School

I found these two pictures :)

School Chaley Hum!

Hip Hip Hurray!

Hip Hip Hurray, the television serial which used to run in 1996 and 1999 directed by Nupur Asthana, was the cult show for school kids. Sunday February 20, when eight school friends met, it was not only about being nostalgic but also being those whacko kids we were in our school days at Kendriya Vidyalaya Ambarnath, the school situated in the lush green armory of ordnance estate.
After we left school we hardly ever met and thanks to facebook and orkut we atleast knew what the other looks like, their adventures and escapades alike, everything is just a click away, but the joy of actually being together was never in our cards. So we decided to meet, but due to our daily grind we weren't expecting anything great out of it. But those who joined were Sophia Jeykumar (Sophie), Priyanka Singh, Anjuri Sinha, Pooja Sarkar (moi),Vijesh Nair, Ankit Saxena, Sunej Varghese and Gulshan Barman. And boy did we have fun?i think its a question best answered in the smiles which still lingers on our faces even after two days.

The venue: Food court, Metro Mall

Time: Forever late

Excuses: We'll be their in 2 mins
Okay I am going to write this as we used to have time table in our classes from 9am-3pm with 8 periods and an interval, any objection is not entertained and negative feedback would be rusticated. :P ...comments heartily welcome :)

What did we learn:

I Period: Vijesh knows who is the father of homeopathy- Horni Samuel. According to Vijesh, he had read a piece on general knowledge where father of nine subjects were written about, he dosen't remember any other, how? please don't ask. We rest the case here.

II Period: Ankit and his hunger which never suffices. He ate the most, where does all the food and booze go in his system I have an entire questionnaire which needs to be answered. I think he wouldn't have offered the french fries if we (Me and Priyanka) wouldn have taken his case at length.

III Period: Though its actually not the third but one topic which lingered on from the first meeting till we left, Pooja, you're so Fat! God as if I don't have a mirror to see for the last three years that I am fat. :P But I seriously enjoyed looking at everyone's reactions, I never knew being fat could get you so much attention. :D

IV Period: Sophie and her watch. Why Sophie why do you have a watch? First she comes late, she tells she is almost entering the mall and takes half and hour to reach the food court and as the clock ticks to 5pm she is ready to leave. Though I know its because of Ankit you all were late. Sophie is one person who speaks the least and yet her silence speaks volumes about her, the calmness in it is so assuring.

V Period: Remember we used to have same subjects twice in a day, as same Ankit couldn't stop hiding his excitement by seeing so many games around. So we decided to go for car dashing. Apart from me as everyone entered the rink I was standing with my phone clicking video. How all these 24 year olds were acting like 2+4 ones.
Then we played Air Hockey, that is the only game that I thought I could win but alas I was playing against a pro called Vijesh, who was in a form as if its a competition and he would win a medal from the principal. I lost 8-2. But there was a saving grace, Priyanka came to rescue me and I put the scoreboard at 8-7 yeppy!

Interval : Photo session, I just didn't get it how people can click blur pictures from their own cameras? Answer Sunej! Priyanka you also have an opportunity to justify! ;)

VI Period: After the loss, we were still so super thrilled to let our nerves relax that we again went for car dashing and this time I too went. As I sat in the driver's seat and Priyanka next to me, we dashed and got dashed the most, the end scene being three of them dashing our car from three angles. Anjuri had the best last option for us, jumping on the infant kids plastic houses, how just how could I even stand on that is my question, wouldn't it burst apart!

VII Period: Sunej, Sophie and Priyanka left due to their prior commitments and we five were left to fend on our own. With Rs 20 on our gaming card and every game costing more than Rs 30 we decided to leave. And as we reached every turn or came down every floor we stood for another 15mins each and reminisced our school days, how section C was divided till third standard. How sometimes a batch was asked to divide themselves between two sections and three students had to adjust and those stares would follow which said, “There is no space here”, the teachers would be different, the subject books would differ for the day. The Hitler (Ravi Shankar sir).

VIII Period: We finally decided to leave, but not to our homes but for school, hopping on the bike me, Vijesh, Ankit and Anjuri came to school, saw our old homes in dilapidated situation at Type III, the Bangali Sangh Kali Mandir, the water tank (isn't it?), Little Angel school where we went as infants, finally halting under the banyan tree near the canara bank. For Vijesh, ordnance darshan ends here.
And then we bid adieu, but I am sure everyone left home with much more than what they imagined while stepping on the mall, more energy, more fun and we all had the same words, “ Wish we had met earlier”.
With a hope to meet again the background score rolls ye dosti badi hi haseen hain and I finish my writeup! Asta-la-vista!

Takeaway: Joy and sheer fun of being those same kids running around in white shirts and blue skirts/pants in the playground!

Mumbai-Taxiwalla ki Zubani

Its 8.45 pm, we are getting late for Nikita's birth day dinner, with the daily grind of life and dead lines to meet not only in office but also in hostel, life is always about walking with the clock. We finally get a new Wagon R taxi, and I sit in front as usual and Nikku and Nidhi hop in the back and we three start chatting about the latest Deol clan release, called Yamla Pagla Dewana, and I opine that its going to be one of those slap stick comedies and even though Nikku went on to press the point that its something she wants to watch, our taxi0-wala jumped in the conversation wagon saying the fourth Deol is coming now, Sunny's son and then began an amazing ride towards VT via some wrong lanes, and we were so engrossed in his conversation that we missed pizza hut twice.
The taxi wala introduces hinself as Shambhu Pandit Thakur, “Hum brahmin hai”, a brahim by caste with four sisters and four brothers, a wife, 26 year old who is ten years younger than him and a son and a daughter who stay in Muzzafarpur, Bihar, his home town. Apart from being a day corporate car driver, he drives taxi to earn those extra penny.
As I am intrigued to know about a taxi wala's life more, Thakur takes me down his life stories, he presently lives in a one room kitchen in a shanty in Colaba, he left his studies when his parents died sixteen years back during his matriculation and he landed in the then “Bombay”, the city of dreams to earn for his entire family. His elder brother works for the government in Bihar, his second brother is a permanent road contractor with the municipal corporation in Jharkhand and his younger brother has a joint business with one of his brother in laws of leather. He and his three brothers helped get his sisters married in rich families, where he says he never visits as he is not of their ranks.

Thakur says, “I had responsibilities and I could have bought a home from the money I spent on their weddings but its fine, now I am earning for my family. Infact my wife had come here but within a month she pestered me so much that I had to send her back.”
Then he talks about the cars he has driven in the swanky South Mumbai and how owners don't pay anything more than Rs 6000-8000 per month whereas they would pay more than Rs 60 lakhs to crore or two for the cars, Thakur says, “can you see that its a BMW Li 320, I have driven from Mercedes S class to BMW to Honda civic, I have worked at Sobha De's place also. But I quit her job when she took Raj Thackrey's side, she is a Maharashtrian married to a Bengali, she has one servant from Kerala one from Bihar and another Maharashtrian. When I told her madam what you said is not correct she told me Shambhu bahar alag dikhana padhta hai, thats when I left her job. Yahan majduron ka shoshan hota hai.”

After that now I am working for a corporate guy he is a lech, an aunt and cousin of that guy was in town for match making and the girl was very nice she is studying engineering or MBA in Orissa, but the groom's side said they will need time to get back, so the mother was crying all the way to the airport. I stopped at Prabhadevi at a restaurant and told her, , “madam, aapkey beti key paas jo sanskar hai, who mumbai mey nah chalta, yahan jo daru nahi piye, raat bhar club na jaye toh compatible partner nahi kaha jata, aapki beti bahut achi hai is kachrey mey na bhejey”
By now I realised that I missed the lane of Sterling and we are back again at Fort, then he adds, you all are not from Mumbai, because they don't talk to taxiwallas, they live in different planet altogether.
Then I started grilling him about the money that he earns while driving taxi at night, and he says, even though I am not feeling well, I thought of driving today as I need it but I will wrap up early today. Its a 50:50 profit sharing between the taxi owner and the driver. Each taxi is given to a driver for 12 hours and he has to fuel the car for around Rs 500 in a day, and after that some rs 1200 is still left which is then divided. The taxi owner also fuels the car most of the times.

Gorging Delights

Its been ages that i wrote something interesting, i have been writing some senti stuff for quite sometime now. Okay so after a bad break up either you sob or you eat a lot, what if you eat good stuff!I bet once you eat good stuff, you actually forget that you are going through any tumultuous time....M telling you its true...so here we go, I am gonna write about some good food joints where I love to go and what to stuff your tummy with!
I have discovered these places with my lovely gang of Girlz...For the sheer love of good food on sundayz :)

1.Koyla-Near Colaba behined Radio Club

When I asked someone on the road wherez Koyla, the guy said I am going there come with me! That was enough to scare me and Nidhi! After 15 minutes we had the courage to figure out how to reach Koyla, as hideous is the entry all the more lovely is the actual place.
The restaurant is on the roof top with sand filled base, small wooden tent type seats, and red n green lantern adores the place. Calm breeze stroking you and beautiful music to nod your heads as there is no place to dance! But its the most fun place we have been to.
Apart from the ambience the food was yumm,
if non veg-the top pick would be the Koyla Starter platter...
For Veg-anything with panner is nice, so is their Dal, quite north Indian and how can anyone give a miss to their Missi Roti!

2.Under the Banyan Tree (UTBT)- near sophia college, Peddar Road

The place is actually under a Banyan Tree, very small joint and serves only vegetarian.
I used to hate this place as it serves only veg, but trust me its me who coaxes everyone to eat here! Their Ceaser Salad is amazing, a bit Indian way though . Typically ceaser salad is filled with grated Cheese or cheese sauced manner, which is not the case here. Beautifuly sliced zuccini and lettuce so are the capsicums, and bread crumble a little bit tossed in the pan. Its definitely innovative and worth a try.
Next would be their Pasta and Raviolli, its NiCe. Also the potato fry called Farm Ranch Fry-combo of masala on top of potato wedges.

3.Bombay Blues- AT Pheonix

My mom has declared that my first home is office second Pheonix and I come to hostel just to doze off.
They offer two type of veg sizzlers both are very tasty and much better than their non-veg offering. I would rather rate their vegetarian stuff highly. Also the drinks are nice like the lemon iced tea and other fruit ones.

4.Maroosh- Only for non vegetarians, its a 4 table joint in a corner next to naturals ice cream parlour at Pheonix

The Lebanase roll has to be tried once, so is their chicken shwarma. Rolls are better than what wraps n rolls would offer at the same price. Starters are tasty but the stealer has to be any of its chicken gravy n garlic naan.

5. Copper Chimney-At pheonix and KalaGhoda.

Only recommendation their Murg Afghani. The price tag dosent justify the taste, yet if someone wants to try it would be the platter, which has offerings of two lamb, chicken, mutton pieces.I didn like anything else.

6.Crystal- at Marine Drive next to Wilson College
only Vegetarian and the best Kheer for sure. Their eggplant (Baingan Bharta to be precise) dish is amazin n simple roti.

7.Shiv Sagar at kemps Corner-pure vegetarian

Ahha, noone has ever defined DahiKhichdi as they have, its the stealer! Even their pav bhaji is amazin so are their chickoo and mango shakes...I simply love them.

Places to be forever avoided-
Copper Chimney, Smoking Lee's at Kemps Corner, Soam at Babulnath (unless u r a die hard gujarati food fan, I just cudn stand anything there except for nachni dosa), Rajdhani (everywhere on this planet), Cream Centre (the name itself kills the joy of food)....
I hope to hear from a lot of people...
ohh how could I, justr how could I forget Leopold at Colaba causeway-
Their Pot rice, whether be chicken, Prawn or Vegetarian...must must must!wat say Shikha!

why do love to live deciphiring "in Hindsight"

Its 2 at night and every one is asleep which probably is the time for me to sit alone and relax and contemplate. but today I want to write….
I just finished watching the movie, “We are Family” yeay I know how much I didn’t want to watch it and oogled and laughed at people who did. But I didn’t have any choice, but that’s not the point.
I saw the movie, tearjerker but I was the last one to drop my precious tears for KJo.
while I was watching the movie, there was somewhere I could relate but not entirely.
kajol suffers from cervical cancer and dies…
I just have cervical disc prolapse and some more problem with my spinal cord’s rear three bones and one degenerating bone and of course I’m not dying so soon.

The reason I so strongly felt to blog this is because we sympathise, empathise whatever the word one wants to use..we cry, feel horrible when we come to know that some one is dying of cancer or any other terminal illness but have we ever thought about people who are living in pain every day, each and every moment of their existence.
There are so many diseases on this planet which dosen’t have any cure, and which people cant see but that dosent mean they aren’t going through excruciating pain. and they aren’t dying too soon also.

I don’t know how much my boss understands when I tell him that I have got back pain and a slip disc relapse, but he dosent make any face while giving me a day off. some of my colleagues don’t understand, someone remarked recently, “so how was ur holiday back home,” which came after the point that I was on bed rest for six months. I couldn’t walk or sit or even sleep with pain. Somewhere it dosent bother anymore to hear these comments.
why colleagues? while travelling in the train we push aside people, we stomp on each other..do we ever realise that the person must be suffering from something.
When I stand for an hour in the train and if I don’t get a seat I curse people that they aren’t giving me a seat, but that’s not their fault too. I am sure someone must have done the same when I had a seat and they needed it badly.
Its just that it all dawns when we go through the same.
In movies, it ends with a “too soon” death sequence whereas in reality pain prolongs too long for the person to bear it with a smile.
When in the movie kajol goes alone to the doctor to hear that she has cancer, she cries.
I always go to my doctor all alone to hear that I still have to eat those five medicines each every afternoon and night, noone tags with me, noone is either interested to know whats on apart from my parents and a few friends or unless I post it on a facebook seeking attention at times.
otherwise who cares? had it been a cancer I’m sure I would have caught more eyeballs.

but isn’t this a fact that everyone is going to die one day, whether we want to face it or not…everyone’s soul will have to bid adieu, then why do we only bother more for people when we come to know they are going to leave, why cant we bother while they are alive?

whats the harm in caring and loving and behave well when it is still possible ?why do we wish to repent after the person is gone, why not make life more livable, beautiful and enjoyable while our engine is still on…why wait for the end and talk in hindsight? WHY?
Let me be clear I’m not seeking attention, its just I thought why cant we be better human beings while existing with no illness or before facing any dire situations…and not sympathise with people.
I love my ex-boyfriend for leaving me even after knowing that last year was the worst phase of my life and I am going through with serious health concerns and it will live with me for all my life and not sympathising with what I am going through.
So please do not sympathise, be nice and caring if you really want to be otherwise take ur face off the block.

walking the rope

Walking on a tight rope I realised I am all alone
noone to shout for none to look for
holding my breath I looked for you
but I realised even u are gone...balancing my walk I moved ahead
thousands of gaze motivating me to go dribble past the line
may be someone in d crowd has done dis before
someone somewhere was also hurt before
gathering my strength as I looked at the sky
the flying clouds waved goodbye
never thought wud be bidding u adieu eva
may be dats wat love means in today's era!

last year in hurry

i have been thinking of posting something for quite sometime but i have been giving it a miss for long. Now that things are so haywire i thought lets puke on paper.

Great firstly,my apologies my bloggie for not sharing my stuff with you for ages now.
Second, now i will flood ur system with over information.
Lets start from last year, it was bad :( recession had quenched its claws around me. i didn't get any salary hike neither did my colleagues which was satisfying ;).
I went to matheran with old college pals, some of whom i don't even talk to that's what life does to you when you start working. Anyway shweta, bhushan, nilashri, guru and farha are still on my radar.
Velandy i owe you a big one, she has given me strength through every thick phase, i am indebted.
At Matheran we did mountain crossing hanging on a single wire, wow what an experience i couldnt even cross half the way and my back was pissed with me for enrolling it to torture that it ditched me last moment. i suffered cervical disc dislocation or simply slip disc and was advised bedrest. the bed rest started with a month's time and went on for six months.
I know i love lazying around but i can't stay without work. I realised i can't survive without work so i used to dictate stories from Lenin Nagar, a filthy township in WestBengal, i dont wnat to mention where it is and my so-nice colleagues would write them sitting in Mumbai.
My heartfelt thanks to Raj, my boss and Ashishji, for actually being so nice and cooperative.
I did break stories but very few. one or two?i don't remember.
and yes blog, i found a guy on train(will write in detail later) who was slated to be the Man in my life, i was supposed to get engaged to him by the end of the year. But as of now we dont even like to see each other's face(da hatred is mutual).
Next i came back in October, 2009 and yes i worked hard, harder, and harder and then came the trip to Dubai it was sheer luck, those who were supposed to go, their passports had expired and i am always ready with my passport to jump in the plane.
I went to Dubai and realised i am such a jerk that i can have so much fun with myself that i dont need anyone...
went to Burj Khalifa, Dubai Mall, emirates mall and yes, i had a dinner invite to the Burj-Al-Arab, lucky rascal as you may call me.
and i have traveled to Bangalore, Chennai, Kerala, Hyderabad, shirdi, Baroda missed Bhopal (couldn't attend my god mother's wedding).
last week i went to Germany, stayed back and went to Berlin again all alone, checked out some hot men and boy they are so handsome...
planning to save every pea and nut of my salary and go for a total europe tour all alone ;)
and yeas in the mean time i haven't shifted to any other place, why as usual i love my hostel and my work place....pretty dangerous...
okies and i have ditched you for twitter too. tweeting is exactly shitting, everyone just pisses around. i hope you could have been a part of it.
and as they say journalism is literature in hurry , this blog post is more like a brief of my last year's to date brief.
will be back again....with more details and good literary thesaurus