Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Vacations Electrified

Feels good to return to blogger after a break of three months. When I sat down to write today, thoughts about 'why the break when I wasn't really all that busy' clouded my grey cells. I realise now that I often presume myself to be a lot busier than I would actually be. Analysis in hindsight is always easier and more accurate, nahi? But of little use because we are not funtoosh ( watched that movie? Heartfelt sympathies.) and hence cant do time travelling to mend past mistakes. Well, I had exams in november which was perhaps a tough time since I hardly got to sleep for those ten fifteen days.

Its about a month about since vacations began, and I am so bored and vella these days that I spent two full days practicing the art of watching india TV continuously for as long as possible. The first day I managed the longest streak of 18 minutes immidiately after which I ran towards the balcony for some fresh air, did some deep breathing and tried to recollect the happiest moments moments of my life in order to lift my spirits. Finally emptying a bucket full of cold water over my head in this cold delhi weather helped matters. The second day things were hmmm, they debated and expressed their concerns about the ills and highly negative consequences of the increasing popularity and accessibility of vulgar mms among today's young boys and girls. And you know what contribution these guys made to control the epidemic, they continuously flashed them on the television screen for 45 minutes, didn't even bother to show the anchor's and debating panel' s faces which became visible only at the end of the programme . No prizes for guessing the panel - the illustrious rajat ji (nobody dare calls him just rajat) kapoor and 3 of his chelas. No prizes either for guessing my longest streak. 45 minutes 10 seconds. High on confidence, when I tried an even longer streak, I got my penalty. This time it needed 3 tablets of disprin, 1 combiflam tablet and navratna tel hair massage to help matters. Overconfidence kills. Take it from me.

Finally I was sent for a stay at a relative's place in ambala, haryana. Maybe my parents thought a change of hava-paani was necessary to contain my dubious ways. Though, it wasn't anything like a blast but my people watching habits helped. Atleast things were much better than the india tv routine. Its always an interesting scene when we get to know different kind of people. I went to a billiards n pool club daily for as long as I was there just to see and understand different kinda people, though I think the game (pool) in itself is an inch more boring than rajat ji kapoor. I met all sorts of guys out there, but the most prominently occuring variety there were the guys who were extremely proud about how spoilt they were. Infact, it seemed the debate among the boys was mostly to prove to the other fellow, whatever wrongs he might have done, he wouldn't ever match his scale of offences. To get a closer feel - ''abe [[beep]] tuney dekha ke hai [[beep]]''; ''yo kaam to [[beep]] hamne kar kar ke chhod diye [[beep]]'' etc etc… it was good fun.

Now I am back home, the boredom is somewhat under control. Every two odd days some school friend calls and after five minutes of conversation soaked with nostalgia and meeting up plans, he comes to the point - koi bandi vandi patayi kya ? And now I am tired of shouting, '' aaya mummy ; yaar baad mein call karta hoon mummy bula rahi hain ''.

Jagjit's '' aap agar in dino yahan '' is playin on winamp. Kuch khaas nahi hai.

And I am trying Aastha channel this time.

Sunday, September 24, 2006

main shayar to nahin

Hurray!! Midsemester exams are now over and done with. Initially I was a little apprehensive about how well will I be able to perform because I began the preparations a lot later than other folks. But to my utter surprise I hardly faced any problem in any exam because of that.

Following is my first attempt at writing a nazm. With my long standing fascination for ghazals, I, well knew writing them would be something I'd definitely do, even if only as a hobby. It has always been like this with me, the innate desire to do by myself what I appreciate others doing. In the past this character of mine has led me to making sketches, writing hindi poems, writing short stories, playing certain sports, doing imitations, even starting this blog and now writing ghazals. So looking back, I think this characteristic of mine has only given me something or the other, it never takes from me anything except a little bit of time which I would have wasted in some futile timepass activity anyway. Now that the exams are over, I had all the time to make a sincere first attempt, so I wrote this one today.


**********************************************

''नम आँखें .....''
इतनी सख्ती तो न बरतों
के नमी आँखों में छा जाए

सच जो है, होता है कड़वा
ये जानते हैं हम ,
इसको इतना न पिलाओ के समझ
राज़ -ऐ -गुलशन आ जाए

इतनी सख्ती तो न बरतों
के नमी आँखों में छा जाए

अब तो यारों से मिलने में
भी रहती है शिकन ,
लगता है डर के कब किस बात
कोई यार खफा हो जाए

इतनी सख्ती तो ना बरतों
के नमी आँखों में छा जाए

तुमको भी तो कभी मेरी
यादें ज़रा आती होंगी,
सोचता हूँ तेरी यादों के सिवा
तू भी कभी आ जाए

इतनी सख्ती तो न बरतों
के नमी आँखों में छा जाए

***********************************************

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Tagging - Vagging

I was thinking about writing a post for long now, but in the absence of any internet enabled computer and idea, there was no way I could. Yes, there is a wi-fi ( or is that hi-fi) computer centre available to us at the college, but I hate the idea of waiting for long periods for a computer to get vacant, and at the end of it when you finally get one, some dukhi aatma sort of a guy, looking more dukhi than prince's mother was when prince fell into the 52/55/60 feet(52 feet was reported by zee news, 55- ndtv, 60- star news) bore, plus I just cant describe the sort of fulfilment I experience when I get up , and his facial expression ( I never seem to remember how my facial expression was when I was hunting for a vacant computer) changes and reminds me those of grasshoppers and frogs when the first rains of monsoon come. And I suddenly feel I have done a great Karma which has taken me a step closer to moksha. All these factors put together never allow me to put more than 10-15 minutes on the net. Considering my typing speed is just an inch faster than a leopard (when he's sleeping, of course), I could never find time to post. But now that I am home, I have time, and idea has been given to me by Candid Diary, its time to complete the tag.

I am thinking about marrying katrina kaif…I just hope sallu bhai will be kind…he'z a real bhai..i just hope he remains one … and adds a behn.. Katrina. Plz visit http://www.bhaibehn.com/ … popularly known as the orkut killer.
I said see mom…govindapatla..patla govindadekho naa….actually I was watching 'Swarg' right now. Seems to be a loose copy of 'Baghban'…the clever director released it ten years earlier though.
I am gonna sleep right after writing my share of crap for the day.
I want to flaunt……….only if I had a killer physique.
I wish I knew the difference between 'I want' and 'I wish'.
I love money…I always did…I realized just recently.
I cry –bachao bachao every time I see my warden.
I hear – or try my best to hear, the telephonic conversations of young coochie coochie couples…oops, is that called hearing or overhearing
I wonder – if I would be able to marry katrina kaif, how many SMSes will sallu send me…will vivek oberoi come to my rescue.. But why'll he.. I haven't even seen any one of his umpteen 'attempts' ( at acting, yaar) .
I regret – answering the section 'I am thinking about' in the way I did…god plz help me..my mobile has just received an SMS, and I hope its not his…give me the courage to open and see it.
I confuse salman with vivek…hmm maybe I confuse abhishek with vivek…not sure ..hmmm.
I dance a little better than sunny deol, OK add his dad too.
I sing 'tum to thehre pardesi' by the one and only, the illustrious, the dynamic ALTAF RAJA…I swear I sing it every day .. Even our barber does..actually that’s how I and our local barber became friends..by rocking to Altaf Raja tunes…now he gives me a ''5 Rupaye ki BHAARI CHHOOT''.
I am not always thinking about marrying Katrina kaif, I have plans about kareena as well..and yess this time no fears…shahid kapur ko to main dekh loonga..
I write crap…and love reading it..
I need to Stop now.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Of pretensions, elections and hesitations

Mid-sem exams are just two three days away and I am wasting time like anything. In mode-e-retrospect I think about the days when I used to study at least two times the topics that were covered in school on that particular day. And when some mate asked, " whats up with studies ? ", pretension game would start there and then, '' studies ? What colour is it dude ? Yaar, don't talk this crap with me'. No, I wasn't the biggest hypocrite. In my class there were those much bigger hypocrites than me, than even the ISI people. When I would be exercising yogic self control over myself in order to study for exams and not watch cricket ( why does these cricket matches always come up during exam time .. Look this cricket tournament in KL has begun now and Sachin is back on fire), one these classmates ( name withheld ) would ring me up just to say, ''hey !! Sachin's sixer was fantabulous!! wasn't it..'' and the entire yogic plus self plus control would instantly go to hell. And scorecards replaced textbooks for the next at least two hours. A few years down the line, I knew very well that this guy is not watching or playing any game other than that of distracting me, but his trick would still continue to work. Whatever, but the crux of the matter is that I was really serious about my studies. Not that I am not bothered about it now, but it is not showing in real hardwork.

The Delhi University students union ( DUSU ) election campaign was in full swing recently. Despite all talks about 'youth 4 equality' being at the forefront of protests against reservations, it failed all hands at the polls and the same old RSS supported ABVP and Congress supported NSUI grabbed all the seats, one and three 'respectively'. No 'respect' intended though. And I realised that my political understanding, after eight years of devoting myself to NDTV as far as television is concerned, it is still not anywhere in comparison to P Chidambaram's knowledge about chhole-bhature. On a more serious note, it feels saddening to live with the fact that politics, the activity that determines who our administrators will be, has nothing to do with ideas, wisdom, vision and objective and has everything to do with just power and money. No doubt they are important factors, but should they be everything ? I am not new to knowing things such as booze is thrown around to students like water at these polls, but my fundamentally conservative mind shows resistance in accepting a woman being at the centre stage of such a shameless process. Though this is also a reality I have known for years, but resistance erupts every time I come face to face with it. At 1 past midnight when I happened to meet this girl, pure accidentally, when she had encroached upon, with a band of boys, our college premises .. for votes, overambitiousness was the only definition of feminism I saw in her eyes. I 'll quote SRK now, when he recieved the filmfare power award for being adjudged the most powerful figure in bollywood for 2004 : ''Power. Power. Power. Does anyone want love.. ''

Meanwhile, time and again I have wanted to update the blog, all in vain. There are a lot of things that I wish to write here that I call off because there are people, I know, who read the blog but don't comment. And since I know who they are, I refrain myself from going into territory-e-discomfort.

Next, most probably, will be a ghazal penned by yours truly. In ten-twelve days time, maybe.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

....Retrospection

Festivals, it seems have lost the vibrancy. As a young kid, I was always ultra-enthusiastic about all our festivals and considered it my must-comply duty to do whatever that can be done to bring alive the festivity. That was, alas, as a kid.

At 6-7 years of age, Janmasthami for me began at 5 A.M. and lasted till 2 post midnight. I woke up, bathed and waited, quite restlessly, for others to get up, and that included everybody in the joint family I then lived in. like a man ( 7 year old though ) possessed I'd make a list of things - lord Krishna idols and jhoola(swing), G-I-Joes, chalks, funskool toy cars, sand/mud both red and grey, paints, brushes and more -that I'd need to create a 'jhanki'(model of scenery) of lord Krishna that no other boy in the locality would even think to match. Then my brother, myself and my cousins would put our 'Nari Contractor' like architectural mind to work chalking out a blueprint-on-paper of how the 'jhaanki' would finally look like. While all this was happening, in my conscience, I always assumed myself to be the man-in-charge of the process as if wanting to write at the bottom-right corner of the jhaanki : "by: S*****t and rest".

We then went out to hunt for rait(sand) both grey and red. Grey would be the majority flooring and red path from the 'gate' should lead to 'lord Krishna on his jhoola'. As I am watching the gully from the balcony right now, I don't seem to see any lump of rait. On those days, I don't know why, but there would always be a building under construction nearby and we'd pick the rait and bajri( red sand) from there. "where there is a will, there's a way". Maybe.

I remember that the task of asking for money for our 'experiment's apparatus' was invariably left to me, maybe they thought that like this we will be more generously given money. The fact that it was always me who had to ask for money gave me a strange feeling of pride. 'had it not been for me, you'd have just managed a portrait and some mud', I would brag.

Hindsight, today, seems very very pleasant.
Today, it seems, is not even a spot on those wonderful days.

Today, I woke up lazily at about 7:30 a.m. and even that was after my mummy told me to, yes, 3-4 times. I was still lazing around and reading HT as mummy began her 'pooja' preparations. Dad asked me, 'will you fast today'. And I plainly answered : no. I think there was a time, not so long ago infact, when a straightforward NO as an answer was a big misbehaviour both by my standards and my Dad's. today, I didn't think twice. And Dad didn't say anything.

I had always been a somewhat lazy fellow. Today, I feel lazy in a disturbing way. Today, I feel guilty in a very disturbing way.

And I wish to take back the first sentence of this post because 'I don't know whom' has rightly said : "there are no uninteresting things, there are only uninterested people".

'I don't know whom'! what the hell! I don't seem to know anything...

Saturday, August 5, 2006

55-year-old's RDB effect . . .

For the uninitiated, this goes for info-indispensable, that by RDB, I mean Rang De Basanti ……now I don't expect anyone to ruminate over what's Rang De Basanti. Right.

It is about yesterday, August 4 2006. After a somewhat hectic day at college, I was bursting with 'delight', when the classes ended at 5'o clock in the evening. Friday it was, and I was craving for the trip back home, especially after the 3 hour long machining workshop I was tortured to. Though college and home, both are in Delhi, the word 'trip' would still make sense, considering the journey duration being 130 minutes including changing modes of transport (RTV -> metro -> pvt/dtc bus ) two three times and most importantly the sheer volume of vivid experiences associated with it.

So there I was, as soon as classes ended, I hastened to get out of the college premises to catch the RTV. To maintain honesty in writing, adding that the 'delight' was all but gone after the 20 odd minutes in the RTV cannot be done without. 'Delight' as I mentioned in the beginning, was absolutely out, and sweat, strain, distress and pain were in. Air conditioned metro gave some respite though.

OK OK, enough of the prologue, it shouldn't get lengthier than the real content.

So here's for the real piece. At 1825 IST, I board a pvt bus from Cannaught Place. After about 15 minutes of journey, a traffic policeman on the road yells at the sight of this bus. Bus stops. A 'mujhe-haath-laga-ke-toh-dekh' type of man ( not traffic policeman ), shouts at the driver, " rak ibb(ab) bhaar(baahar) likadne(nikalne) ku(ko) bhi bolu ke(kya)."(don't know Hindi? It means "should I also ask you to get out now, sir?" ;sarcasm of course intended) Driver, otherwise no less a 'bond' himself, looks worried. Gets out of the bus. A minute later conductor leaves too. The seventy-eighty passengers in the bus are getting annoyed. Various reasons : getting late; its hot; unsure whether they'll have to change bus now; unsure whether ticket amounts will be refunded ; and meanwhile its getting hotter. Suddenly a 50-55 year old bhaisahab-banarasi, sitting with me gets heated up. Must say his hindi was pretty 'Ramdhari Singh Dinkar' type , full of JOSH. Plus his vocabulary would've put even Dinkar to shame.

He begins, 'kya vyavdhaan utpann ho gaya'? (whats the problem)

'yeh log (referring to traffic police) sabko aise hi pareshaan karte hain.' (they irritate everybody like this)

' in se hi desh ka sarvnaash ho raha hai' (they are ruining the nation).

Suddenly a sound of slap is percieved by my ears. By everyone's I think, infact. I glance out through the window. This time I don't just hear but see. One more tight slap at the pimple-ish cheeks of the conductor.

Bhaisahab gets angry like hell. A scene of Sunny Deol screaming in 'Ghaatak' reels across in my mind. He gets up. I ask, "kahan? Uncle jee"(where? Uncle.) Bhaisahab: ' bete tum vyarth ho, padhe likhe jawan ho kar bhi haath pe haath rakhe baithe ho.( 'You're useless fellow, educated but worthless'.)" Abhi salon ki khabar leta hun" (now I'll teach them a lesson).

He gets down. Agitated, I follow. Impressed, others follow.
Now twenty odd of us are down along with a driver, 2 conductors, 3 traffic policemen. Here the policeman was fondly remembering driver's mother and sisters…I'll add although I feel there's no need : gaalion ki bauchhaar ho rahi thi.

Bhaisahab enters the conversation, "kya baat hai..aap apni apni shaktiyon ka durprayog karenge kya" (whats happening..u think u can misuse ur powers.)

Policeman : re tere pet mein ke darad pad ra hai. (but why r u complaining stomach ache..we're dealing with the driver).

Bhaisahab : theek se baat keejiye, challan katna hai to challan katiye, chahe 50 rupaye ka ho ya 50 hazaar ka, par yaatri kyun vyarth mein peedhit hon ? Hum kya jaante nahi ki aap yahan apni jeb garam karne ki vyavastha kar rahen hain…yeh nahi chalega" (talk with respect give him challan, amount doesn't matter, but don't create problems for passengers. Don’t we know, u're irritating us in order to fill ur pockets)

Policeman 2 : manne ke teri poochh paadi hai…rak bawli tared chup baith ja, na dun tere bhi… rak tu hai ke be?" (what wrong have I done to you, shut up and leave, what do u think of yourself).

Bhaisahab : main tera baap.(I'm your dad)

Me: (shocked & scared) uncle chalo please bus mein .. Aa jao..driver aa jayega 2 minute mein.( uncle lets leave..driver will come in 2 minutes).

Bhaisahab : are ruko, ( takes out the phone ) .. .(now to the police) ..abhi tumhare baap se baat karata hun… tabhi tumhe akal ayegi ( pretending he's gonna call their commisioner ).." (to police: come talk to ur big daddy).

Police out of its wits …snatch the mobile phone in haste… policeman 3 says : (to the crowd), jao jao ho gaya…(to the conductor)..ja ja bus le ja tawli..chal. (go, go its done, to conductor: go go take the bus ..fast ..go)

Mobile phone respectfully returned, "sir aapka mobile."

Police: relieved, bhaisahab: on cloud 9, driver&conductor : in seventh heaven, me : confused like I'd never been, frankly never thought someone from among us would do such a thing .. And never ever thought ..that it would work. Phew.

Finally, all of us back, bus faster than a cheetah, hot weather turns pleasant… bhaisahb states rather loudly( referring to traffic police), "main inka paani bhi
Nahi peeta, aap log yakeen karenge"( I don't even drink water at their place, will you people agree? ). Bus seemed to roar with 150 hands clapping. And excitement soaked me that very instant.

Never dreamt I'll get to witness Rang De..effect from a fifty five year old. Never expected so much thrill in a journey of ticket worth Rs.7 … for which I bought a Rs.5 ticket… ha ha ha ..yara da tashan dekh lo.

A finishing without this won't do :

Khalbali hai Khalbali
HAI KHALBALI !!!

Monday, July 24, 2006

Delhi metro's matchless passengers..

Though I stay at the extraordinary ( hmm for beginners extraordinary::1: entities/people which/who possess extra qualities as compared to the ordinary variety of their respective species; 2: entities/people which/who possess ordinariness in extra quantities) hostels of Delhi College of Engineering, I have to make frequent (twice a week) metro rides commuting to and from home during weekends. These metro rides gave me experiences that, perhaps , 3-4 years down the line, will traumatise me when I sit down to write my gmat exam. But don't you think I 've grown into distress already, because u see, it pains far lesser when the blood is still hot. I now feel like sharing my experiences and observations of the types that grace the metro. By the way , before I forget, it was the definition no.2 of extraordinary I was talking about, I knew you'd have guessed it already.

Here I go then, take your pick.

1. the just-out-of-gym-hunks : hmmm they are generally a busy lot, not having much time to talk to strangers. In a crowded metro though, they might arise a few wrinkles on your forehead my friend, as how packed the metro may be, they do and will take as much space as required to flaunt the right cuts, the exquisite formations and to present the most macho appearance to the girl sitting in front of them ( and reading 'history of cherrapunji') .
The song they sing ( those of them who have an equally good voice …rare though ) : " kuch hum mein aisi baatein hain jo sabme hain kahan"……from , u guessed it, the one and only, the stupendous 'Aap mujhe achhe lagne lage'.

2. the super-sophisticated-Stephen's-studying-lass : so I just wrote about miss 'history of cherrapunji' girl in the first part. Yess, she's the one I'm talking about now. This species while going till vishwavidyalaya has something about it that catches my imagination every time. They are either 'very confident of changing the society for the better' or 'let the society go to hell with all its hypocrisies' types. When some no-harm-intended-fool like me approaches them, scepticisms galore in there mind of such magnitudes that the CBI wouldn't have doubted chhota rajan's intentions so much, on second thoughts, infact I dun think CBI doubts Rajan at all. Coming back, at perceiving a faint sound of 'hello' from people like me, their eyes roll up in disgust, as if asking,' I know what u r upto, u cheapster from shyam lal evening college … reach college in the morning itself …keeping your parents in darkness'. And then after a moment, says, 'whats the matter'. The last time it happened I said, 'someone just lifted ur purse' she, at first, was more upset about me using the word purse and not handbag, until she realised a few seconds later what she had Lost.
Their song : must be something in english, but this evening college cheapster doesn't know many of them. Sorry, make it 'any of them'.

3. the newly committed 20something duo : invariably prefer the 2 seat set next to the train doors, where there's nobody else close enough to poke his/her nose. Clearly discomforted by the sheer number of commuters, they hardly look in any direction other than each other's face, apart from an occasional stare at the lafadi they notice has been staring at them for five minutes. There advice to the rest of the world , 'live and let live', pretty noble hmm.
And now for their song : ' yeh armaan hai shor na ho bas khamoshi ke mele ho, is duniya mein koi nahin ho hum dono hi akele ho', and yeah its from kamal hassan's 'Sagar'.

4. the security person : though seen in the metro trains just a little more often than camels in the Himalayas, I was among the select ones to witness them, as the security had been tightened considerably after the diwali terrorist attacks in a few Delhi markets. Leaves the task of observing passenger behaviour to lafadis like me, too much immersed in his own domestic problems. A 5-yr old kid sitting adjacent to him, suffering from loose-motions was persuading his father to get down at the next station, for obvious reasons. The yelling of the kid annoys this security man and he stares at this innocent in ashutosh rana style. Father jumps in to rescue, says, 'aahhh bete ko loose-motion hai'. Security man smiles quite mysteriously as if askin himself , 'should I be more worried about his loose-motions or my piles', and after further thoughts, says, 'I'll pray to god gimme his illness'. Kid's dad was all tears for his kindness.
And his song…..'mere pyar mein…mere intezar mein…sach sach kaho tumne kya kiya' from 'ram lakhan'.

5.the lafadi (include me here)- with nothing better to do, no muscles to flaunt, no books to read, no gf to be busy with, no illness to fight, these keep themselves busy with observing people and commenting on them to fellow lafadi. As there self proclaimed representative, I can proudly say we're the ones with the least problems. The only one I face in metro is people staring at me as if I am some militant when I board the metro with the cylindrical engg drawing sheet case ( luks as if it contains asla barood), and (this time not their mistake) the gun shaped drafter in its cover……..
Their song ? The Jagjit Singh classic…'samajhte the magar phir bhi na rakhi dooriyan humne'

6.7.8…. Aur bhi types hain agli post mein bataunga…..

Chalta hoon phir

Friday, July 21, 2006

"keeping in touch"

Just recently I joined Orkut where a classmate of school days asked me with whom am i still 'in touch'... the question sort of agitated a sleeping portion of my mind and I began thinking of a sometime-best-friend, with whom I became friends playing cricket for hours , who went to varanasi 2 years back for studies.

So, do I keep in touch with him..... read this ( you can all it poem..I'll be happy)

a phone call a year,
in which ur friend, u do not hear,
but you hear his mother,
or mebbe his father or brother,
but not actually ur friend,
and it's almost become a trend.
his mother says,' hello, my child u dare not spoil'
and i'm like :'aunty! to hear this did i toil,
into this, me, u do not drag,
i did not call my friend to brag,
but listen now, its him who spoiled me first'
hearing this, into anger then she burst!!!
but why am i writing this bakwaas,
i haven't even seen much of bahu-saas,
now i seriously think I've gone nuts,
calm calm, here my mouth shuts !

restarting blogging....

Hi I'll be posting regularly on blogger now ! (what was the need of the exclamation mark, I've pledged it umpteen times before, and as if anyone reads this)...but this time I'm optimistic ( yeah i know I was last time too, but this time I am more), and I intend to stay..hopefully.....

who knows I might be ninth time lucky.

Wednesday, July 5, 2006

My friends at TAFS

Though I am not all that reflective or nostalgic about my days in TAFS, where I spent more than a decade, as some of my friends, but some memories do recapitulate in my mind on some occasion or the other.

I made some very interesting friends at TAFS, vivek and abhishek were the first friends I made. I enjoyed their company not so much because I found their ideas and opinions interesting but largely because they were pretty happy considering me the best of all and unquestionably accept it when I used to tell them that I could fight and also defeat twenty boys at a time. That I could overpower both vivek and abhishek in "panje ladana" only added weight to my ridiculously untrue claims. All this, I am talking about the time when I was six years of age.

For seven - eight years then, my best friend was pretty undoubtedly this amazing boy called Naveen Tanwar. It was in his company that for the first time I realised that I am not the ultimate one with might to compare with the almighty. he was probably better than me in academics as well as sports, I was a quite better at extra curricular activities. But being such an admirer of his ways, in due passage of time he somehow convinced me that extra curriculars are nothing but wastage of time. I do not know to this day what prompted me to accept his view. From what I have learnt from a common friend, he will soon be heading robotics section of iit Guwahati annual tech festival. whew!!! So now he leads me in the "extra curricular" as well. Its not that I didn't gain anything from him, else I wouldn't have stuck with him for so long. To him I owe a part of my resilience, never-say-die attitude, and keeping heads high and lips smiling in times of hardships and scarcities. Well, my association with him didn't meet a happy end as he, with growing stature, grew in ego, alright, but I had a little of it too.

In class eleventh due to shuffling of sections, I was placed in a different section than his, facilitating the final demise of our association. New friends made. Most memorable among them, for me, are Abhishek Chugh and Sanchit Garg. Chugh for his sheer brilliant sense of humour and sanchit for the wholesome personality that he had. Adding at this point is must, that Sanchit achieved rank 51 in iitjee.

Vikas and tripathi were two friends with whom I grew closer to during the iitjee days. Both of them were amazingly grounded, close to realities and pretty introspective by nature. Amidst all their good qualities, tripathi had a superiority complex ( when I told him that’s what I feel, he agreed wholeheartedly), while vikas was somewhat the opposite. Quite pessimistic fellow. And he agreed too when I communicated this to him. Strange..

In all these friendships I shared some wonderful moments, some inspirations, some lessons and some 'khinchai'. But one friendship that stands out is one I had and still have with this lad Vipin sharma. Compare with the academic and careerwise performance of sanchit, tripathi, naveen, myself, vikas etc, he'll be rated pretty mediocre. But only if academics had been decisive in friendships. They never are. I fooled myself on some occasions trying to be friends with people who were deadly brainy but had hearts as soft as corundum. Vipin for all his intellect could never achieve the level of academic excellence he deserved. But does that make him a lesser person? Surely not. And quite the opposite infact. In his company I gathered the courage to spill out my valued secrets, my deepest wounds, my ambitions, my thinking, my passions and everything else. Someone with whom there is never even an iota of communication gap. This state, I bet has never been experienced 'with' other friends, has never been experienced 'by' other friends, and probably you wouldn't have experienced it either.

Bye for now.

Monday, June 26, 2006

School days… before T.A.F.S

I did my schooling from three different schools, though the lion's share of my school life was spent in The Air Force School (TAFS), Delhi only. I started going to school a the age of three when I joined St.Mary's School in Ranchi. The school, I believe laid firm foundations for my academically inclined mind. Though I do not remember the names of any of my fellow classmates except one Vinod ( he was the monitor, you see I've always been in leadership vicinities if not always being The Leader), I really think that the standards they had set for themselves and hence for us were really first-rate. This I realised when I came to Delhi at the age of five and took admission in a certain 'Hycinth School'. It was a pretty mediocre school according to me but well I had to get admitted as it was mid session and admissions in most schools were closed.
Although I should have entered K.G class, but since I cleared their pretty absurd admission test (after two years already spent in education they asked me to spell kamal, madan, raman, chaman, bhavan…...{<-- these were in hindi},good, bad, up, down, yes, no, if, but and what not) meant for one hour in ..what…..10 minutes ( Ripley's believe it or not - its true ) , the convinced my parents of getting me admitted to class 1 and so it happened. There I made two friends - Anish and Tushar, with both of whom my rapport today is just about that occasional hi-hello when we happen to cross each other while roaming about in my locality (even that is not de rigueur, I find myself lazy for even that little gesture. Ok..mmm ....they are lazy too, I shouldn’t be giving myself airs. there is already enuf of it in my stomach....

Saturday, June 24, 2006

TOP Rated Comedy Flicks

The Phenom rates the following as the finest comic movies of bollywood :

Andaz Apna Apna

Tell me one character in this movie from raj kumar santoshi which does not induce laughter. stellar performances from both aamir and salman. not to forget the evergreen paresh rawal.

Hera Pheri

This film solely brought the brilliant comic nuances of akshay kumar and paresh rawal to the limelight. and priyadarshan became the new king of comedy genre films.

Hungama

situational comedy at its best. the film weaves laughter by means of funny misunderstandings. laughs so much that'll ache your stomach. but don't worry for the stomach, go ahead watch it if you haven't. the sheer enetertainment will 'more' than compensate for the stomach ache.'far more'.

Padosan

evergreen movie with immaculate performances from sunil dutt, om prakash, kishore kumar, mahmood and saira banu. truly marked the coming of age of comedy in indian cinema.

Golmaal

golmaal hai bhai sab golmaal hai! watch it as many number of times and you will only appreciate it more every time. amol palekar and utpal dutt create magical chemistry.

Deewana Mastana

A quite underrated film. Has powerful performances by govinda , johny lever, juhi chawla. Anil Kapor rarely does comedy but when he does, its always awesome. recent example - no entry.

Angoor

superb performances by sanjeev kumar- devan verma. Based on Shakespeare's 'comedy of errors'.confusion due to twins and more twins and more twins ( and more....) is not new in indian comedy films. but this is the movie that dealt with this scheme originally is angoor. copycats include a-not-as-good-as-original 'Bade miyan chhote miyan' starring big b-govinda, an immensely forgettable mithun-johny lever starrer, and also one shekhar suman starrer t.v. serial.

Chupke Chupke

In this film , the acclaimed filmmaker hrishikesh mukherjee charms you with his middle class lierate sensibilities meets humour meets arms length accessibility. a beautiful and subtle product from the master director.

Mujhse shaadi Karoge

a total Akshay kumar movie. This hunk at his best can make you laugh like no one else can. salman and priyanka complement well.

Jaane bhi do Yaaron

Though this movie cannot be put in the core comedy genre of films, it has some brilliant laughter moments that will definitely chuckle your funny bone. naseeruddin shah and ravi vasvani both are too good, though I must add that the less celebated ravi vasvani was better at the comic angle.