answer; I can only wish someday the answer will dawn on me

Day out with Aaliya

2005-06-13T10:21:00.000-07:00

It was one of those lazy weekends where sleep is the sole purpose of life. Mr. Sun stealthily peeked in through the window only to find a soul in sound sleep, that’s me. I didn’t feel like getting up however the disturbing heat of our Sun finally made me jump from the bed.
Just then, my stupid little mobile harshly broke the morning silence; “Mein Kemp Fort aa rahi hu”, Aaliya happily declared!

Perhaps, she was assertively in the mood to take revenge on me; in our last lovely meet, I kept her waiting for an hour and that proved to be a disaster for me. Now, it was the turn of this poor little soul to keep waiting and I kept eagerly gazing at each and every auto which rapidly past by and to have some breaks, sneaked at smart people walking by. Slowly and silently, an hour went by. Frustrated, I decided to recede and just then a voice from back echoed at my ears “Are you waiting for somebody” – it was she!

Together, we rambled at Kemp Fort with giddy hearts. She frequently asked my opinion about colorful skirts on display which made be entirely nonplussed – never in my life had I bought or cared to see girl’s apparels, however it was a nice time to learn !
Okay, enough of learning ( infact it was information-overload for me), so we hopped to Games Section to try our hands at ice-hockey and in a stupid game where a rubber ball needs to be dropped into a horizontal basket and that’s too from a frightening distance of five feet or so – even Sachin ji won’t think of that! – We did and lost :( sometimes losing is fun, isn’t it?

"How far is your home" , she asked, home... and then the scene flashed before me was of scattered newspapers, tattered shoes and litters all around. However, I braved and took her to home, off-course much to discomfort of Thiyag and Amit, hopefully Eesh wasn’t at home. Needless to say, she’s the first girl whom I have ever taken home and so had to put the “extra-genteel” mask and make sure everything goes right! As usual, she talked talked and talked and I listened listened and listened. By then, I can feel the dinasours dancing in my stomach and got into cooking job!
As you all might be aware I am a fabulous cook and I can cook anything and everything, it’s a different matter that it may please you or not, mostly it won’t. So I simply used my creativity and prepared a mouth-watering dish – guess what? Boiled potatoes! Though there was more salt than potato content but it was “ok” - she told and she smiled.

Then we went to MG Road and I merrily accompanied her in buying the regular things – “Rose water”, ”Tissue Paper”, “SandalWood Powder” and … Girls are pretty fast in predicting useful things and so she presented me the “Tissue paper”, a soap and some chocolates for “Future use”. Now everybody will concede what a guy will do with Tissue paper? I can’t think of anything! – But thanks Aaliya! – Believe me, it’s the first time I felt being cared for and seriously it’s the most wonderful and emotional moment for this little poor soul living alone in Bangalore some 3000 miles off from my sweet home… sob sob.

I missed my lunch for her – this disturbed her a lot so she took me to a restaurant “Empire Earth” for a treat. But how can I make her pay? Finally, I had the opportunity to repay her gratitude with the dinner party, though I know I can’t repay her generosity and friendship even with a thousand treats.

Another Girl-e-Weekend

2005-06-05T22:18:00.000-07:00

We went in great hopes for the movie “Bunty & Bubly”, a highly hilarious one, but before we hopped into the ticket counter, the whole world was already in the Cinema hall and didn’t get the tickets. Dejected and tireless, we sat on the steps and hopelessly kept ogling at colorful girls who were escorted mostly with their boyfriends. “When shall I have one”, I murmured to myself, sometimes cursing myself for nothing and sometimes again looking at pretty girls chirping with their (boy)friends - I hate to mention boyfriend again and again. Enough of browsing, and we went to shopping malls, sometimes kept ourselves busy with soft drinks and carelessly wandered through the corridors and sometimes simply gazed at people passing by, hope you know what ‘people’ means! That was the Saturday, beautiful Saturday.

Sunday, my plan was to have no plans and idly sleep, perhaps it’s the most enjoying thing anyone can thing of! In that restful and pacific hour, Panda, who is a hard-core vegetarian now, proposed for the movie “Bunty & Bubly”. Sadly, I don’t learn from mistakes and mistook the Bangalore junta for a sleepy one and darted off for tickets. Guess what? Again kicked out from the counter, but this time we were much civilized (if at all not looking at girls is civilized) and slipped out to ramble through the MG Road and Brigade road. All along, I was thinking what on earth made my Brahmin friend, a gifted specialized cook in chicken-curry, go the “Vegetarian” way, anyway life changes and so do habit – he is getting married and I assume it’s a girl-effect! Breeze was blowing past our face and so do properly-dressed ladies; let me tell you that I tried hard not to divert my eyes towards them, but I however I try, I get helpless as soon as one crosses by, after all senses never belie the Bachelors!
Sun went down and hunger got pronounced, just then Shashi came along with us for a hearty dinner and all dispersed.

Dreamie and I

2005-06-02T02:52:00.000-07:00

I am in a green park with a lake majestically surrounded by palm tress and enjoying cool breeze. There’s nothing which bothers me, nothing worries me and I see nothing but the azure clear sky, small naughty waves in the lake and butterflies flying around, I see far and wide and all I see are hillocks, green and lavished with green soft grass all round. A beautiful butterfly, a bit bigger than me, smiled at me and said “Hello!”
“Hello, what’s ur name ?”
“My name is Dreamie, and what’s yours”
“Oh Sharaf, how good you are!”
“Can we see the world together, the nice world we are living in?” she invites
Then, she carries me on her back and her big wings being to flap and we fly higher and higher, the lake now is just a like a circle and I can feel the wind playing with my hair and together, we explore new horizons, new landscapes, new dreams and a new meaning of life…

So, how was your weekend?

2005-05-29T22:33:00.000-07:00

Today I wasn’t able to enjoy the fresh cool breeze, today I wasn’t able to appreciate the drizzle in this beautiful cloudy morning, today I wasn’t able to see the splendid beauty in the Nature. Unfortunately, I caught cold on Friday, so missed out the giddy party-mood swept over the Bangalore and I hibernated myself into my cozy warm bed. Then, I felt boredom getting better on me and on Saturday, I bravely dared to venture out fighting the cold to MG road and then to my horror, abruptly rain started. We took shelter in a second-hand book house where I found the book I had been persistently hunting for centuries – “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and probably, most of you have heard about this classic humorous novel. You may read this book, it beautifully depicts the childhood mentality and the childish play, fight and off course love!, in short an amazing book to revisit your old forgotten innocent days.

We waited eagerly for the hopeless rain to stop and after a half-an-hour of tedious wait ( I was rubbing and smearing my own hands to fight the cold) we went back. Then I felt the pain in my head grow intense and promptly sneaked back to my warm bed and also gave Reiki to myself before my body switched off. Reiki effectuated and the morning sunlight obliterated my dumb headache although the running nose did irritate me for the whole day.

So, how was your weekend?