Life is rolling … for better and for worse :)

The season of marriages started some time last year with many of friends tying the knot . Received about 5-6 marriage invitations from folks who have been good friends in past one month . 2 of them happen to be school friends ,parents did attend the wedding and promptly called me up to let me know that they would love to see their son walking up the aisle sooner ..
There is this guy ,one of my closest pals ,who at tender age of 24 is getting engaged . And I was like , “what ??? how the hell could you get married ? ” . and he said ” why not ? ” .
Ahem , on the sidelines ,that somehow reminded me of a stupid song of yesteryears , “satrah baras ki baali umar ko salaam” . 24 can not really be termed baali umar though .
And then There is this nut case ,who I thought wont get married until he atleast turns 30 ( Thats what his parents told us ) , is getting married.He, after all wanted to be an IAS or an MBA before he would take the plunge.But he met his Jennifer Cavilleri on the way and this fella melted down .And after all its far more imporant to be happy in the life ( refer to the previous post ) . I am really happy for all my friends , that they are settling down in life .Not having met someone who would compel me to give up my merry bachelor life and having few things in life to get rid of first , I sit back , enjoy life and watch many of my buddies zooming past .
one of interesting things in life is ,watching people move ahead you at different junctures in life. be it getting into good college ,first job and now marriage ,and god knows what things would be added to this list as we grow older . It could be li’l intimidating . If nothing , it puts bit of pressure on you .They would say ” sala Job lagne ke baad badal gaya ” ,and now ” sala , shadi ke baad badal gaya ” would be added to the list .
well thats life . Best of luck you guys , wish you all a very very happy life ahead ,and better stay in touch with us . yea, the lines are drawn now , its you married folks and us bachelors now ! .

I am Tagged !

I am tagged…
Ash has tagged me! And I am prompt ( Ahem , provided delay of three weeks doesnt count )to finish it quickly

Favorite Colors: Err , frankly I never gave this thought in my life ( I believe in preserving my grey cells ,I dont think much actually ) ..ok lemme scratch my brain . I somehow prefer black colour over others when I select shirts ,so it should be black for me .

Favorite Food: Aah,well this is my arena . I prefer non veggie stuff . Hyderabadi cuisine is something I prefer most .Delicious biryani ,mouth watering Kebabs and Haleem any day ,nothing can beat`em

Favorite Month: Amm,the one with maximum number of holidays !

Favorite Songs: Aaj Jane ki Zid na Karo , Lucky Ali numbers ,RHTDM , Gangster songs and loads of them out there.Tough to squeeze them all here !

Favorite Movies: I be a movie buff !
Hindi : DCH,Lakshya , RHTDM ,Hyderabad Blues , Angrez ,Hera Pheri,Hazaro Khwahishein Aisi , Kukunoor movies ,Kabhi Haan Kabhi Na.
Telugu : Dollar Dreams , Anand , Godavari ,vennela, RGV Telugu movies ,all those comedy flicks coz they dish out the best comedy in Telugu :).
English : Forrest Gump,Serendipity , Hitch,The Terminal,Shwashank Redemption,X-Men,pursuit of happyness,Godfather.

Favorite Book: Godfather,Kane and Abel,Catcher in The Rye,Love Story,A walk to remember,Five point Someone,Harry Potter,The Bourne Identity,catch 22,R K Narayan books .Thriller is the favorite genre.

Favorite Sport: cricket , Tennis.

Favorite Season: Unexpected showers in summer ( Bin Badal Barsaat ) ,chilly mornings in winter ,cool breezes in summer night !
Favorite Day Of the week: saturday and sunday .
Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: Plain Vanilla .
Favorite Time of Day: Any time with friends around .

8 CURRENTS:
Current Mood: weekend yeyy !
Current Taste: The tea that I had sometime ago is still lingering on my taste buds !
Current Clothes: Jeans ,T and moi fav shirt .
Current Desktop: Blue logo of moi Employer.
Current Toe nail Color: N/A to guyz I guess
Current Time: 1.35 PM EST
Current Surroundings: King sized Bed ,My cup of tea and cloths all around
Current Thoughts: what the hell am I doing with life ? where the hell is it headed after all ?? . A big question mark.I be on wrong side of 20s and what the hell …blah blah blah …You dont want to peek in my brain rt now for sure

6 FIRSTS:
First Best Friend: Manya ,my childhood friend.
First Screen Name: Appu
First Pet: I had many ,dont remember the name of the first one though
First Piercing: N/A
First Album: Don’t remember
First Movie: Dont Remember.

6 LASTS:
Last Cigarette: No smoking,Thank you !
Last Taste: The chicken fry that I cooked yesterday nite !
Last Movie Seen: Idiot ( Telugu )
Last Phone Call: Conf call with 5-6 friends we had about an hour ago !
Last Book Read: The Ambler Warning by Ludlum

Have You Ever Broken the Law: Yes,never been caught though apart from petty offences like jumping the signals
Have You Ever Been Arrested: Not yet
Have You Ever Been on TV: Nope
Have You Ever Lied: Yup! I lie all the time
Have You Ever Kissed Someone You Didn’t Know: Ahem,Nai.

5 THINGS:
Thing You’re Wearing: Jeans / T / Shirt
Thing You’ve Done Today: Woke up late, went and collected my licence,called up parents and friends ,had lunch and here I am filling in this long overdue post
Thing You Can Hear Right Now: IIFA awards which is running in other window.
Thing You Can’t Live Without: friends , parents .
Thing You Do When You’re Bored: Read, Listen to music, Watch TV, sleep, go out, bug friends,eat.

4 PLACES YOU’VE BEEN TODAY:
Home, Licence office, friend`s house ,friend`s car .

3 PEOPLE YOU CAN TELL ANYTHING TO:
There are many friends ,naming three and leaving others`s out would lead to possible war of words   and of course my parents :).

2 CHOICES:
Get back to school again .
write a wonderful novel.

1 THING YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE: Err,let that be a secret

And I tag RamS and Simi , and knowing kind of freak Rams is , I dont really have high hopes on him ,I tag simi as well along sothat atleast one of them wud care to fill this up
My Apologies to Ash for taking this long to fill this up

catch 22

Aah well, its been close to 6 months since I moved out of India .And I am missing home , parents,friends ,food badly .am yearning to go back to the place where I am most comfortable at.I have missed marriages of 3-4 closest friends .I am missing on house warming of my own house .And so many things I would have loved to be there and experienced first hand.
was weighing the chances of home coming some time,the appropriate time for that and all .
And one of closest friends at hyd tells me that entire bulk of my friends are getting H1 processed and in every probalility ,will be here in US of A by october/November this year.My uncle is moving to Jaipur having been in hyderabad for close to 10-12 years.That would mean I am going to be robbed off my base.few other friends who are there would more or less be moving for their higher studies to some other place or relocate or tie knot. And that leaves a big question mark on the way hyd is going to look like once I reach there ,if all of the above things fall in place.Damn ,its scary. Donno whats gonna happen.And I don really what to think of it moment.
The one year that I spent in hyd was period of my life which I enjoyed most.got to spend time with friends ,parents.went on som fun filled trips with friends.reached out to many new folks.
I guess sometimes,few things are best left behind in past.in memories.Recreating the magic of those days is not possible.coz we all move on in life.Its some point in life when our paths cross which makes life bliss with fond memories.And expecting that paths of all of us would cross again the same way in future is foolhardy.
My roomie,vineeth is born and brought up in hyd.And as the rule of thumb goes in Gultland ,95% of his school /college friends are in US .wondering how he would feel after going back at some point. Damn the uncertainities of life. At moment,I would simply prefer to reverse ths clock and happilly soak in those fun filled days of past .

2007 rolls out !!

Wow , 2007 has been good so far ( err great,shud I say !! )..
Unexpected things have been happening.for better.
Got promoted at workplace.something which was on back of my mind but looked too distant ,too bleak.But what the heck , got promoted anyway :).All well that ends well.
one of close friends Dushyant got married on chirstmas eve , god bless the couple.can’t explain how much I missed not being there with all friends ,being part of celebration.
And within next 3 months,three of closest friends are tying knots ( nayi ,there is no way three of them can get married ,three guys are getting married with three gals :D) .I am happy for all the three ,err six of them . one being an arranged love marriage ( sunil V ),second an arranged one ( Chetan ) ,and the third one ,special of them of all, are getting married coz they were destined to …wont talk much about it at moment as the word is not out officially on that !!
By the time I reach back home,I seriously doubt how many of close friends will retain their bachelordom and be there to accompany me .Hope I won’t have to get married one day due to the sheer frustration of being the last known bachelor .
Started the year the usual way ,well reading horo for year :D,and it filled me with lotsa optimism .There was a quote written over there ,which would be mantra of the year for me !!
It was : Ask and you shall receive. Be brave and make your choices.
Wow !! beautiful words.Being on the wrong side of twenties,I need to make my choices wisely this year . some things would happen this year or would not happen for rest of life.Hmm ,lets see how things shape up.

on the sidelines, watched Pursuit of Happiness starring Will Smith and loved it .This quote especially ,
Dont let anyone tell you cant do it . protect your dreams .
if you want something , go get it . period .

And well ,after ages I could complete a novel over trip to Atlanta & Smoky Mountains for new year.Completed thriller “The Ambler Warning” by Robert Ludlum ,and enjoyed it.Bought The Bourne Supremacy on the way back home.After reading The Bourne Identity ,the finest thriller I ever read ,I was looking forward to read the sequel for sometime.And I could get past hardly first few pages so far ..

And well,at last it snowed here ,somehow was not really as excited I thought I would be. Raman ,college days friend was here over long weekend to see NYC.It was fun meeting a friend in US ,roaming around ,and well reminiscing some of old crushes :)) ..

Gosh,so many things happened within three weeks of time . And I couldnot blog due to lots of work .
one sad thing happened a week ago.one of my close friends ,my favorite junior in college days ,Harshad Mogre aka Mogli passed away in a road accident. Imagining this world without a wonderful person like Mogli is very difficult. God bless his soul,we will always miss you Mogli .
Thats how life is.So beutiful a moment, and so fickle the very next. Drive carefully,friends.

Musings on Horos..

Do you think twice before moving on if a cat crosses your path ?
Do you believe in astrology ? Horos and kinda stuff…
I Was compelled to think bout some of these aspects when I read somewhere that Ash is a Mangalik and will have to get married to a tree to ward off all the evils before she ties the knot with Junior B…
Even though ppl dont belive it,I guess why take chances stance overrides the sensibilities …
I enjoyed it when they lampooned at our so called numerologists ,the Jumanis of the world in Lage Raho Munnabhai .
Anyways , thats not something I wanted to talk about…
I ,for one,dont believe in basic superstitions.I intentionlly move on when a cat crosses my path :).I didnt visit temples to make gods happy in order to get my visa thru.
But reading weekly horos has always been kind of fun.I never used to miss Bejan Daruwala in Times of India . Someone special is going to enter your life this week kinda predictions always used to make me happy .one thing I used to like about this guy was his predictions used to be positive most of the times ,and starting the week with notion that its going to be good always used to perk up my mood.
One of my friends,who is supposed to know bit about astrology and graphology (study of handwriting) once told me many things about me.Some were bang on ,and some were horribly wrong.somehow certain things he told me based on graphology made sense to me on the pretext that the way you write words is ,to some extent,influenced by some of your basic traits.you can make out whether a person is an introvert/extrovert based on his handwriting…
BTW he told me I wud never go outside India ,yes,not even to Bhutan , as that line is completely missing on my palm,and I ,to some extent ,was naive enough to believe him,then …
My mom went to an astrologer few months ago.And this guy told her,I wud fly soon. And then ,my mom pushed me to visit chilkur Balaji and take rounds in order to make gods happy. (For the uninitiated,Chilkur Balaji is famous temple on outskirts of hyderabad near golconda fort ,well known among those wannabe US bounds .And ppl do belive that they will cross seven seas if they visit this temple.) ,something i vehemntly denied to follow.
It pains when I see that one of my friends is missing on so many nice matches only coz there kundalis dont sum up ,poor guy .
okie,wondering why am writing all this stuff now ? well,coz most of things I read in annual predictions of Bejaan daruwalaa when year started came true.Except for one,which was mot interesting of all . And there is only one month left in the year for it to come true .I hope it will come true .

Chennai Days with Gupta and The Gang!!

After joining cognizant,I was at chennai for close to 14 months before I made move to hyderabad.
Today,Suddenly started thinking of those wonderful days I spent in chennai ,as one of my roomies Gupta is moving to Puna after staying there for close to 2 and half years.
A nostalgic moment it is.Though I am no longer there,I still somehow feel that something is missing from my life with Gupta no longer being in chennai .
To begin with,we used to crib a lot.Training period was horrible.
But life was better once we moved to house.House owner being retired wing commander.A Man of words.I admire him a lot.
There after it was circus with 6 of us staying together in three BHK house.our house was never short of action.
scribbled a mail to all roomies on occasion of gupta`s move to puna ,who happens to be a fine human being.This scribbling  shud pretty much sum up the chennai days(of course censored it a bit to retain some of the skeletons intact in the cupboard . Here I go.

Finally,Gupta`s tryst with chennai is ending (ahem, well hopefully .  As we all know it may , it may not  ) .
Wish you all the best,Gupta.Thodasa initial reluctance rahega mann me,about new place.but dont worry,everything would be alright.Khobra,ramnya and me have loads of friends there. so I am sure you won’t face much problem there.
pata nahi gupta chennai se puna ja raha hai par mujhe yaha ajeebsa lag raha hai.
The days I spent at chennai were truely memorable  with gupta,saket verma,khobra,bhau,watal,Mridu,Nandini and Dey.(Rams being the last entrant to the circle after my exit.)
Though there were many problems we faced in chennai initially,looking back now,I feel I enjoyed my stay at chennai a lot with kind of friends I had there in form of you all…
and with time,we all are moving on in life.
Mridu got married to Nandini and moved to his place.Their marriage is something I will always cherish.A fairytale kind of affair , one of those love stories which would not happen even in bollywood movies.one Lucky bastard Mridu is :)) . Still waiting for snaps of his marriage.
Vermaji ka shadi,which is round the corner .sabse bada khiladi aadmi humme se .
Till date,whenever I remember saket telling us about how he landed up in jail aur salakho ke piche se hath bahar nikaal ke “Maa hume bacha lo…” karke , he shouted  ,I end up laughing like anything..
and that tale of shikari babu ,the guy who was thrashed by all seniors everyday in their first year was awesome :).
And the funniest part of the stay was new year party when me , khobra and varma three of us gorged over about 5 pounds of chicken .we were devils incarnate that night :).
khobra ka gym craze,aur diet change ,the efforts he put up to  build physique were commendable ,but the effort at the end slightly backfired .He ended up with a potbelly
Gupta ,not to mention was jaan of our place.His witty one liners were something which nobody ever dared to mess with .
The runaway couple that we got married at one of temples again is something we will always remember .   I wish they  are doing good .                                                                  aur bhau , the non-resident room partner of us in those days , used to be with us on weekends :).
Those dinners at beach side restaurants basera and Miami were amazing . That chilly chicken at City Gate.Those visits to Spencers ,for all those pretty faces out there  . Besantnagar beach,Thiruvanmiyur beach.Those blog friends I made there .
And not to mention highly fun filled trips to ooty and Kodai .
chalo me getting bit nostalgic here…can keep on writing like this,will better stop. .
And I do wish someday again we can spend a day together in chennai.or catch up over marriage of one of us.
To quote Ramnya`s words ,
who knows this could ever happen or not, as Kishor da has sung “Jindagi ke safar main gujar jate hai jo makam….wo fir nahi aate…wo…fir nahi aate.”
The fond memories are going to be with us forever for sure,though.                                       PS : Dont forget to read Ramnya`s take on those days in chennai.He has come up with an out of the world image :). Please click here to Visit Raman`s Blog.          

Here are couple of snapshots out of those beautiful days.  First one with Gupta ,second one with watal ( aka Psycho ) and Khobra.                           

 

Past quarter century :)

Yup,me turned 25 yesterday.was bit dipressed for sometime over past one month,as somehow turning 25 had some psychological impact on me.Reminded me of FRIENDS episode where all of them cribbing when they were turning 30.But now that I am past the barrier ,I ain’t caring anymore .                                                                                                                  I Was reluctant how the day would be spent here ,as on the day of diwali,I was bored like anything.But birthday was lot of fun.Was at Guru`s place to take my written test for driving license.Birthday was celebrated at midnight with rituals of cake cutting and decorating my face .It was memorable budday with Guru,srinath,suresh,pradeep,Raj.In the morning , I almost failed  the written test,thanks to the beautiful blonde taking test adjacent to me who bailed me out by telling answers to 4 questions .without her help I would definitely have flunked.God bless her soul .
 We went to the beach after test,and roamed around there taking snaps.After lunch at beachside hotel,we headed back to our place.And then me watched Tamil movie Run  ,something I wanted to watch for sometime for Madhavan and Meera Jasmin.The day ended with sumptuous Dinner at Dosa grill and movie Borat after that in theatre.My first movie in theatres in US of A .Decided to do something worthwhile on budday and me wrote the previous post ,The journey called life which I think is the finest among whatever I have been writing so far.And that made me really happy.Here is a snap taken by Srinath.Click to Enlarge it. Missed all friends back home very badly ,though….

Aadha saal khatam :)

June is about to end.and Half of year 2006 is about to pass by ..
Didnt realise how the time flew..
and its check point I had set at the begining of the year
okie so I wear my thinking cap and pass on the review of past half year.
Overall,Amm I think it was wonderful .These six months were significant for me ,as they came after drought of past year ,which went down as worst one in my life.

To start with ,well ,my sis came down fro USA after 2 and half years , she joined for her MS after getting past USMLE .It was fun time for 2 months ,especially 10 days when I too was home.

Then my hard work ( he he he ) at workplace brought me laurels in the form of Most valuable performer of the First QUarter 2006 award ,something which I shall cherish for quite some time.Professionally,am better than a year ago ,though there still
is long way to go.

Chennai trip for stamping in Feb and Goa trip with bosom pals in April meant loads and loads of fun.Again I was looking forward to thess trip for quite some time.
And finally am officially a hyderabadi now , after purchasing a dwelling which would be ready for possession by year end.Only pain is the installments which would rob considerable chunk of my salary,and leave me on the brink of poverty for next
few months .

Wonderful News of Bond and Dushyant`s engagements made us all friends happy beyond words can explain as they are the first ones to tie the knot.,all friends would come down to attend the engagements over next two weekends and these re-unions with college friends ,needless to mention ,would be fun.

Hmm, bottomline is past six months were quite eventful.Loads of work, and yeah still I managed to squeeze in so many precious moments with family and friends.
compared to where I was in Jan , Professionally ,I think I made cosiderable progress.career is yet to shape up the way I want it to be.and personally, I am stronger ,and lot more calm.

Again like a sinusoidal wave ,I went straight up from the pits.of late am awry of these vicissitudes of fortunes which have been integral part of my life over past 6-8 years.

Its almost an year since I moved to hyderabad from chennai .Came here in last july.Hyderabad is the place on earth where I feel most comfortable ,and past one year has simply been great .Made lotsa new friends ,the forum freehyderabad ,where I made many friends, has become part of life now.And interesting thing is my hindi has gradually transformed from normal one to hyderabadi Hindi.Now a days my hindi is replete with words like “Hou”,”nakko”,”kaiku”,”wohich”,”kya to bi”,and its becoming increasingly difficult to hold back these words while I speak with my college friends who are oblivious to these words .

on the flip side , I made another futile attempt of joining gym ,and ended up gaining some more weight ,and salary hike after 2 years was anything but encouraging .

Next six months would again be crucial as there are few things which should happen in this time span.I should better talk about them on year end ,till then ,keep fighting .

Men for the sake of getting a living forget to live..

Okie,I promise I am not going to talk about potti patao and kind of stuff for atleast a month
I went nuts working for June release tasks at workplace.
And I was kind of relieved as its almost done.
I Was looking forward for that much deserved break from work for few days ,fun time at Sunil`s engagement.
And then I come to know that scene is already set for August release.

The Amount of work is going to be double than in June .
The Amount of time we are going to work on it is going to be half than in June.
And The number of experienced resources has shrunk to almost one third. (I am only guy with 2 plus years of work-ex in Team ) …
I hope I will be able to retain sanity by August End.

Wondering whether I am the same person who used to leave at 6 PM from office everyday when in chennai
There were days when I used to leave as early as 1 PM from office,
and here I am .Slogging day in,day out .
Its been ages since I read a good novel
I dont remember when I watched movie in theatre last time.
I have been home only for one day in past 3 months even though its few hours away…
Hmm..
Times change,people change,priorities change….
I am fed up of this rat race ,I need a break ….
Damn,its alredy 1 in the morning ,and why the hell am I writing this now ?
and where the hell am I going to get some food to eat at this time ??