Welcome 2006

As I welcome a new year in my life, which I hope will again be a bagful of good surprises, I wish everybody a very Happy New Year 2006!

Remembering 2005....

2005 was a bagful of surprises (both good and bad) for me, as it would have been for anybody else. And of course, I would like to remember the good and fun parts that 2005 gave me.

Wanna know some highlights? Here you go...

• Went to Vaishno Devi, Jim Corbett, and River Rafting to Rishikesh
• Learnt driving and again travelled a lot, taking mom places she wanted to go...but in Delhi itself ;-)
• Visited Qutab Minar, Lotus Temple, and ISKON Temple :)
• Accompanied mom with almost all her shopping expeditions.
• Saw phases with loads of work to almost no work
• Graduated from singing cheap songs in the bay to cracking stupid jokes ;-)
• Made quite a few good friends...Nochi, Akshat, Rachna, Anupma, Priya, Rishabh, Richa, Barkha and Ankur.
• Found a new friend in my cousin Payal.
• Got back with some old friends...Shaweta, Rosy, and Preethi
• Fought a lot with Shiv. Yes, that's some event for me, and Omen played a very big part in calming me down. Actually, he did that the whole year whenever I lost my nerve. :-p
• Shiv shifted to Hyderabad. It was a B-I-G thing for me and everybody who is close to me knows who helped me cope with this change.
• As always, the trio in office (Meenakshi, Shalini and me) shared all the joys and sorrows.
• Was happy when my friends got married .
• Celebrated when a friend gave birth to a baby boy.
• Got nominated for an award in Jan but did not get it. Got nominated again in Dec and this time... :-)
• Watched a lot of movies and by lot I actually mean a LOT.
• Got myself into the habit of reading books again! :)
• Continued blogging.
• Tried to be sensible most of the time ;-) but could not leave behind the kid in me, but what the heck why should I even do that?
• Turned 23 :-)

Interesting Calvin and Hobbes Facts

The other day I was browsing through the net and found some really intersting stuff about Calvin and Hobbes. Read on and enjoy...

• The idea of Hobbes pouncing on Calvin was from Bill's cat, Sprite.
• The first time Hobbes attacked Calvin was in his room, not the front door.
• Calvin writes with both hands.
• In the Duplicator story, as the duplicates run into the box to get away from Calvin's mom, in one panel there is one too many Calvins (seven instead of six), and the extra Calvin does not have a striped shirt.
• Calvin will be wearing a glove on a different hand in each panel in the baseball strips.
• There are 8 different sofas in Calvin's house.
• Calvin's robotic doctor's name is Doctor 5-40.
  Calvin's monster snowman is called The Torment Of Existence Weighed Against The Horror Of Nonbeing.
• Calvin's teacher Ms. Wormwood was a character in Matilda she played Mrs. Wormwood in that too.
• Calvin is a fan of Star Wars, Batman, and Bugs Bunny, but despises anything from Disney.
• Calvin's parents have three cars. Two hatchbacks and one sedan of unknown color.
• Calvin has two favorite cereals, Crunchy Sugar Bombs, and Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs, although he is forced to eat oatmeal, and sometimes Bran.

Calvin and Hobbes in different countries...

• Argentina - Calvin y Hobbes
• Austria - Calvin und Hobbes
  Belarus - Kalfin i Gopsya
• Belgium - Casper en Hobbes or Calvin et Hobbes depending on whether you speak dutch or french.
• Brasil - Calvin e Haroldo
• Canada - Calvin and Hobbes or in Quebec (french part of Canada): Calvin et Hobbes
  Chile - Calvin y Hobbes
• Colombia - Calvin y Hobbes
• Denmark - Steen & Stoffer
• Estonia - Calvin ja Hobbes
• France - Calvin et Hobbes
• Finland - Lassi ja Leeviand sometimes Paavo ja Elvis
• Germany - Calvin und Hobbes
• Netherlands - Casper en Hobbes
• Hungary - Kazmer es Huba
• Iceland - Kalli og Hobbi
• India - Calvin aur Hobbes
• Israel - Calvin veh Hobbes
• Italy - Calvin & Hobbes
• South Korea - Calbin waah hombs
• Mexico - Calvin y Hobbes
• Norway - Tommy og Tigern
• Poland - Kelvin & Celsjusz
• Portugal - Calvin e Hobbes
• Russia - Kolya i Hobbie
• Slovenia - Gasper in Hops
• South Africa - Calvin en Hobbes (Afrikaans)or Calvin and Hobbes (english)
• Spain - Calvin & Hobbes
• Sweden - Kalle och Hobbe
• Switzerland - Calvin and Hobbes
• Turkey - Calv Hobbes
• Venezuela - Calvin & Hobbes

Phew!

Innocent me :-p

Something that reflects my mood today ;o)

Shiv...

...is leaving for Hyderabad on Oct 23. It sounds as if there is a lot of time for her to leave but its not. When I got to know of this last night, I thought Oct 23 is just around the corner.

It was only y'day that I was thinking about not meeting her for so long and I kind of made my mind that no what I'll meet her tomorrow. Then suddenly I get a call from Shiv and she tells me of this Grand news!

It was weird. I expereinced a mix of all emotions. I was happy for the change and opportunity she is getting and just after few seconds I was sad that she would be leaving. The first thing I ask is when will she come back for chutti and she managed to smile and say I still have to leave for that!

But I will miss her a lot...and whoever knows me knows this. I had a difficult time controlling my emotional breakdown...don't know for how long would I manage to do that.

We promised that we'd spend most of the time together till she goes. But what we do know is that no matter howmuch time we spend together, it can't and just can't make up for the vacuum that is building and will continue to build when she goes. I could still manage to be fine coz I would be sorrounded with people...people I know..people who are close to me, but she would be left alone to deal with it and I hate to even think about that. I hope we manage to do fine and sail through this...

Updating Events

A lot of things have happened since my last post. The guilt of not posting finally took on me and here I am scribbling some stuff don’t know what shape it will finally take :o)

A lot has happened during this long time of no-post.

1. Our all gal gang enjoyed our outings together to the fullest! As usual, it was a mixture of all emotions.


2. I drove a lot! Believe me it was really a lot. Thanks to mom and her outings :o)


3. Celebrated Independence Day at work with the Kite decoration Competition. It was fun unlike it might sound. Well, to be honest, any event, which required running around and people fighting to be number one, is fun!


4. Attended a friends wedding and met new friends at the same time. Well, for a change I did a decent enough job of looking pretty ;-)


5. Went on a shopping spree and bought some short-skirts, which I am still waiting for the ‘right’ occasion to wear :-p


6. Saw Madagascar, an ok movie. I guess I would rate it equal to Ice Age. Still an animated movie after a long time is most welcome!


7. Dealed with some tensions, both work-related and personal. Have managed to find a reason to smile and be happy about in the middle of all the tensions, which made me realize a lot of things and admire the ways of life…unlike my previous post :-p


8. Tried Goggle Earth and located my home and other friends’ homes. It was real fun!


9. Did what I am best at…driving people crazy! Both at home and at work. At home, Bhai accompanies me, at times, he himself is my victim, and at work, Rishi seems to be doing this job really well.


10. Waiting for things to more such things to happen!

Life...

...loves me a moment and the next it spreads its venum on me!

Friendship...so beautiful!

4 July, around 8 PM: Shiv, Shaweta and I meet. Shaweta is shifting to Mumbai. We go yap-yap and laugh away to glory at all our stooopid old jokes. I question, after 2-3 years will we be at a position to sit like this? We never know we are sitting at 3 different locations and would we be able to sms each other? Forget about calling or meeting up like this...We go nostalgic but manage to change the topic, cherish our friendship and continue with our jokes.

4 July, around 9-30 PM: We are having our pizzas and Shaweta misses Rosy. The world knew about their friendship. But something had just spoiled the whole thing. Reminded me of a bad phase that I and Shiv had faced. We try and console Shaweta, making up for Rosy's absence. We know how she is missing her right now and everyday but we know that we can't help it. Just wish that things come to normal again and they again are close to each other as they always were. Reminds me of the need of that one closest friend always in your life and how I cherished that I and Shiv were together again!

4 July, around 11 PM: Rishabh's b'day. He is dropping me home. I ask him about his day. He tells me about his friend for 12 odd years who manages to be the first one to wish him every year, even though they meet after 3-4 years at times. Commendable I must say! I smiled and thought about Shiv, and how she would also always want to be the first one to wish me on my b'day. She made it a point to always confirmed from me if she was the first one to wish me, I lied at times, obviously I never wanted her to know that she was some seconds late. I knew this would break her heart and it did not matter what time she wished me, she knows that for me my b'day starts from the time she wishes me. She also make it point to get my fav. choc. cake every year. Again I cherish our friendship.

3 days later, 7 July: I am bored and plan to check out the blog updates. Anupma's recent post made me again get back to the friendship and love that I and Shiv have. It made me go back to the good old days of our college, summer job, internship and training fights, disagreements and discussions irritations and admirations marriage propsals and denials protectiveness and possessiveness crushes, loves and heart breaks smokes and fires advices, phone-bangs, no talks and patch-ups buck-ups and many more such things...the list is never ending.

*B-I-G H-U-G*

This is to US Shiv...here's wishing us a never-ending and long lasting friendship and love for each other. I am just so glad to have a friend like you, who is more like a Mother than a friend and well...for whom at times I get to become a Mother and scold her, which is very few but still gives me kicks! :-p

*HUG* love you always...

Welcome Back...ME!!!

...I guess now I am emerging out of that depressing phase and coming back to my normal self.

:)

What's wrong with me?

I do not know how to anser that questions coz there is nothing really wrong and still I am feeling all sad and bad and mad. I am surprised at myself, never expected myself to be like this, never was I unable to cheer myself but off late every tactic fails! :-(

An all-time-low era for me has begun...

Controlling a Wandering Mind

Off late my mind had started being too much of a wanderer. It felt as if life has come to a stand still and there is nothing more in life than going to office, working and coming back home. Then soon I reliased that I can always go backto those old days...and now me is back to old days of Sketching.

Well yeah I do that as well!! Its such a good to get back to it :) if you are thinking if I could control that wanderer, all i can say is...if only!

:)

College Re-union

Attending the college re-union was the best decision I made off-late. It was so good to be with old friends and old times though I was not able to meet ALL my friends/classmates.

Remembering the good old days, travelling through the old lanes to reach college and then finally looking at the college gate felt so good. Oh! it was all so nostalgic.

But we did have a lot of fun with the old and new friends. The juniors were thrilled to meet their weird seniors :). Oh and one of them told me "We dinno we had such sexy and slim seniors!" and I was all tongue-n-cheek, adn this particular junior, Shrutika so wanted to attend my wedding! Dunno for what good reasons. But I found it cute! :)

These kids also presented us with the KAMS (Kalindi Association of Media Studies) t-shirt. A secret: I am dying to wear that in office and flaut the punchline that read "Who's got the +ve @ttitude? Journo!!" *glee*

The best part of the day was just chilling out by dancing mindlessly for hours together and then sitting at Barista and chit-chatting nonsense...as usual college days. All this took us back to the good old college days.

And finally, I managed to collect my graduation degree. :)

It was a wonderful day...with wonderful memories!!

Zapped!!

What happens if you tell somebody that u r engaged and after about 2 months that person asks you, "So, when are u getting married?".

I was zapped at this!!!

I couldn't believe somebody actually believed me on that. I mean, its an established fact that most of the time or infact 90% of the time I am busy kidding. And yet there was somebody who asked this question so innocently that I was left with a B-I-G Oh My God expression on my face!

But hey! that doesn't mean I wud stop fooling people. In fact now I am more confident of these pranks..after all such a good actor I am ;-) :-p

Trip to Jim Corbett

Went for a safari ride to Jim Corbett this weekend. Needless to say, the trip was fantastic, though we did not spot any tigers we did manage to sight a lot of tiger pug marks.

We left from office on Fri night. Dancing on our way, we reached the resort on Sat morning and went for the safari ride in the afternoon. The ride was wonderful. Though jungles are not new to me (I went cyclying to the jungles as a child!), but since this one is supposed to be a dense one, there was some bit of exitement within me. As the jeep speeded-up and i felt the blowing wind, I could not help but enjoy it.

After coming back from the wonderful jungle safari ride, we had a gala time in the night with an arrangement of a dance party, games and folk dance performances. Sunday morning went for a river-side walk (I even managed to cross the river with Rahul and Satya). While the guys were having fun swimming, I went for a walk uphill with Meenakshi and spotted an Elephant. We came back, had our lunch and finally left the place and this time singing all the way, we reached Delhi in the night.

One thing that all of us did during our trip was too much of photography :) All of us had turned into photographers, just clicking away to glory.

Check out sme pics here:

http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeIMWzFo2aOHJw

http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeIMWzFo2aOHFA

Recipe: How to miss your bus when you are before time?

Ingredients: A friend who has missed her bus.

Note: make sure your friend's destination point is the same as yours, else God help you with the dilli darshan.

It is very simple to miss your bus even when you have rushed to be on the stop before time. You just need to have a friend who has missed her bus and is taking an auto till DK (Dhaula Kuan). She will make sure that she drags you with her in the auto. You reach DK and take an Inter-state bus and continue traveling.

Do not forget to add zing in your journey with the continuous yak-yak, this will not only entertain you and make your share some good heart-to-heart BUT the fellow passengers will also relish your non-stop non-sense.

Finally, you get down at your stop and by then you would be feeling so good that you will not take the rickshaw till your workplace. Instead, you will start the 10 min walk. With the bright sun shining your way ahead, it will be real great fun to walk down. To add to that, the sudden stares of passers-by. They do not expect a girl, dressed nicely for her office to walk down on the road!! Well, somethings never change, and even you do not have to change.

Just continue walking and enjoy it thoroughly till you reach your destination!

P.S.: This is how I started my day :)

Trip te Rafting - Shaweta's version

i went for this fantabulous river rafting trip to rishikesh this holi week-end. pooja, my elder sister also came along. what crazy fun we had, esp. coz we didn't know how to swim! the guide would yell 'jump' n we wud hv to let go of all apprehensions n jump in the chilly waters of ganga. that was his way of familiarizing us with the waters in case we fell into the water and needed to be rescued. our tight life jackets clung onto us n the ropes from the raft were no less than our lifelines all through. the rapids had interesting names (eg the wall-where the raft has to flip and throw everybody out coz it is as huge n dangerous as a wall can be once u hit it head on. we never hit it though! there were other relatively easier rapids called the three blind mice, roller coaster, double trouble etc...all with little stories behind their names) and they were graded from 1-6 according to danger levels. we went thru rapids from 1-4 grading n were tossed about in the turbulent waters more than 20-25 km from 'byasi'-the place from where we began rafting. pooja n i had the ore raft while the other raft had to be paddled. our guide was called garry n i later found out that he was also the head cook for our camp! this is not confirmed but i heard a little birdy saying that. after the rafting came cliff jumping. for a change i was lying in the raft n looking up at all sorts of people n their reaction before n after jumping. i was glad i chose to watch them rather than jumping in like my usual self!that night cannot be described in words. we were staying in tents, pretty big ones with two beds n quilt n pillows for each bed. imagine this. full big moon in the middle of high green hills, a beautiful wide river singing by in the twilight, empty tents lined symmetrically in front of it n a bonfire in front of the beach volleyball court. we were a group of thirteen young boys n girls sitting around the bonfire, sharing songs, ghost storie! s and lots of poor jokes thanks to out sardar friend, monga singh , the manmeet. his 'serious name' is manmeet singh monga but we all began calling him 'the monga' or 'the manmeet singh monga'! . some of his jokes will linger on for a long long time. for instance, he asked me what r u doing? i said 'i am rela'xing' n he reponded by saying 'i am manmeet singh'! there are atleast 100 more punch lines he gave us that have permanently offset our thinking brains! the next day we were to climb down a cliff. it was not a very high cliff and coming down didn't look challenging at all. waiting for my turn in the queue tired me n the sun made me feel 'faintish'. by the way, thirteen of us were standing perched on the mountainside for more than half an hour, like the chameleons of shivaji in gorilla warfare perch! chalo we also managed to come down the mountain safely n posed at different levels for photographs, as if we'll never be caught on camera doing that again!...we pulled out some 'ganne' from tractors passing by while coming back in 2 hired qualis gaadiyan. came back chewing them n singing all kinds of songs later-jattu songs, punju songs, eng/hindi songs, sad songs, fun songs, 'cheepar' songs (what a friend of mine called the vulgar ones)and some classy good ghazals too. abhi my boss will shoot me at sight if i dont start working on my assignment... coz all this morning i hv been thinking n writing just about this trip...only if i could go back JUST ONCE ...i'll stop churning the experience from different angles inside me... :)

Trip te Rafting

This weekend I saw myself in the water for hours together. Had gone for white-water rafting to Byasi (25 kms from Rishikesh).

The experience was amazing! Me says, one who hasn't experienced this has not done anything in constructive in life.

We were 13 people, most of us din know each other, but the trip got us together and we ended up planning for other such adventure trips! And not to forget the sudden Punjabi we started talking in..everybody calling each other as 'paaji' :)

The journey started on Thursday night. We reached Byasi on Friday morning and everybody was just in awe of the scenic beauty..the water was looking just so amazing..one has to see that to know how amazingly nice it was! The fact that most of us dinno how to swim did not matter much :)

After keeping our luggage in our respective tents and having breakfast. Wearing our life-jackets and safety-helmets, got ready for the adventurous rafting. The initial hitch was taken care of when the instructor Garry poured water on us and pushed us inside the water. The feeling of just let go! and just enjoy whatever was happening was amazing! And whatever fear was left was taken away by the first rapid. Sure, at times there wud b a slight fear of falling into the water..but then following the instructor's commands "Paddle fast" "Stop" "Relax" "All left" etc. and making up my mind "that no matter wat..I am not losing my balance" tuk care of everything. And well, all the bruises we got were all worth the experience..actually they added to our enjoyement :)

Loads of masti followed during the rafting, being in the water was just so amazing. All the rapids had something or the other spl about them..apart from the names of course :) Finally our stretch ended up a lil short of Lakshman Jhula in Rishikesh. We helped with lifting the raft and taking it to uphill so that it cud b wrapped up. I was in the front and had to support the raft on my back. Without even knowing whr I was walking..I just followed the instructor "towards left" "straight" "towards right" "stop". Thereon, we changed and headed back to the camp. All of us were so damn tired and hungry. I cudn't imagine that I ate so much!! :-p After having our tummies filled we were all set to hit the beds, we slept so hard that none of us felt anything during our sleep it was as if all of us were dead for that time. But then, the evening saw us all pumped up with energy.

Our masti continued with the campfire..singing songs, cracking jokes, general chit-chatting, and oh yes..we did talk about the famous and inevitable topic 'ghosts' :)
I guess no one can ever prevent himself from talking on this line, esply with such amazing surroundings. The moonlight was so bright, we din have to use the lanterns that were provided to us by the camp authorities n neither did we use the flashlights that we wr carrying..except for in our tents and the loo. Well, talking of the loo..I must mention here that the loo's were really interesting. They were western-style dry-loo's ;-) and the only 'flush' u cud use to get rid of the droppings was the sand!!

The next morning saw us all playing volleyball/collecting pebbles n stones/clicking pics and rappelling. Though we had planned for another stretch of rafting but it was cancelled given the condition of both us n the water. The water on those stretches was really violent and we were as it is quite tired. After all those activities we had food and started our way back home. Well the trek that we had to take to climb uphill to reach our cabs took out whatever energy we had gained :) but that was all worth it!!

The journey back I think was more exciting..we just sang, sang n sang on our way back...frm ghazals to pop to slow to fast to item numbers to cheap songs we sang 'em all!!

Here goes a mail from Shaweta 'te' Anand, where she wrote something for all the 12 people.

1.bhoot bhoot around the bonfire- Omen. n this man wasn't rowing and the ladies on the raft had to lead the raft for a while! he sometimes didn't listen to garry promptly and i wanted to jump out of the raft before he got us all drowned! he looked very funny while eating ganna in the cab on the return journey. the black dirt of the ganna got planted on his right cheek n nothing toojk it off, even though he tried licking it off! yuck!! n he dirtied the whole cab n sang vulgar songs ....ok i am lying, not completely though!
2.joke 57 for monga singh the manmeet, the night where all dimwits like us had to surrender to monga's relax 'singh' charms. this man should be called the 'funny(serious) man of the millennium'.
3.coming down from the cliff while thinking about the next trip to leh and another pass sheetal would want me to remember. his ashtaang yoga info sure was very inspiring. along with some biking tips by the mountanous paths.
4.a red bucket with a hole reminds me of neeraj. his attempts to wet us all on the raft, including the raft. wonder whatever would hv happened to him had he done that on the beach!!!n he was a little uptight about getting everything done well. he did manage that! 3 cheers for him n shew! he surely ensured a laxman jhula on a ram jhula though! but what the hell! koi bhi jhula ho, khandaan toh ek hi hai na!
5.i wanna esp. thank 'the' lovely SAM for keeping me amused with insane inputs, colorful pebbles, 'cheepar songs' and initiating beautiful reiki experiences for me. of course gaurav and monga ji made it even better.
6.i wanna thank my dear dear sister pooja. she made this trip possible. she gv our parents no reason to to object to out FIRST trip out TOGETHER since one century! love u n thank u pooja!
7.the pretty ladies monika and swapna.apart from the pretty poses monika made for her photographs, she is one of the very few people who quit yoga because it made her thin! swapna n shew are the 'ladies pride' for jumping off the cliff n later cooling it off burried in the sand n exploring some caves (for shew)! thanks sam for bringing shew back...:) aisa ladki phir kahan se laenge???
8. gaurav n asit ...humm! the men looked cute all burried n nude!!! though asit later gave a good cabaret show by roaming around 'just like that' on the beach for all to see!!! of course he was wearing his 'humm' but should hv clicked him going pink when he took off his shirt for the first time!! pheww!i am glad THAT NO LADIES MISSED THAT EXCEPT PERHAPS MONIKA. chalo never mind!
9. the shew. i wanna thank her for being the woman that she is. right from college, she has been this lady 'with a punch' and has always had a dangerous sense for adventure. all i wanna say to her is thanks for everything.
10. yogi se uske favourite songs in the cab yaad aate hain. sorry to him coz the moment he began singing, we ended up highjacking his songs!
11.saade bandaana driver saab bade rash si. i will never forget how he took the ropes n climbed up n down the cliff without safety ropes till the guide panicked n ordered him to glue his ass to teh rocks below him! n garry ji main kya bless him for saving us on the raft hit by OMEN! hahaha!

If till now you haven't got bored of this..wait till i come back from another such exciting trip ;-)

Masala movie = my life

There are too many things happening at the same time..just too many.

Its like a masala movie where things are included for some extra punch. Well, I think I should admit that I am getting that extra punch in life but at the same time I am a bit worried too. This worry is because I just hope to sort all of them before they get out of control!

No one wants to have himself in a soup, but all these things are so important that I need to and have to give equal attention to each and every one of them.

Happy n Chirpy

Till y'day I was hoping that with a new day I could feel something better. Well, I think even if I would have asked for something else I would have got that too, because with a new day today I am feeling a lot better. Things have been sorted out and I'm almost like my old chirpy self.

:)

...

Well, few days back I was speechless and now i'm Numb. I don't know how to I react to certain things that are being told to me. I hope with tomorrow I can feel something better.

Movie script or a real life story...?

6 people take up a journey to Vaishno Devi. Well to be precise..2 moms and 4 kids. I would like to call them kids coz evn if they are somewat grownups they still behave like kids.

These 6 people board the train from Delhi to Jammu. They are all happy, giggling and joking. They are enjoying each other's company esplecially coz they are all together after a long time..almost two years. They reach Jammu. It is raining. They take up a local cab and reach Katra, rest for a while in a hotel room and dress up to start their Yatra for the Holy Shrine. It is cold and raining. But they are still in their jovial moods and continue with the jokes and PJ's. They take raincoats on hire from a local shop, buy the Yatra tickets, have food and start with the Yatra. Everything is going fine, just as they expected to be. Except for the rain, which they are not much bothered about. Just when they start their Yatra they hear that it has started snowing at the peak of the mountain, where they have to go. They all get really excited and look forward for hitting snowballs on each other, click pictures on the snow beds and have an adventurours trip.

Well, they do have an adventureous trip. Chanting 'Jai Mata Di', they walk up the steep mountain. They click pictures, hit each other with snowballs, check if the water tank has ice or water and many such silly things. Then they reach the Bhawan. They keep their belongings (raincoats, shoes etc.) in the cloack room. They are feeling really cold barefeet but they think that once they enter the line for the Darshan it is going to be ok. They walk of the snow barefeet to reach that point only to stand for 45 minutes on snow because the Aarti is going on and no Darshan is allowed. One-by-one all of them start to feel uncomfortabe because of the cold and chill under their feet, but still they continue to struggle with all this. Just when they are about to gather some courage to stand with the chill, one of the kids observes that there is something wrong with her mom. She rushes to her mom and start to rub her legs to give her some warmth. After sometime, she sees there is something else happening now. Now, the mother was getting unconcious. The kid is scared and calls for the other 4 for help. Even the people standing next to them in the line help them keep the mother's body warm. They help the 5 people rub her. The youngest seeing her aunt in such a condition started crying, another kid tries to take care of her. The eldest trying his best to give warmth to his mother and seeing her like that burst out crying. Seeing this, the last kid who was trying to control her tears and was trying to act as couragoues as possible losses all courage and some tears do fall. But nothing could stop these kids from getting their mother back to normal. With someone rubbing her feet/back/hands, one kid was continously chanting 'Jai Mata Di' in her ears to make sure she doesnt slip into unconsiousness. Just when the darshan were opened again for the public after the aarti, the mother was feeling better. It was difficult but they did it. The kids couldn't stop thanking god for giving their mom back to them. All of them taking care of each other and one kid chanting 'Jai Mata Di' on top of her voice enter the Holy Shrine for the darshan. They finally get to have a nice darshan, which makes them feel so much better and fulfilled. They come out of the Shrine, visit a dispensary, take some medicines for the mother and whoever was feeling a bit uneasy, and the kids decide that they will stay there overnight and start the Yatra for Katra not before sunrise. They have their food, and heavy snowfall starts. Their plan is ruined and they have to start their Yatra back at that moment coz they know that the Yatra would be closed with such a heavy snowfall and if they stop they would be stuck for nobody knows how many days.

Again, chanting 'Jai Mata Di' they start their Yatra. They are not much worried coz they know that it is more difficult climbing up the mountain, which they have already done but they don't knw what awaits ahead. They make a good balance of walking on ice and they get used to the grip they need to have. After sometime, they are at a very steep slope, there occurs a thunder-lightining just above their head and the lights went off. All the people present there are scared. It is pitch dark and one can't evn see the person standing just one step ahead. Everybody present there holds each other's hands and again start their Yatra.

Just when they think that it is gonna be all fine now, they reach a point where they experience snow blizzards. Luckily, there is a govt. hospital and they take shelter there. 20-30 people inside one room waiting for the weather to calm down. There was a lot of body warmth in the room which made everyone very comfortable in the room. Slowly the blizzard calmed down, some people leave but these 6 with 2 men accompanying them continue to take shelter. They decide that they will not leave before sunrise but just then one of the hospital authorities comes and says there are 2 dead bodies on their way to this hospital. They died due to cold and they would be put in the same room as they were seated in. These 8 people then decide to leave. The blizzard was not very calm but still they gather the courage and cross that area. They were led by one of the men who were accompanying them, he told them where there was a steep turn or where there was water. Whoever he was, but he was their gaurdian angel coz he led them through the difficult areas and parted ways when they could manage on their own.

Now these 7 people telling each other where to step and where not to step reach half-way. They have tea, and start their remaining Yatra. They thought that now the worst is over since now there was no snow it was only rain. They walk some distance and then they experience a rain-storm. They again take shelter in a coffee-shop which was closed. There were already some people sitting there. They wait there for an hour or something. But this time they were not comfortable, coz the room was windy and cold. Finally, they leave that place praying for their well-being. They walk the remaining distance, they were scared but still they walked boldly giving each other courage.

Finally, they reach Katra, reach their hotel room. They take rest but when they get up and they reflect on whatever they had experienced they realise that they were the blessed ones to have reached all fit-n-fine in that kind of weather, especially when the localites said that this was the worst weather in 20-25 years and that now the Yatra has been closed. They reach back Delhi and have started with their day-to-day life they can't forget what they experienced.

Well, this is what I experienced and I can assure you that this is not a movie script but a real life story. But I'm sure a movie can be made out of it!

...

... Speechless!

Black

Saw Black y'day. Awesome movie.

Black makes you experience and realise the art of making a sensible film. It is evident that Sanjay Leela Bansali is way ahead of any other director in the art of story telling. Each character has his own substance and one can feel that he has really made them work hard t o deliver what we are seeing and appreciating.

The movie is simple yet lavish. Bansali has extracted master performances from all the actors, be it Amitabh or Rani; everyone’s performances is spectacular. But the li'l kid who plays young Rani takes the cake away! Amitabh after a long time did some meaningful role rather than playing a rich businessman with some traditional values to his credit.

The movie left me completely speechless. It is so flawless that even if one wants to find a loophole wouldn't be able to do so.

The only word that can describe this movie is Beautiful.

Jinxed up!!

I am totally jinxed up! I come to work on a Monday morning, yawning and thinking where I left myself on a chirpy Friday. I log in to my computer, check my mails, read my daily morning dose of Calvin & Hobbes and then I think, "hmm...now lets open a couple of work related files and pretend that I am working." I open the folder where I keep my work related stuff and WHOA its empty!!!! Yes, you read it right empty it was!! Absolutely NO files and NO sub-folders existed out of the zillion that I had. Thought there is something spooky about it. There might be something wrong with my eyesight and probably I am seeing something totally different, or I am at a different location on my hard drive. I check and re-check and re-check and re-check, but my fate for the day was pre-decided by some smart Alec (Read: Jackass) from the Technology HelpDesk had deleted my files probably to create space on my system. Sigh! whatever happened to the help they are supposed to provide?

Still not losing hope I log what is called the "IT Ticket" for one of the tech guys to come and see whatever was wrong. To my horror the guy that I HATE came for MY rescue. I still don't loose hope and assure myself, "So what if I get irritated by the sight of this guy, may be he knows his job and would be able to help me out." Here I must admit that this guy DID know his job which was an eye-opener but he was not able to help me out much. He did try to retrieve my data and he did manage to retrieve some, which was like a few drops out of the ocean of data I had but still most of it or if I am allowed to say all of it remained absconding. All the possible weird things/tools/searches were performed but as I said earlier my fate for the day (rather for the week) was already decided and ALL MY DATA IS GONE NOW! The only silver-lining to this dark cloud was that I did update the current project files on the server a few days back. So, now I need to forget about the stuff that I had on my system and start working on updating the server files. But now I do not know where do I start from?

Well, as if that was not enough for the day, I started receiving 2 read receipts for every mail that I send. Again, I thought, "hmm...probably some Outlook rule thingy taking its toll." Then y'day I started receiving a complimentary gift of 2 copies of the replies sent to me (not to forget the 2 read receipts with them) and that too by selected people from work. But I guess, today takes the cake when I received 4 read receipts from one person of the one mail sent to her.

WOW!! has it happened with you? Probably not...

And as I write this piece, I am constantly reminded of how people hamper all the punctuation rules using apostrophes, commas, periods, semicolons, exclamation marks at wrong places or not using them at all. Well, this came from the book "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" that I have been reading these days. Though, right now I am almost dying of guilt that even I am contributing to that lot of wasters but then I am in no mood of re-writing my piece keeping in mind all the grammar rules. All I can say write now is, "Probably I'll keep this in mind while writing the next entry!", and well I do accept that I do not follow these so called grammar rules in my blogs coz its meant to pour out what I want to write and how I write is my style! ;-)

Check this out and thank me ;-)

How to waste time at work..!!

http://www.htby.org/archives/2003/11/how_to_waste_ti.html

Happy Birthday Tanu!

This one is for another rommie of mine in hostel, Tanu.

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Wish You a very very very Happy Birthday Tanu! Hope you have a wonderful time and year ahead. Enjoy your day.

Love
-Me

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P.S: Tried calling you but no luck!! Managed to send you an sms..hope u got it!

Happy Birthday Esha!

This one is for one of my hostel roommates, Esha.

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Wish You a very very very Happy Birthday Esha! Hope you have a wonderful time and year ahead. Enjoy your day.

Love
-Me

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P.S: Tried calling/sms'ing you but no luck!!

Back to Square One..

Well...I am back to square one. Our chuttis from 23rd dec to 2 jan have now come to an end :( But I did manage to have a good time these hols.

No points for guessing what I did. In case you still can't guess..I slept..slept and slept! WOW! It was so good to get up at 12 or 1 in the morning just to eat something and sleep again at 3 and get up at 6.

But I did manage to watch The Incredibles (Nice movie and MAN! I just loved Dash) and some occasional hanging out with friends whenever I got some time off from my busy schedule of sleeping.

Now back to reality and to office and to work..work and work!

On second thoughts, its good to be back after a good long break.