1. If you married the last person you texted, what would your last name be?
   Pal. (Guys normally don’t change their surnames after they get married, do they? Or am I being a sexist here?)
2. Were you happy when you woke up today?
   Not exactly.
3. What’s something that can always make you feel better? When did you need it last?
   A session of WarCraft with my mates. I have needed it quite a few times. But haven’t gotten a chance to play for a while now.
4. What are you excited for?
   New job, maybe. Maybe I’ll get married soon. Maybe I won’t. Not sure.
5. What were you doing yesterday?
   New home. So lots of carpentry job. Had to administer most of it. Then met up with Sakshi and a friend of hers. It was her birthday, yesterday.
6. What’s the last thing you put in your mouth?
   Coffee.
7. Have a best friend(s)?
   A couple, yeah.
8. Are you scared to fall in love?
   I am scared I fall in love too often.
9. Do you think teenagers can be in love?
   Yes, they can surely be in love. It’s a shame that more than 95% of it is just everything but love.
10. Last person you wanted to punch in the face?
    R. Any goddamned given day!
11. What do you want right now?
    I wanna be able to grow artificial spines, for people.
12. Who was the last person you took a picture with?
    Sakshi.
13. Are you single/taken/heartbroken/or confused?
    I ain’t confused. I can say that much.
14. When was the last time you cried?
    A couple of months ago, I guess.
15. Do you have a good relationship with your parents?
    Should pass on the names and phone numbers of my partners, to get a more accurate answer.
16. Do you find it hard to trust others?
    Trust? What’s that?
17. I bet you miss somebody right now..
    I almost always do.
18. Can you honestly say you’re okay right now?
    Nah, I ain’t. I am good.
19. Tell me what’s on your mind.
    Taking up this tag was a bad decision. It’s too fucking long.
20. What are you looking forward to in the next three months?
    How about a hike? And maybe a UK trip thrown in?
21. Have you ever worn the opposite sex’s clothing?
    Nah. Don’t think so.
22. When did you last talk to your number 1 top friend?
    “number 1 top friend”? Lolz! My friendships have a flat structure. No heirarchy.
23. Do you have someone of the opposite sex you can tell anything to?
    Anything, yes. Everything, no.
24. How’s your heart?
    Still beating. Not sure whether that’s fortunate, or unfortunate.
25. Have you ever felt like you weren’t important?
    Ohh… zillions of times.
26. Do you think somebody’s in love with you?
    I know.
27. What are you planning on doing after this?
    Sign out from office. Walk to India Gate. Get some fresh air. Sit for a while. Grab a ice cream, or two. Switch off my phone. And just settle into a trance.
28. When will your next kiss take place?
    My lips are always ready. It’s the other pair that’s the rarest. Sigh.
29. Have you told anybody you loved them today?
    No.
30. Who do you not get along with?
    R and G should top the list. Lately joined by M too.
31. What are you wearing right now?
    A pair of jeans, converse shoes, boxers and a T-shirt.
32. Are you wasting your time on the person you like?
    It ain’t called wastage. It’s called ‘experience’.
33. How did you feel when you woke up?
    The ‘Rush’. Rush to answer to the Nature’s call, you know.
34. Do you wish someone would call or text you right now?
    Right now, sure. But not while I am having my little ‘me time’ at the India Gate.
35. Do you crack your knuckles?
    When I am tensed up.
36. What were you doing yesterday at midnight?
    Fighting, on SMS.
37. Who’s the first B in your contacts?
    Bharat Rai Sharma.
38. When was the last time you laughed really hard?
    The night before.
39. Last awkward moment?
    When I proposed. That was the night before.
40. Are you afraid of the dark?
    Used to be. Not anymore. Check out this post to know why.
41. Do you have good vision?
    I wear spectacle. Cylindrical power. Go figure.
42. Have you ever tripped someone?
    Not intentionally.
43. Have you ever slapped someone?
    Yup. Almost 10 years back.
44. Do you laugh off embarrassing moments?
    You got a better solution?
45. Can you go out in public looking like you do?
    Huh? Then how else am I supposed to go out?
46. Is it easy for someone to make you smile?
    Depends, on my mood.
47. Has anyone put their arms around you in the past 5 days?
    Yup. I ain’t a socially ousted man.
48. Do you miss the way things used to be?
    No point missing anymore. You always got to move on. At least that’s what everyone around me keeps saying.
49. How often do you hold back from saying what you are thinking?
    These days, very often. Have hurt more than I can handle.
50. Want someone back in your life?
    A couple of them, yes.
51. Will tomorrow be better than today?
    I would surely try to make it so.
52. Does it bother you when someone lies to you?
    Other than a cery few close people, not really.
53. Is there anyone who understands your relationship status?
    Maybe. At least I myself don’t.
54. Are you a naturally happy person? Or is your happiness forced?
    If it’s forced, then how is it ‘happiness’?
55. Is there anyone you wish would fall in love with you?
    Jitne hain, kaafi hai!

I am not really tagging any one on this. If you wish to take it up, please do so, by all means.

sor·ry  [sor-ee, sawr-ee]

–adjective, -ri·er, -ri·est.

1. Feeling regret, compunction, sympathy, pity, etc.: to besorry to leave one’s friends; to be sorry for a remark; to be sorry for someone in trouble.
2. Regrettable or deplorable; unfortunate; tragic: a sorry situation; to come to a sorry end.
3. sorrowful, grieved, or sad: Was she sorry when her brother died?
4. Associated with sorrow; suggestive of grief or suffering; melancholy; dismal.
5. wretched, poor, useless, or pitiful: a sorry horse.
6. (used interjectionally as a conventional apology or expression of regret): Sorry, you’re misinformed. Did I bump you? Sorry.

Apologies are never easy, it doesn’t matter whether we have wronged, or whether we are perceived to have wronged. You would find innumerable people in your life who get choked when it’s their turn to be/say sorry. While expression of both gratitude and repentance is important, not many seem to realize that. And then there’s the other extreme kind who are ready to say ‘sorry’ at the drop of your hat. And then there are some who are not really sorry for what they did, but are sorry for the fact that they got busted.

One of my best mates has been saying ‘Sorry’ to me quite a bit, lately, and when it happened again today morning, I couldn’t help but wonder actually what was s/he sorry about? This gave birth to a string of thoughts, trying to figure out why would someone be sorry, or say ‘sorry’ to the other person? What might be the circumstances that give rise to such a scenario?

You know you are right, but not in a mood to fight
May be you are in a fight with your wife. Now, while you come out of the washroom, your wife points out that you have again left your seat up. Well, you know that’s the way you need the toilet to be, anyway, and there’s no rule book out there that says that it can’t stay up. It’s the women who always need it down, not men. And yet, you just say sorry and lift the toilet seat up, just because you are too pissed to have another shouting match!

You know you are right, but do not wish to hurt the other person’s feelings
You know you do not care about the skimpy clothes that you wear to college. And it doesn’t matter what your father says, you shall never stop going for basketball matches without your fav pair of skimpy shorts. And yet, when your father catches you wearing one of those, you say ‘sorry’ get back to your room. You simply change, and wear track pants for the match – with the shorts safely hidden right inside those pants, and intended to be shown off only in the college.

You know you are wrong, and you say ‘sorry’ just to get out of the ‘situation’
This one is a classic! Your best friend tells you how he had screwed that colleague of his during one of the office rave parties. During one of your conversations with his girlfriend, you come out with the truth, and get your friend’s ass kicked. When confronted, you simply say ‘I am sorry’.

You know you are wrong, and just want the other person to forgive and forget your wrong-doings
One night, you got all horny, and ended up sleeping with your friend’s girlfriend. The next day, after your friend get to know about the incident, you go to him and say “Dude, I am really sorry, man. I was inebriated, last night. Can we please forget whatever happened last night, and move on?”

You know you are wrong, and repent your decision, but would do it again, given the exact circumstances
You haven’ studied a thing for your exams. So, you go with the flow and try to cheat during the examinations to save yourself from a repeat of term. Alas! You get caught! While you cry away a river and say ‘sorry’ innumerable times to the professor, in your heart you know that you’d cheat again, if such desperate situations land up again!

You know you are wrong, repent your decision, and would like to do the best you can to set things right
This one goes without explanation, I guess!

So, what do you think? When do you say ‘Sorry’ to people?

Sayonara, people! If we meet again, it’d be my pleasure to entertain you again!

I love you all. Well, almost all.

Oh, speaking of butthurts, I just came across this little form for those who had faced butthurt himself. The purpose? Maybe it shall help you retrospect. Or, maybe you should fill it up before you wanna report about your butthurt to the police

Anyway, I’d like you tag Suruchi, Cathy, Sakshi, and Rohini to spread the message and let every know about the Butthurt Report Form, in their own style. Oh by the way, I picked it up from my friend, inkv.

Well, first things first. I must admit, I have NEVER (yes, never!) before received a blog award, and here is the very first one, thanks to Rohini. Yes, I am happy. I must admit, I am not really excited about the award itself. But the very gesture that Rohini felt this blog should be awarded, was what touched my heart. And of course, just like your very first love, you always remember your very first blog award. So, without any more ado, here’s my award!

And, I would like to pass on this award to Sakshi, Cathy, Suruchi and Uncle J.

It was just 3 days back when mom gave me an amazing news. They are going back home. Yes, they are going back to Mumbai! Two more weeks and Mumbai’s gonna be my home again. Now, I have spent 15 years of my life in Mumbai. And Mumbai is where my heart is. So naturally, now I have started to target all my energy and concentration onto moving to Mumbai. Do not know how soon that’s gonna happen, but I am surely keeping my fingers crossed.

The day before yesterday, I got involved into an amazing verbal volley with my landlord. Why? Well, we discovered that he has installed a separate tap/knob that would stop the water supply at our and the other tenant’s flat, but he and his sorry family could enjoy the bliss of 24×7 water supply. You have no idea about the extent I was infuriated to. Anyway, we have already given them an ultimatum and leaving the present house as soon as we find a new one, with 24×7 water and power supply. Have had enough of living in the primitive age!

Remember my post about the launch of a product that i was working on? Well, that went on really well. Finally, nothing goofed up, and now we are rolling. Just one more iteration and we are gonna make a pan-India launch, very soon. Want free passes? Then don’t forget to leave a comment to this blog post

For the last couple of days, a weird feeling of depression has engulfed my heart. It’s a useless thought, I know. I know, it’s not worth losing my sleep over. And yet, try how I may, still haven’t managed to shake those images out of my head. Life’s suddenly started to feel drudgery. Even with Suruchi’s amazing anecdotes, that innocent laugh has stopped reappearing from within. Now, everything’s so controlled. Suddenly, I feel so grown up, and old. Suddenly, I am grumpy. Makes me feel like shouting on top of my voice, “Somebody, please save me! Show me the path!!” Now that I can actually see my life getting back on track, why can I not be happy? Why can I, at least, not pretend to be happy?

How I wish I knew!

Well, we had an internal product launch yesterday. Didn’t really go too well. The software engineering department fucked up. Now, it’s been rescheduled to tomorrow. Hope this time it goes smooth. But I must admit, it felt amazing, the feeling of anticipation, and tension, when we were going through the live demo. Okay, my job here is to take care of the product development, and branding exercises. So, the product is kinda my baby too!

Back at home, we just fired the cook. I don’t think it’s because he cooked bad. It’s more because I am very fussy about how my food is supposed to taste. And being a decent cook myself, I kinda have a tongue for tastes. I am not really much of a hogger, but can surely call myself a connoisseur. Anyway, for now, it’s gonna be me, cooking. And tonight’s menu – steamed rice, daal and Baingan ka Bharta

It’s been a while since i have been wanting to write some fiction. Talking about your real life is good. But then fiction is what makes your heart race, fiction is what allows you to hallucinate. Or should I say, fantasize? I know I am more of a narrator, than a story teller. So, I decided to share a little incident in my life that not many people really know of. And well, let’s not consider Sakshi in the list. She’s been around for a long while, now.

So, the story is from a time when the movie Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge was still a rage. It was from the time when Jurassic Park had just released and people were still reading books about Stegosaurus, Diplodocus and the T-Rex. I used to live in a hostel. The city was Kolkata. The year was 1995. And I was just a 10 year old kid.

Now, before I move ahead with the story, there’s a prologue that I should wrap up, first. It was back in 1990 when the first of my grandfathers passed away. Till date, I have no clue what was his ailment. As a matter of fact, this is the first time I am wondering about what might have happened to him. Anyway, getting back to the story, it was 1990 and I used to stay in Raipur. One afternoon, we received a call from my family in Kolkata and we got to know that he was already dead. By the time we could arrange for the train tickets and travel a whole day to reach home, he was already cremated. Apparently, it was getting late and they couldn’t let the dead body stay at home for long. In short, they couldn’t wait till we could arrive.

Even though I was just 5 year old back then, I understood what death meant. I understood the fact that my grandpa would never come back. I understood that I would never be able to go out for a evening walk with him, or ask him for a toffee. I understood that from then on I had to wash my own ass after I am done with my morning chores, even when I was in Kolkata.

He had died on a Tuesday. And since that same day, every single Tuesday, if I ever looked up at the moon, I would see his face. I’d see his face wavering in the thin air, smiling at me. While it felt good to be able to see him again, the very realization that he was dead got me into a very weird kinda dilemma. I used to say to myself, “if my grandpa is dead, and if he isn’t coming back, then who does this face belong to?” Since I couldn’t figure out a plausible answer, I figured that it must be my grandpa’s ghost. And thus started my fear for ghosts. Then on, I could never stay in a dark place, all alone. So much so, even if I had to open the door at my house, and there was no light in the living room, during the evening, I would keep singing loudly, trying to keep myself strong. Yes, that’s how fearful I had become, to the idea of ghosts!

Cut to 1995, the time of this story. The hostel I used to stay in, had a strict rule of switching off ALL lights by 10:30 pm, since we were supposed to wake up at 4 in the morning, every single day, for physical exercise. We weren’t allowed to switch on the lights even if we needed to go to the bathroom (yes, it was a pretty strict kinda school). So, I had made a pact with this room mate of mine, called Sourabh Majumdar (SM). Since he too was a bit scared, we decided that every time we needed to hit the loo, we’d wake the other up and make visitations together.

On one such night, it was 3 AM, and my bladders simply refused to wait till the day break, and the drops were already formulating. I got up from the bed, went to SM, and poked him on his tummy -

Me: Dude! Oye!

SM: Huh? (open his eyes with heavy restrain)

Me: Hey, get up. I need to go to the loo.

SM: Okay, you can go. (and wraps himself with the bed sheet)

Me: What do you mean ‘you can go‘? You need to get up and come with me.

SM: Okay, you go. I will follow. (still wrapped tight underneath the bed sheet)

Me: Come one, man! We had a deal, remember? Don’t bail out on me now, man.

SM: You are such a pussy, man. The loo’s just 20 meters away. Just go ahead, man.

Me: I can’t go all alone. You need to come with me.

SM: … (what really did you expect? This time, he didn’t even bother to reply, and went back to his snoring routine)

So, I gathered all my courage and tried to go out of my room. Now, right outside, there was a corridor. And the other side was a wall. Basically, half of it was the wall and the rest was grilled. The wall was basically where the building ended. There was a garden on the other side. I was on the 3rd floor.

I figured, there was a little hole on the wall. What more, the height was also perfect for my little brother to just take a peek outside, get some freash air, and also take a leak. Yes, you imagined it right. That’s exactly what I did. Okay, correction. That’s exactly what I was doing when suddenly the hostel’s warden bellowed, “who the hell is that?”

A few facts about the warden of my hostel. He was an ex-army man. He weighed over 100 Kgs (I suspect). And he would always wake up earlier than the students, get his room prim and proper, and then go out for a walk. Yes, he too lived in the hostel.

Anyway, the moment he bellowed, I could hear thumping sounds on the steps. sounds that kept getting closer to me. I got so terrified that I immediately retracted, pulled up my shorts’ zippers, ran into my room, and straight into my bed. Yeah, while I behaved like I was fast asleep, my ears were more alert than ever!

Now, this guy comes all the way up the third floor, lights up the corridor, gets straight into my room, fires up the tube lights, literally hurls me out of the bed, and started thrashing like a mad man. 10 minutes and a chipped tooth later, he left me writhing on the floor, at the mercy of the stone cold marble I was lying on. When my batch mates pulled me up, they told me that they could see innumerable sets of red-colored fingers, in five, right on mt back and the sides. Yes, even I took a glance at a couple of them. They were right.

I know what you are wondering. How did the warden know it was me, eh? Well, by the time the day light broke, everyone in the hostel knew what had happened with me. And even they had the same question. After breakfast, a couple of those kids were chatting up with the warden when an intelligent chap finally asked him the million dollar question. And he replied, “when I went up there, I could see drops of you-know-what trailing from the wall, all the way to his bed. The rest was pretty simple!”

Yes, even my own piss betrayed me!!

Oh, and did I tell you, the garden that I had pissed on? The one at the other side of the wall? Well, they used to take flowers from there for pooja, at the temple :-p

P.S. – Never again had I been afraid of ghosts. And never again did I see grandpa’s face, simmering over the moon, on a Tuesday night!

It’s a tiring day. It’s a real fucking tiring day.

First, one of my roommates ends up with 10 friends of his, most of them rockers, last night. And they wreaked up a havoc in the house. The whole house is full of rain stained foot prints, the bathroom drain is clogged by the maggi they had cooked last night, the whole kitchen has potato peels, water and chinese soup spewn all over. And to top it all, I had prepared Omlette and bread as breakfast for these guys, in the morning.

I come to office and the day starts with a firing from the boss. On top of it, have a 5 men’s worth job to be completed, all by myself. With the imminent launch of the product, now I am immersed into shit loads of marketing strategies, but my company has not a pence to spend. So, on the whole, life’s been a big mess, since last night. What’s worse, since lunch, I have been feeling a bit feverish too. But then again, got no respite. I shall be working tomorrow too, on a fucking weekend.

People keep telling me that it’s just for a week, and that I should go on a holiday, after all of this is over. Fuck! How the hell do I do that? I have already taken leaves for almost 12 days, in the past 2 months. So yeah, no hope on that side either. Thankfully, at least, my personal life is gradually getting sorted out.

Damn, I so desperately need a break

Oh hell, what the fuck am I complaining about? This is how your life turns into when neither you nor your landlord understands each other’s language! So, we have already notified that we shall be leaving this house, after the stipulated ‘notice period’ is over. And yes, now we are back on the road, house hunting!

Ohkay, just had a glass of Glucon-D and a bar of Snickers. Time to hit the bed again. Have a group photo tomorrow, in office. Yes, my product is finally gonna get launched, on the 17th of this month. I am excited!

At times I wonder what’s the fun in updating your blog at the middle of the night (okay, it’s almost morning now). But then, I realized the satisfaction is when you wake up the next morning and already find comments waiting for you. Of course, that is a distant dream in my case. But then again, what’s the harm in hoping, eh? Some day…

Edit [May 13, 2010 - 1735 hours]: By the way, here’s the group photo that we finally snapped!

How many of you use Analytics software to track the kind of visits you get on your blogs and websites? Well, at least I do. And the kind of feedback I get out of them, is pretty mind blowing at times. Do not believe me? Well, here are a few keywords that people had searched for, and reach this blog of mine. Do check them out.

1. Bhoot Bangla in Delhi (This one has been topping the list for over 6 months now. And I keep wondering why the hell would someone search for a Bhoot Bangla, and that too in Delhi?)
2. Indian Man Sexuality (Now, since when did the women start googling about the nature of an Indian man’s sexuality?)
3. Long Distance Extra Marital Affair (Having an extramarital affair is foolish enough. Someone explain to me why the hell would someone have an extra marital affair in the long distance?)
4. Affairs that are justified (Since when have people needed to reason to justify an affair?)
5. Can a man break from a long-term extra marital affair (Thank goodness, at least someone had some good sense, even if that happened much late)
6. Can infidelity be justified? (I have a feeling his wife had just his credit card bills)
7. Does the boyfriend in a extra-marital affair control the husband? (Holy shit! Is this what today’s men has turned into?)
8. Extramarital affairs in Bangalore (Damn! Now I regret not putting up my address in Bangalore, on my blog)
9. How to walk away from an extra marital affair? (So, there actually are sensible people around, eh?)
10. Trapped in an extra marital affair with my sister (Erm! I swear I haven’t written any blog post on THAT one. Google playing tricks? And well, whoever dude searched for this one, stay happy that you are at least keeping it in the family, man!)

See, how entertaining it gets when you know what are the keywords that actually helped people discover this blog of mine? So, in case you use an Analytics software yourself, do tell us about your top search keywords!

P.S. – Of course, I do realize that after this post there will be a lot more visitors to this blog, redirected by the ‘extra marital’ keyword.

Raj came to Bangalore on the Friday night, and another friend of ours, Golu, was supposed to join us by the next day, morning. Friday, we had an amazing time, with me cooking chicken, rice and a couple of poached eggs, accompanied by the legendary old Monk. Here are a couple of pics of that night. You can click on them to get the ‘bigger picture’.

The second day – Saturday
The next evening, we were all supposed to go for the Iron Man 2. Golu called up and told us that he missed his train the previous day, and shall land up in Saturday, right at the movie theater. While all seemed well, since I had passed on the address to Golu, we went in for the movie and thought we would get him in once he arrived. Alas! it so happened that the fool ended up in ‘Garuda Mall’ in M G Road, while we were in ‘Garuda Swagath Mall’ in Jayanagar. Now, imagine the kind of confusion it had created, since poor Raj was all over the mall, looking for him, asking him to be near the food court, and Golu starts screaming at him when he can’t find Raj at the food court in M G Road. What’s worse was since both the malls belonged to the same group, ‘Garuda’, even the food courts were named the same, and had the exactly the same number of floors! Well, in the whole confusion, Raj missed 20 minutes of the movie, and Golu could watch only the last 20 minutes.

And thus the night starts. We left the multiplex at 11:30pm, and neither of us were interested to go back home to have food. So I called up Just Dial, and figured out a 24×7 food place, called Cilantro. Sheesh! They had a pathetic buffet spread which tasted real bad, and we wanted to go somewhere else for the desserts. So, we booked a cab, and moved to this amazing midnight cafeteria called ‘Monsoon’, at the Park hotel. However, all of us wanted to down a few drinks, and were getting increasingly restless. Suddenly, Golu came up with an amazing idea that the Taj hotels have their bars open all night. So, off we went, hopped onto the car, and started on our way to the Taj Residency. Well, as you would expect, even their bar closed at 11:30pm. Anyway, we just sat at their cafeteria for an hour or so, had some desserts, and got our sorry asses back home!

The third and the final day – Sunday
We left home around midnight, and went to a pub called “Mojo’s”. If you ever happen to go there, do check out their dosas. They serve really yummy and fluffy dosas. And of course, nothing can beat the beer that costs just Rs 40 a mug [Note to Cathy: This is where I am gonna take you, for your all-you-can-have night ] Raj left us after lunch since he had a meeting, and Golu & I moved to a gaming parlor. There, we met 2 more of my friends, and went to the second pub of the evening, and guzzled Belgian beer.

To cut the long story short, we hopped on 5 pubs on that single night, consumed more alcohol than either of us ever did, in our lives, Golu got lost the second time, because he was drunk and slept off in the lobby of some random restaurant, and we blew up a huge hole in our pockets, by the time we reached back home. But then, we had an amazing time, that night! Shall remember it for a long time to come.

And yeah, as promised, here are the pictures. For more of them, add me up on Facebook.

I may be able to speak the languages of human beings and even of angels,
but if I have no love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell.
I may have the gift of inspired preaching,
I may have all knowledge and understand all secrets,
I may have all the faith needed to move mountains,
but if I have no love, I have nothing.

Love is patient and kind;
it is not jealous or conceited or proud;
love is not ill-mannered, selfish or irritable;
love does not keep a record of wrongs;
love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth.
Love never gives up.

Love is eternal.
There are inspired messages, but they are temporary;
there are gifts of speaking in strange tongues, but they will cease;
there is knowledge, but it will pass.
For our gifts of knowledge and of inspired messages are only partial,
but when what is perfect comes, then what is partial, disappears.

Meanwhile, these three remain -
Love, Faith and Hope.

And the greatest of these is Love.

Has it ever happened to you?

As I wrote in my post yesterday, I finally went out and bought a stove, bought a lot of groceries, and almost setup the kitchen. Now, it’s a bachelor’s pad. You can not really expect a heaven, but it looks pretty decent, at least functional. We made steamed rice and dal makhani last night, along with the amazing mango pickle I had bought. Filled up our tummy to the brim, and hit the sack.

Cut to today morning. I wake up to one of my roommates screaming my name at the top of my voice. Nah, he wasn’t in any compromising position while I was sleeping. Just that, I opened my eyes to find myself right in the middle of a sea. Okay, maybe that is an exaggeration. But my whole frigging house was full of at least an inch thick water!

How? Well, apparently we left no water in the tank last night, and one of my roommates left the tap opened, when he realized that there was no more water to wipe off his ass. And well, I am sure you can very well imagine what might have happened next!

To top it all, I had gone to bed at 5am. And got jarred back to reality right in the morning, at about 8am. Then started the job of water fighting. Man, what a morning it was!

Oh, did I mention that my mattress got royally fucked, by the water?

Here are a few pictures to help you visualize what we went through.

Statutory Warning: There would be a couple of topless men with ugly paunches! Nah, no one to swoon over.

That's the current state of the kitchen

Myself, oblivious to the sea around me

The 'Guilty', trying to wipe off the water

My 'workstation', temporarily shifted to the other room

What an innovative way to get the water out of the house!

Something good out of the whole mess - A clean and shining floor

On another note, a college buddy of mine, Raj, will be in Bangalore for the weekend. Shall have a helluva lot of fun, after ages. Will surely put up some pictures of us!

It’s been 5 months I moved to Bangalore, and I have been eating out every single day. No, I can cook. As a matter of fact, I can cook pretty well. Ask Sakshi, if you wanna It’s just that, I had been feeling very lazy to buy a stove, gas cylinder, a fridge and the likes. But now I am tired trying to cope up with the trademarked curry leaves (refer my previous post) in almost every meal of mine. Okay, I do like the dosas, and appam, and kesari bath, and the khara bath. But then you also need to understand that I am not brought up with the practice of having rasam and rice, every single day. And in my bid to have some good food, I end up spending not less than Rs 350 every single day, just on my meals.

And of course, I miss my fish! I miss the Bengali style of food that both my mom and granny can cook up. And I miss begun bhaja. Yumm!

So, as I was saying. Just got the notification from my bank that my salary has been credited, and I am gonna go shopping, after office. It’s the stove and the gas cylinder, this month. And then time for a fridge, the next month. In July, my birthday month, I am planning to gift myself a proper double bed. Yeah, I do not have a bed right now. Never bothered to buy one, since the time I left Delhi. And considering the fact I still couldn’t manage to get a household help, thanks to the language barrier, my house gets cleaned almost once a week, that too only if it’s lucky. So, having the mattress on the ground is not too interesting an idea.

Missing both Mumbai, and Delhi, a lot. Mumbai, because it’s my home. Delhi, because of the food. And of course, there are a lot of fond memories of Delhi, that I miss too. Big time!

Some day… some day I wanna move back to Mumbai, and raise my kids there. Some day, I would like to die there. After I am dead, whether I am cremated, or buried, or left to rot, I really don’t give a fuck! :-p

P.S. – Once I get the stove and the works, I shall even put up my favorite recipes on this blog. Now, how many guys have you ever met who writes recipes on his blog?

It’s been 5 months and 3 days since I moved in to Bangalore. The reason why I decided to land up here was ‘coz I have always been travelling, all my life. Moving from one city to another, moving into one house, from the other, had become a part and parcel of my life. Plus, I love the new smell, the change in culture, the change in the taste of the spices, and of course, new faces and more shapely asses to ogle at.

So yeah, I was speaking of Bangalore. I was reading this post by Cathy, titled “Things you might find shocking about Australia/Perth“, when I figured I too wanted to write on how the life is, in Bangalore, as I have experienced.

1. Not many Lungi-s around - As is the perception in the rest of the country, that all men in the Southern part of India do not wear pants at all. Okay girls, you do not have to get excited this soon. The idea is that the men always wrap around a printed piece of cloth to cover the lower half of their body. Err…sorry, it’s actually to cover just their mid-section, since they even pull it up in half, so that the whole garment (?) starts from the abdomen and ends just above their knees. Yes, I am talking about the legendary ‘half-lungi’. And as the legend goes, they wear that lungi not just to their community vegetable markets, but also to the ‘new-culture’ malls, pubs, and even weddings! Well, here’s one myth I’d like to break. In the last 5 months, I am sure I haven’t seen more than 5 people wearing such ‘half-lungi’ outside the confines of their houses.
2. Bangaloreans respect your privacy - This is one thing I never found in Delhi, while I was there. People around this place are absolutely quiet and do not give a flying fuck about your life. This doesn’t mean that they are heartless. Rather the opposite. If they find you in a problem, they go out of their way to help you out. But as long as you are happy, they do not care what you wear or who you fuck!
3. A wine shop every 200 meters - Yes, it’s for nothing that Bangalore is called the ‘Beer city’ of India. Not just having a wine shop at every nook and cranny, but also any restaurant, worth its salt, you go into, you’d find them serving alcohol. At least beer. Yes, that’s customary, it seems. What more, for the first time in my life I have seen people to even stand at the wine shop itself, buy their alcohol and drink it there itself. Yes, the wine shops also stock ice, water and ‘chakna’ (accompaniments) to please their customers! What more? I have even noticed a couple of my colleagues who go out for lunch, down a couple of beers, and then get back to work :-p
4. Rogue autos everywhere - Previously, I used to think that Delhi autos were the costliest in the country. The situation’s worse, here in B’lore. First, they charge Rs 7 per km (Mumbai: Rs 3.5 per km, Delhi: Rs 4.5 per km). Second, they’d never take you to your destination as per the ‘meter’. They’ll always quote a price which is at least one and a half times of what’s legal, and you’d have no option but to give in since every bloody one quotes the same!
5. Andhra style ‘Authentic’ Chinese Food - Yes, almost every restaurant (mid-ranged) you land up in, everyone seems to serve most of the popular cuisines, but with an Andhra twist. What might be the twist, eh? Well, doesn’t matter whether you order chicken manchurian, pork chops, pad thai, or even chicken butter masala, ‘curry leaves‘ are omnipresent. And anyone who had tried out curry leaves would be able to appreciate how it tastes, when you get it along with your Chinese or North Indian food. And yes, you shall also find ‘Andhra style authentic multi-cuisine’ restaurants.
6. Yes, they know Hindi - This was another myth that I had grown up on, that the people of the South know very little Hindi. And even if they do, they will never use it to speak with you, doesn’t matter whether you know any other language or not. Now, my landlord’s family does fall into that category. No one in his family understands either Hindi or English. All the landlord knows to pronounce, at the end of every month, is ‘rent’! But then, apart from this aberration, I have found that the people from Bangalore do know a lot of Hindi. As a matter of fact, I remember, during my initial days, I’d ask someone for directions in English, and he’d reply in Hindi!

Lightning flashes and lights the room,
memories flashing through my mind,
of warmth and love I feel for you,
and love we’ll never leave behind,

The gentle rain is tapping on my window,
as I am safe and nestled in your mirage’d embrace,
for storms never last when you’re near,
this special bond you can’t replace.