Passport and neighbors

I received my renewed passport yesterday. Exactly 15 days of filing an online application. Well I.T. is changing things in my homeland and i am sure things will change for the better.
Meanwhile the Passport verification Officer turned up today, a day after my passport had been delivered :)... had to get 2 witnesses who would vouch for my claim of residency.. easiest choice were my neighbors.. so there i was at the mercy of people who i absolutely loathe... i swallowed my pride ..made some small talk and got the forms signed... incidentally... one of the neighbor opened the door with his pants down...?????... what????.... why????.... i mean ok you dont want your daughter to open door to a stranger... but opening the door with your hairy legs showing... nahhh... definitely not good...

finished and done with...
hey...i saw Godfather III yesterday.... and here are a few quotes from the movie...
"Never let anyone know what you are thinking"
"Dont hate your enemies, it affects your judgement"
ahh... a masterpiece...

Big Fat Greek Wedding

Nah ... not me... not yet... this post is about dear Sharmaji... who got married today... the best thing about his marriage was he was his usual self and with the usual ease we connected... its really heroic to laugh in the face of adversity ...wtg sharmaji...
i wish i could click some photographs today... so thats a task for a later date now...
Awkward statements of the day
----------------
she : "aapke parents bahut nice hain really"
out of words me : "haan yeh to hai"
----------------
she : "kya aap love marriage karoge ya arranged?"
sheepish me : "arranged hi hogi"
----------------

Finally!!

Finally i managed to submit all my Essays to McCombs. Somehow i never located the link to resend the essays earlier. It would have saved lot of heartburn.
Anyways the good news is that the bitch next door just died...

SMS

Night has come n moon too,
The sky is full of star crew,
Now close your beautiful eyes,
Bcoz a sweet dream is waiting for you....
gudnight...

My eyes are not beautiful... moreover my bushy eyebrows meet somewhere in the center... i usually have trouble sleeping these days...

So who the hell sent me this message??

of MBA Tour, Married friends and other miscellanies

The MBA tour “happened” today, and I decided to do things differently this time. Instead of going at the start of the tour, I went in after about an hour. By this time the enthusiasm levels were already dropping for most visitors were tired. Right time for a focussed pitch. Grin :)

Received a call from a friend, who is now blissfully married (yeah right!!! that was an oxymoron), who used to say that things wouldn’t change between friends… well he is eating home-made food and his words these days…

The out of whack stereo in my car lets me listen to only cassettes now…no more FM for me… to top it, I have a useless cassette collection… so I am listening to gospel music (bhakti sangeet) these days from old worn out cassettes.

Job satisfaction within closed doors… MBA tour was followed by a panel discussion with alums…applicants poured out their hearts… from why don’t they consider 15 yrs education enough… to…. How much GMAT… the alums were like the nannies… a guy complained of low job satisfaction too…

Badminton

Well of course I am tired, I’ve played badminton today after almost 4 years that too an indoor court. For the uninitiated, the indoor badminton court makes you sweat like anything and makes you want to shout out before every shot like Monica Seles did. 5 games, broken guts and a pair of torn sports shorts; the first day could not have been more eventful.

My Toothbrush

I am very possessive about my toothbrush. Though it is not very different from it's kinds, same bristles, same plastic, still i am very attached to
it. I bought this one at a place called Team Juice at trivandrum. Every morning when i brush my teeth i am reminded of a series of events. Arrival at trivandrum, the shock at seeing ARUVI, the pleasure at seeing Kovalam, the first day at office, the top floor canteen, the barottas, the night shows, sharmaji's paranthas which kept us alive...(not to forget chutneys), aruvi rooftop parties, POLICE, swagat bar, the HDFC atm, Ariya jyoti, The project mates, the trip to ponmudi ...the dangerous waterfall trek, the trip to moonnar and the night at the hotel and the morning afterwards (hic.) ...narial paani, badminton tounament i lost, charu sharma's quiz, The DIRTY AD -MAD we did...., the badminton tournament we won, the terrifying Hostel shift..., the chetta shop and the horlicks, the kenton leisure suites, the booze there..., the technopark club and mani ,the waiter there....night outs with friends .. night before mid term... night before MATC....and the leaving time......
So you know next time i am brushing my teeth i am not just doing that...i am taking a trip down memory lane....
p.s. ...i know that toothbrush is pretty old ... but can i just keep it for old times's sake??please...

Nothing is same anymore

Nothing is same anymore

We used to play together when we were kids. My brother used to go around the village with his brother and I used to follow him wherever he went. I remember the night when we walked together while coming back from the factory, it was a starlit night, no moon in sight and yet very bright. The stars there were more in number than in Delhi. Just like all the good things.

Tayaji and taijis home was my second home. Taiji never used to let me go out on an empty stomach. Tea and biscuits used to appear out of thin air. I used to sit in the Veda on a pidi and used to have my breakfast with my cousins. I used to watch color telly at their place rather than the black and white one at my chacha’s place.

The elder of the cousins, Babbu gelled really nice with my elder brother. They were doing all the fun around the place. Dhodha and me just used to follow them till we were tired and gave up. Dodha took me to his wood factory where I saw electrical fittings being made (I tried my hand at a few…); we made wonderful gulakks, and swords to have make-believe fights. I still have those treasures.
We were just a couple of kids; Life was great fun.

Few years later we got a call, Babbu s mother taiji had fallen sick and was very ill. Fearing for the worst papa rushed to our village. But alas womenfolk always hide their illness long enough to suffer and to make other suffer after they are gone. Taiji had suffered a heart attack and was gone.

On my next visit to our village things were a little different. We had a new taiji. Tayaji had to remarry under pressure from other relatives since his kids were young and needed a mother’s love. The new taiji was suave. She changed things around the house and now the house looked more ornate and decorated. But the bonhomie and the welcome were missing.

I heard from mom one day that babbu’s family was coming over to Delhi. I was overjoyed. I would meet dodha again. And babbu too. When I heard the reason for their coming, my heart skipped a beat. Babbu was diagnosed with a heart valve failure and had to be treated at the Delhi hospitals.

Talking was painful to him after operation and he used to gesticulate to tell us about his needs. After about two months he was slowly able to speak and talk to us and share with us his near death experience. Babbu came only once after that for his postoperative checkups. The local doctors had pronounced his operation as a success.

Babbu’s death was an equal surprise as his mother’s death. I was grown up to be taken to mourning so this time even I went along. The brief moments I could get with Dodha before the mourning ceremony, I held his hand, and I looked at him. I couldn’t utter a word. I wished I did. I wished I could. Dodha’s figure of calm and compose broke the moment he saw his brother’s picture. He cried and was inconsolable, I couldn’t cry as much as I tried, so I got up and left.
I am 22 now. I go to my village once in a while. In sorrows and happiness, as they say.
Their house is still there. I know Dodha still lives there. They still have that factory. They still have a color TV and I know I’ll be welcome when I go there. But I also know that nothing is same anymore.