Unknown day of July, the sun was trying to settle down somewhere in the west of the city of Mumbai, it always settles amidst that filthy looking concrete jungle, leaving rest of the work for dusk to complete.
The corner table of the Café Coffee Day popularly known as CCD was occupied by them….
He: Are you sure?
She: Yes, are you?
He: It doesn’t matter..
She: It does..
He: When you are not in a position to exercise your will it doesn’t matter what you feel.
She: That’s true but I think it’s high time we end this chapter now.
He: How can you end something which never started, we were in fools paradise.
She: Sometimes it’s great to be in fools paradise and enjoy lyfe which otherwise you can’t being among worldly wise of this society.
He: That’s good way to look at it.
She: I always told you to change the way you look at lyfe.
He: But I never did.
She: But I am sure you will.
He: Now that’s being too optimistic
She: I am
He: I will try
She: Good for you
He: may be, anyways its dusk, time to part ways.
She: Oh yes, otherwise you wont get an auto back home.
He: What was that? PJ?
She: Well, something’s in lyfe cant change. J
He: Bye
She: Goodbye
Within seconds the chairs were empty and paid bill was lying on the table with unused cappuccino. Two shadows were walking on the same road in opposite direction under the street lights.
The dusk had turned into night.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Lyfe is a Journey....
from contemplation to action.
from action to experience.
from experience to realization.
from realization to maturity.
from dreams to reality.
from karma to destiny.
from conscious to subconscious.
from body to soul.
from illusion to awakening.
from seeking to sharing.
from passion to obsession.
from serendipity to relationships.
from ‘here & now’ to nostalgia.
from beginning to THE END…
from action to experience.
from experience to realization.
from realization to maturity.
from dreams to reality.
from karma to destiny.
from conscious to subconscious.
from body to soul.
from illusion to awakening.
from seeking to sharing.
from passion to obsession.
from serendipity to relationships.
from ‘here & now’ to nostalgia.
from beginning to THE END…
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Just a passing thought
on a day like this....
As you grow old
Time changes.. circumstances change..
values change.. priorities change..
perception changes.. people change..
ralationships change.. lyfe changes..
.....but memories ramain.. unchanged, unaffected, intact.
11th July o8
As you grow old
Time changes.. circumstances change..
values change.. priorities change..
perception changes.. people change..
ralationships change.. lyfe changes..
.....but memories ramain.. unchanged, unaffected, intact.
11th July o8
Thursday, May 15, 2008
The Autorickshaw Diaries
Inspired by the recently read book Motorcycle diaries by legendary personality CHE Guevara, I thought of writing this but thankfully this inspiration is confined to only title and not the content.
For long Mumbai has been identified with local trains and omnipresent BEST buses but autorickshaw has not been given its due may be because its area of operations has been restricted to half of Mumbai ie Mumbai suburbs
Travelling in auto rickshaw in Mumbai has been part of growing up in Mumbai for last as many years as I can remember, from the age when I was allowed to travel with 3 permitted adults as a kid to the age when I am considered among adults.
Likeness for autorickshaw is a subjective thing, if you are driving in your so called air-conditioned four wheel sedan, it will seem like unwanted creature crawling on the road and creating lot of troubles and you will inexorably end up uttering four, five or six letter words based on your linguistic influence and vocabulary preferences….. but if you are stuck somewhere and there is no other mode of travelling then it will come across as god send savior in the moment of crisis. Fortunately or unfortunately I have experienced both.
It’s an experience of a kind to travel in autorickshaw on Mumbai roads which are often used in same connotation as in moon’s surface. Talking about experience of travelling in autorickshaw… most of them have music system which will give you inferiority complex about your music system at home but unfortunately they typically play some unheard old hindi film songs or Altaf Raja kind of music (!!!) or Himesh Reshmiya with extra beats(!!!???##%%^&#) which sounds more like nuisance then music.
Broadly there are four categories of drivers in the roads of Mumbai which has some typical common traits among their respective categories. These are Motorcyclist, car drivers, bus drivers and autorickshaw drivers. All these categories are topic of separate discussion but talking about autorickshaw drivers, I think they are the most restless breed of drivers nurtured indigenously on the roads of Mumbai which can not be reproduced anywhere in the world. Even if they have scanty piece of automobile in their hand they drive it like some 100 horse powered engineering marvel. On the face of it, autorickshaw looks like some alien vehicle, cross breed between bajaj scooter and some delivery van.
Another interesting aspect of autorickshaw as per my observation comes from the people who use it for travelling. Owing to cosmopolitan (!!) nature of Amchi Mumbai, people from different walks of lyfe likes to call it in a many different ways such as AUTORICKSHAW, RICKSHAW, AUTO, RICK and some indigenous names like RIKSHO by typical gujju maniben or MENDHAK by car drivers because of the way it looks.
The most interesting part about autorickshaw for me is its fare. For last many years minimum fare is fixed at Rs 9 which is BATA style of pricing. Generally neither drivers have inclination to give the one rupee back nor do travelers have interest in taking the one rupee back but speaking about myself had I taken back all those one rupee coins over the years, by now I would have been in a position to buy my own autorickshaw.
For long Mumbai has been identified with local trains and omnipresent BEST buses but autorickshaw has not been given its due may be because its area of operations has been restricted to half of Mumbai ie Mumbai suburbs
Travelling in auto rickshaw in Mumbai has been part of growing up in Mumbai for last as many years as I can remember, from the age when I was allowed to travel with 3 permitted adults as a kid to the age when I am considered among adults.
Likeness for autorickshaw is a subjective thing, if you are driving in your so called air-conditioned four wheel sedan, it will seem like unwanted creature crawling on the road and creating lot of troubles and you will inexorably end up uttering four, five or six letter words based on your linguistic influence and vocabulary preferences….. but if you are stuck somewhere and there is no other mode of travelling then it will come across as god send savior in the moment of crisis. Fortunately or unfortunately I have experienced both.
It’s an experience of a kind to travel in autorickshaw on Mumbai roads which are often used in same connotation as in moon’s surface. Talking about experience of travelling in autorickshaw… most of them have music system which will give you inferiority complex about your music system at home but unfortunately they typically play some unheard old hindi film songs or Altaf Raja kind of music (!!!) or Himesh Reshmiya with extra beats(!!!???##%%^&#) which sounds more like nuisance then music.
Broadly there are four categories of drivers in the roads of Mumbai which has some typical common traits among their respective categories. These are Motorcyclist, car drivers, bus drivers and autorickshaw drivers. All these categories are topic of separate discussion but talking about autorickshaw drivers, I think they are the most restless breed of drivers nurtured indigenously on the roads of Mumbai which can not be reproduced anywhere in the world. Even if they have scanty piece of automobile in their hand they drive it like some 100 horse powered engineering marvel. On the face of it, autorickshaw looks like some alien vehicle, cross breed between bajaj scooter and some delivery van.
Another interesting aspect of autorickshaw as per my observation comes from the people who use it for travelling. Owing to cosmopolitan (!!) nature of Amchi Mumbai, people from different walks of lyfe likes to call it in a many different ways such as AUTORICKSHAW, RICKSHAW, AUTO, RICK and some indigenous names like RIKSHO by typical gujju maniben or MENDHAK by car drivers because of the way it looks.
The most interesting part about autorickshaw for me is its fare. For last many years minimum fare is fixed at Rs 9 which is BATA style of pricing. Generally neither drivers have inclination to give the one rupee back nor do travelers have interest in taking the one rupee back but speaking about myself had I taken back all those one rupee coins over the years, by now I would have been in a position to buy my own autorickshaw.
Monday, February 25, 2008
The Untold Saga
The other day I found myself without pen in the lecture and I had to borrow it (how pathetic) from someone else. It wasn’t for the first time but this incident made nostalgia struck me like a seawave, the whole affair.... the intimate and one of a kind with the beautiful thing called PEN.
There have been myriad of experiences with the pen.
I was never a brand conscious or never cared to think of using any other colour then ubiquitous blue... Until one day when I was in class 9th when one of my teacher after so called analysis of my writing suggested to use a black pen... According to her, placing of words and distance between two words in my writing meant that I have lot of things running in my mind and I am not able to express myself and this kind of writing will look good in black....
I am still wondering what she meant by this but since then I am using only black pen....
There was a time in school when I tried all kinds and types of pens be it gel or ink or ball point, but finally I settled for ball point pen and that too only Mitsubishi black ( I know its a news for many people that Mitsubishi also makes pen.)
I am religiously using Mitsubishi pens for past almost 10 years. Its funny but I used to tell my friends in school childishly that if this company stops making the pen, I will stop writing....!! And still when I meet those friends they curiously ask me "Do you still use Mitsubishi black pen?" only to get a big smile from me....
One honest confession…. the secret is out now....
Not many people know this but I used to collect empty refills of my black pen.... I still have those.... and here I am laughing at it.... bizarre it was....
There is one more interesting aspect about me and my pens.... I keep losing them... I really hate someone asking me for my pen because noone bothers to return it.
My college library was one unforgettable place for me where I had lost more then 50 pens in 5 years and I used to wonder how to react when the librarian herself used to ask for pen....
After so much blabbering about pen, how can I forget the PENCIL....? NO matter who the person is, he or she must have had pencil in the hand at first attempt of writing in his or her lyfe.... The journey starts from here…. so all you educated, learned, intelligent people out there should express your gratitude towards pencil... Lolz...
I was shopping for books and landed up in stationary section of the store and out of curiosity bought one box of pencil because it’s been ages since I have bought a pencil. I used to take it from my cousins studying in school whenever I needed one so I never knew that simple thing like pencil have been hit so hard by inflation and became expensive...)
When I was in school there were two major brands of pencil, Natraj and Apsara... and I never liked Natraj because it came in red colour and preferred Apsara because of its black and silver colour. And I dint quite understood the technicality of types and kinds of pencils such as HB HP and what not... I preferred HP because to me it simply meant Hitesh Patel....
I still prefer writing with pencil wherever possible because I just love the sound of friction between graphite and paper while writing.... I can’t get enough of it....
Interestingly I never liked any sophisticated penpencil and enjoyed simple traditional wooden pencil and yes I hate pencil with eraser on top…. it looks ugly....
Pencil - A thin graphite stick covered with wood, as simple as that, right....? Wrong, as a small kid I used to wonder how the hell they put this black thing inside the wood.... Lols....
BTW have you ever wondered sharpening the pencil is an art and the waste that comes out as a result of sharpening can tell you lot about your skill and the quality of the pencil....
Isn’t it amazing.... what say......?
That’s it for the time being about this untold saga. Time for you to refresh the memories entwined around omnipresent pen and pencil in your lyfe.... meanwhile ill go and sharpen my pencil....
There have been myriad of experiences with the pen.
I was never a brand conscious or never cared to think of using any other colour then ubiquitous blue... Until one day when I was in class 9th when one of my teacher after so called analysis of my writing suggested to use a black pen... According to her, placing of words and distance between two words in my writing meant that I have lot of things running in my mind and I am not able to express myself and this kind of writing will look good in black....
I am still wondering what she meant by this but since then I am using only black pen....
There was a time in school when I tried all kinds and types of pens be it gel or ink or ball point, but finally I settled for ball point pen and that too only Mitsubishi black ( I know its a news for many people that Mitsubishi also makes pen.)
I am religiously using Mitsubishi pens for past almost 10 years. Its funny but I used to tell my friends in school childishly that if this company stops making the pen, I will stop writing....!! And still when I meet those friends they curiously ask me "Do you still use Mitsubishi black pen?" only to get a big smile from me....
One honest confession…. the secret is out now....
Not many people know this but I used to collect empty refills of my black pen.... I still have those.... and here I am laughing at it.... bizarre it was....
There is one more interesting aspect about me and my pens.... I keep losing them... I really hate someone asking me for my pen because noone bothers to return it.
My college library was one unforgettable place for me where I had lost more then 50 pens in 5 years and I used to wonder how to react when the librarian herself used to ask for pen....
After so much blabbering about pen, how can I forget the PENCIL....? NO matter who the person is, he or she must have had pencil in the hand at first attempt of writing in his or her lyfe.... The journey starts from here…. so all you educated, learned, intelligent people out there should express your gratitude towards pencil... Lolz...
I was shopping for books and landed up in stationary section of the store and out of curiosity bought one box of pencil because it’s been ages since I have bought a pencil. I used to take it from my cousins studying in school whenever I needed one so I never knew that simple thing like pencil have been hit so hard by inflation and became expensive...)
When I was in school there were two major brands of pencil, Natraj and Apsara... and I never liked Natraj because it came in red colour and preferred Apsara because of its black and silver colour. And I dint quite understood the technicality of types and kinds of pencils such as HB HP and what not... I preferred HP because to me it simply meant Hitesh Patel....
I still prefer writing with pencil wherever possible because I just love the sound of friction between graphite and paper while writing.... I can’t get enough of it....
Interestingly I never liked any sophisticated penpencil and enjoyed simple traditional wooden pencil and yes I hate pencil with eraser on top…. it looks ugly....
Pencil - A thin graphite stick covered with wood, as simple as that, right....? Wrong, as a small kid I used to wonder how the hell they put this black thing inside the wood.... Lols....
BTW have you ever wondered sharpening the pencil is an art and the waste that comes out as a result of sharpening can tell you lot about your skill and the quality of the pencil....
Isn’t it amazing.... what say......?
That’s it for the time being about this untold saga. Time for you to refresh the memories entwined around omnipresent pen and pencil in your lyfe.... meanwhile ill go and sharpen my pencil....
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Unfinished Task
It feels great to breathe the air of Mumbai again (I know its polluted but this is way of saying that I am back home in Mumbai…. Bhavnao ko samjho…:)
Ha to I was saying that its always feels great when your back home no matter where have you been.
Had wonderful time and much needed break but now is the time to finish some unfinished task and one of them is unread books or so to speak my TO READ list….
It seems that nowadays I on mission to buy books, I hardly completed two books last month but bought more then eight and the stock of unread book is northbound these days.
I am buying more books than I am reading…. May be its random thing to happen, may be its unconscious effort to find solace in these books, may be I like to flaunt my collection of books… I don’t know….
Currently reading, The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. One of the best written novel I have read, the portrayals of characters are unparalleled and the philosophy of objectivism presented in the story is mind blowing.
Apart from the usual academic books, following are the unread books on my current TO READ list….
> Motorcycle Diaries By Che Guevara
> Love and Longing In Bombay By Vikram Chandra
> Thousand Splendid Suns By Khalid Hosseini
> Life Ahead By J Krishnamurthy
> Commentaries On Life By J Krishnamurthy
> It Happened In India By Kishor Biyani
Ha to I was saying that its always feels great when your back home no matter where have you been.
Had wonderful time and much needed break but now is the time to finish some unfinished task and one of them is unread books or so to speak my TO READ list….
It seems that nowadays I on mission to buy books, I hardly completed two books last month but bought more then eight and the stock of unread book is northbound these days.
I am buying more books than I am reading…. May be its random thing to happen, may be its unconscious effort to find solace in these books, may be I like to flaunt my collection of books… I don’t know….
Currently reading, The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. One of the best written novel I have read, the portrayals of characters are unparalleled and the philosophy of objectivism presented in the story is mind blowing.
Apart from the usual academic books, following are the unread books on my current TO READ list….
> Motorcycle Diaries By Che Guevara
> Love and Longing In Bombay By Vikram Chandra
> Thousand Splendid Suns By Khalid Hosseini
> Life Ahead By J Krishnamurthy
> Commentaries On Life By J Krishnamurthy
> It Happened In India By Kishor Biyani
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Searching for Fireplace in Mumbai.......
Surprise surprise....!!!
Yes, you read it right.... In Mumbai...
Many things happen in lyfe for the first time and I am witnessing this kind of weather, first time in Mumbai....
If you are in Mumbai, the mercury reads as 8.5 degree.... It may sound exaggerated but for your information its lowest in last 50 years. This kind of cold weather is unheard of in Mumbai and has a novelty factor for people like me.... Its feels great to have "so chilled" winter.....
Lifestyle of average mumbaikar for past some days has been dominated by the weather in some way or the other.... For example.... Hot topics of discussion nowadays in local train for office bound mumbaikar are not Stock Market and Sensex but the cold weather and "How many Degrees Celsius"....
Sometimes I feel like pinching myself to make sure its not a dream.... and wel.... at the end of the day I wish I had fireplace at my home.... Lolz....
Yes, you read it right.... In Mumbai...
Many things happen in lyfe for the first time and I am witnessing this kind of weather, first time in Mumbai....
If you are in Mumbai, the mercury reads as 8.5 degree.... It may sound exaggerated but for your information its lowest in last 50 years. This kind of cold weather is unheard of in Mumbai and has a novelty factor for people like me.... Its feels great to have "so chilled" winter.....
Lifestyle of average mumbaikar for past some days has been dominated by the weather in some way or the other.... For example.... Hot topics of discussion nowadays in local train for office bound mumbaikar are not Stock Market and Sensex but the cold weather and "How many Degrees Celsius"....
Sometimes I feel like pinching myself to make sure its not a dream.... and wel.... at the end of the day I wish I had fireplace at my home.... Lolz....
Thursday, January 31, 2008
AHA Moments of Lyfe....
They rightly say we miss out on small moments of joy in pursuit of bigger ones. It’s not only the big achievements and feats and accolades that counts, you have got to learn and enjoy smaller things that makes you happy and makes you learn to enjoy and understand the nuances of lyfe....
These are some random Aha moments (!!!) as I like to call them, which are adding up that extra bit of fun and happiness in my lyfe which effortlessly brings smile on my face reminding that the lyfe is beautiful - its worth living every moment......
> An evening on beach
> Buying a new book (And the best part is, I read them too…. J)
> Glancing through frozen times.
> Posting a blog entry and getting a comment.
> Spending Sunday evening with friends over gentlemanly deeds. (Needs no further explanation)
> Listening to Friday Night Love Show by Fali was one such moment.
> Nostalgia in the moments of solitude.
> Reading “Cosmic Uplink” in ET editorial early in the morning.
> Random discussions with friends over a dose of caffeine at CCD.
> Listening to With Or Without You after short hiatus.
> Dressing up in black on anyday anytime....
> Being alone in crowd.
These are not the only but some of the many of those AHA Momentz.... How about yours.....?
These are some random Aha moments (!!!) as I like to call them, which are adding up that extra bit of fun and happiness in my lyfe which effortlessly brings smile on my face reminding that the lyfe is beautiful - its worth living every moment......
> An evening on beach
> Buying a new book (And the best part is, I read them too…. J)
> Glancing through frozen times.
> Posting a blog entry and getting a comment.
> Spending Sunday evening with friends over gentlemanly deeds. (Needs no further explanation)
> Listening to Friday Night Love Show by Fali was one such moment.
> Nostalgia in the moments of solitude.
> Reading “Cosmic Uplink” in ET editorial early in the morning.
> Random discussions with friends over a dose of caffeine at CCD.
> Listening to With Or Without You after short hiatus.
> Dressing up in black on anyday anytime....
> Being alone in crowd.
These are not the only but some of the many of those AHA Momentz.... How about yours.....?
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Muje change chahiye......
Yeah.... I need change........ of 100/- or 500/- or may be 1000/-
It seems strange and funny but true... As usual I don’t understand why I run out of change every time, everywhere.......
Having change in my wallet is like a luxury for me, owing to my poor track record of having change, which causes embarrassment at general stores to even at auto rickshaw Walla’s.....
Looking for change with 100/- note in hand is like searching for water in desert, the whole world seems to be running out of change when I need it... (or is it a well planned conspiracy ha....??!!!)
There are two types of situation, 1st is when you know that you don’t have change (and you know you cant do anything about it) and you go to buy something, in this situation you tend to get defensive and pray that the person will not ask for change, and when you really get what you want without being asked for change, its like...... phewwww.... bach gaye....
2nd type of scenario…… You don’t even know that your running out of change until its the time for payment, and when you realize this harsh reality(of lyfe), your facial expression says that its the biggest shock of your lyfe.... and the eternal struggle to find the change starts with one of those high denomination notes in hand.... or else you end up buying more than you really want....
Imagine a scenario where after buying chewing gum for 2/- you end up buying chewing gum plus mineral water plus chocolate plus chocolate cream biscuits (!!!) plus what not.... just because you did not have change...... well, these things are not new to me....
One more..... I invariably catch the auto rickshaw and then realize that I don’t have change....when I offer 100/- note to him, he looks at it trying to copy my embarrassment as if its a fake note.....( and I feel like banging my head on the meter which reads as 9/-)....
And this thing invariably happens while coming back home.... but in this situation I take the help of my lender of the last resort... Yes my building watchman.... I have lost the number of count as to how many times I have borrowed 10/- from him. He comes across as god send savior in this moment of crisis.....
So... all you people out there who sympathize with me and reciprocate these feeling are welcome to share the views... May be together we can find out the solution for this....
It seems strange and funny but true... As usual I don’t understand why I run out of change every time, everywhere.......
Having change in my wallet is like a luxury for me, owing to my poor track record of having change, which causes embarrassment at general stores to even at auto rickshaw Walla’s.....
Looking for change with 100/- note in hand is like searching for water in desert, the whole world seems to be running out of change when I need it... (or is it a well planned conspiracy ha....??!!!)
There are two types of situation, 1st is when you know that you don’t have change (and you know you cant do anything about it) and you go to buy something, in this situation you tend to get defensive and pray that the person will not ask for change, and when you really get what you want without being asked for change, its like...... phewwww.... bach gaye....
2nd type of scenario…… You don’t even know that your running out of change until its the time for payment, and when you realize this harsh reality(of lyfe), your facial expression says that its the biggest shock of your lyfe.... and the eternal struggle to find the change starts with one of those high denomination notes in hand.... or else you end up buying more than you really want....
Imagine a scenario where after buying chewing gum for 2/- you end up buying chewing gum plus mineral water plus chocolate plus chocolate cream biscuits (!!!) plus what not.... just because you did not have change...... well, these things are not new to me....
One more..... I invariably catch the auto rickshaw and then realize that I don’t have change....when I offer 100/- note to him, he looks at it trying to copy my embarrassment as if its a fake note.....( and I feel like banging my head on the meter which reads as 9/-)....
And this thing invariably happens while coming back home.... but in this situation I take the help of my lender of the last resort... Yes my building watchman.... I have lost the number of count as to how many times I have borrowed 10/- from him. He comes across as god send savior in this moment of crisis.....
So... all you people out there who sympathize with me and reciprocate these feeling are welcome to share the views... May be together we can find out the solution for this....
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