Puky Liberation...

I’ve come back from work early today…started to feel a bit sick in the middle of the day. The day was kinda good until afternoon, was gearing up on new things at my new workplace. On my way back home, in the bus, I was thinking how I’ll miss this place for the next few hours of the day: my new friends, their chirpy voices, going for the coffee breaks with them, silly jokes that we all feel like laughing about, chit-chatting in the parking lot while going back home,….I’ll miss all of that for todayL. No brownie points for guessing…Yes, it’s my first job :P, after long slogging years of academia, in a land where the word “education” means differently to different people.

I reach my home feeling pukier than before due to the pollution…toss off my sandals and bag & lie on the sofa, like a dusty piece of upholstery that needs a quick rinse in the washing machine. My dog runs up to me as eager as ever to lick my face, as if I were the icing on his birthday cake. I don’t feel like petting him today with all the nauseated feeling. My mom hands me over a huge mug of some age old concoction which according to her is supposed to make me feel better. She’s the self-proclaimed Arnica (an all-curable herb) of the house & probably it’s the modernized version of the concoction that her Arnica used to make her have in her younger years :D. She looks too busy today, goes to her room with the newspaper & her glasses. I’m told she has to sleep after that to wake up afresh for the evening AOL classes….AOL Classes! Wow!!! “America Online’s actually educating people for using their internet services ! ? ! ? Strange marketing strategy, I thought :D. It’s good & relieving too to hear that, but I’m still confused how AOL has become gracious enough to start all these evening classes to teach my mom how to use the internet! To my utter dejection I soon discover, that’s not “America Online” & u’re a jerk like me if u thought that AOL meant that…it means “Art Of Living” :P). I think to myself…Art of Living!?!?...Why???...She’s been living her life quite artistically as of now. Why does she have to attend classes for that! Or is it some fashionable means to spirituality which people can only experience while chanting hymns and songs, draped in starched cotton sarees, sitting amongst other such spiritual fashionistas??? I soon realize it’s her much-awaited & new found “talkative daughter gone for work-hurray-liberated feeling”. I quickly finish up the puke relieving tea; pull up the sheets and go to sleep.

I wake up after an hour and a half, feeling much better. Arnica’s tonic has worked wonders yet again! J She asks me how I’m feeling now & then strikes off a confident & triumphant smile on her face as I give a positive response, sheepishly though. Less does she know that I also drank up half a can of Pepsi after she left the room :P. It surprisingly worked pretty well, being cock-tailed with the age-old concoction I guess!

I go up on the internet, my usual recreation on the social networking site, when I’m at home. I read one of the wall posts…One of my cousins jovially comments on her own slumber party pictures & calls herself & one of her girlfriends a BTM. Well…It’s an acronym for “Behenji turned modern” :P. I start to think about it, wondering how many BTMs I’ve come across…the list seems never ending. In fact I’ve witnessed the whole metamorphosis of some people who have evolved out of the “B”-word for good or for bad, I really dunno & I’m no one to decide…. I believe that man is the best judge of his/her own being.

Sad to say, but being an engineering graduate from Mumbai university (I’ve just heard, never experienced, that it’s one of the reputed one’s :P), I’ve spent more than half of my youth within people mostly confused about their existence on the earth. Strangely or so, in the so-called reputed places as this one, there’s this huge clan of oily haired, shabbily dressed (mostly non-fitting, over-sized Punjabi suits), diffident looking, geeked up people who always convinced the world how intelligent and worthy they are through hours of rote learning & then puking it all out on their exam papers. They didn’t ever feel like discovering themselves as creative people capable of many other things than just puking theory on papers! These are “the over achieving Behenjis of our nation”. But u shouldn’t be surprised if u happen to meet them someday with a completely changed exterior. By exterior, I mean the very obvious things people hold on to, to groom themselves appearance-wise…And it’s only the exterior, because if you attempt to strike a conversation with them, you’ll find nothing’s changed. And not to mention, there are the male counter parts of the behenjis clan too! Ahh, now what do we call them??? They exist at all different levels in society & u bet, they’re here to stay !....Indian societies have been ranked the top-most in coining such words mostly with females….”behenjis”, “kakubais”, “Sandra from bandra”, etc; all of these phrases are used with the female gender alone – It’s convenient in a male chauvinist society like ours. But if u’ve ever noticed, there are several male BTMs too, who have all of the feathers in their caps for being baptized as a BTM. They do all their best to cover their sheepish compulsives with freakish props like some ear-nose piercings, tattoos, silly and tacky pick-up lines, some rote-learned cliché lines which someone sometime must’ve told them, sounded intellectual :P. But what these BTMs do not know is that the more they try to hide all the “BTM-giri” the more it shows :D. It somehow gives a direct hint that the “male-counterparts of behenji’s” (although an ever so growing clan in their population) feel extremely insecure in their existence: D. They need serious help!

According to me, all this just goes way too beyond a person’s attire, appearance & gender…it’s the way u think!!! Few people irrespective of the way they appear to be, have their own mind and are comfortable in their skins. Creative minds respect other creative intellects & that achieves larger goals…that’s education for me. I could never understand why and how people manage to “not be themselves” & just do or not do things because the world is doing it or not doing it! I mean why would people wanna waste their lives getting intellectually stunted and stagnated??? After having lived and moved around different people, all I respect in them is what they think…the courage of conviction & a sense of belief in themselves. I feel liberated when I know I have said what I think, feel and mean. That’s true liberation for me…

I leave today’s blog with a good dialogue that I heard somewhere & liked it: “I don’t want to be product of my environment; I want my environment to be product of me”

When you can't speak your mind

How often have you thought of just blurting out some stupidity, some silliness, or even something truly irrational just for the heck of it?How often have you tried to sneak out an odd comment just to show irritation and/or disapproval? How often have you actually said something that probably didn't mean anything other than a fleeting wise-guy comment?

Chances are...you have done it at some point of time or the other.

Probably you weren't serious about it maybe the attention span was no wider than a sharpened pencil point. Probably it was your way of expressing your opinion on something or just making a silly comment; lets face it, we all want to be able to speak...whenever-wherever! Its just that feeling of liberation when you blatantly speak out your mind; not for anyone else....probably just for yourself...just to feel good!

However, every now and then there is someone in the room who will refute your fleeting moment of liberation. That one person will make it a point to express their disapproval and probably show some disdain. Probably they just want to take a dig at you or have something against you. It could also be that they are harboring some form of negative emotions/feeling towards you that makes them a bit hostile.

And then there are times when you feel free to blurt out some silly stuff and then the VP of your company just passes by and you keep wondering if he heard it or not. What if he heard it, he must be having a bad impression of you, which you never wanted to portray and then you keep cursing yourself that why did I have to open my mouth at that very moment when he was there. Why not a second before or a second after? Why why why in god’s name he had to come by that time only.

Whatever be the case, chances are that you will, more often than not, meet a situation when you just cant speak your mind. What a pity!

Jam on a Friday Morning

Guest Writer: Gayatri Joshi



A nice sunny morning and great day ahead waiting for me,but who knew that the begining was going to be screwed.It makes you feel like screaming; You are about to start your day, that too a "Friday" when everyone is soooo enthusiastic about finishing their work and then head to enjoy an astounding weekend, and absorbed in all those funfilling thoughts you get trapped in a heavy traffic, GOD SAVE ME, that was the first thought which came to my mind,and the next was why I am living in this country,where people don't need a reason to create such problems,they just do it,why.. no one has solved this puzzle.

So I ran towards the stop but as usual I missed my bus, this is very cliche to me, and known fact for others :) ,usually when I miss my bus its not so tough as I get a ric and I am relaxed as in I fully deligate the job to the auto driver, now its not my fault that I am late,its time for the autowala to show his caliber :) ,well as almost everyday, my pocket was going to get a bang with the ric's charge,but there was no other go,so I catched a ric and thought my problem is solved, very stupid of me,planning the weekend fun,and engrossed in the shopping thoughts, I startled,WOW ; there was a long awaiting queue of vehicles all of them wanting to reach their destinations sooner they can, within a fraction of second two emotions aroused one is :) and the other one was :( ,which was more disturbing.

Why all these people have to leave at this time only,why are they going towards same direction,why there is a TRAFFIC JAM :( ,GOD SAVE ME what do I do now,how will I reach office,if I get late I will have to stay late,who wants that, and that too on a friday evening.... Oh No,I m in big trouble,thinking all this I was so restless, no matter how much caliber the autowala has my day is anyway screwed.I picked up my phone and called my friend and hurrayyyy what I hear,the company bus has not yet reached office,that only sentence of her made me relaxed.

Now I started watching the fun on road,I m calling it fun because watching the running vehicles outside was the only thing I could have done sitting in an auto,oh did I say running sorry I should have said "moving vehicles" :), what's the use of buying high speed, more milage ,great pickup vehicles,after all they need to be on "Mumbai ki sadkon pe", thinking and smiling I "finally" reached office,took a deep breath and headed towards my desk,where our gang was standing."What heavy traffic it was" was my first statement,although I knew that at the begining I was late,still, who wants to take the blame ;)

My fiancée is fighting with me again :)

There are some things in my life I just can’t understand. My fiancée picking up fight with me was one of them. I really couldn’t understand why she loved fighting with me. She has been fighting with me since last 10 years (since we met in college), and her fighting spirit hadn’t seized a bit, on the contrary, it had improved over the period of time.

At first I thought, may be I say or do things which may be irritating or annoying because of which she got upset (I am sometimes guilty of that), but then on second thought I felt like – “No, it can’t be that”. For how could I explain her behavior on last Valentine Day (2009), the last-to-last Valentine Day (2008), the last-to-last-to-last Valentine Day (2007), last-to-last… when I was the best of myself.

To put things simply, from year 2000 to year 2006, I have been spoiling her with roses and chocolates when finally I said to myself, “Enough Boss, we are no longer college goers. No roses and definitely no chocolates, she mustn’t put up weight and spoil her figure”. So, in year 2007, there were no chocolates, no roses, and candle light dinner was also not an option as I was going through a lean phase, just her and I, on the beach was my idea of a perfect Valentine Day. And then I came to realize that I had just committed one of my gravest mistakes – assuming that grown up girls don’t need Public Display of Affection, also known as PDA; they need PDAs even if they become a granny. I was fire-fighting the next whole week. Since, then every Valentine has been an agni-pariksah for me.

So, I thought, she must be a bellicose that only can justify why she is so eager to fight with me. But bellicose or whatever, we have committed to each other, and that’s what mattered. So everything was going fine, till one day, when we had a fight. I never loose my temper but somehow I lost it then. I squarely blamed her for picking fights with me for no apparent reason and troubling me like anything. I never meant what I was saying, it was just in the heat of moment that I was saying. I continued my ranting for 2 minutes but she stood quietly saying nothing. Then suddenly tears came in her eyes. I can’t tell what I felt then. It was like you suddenly loose all your anger and start feeling so sorry. I just hugged her tightly in my arms. That was all I could do. A moment later, it seemed everything was fine again. But somehow I felt like she had not recovered from the hurt and was hiding it by trying to be her normal self.

I was right. After that incident, she simply shunned fighting with me. She became all the more caring. For the first few weeks, I thought she needed time to recover to her usual self, but nothing happened. Two months passed, and still no fight. I was becoming a little restless. May be I have become so used to her fighting that I was “sort-of” missing it. It was fun to win her over after every argument we had. So when one more month passed, I decided to take matters into my hand, I decided to provoke her to anger. It was her birthday and we met and I pretended that I have forgotten that it was her birthday. I was sure she will be angry like anything on knowing that I have forgotten her birthday. But surprisingly, I could feel no such thing. She was very happy having my company. Half an hour passed and I started feeling guilty about this stupid thing which I was doing.

She took my hands, and we crossed the road, and sat at the sea-promenade. She suddenly opened a small box which she was carrying with her and picked a piece of dhokla and put it to me. She knew I liked dhokla very much and would often bake it for me. But this time it was a very emotionally charged moment for me. I took a bite and she took the rest. I could hold my self no more.

Days passed and I felt burdened for what I felt I was responsible. When you are in a relationship, you loose yourself to your loved one and you loose it willingly. But I never wanted her to change in anyway; I liked her the way she was, spirited, bubbly, ready to fight with me for no reasons and then wanting me to woo her, being so caring whenever I was down.

I don’t why but whenever we met, I felt guilt ridden. I couldn’t say anything to her because in a relationship things are not said but felt. May be I could somehow put it across that I didn’t mean a damn thing of whatever I have said to her, that she should be her old self.

It was spring again for me, when I simply missed that it was Valentine Day this year and my fiancée fought with me like anything and I liked every bit of it.

Life in a Metro …. !!!!!!

The morning sun peeping through the curtain gap and the birds’ chirping woke me up in the morning. I thought to myself what was so good about the morning for the birds to chirp so loudly? Anyway, I got up lazily and opened the window and saw the light blue sky and morning sun shining. Felt the pleasant weather and realised what was good about this morning. Suddenly, the birds’ chirping was no more a noise pollution for me. I smiled and thought it’s been so long I enjoyed my morning like this. My usual day started with the daily monotonous routine of getting up with the feeling of wanting to sleep some more. But today was different. I didn’t want to sleep any longer. Maybe this had something to do with the fact that it was ‘Friday’. Yipeeeeee JJJ

I was busy soaking up the sun when the door bell rang. Enter the maid. Then started the daily hustle-bustle of getting ready to go to work. Though I had woken up earlier than usual (since I knew I could sleep a little longer tomorrow) I was still running late. Finished my daily chores and left the house to reach the bus stop. Just when I reached the building gate I realised I’d forgotten my phone at home. Oh God! Not again. I ran back quickly to get it. Meanwhile, a thought kept flashing in my mind ‘you’ll miss your bus today you’ll miss your bus today.’ Somehow I managed to reach the bus-stop just in time. Boarded the bus and breathed a sigh of relief. By now, the pleasant feeling that I’d woken up with had vanished. Seeing the bus driver a song popped in my head ‘yun hi chala chal rahi, yun hi chala chal’ from Swades. This was because the driver resembled the ‘baba’, played my Makarand Deshpande, in the movie and on whom the song was picturised on along with Shah Rukh Khan. Sitting in the bus I was making a mental list of things-to-do-today when, I guess, I dozed off. After 5mins I opened my eyes sleepily and was startled to see that we had almost reached the office. Itnni jaldi kaise??? I then realised that I’d actually slept for an hour. I straightened up myself and pretended as if was completely awake and active, and not the kinds to sleep off in the bus, though no one was looking at me since I was the only one sitting in the front seat. This was actually good because imagine somebody sitting in the same seat looking at you when you in deep sleep and your head drooping left, right and centre. How embarrassing!!! I got down from the bus and started walking towards my destination. Surprisingly, my enthusiasm to work had returned. Again, knowing myself, I guessed this again has something to do with the fact that it was Friday. I switched on the PC and thought will finish my work early and then enjoy the rest of the weekend. Login failed. I was unable to login in the PC.

Informed the IT guy. Restarted the PC and tried again. Still the same error. After waiting, waiting and some more waiting the IT guy finally showed up. Did something and informed ‘aadha ghanta aur lagega’ and disappeared for ages. Why me?? I thought. I looked around me; everybody’s eyes were fixed on their computer screen. The waiting started again. Finally, after three four more calls an IT guy showed up. A different one this time. By this time, I had lost the enthusiasm to work. It was fixed by lunch time. I started my work with countdown in my head. Another 4 hours to go …

Tracing the leisure in “Leisure time”???...Stop tracing, start living!!!

Have you ever thought of how methodical and routine our lives become? So much so, that many a times we leech out all the leisure and fun out of our “leisure time”. The exact dictionary meaning of the word leisure means – time off, relaxation, ease…It means freedom. Leisure should be spontaneous; the true essence of the word leisure can be experienced that way!

People working in most of the big and small corporate firms these days, are used to their ever so disciplined work routines that they tend to apply the same pattern elsewhere in their lives. Each one of us always feels this urge to preplan almost everything in our life. We plan when to kick-off the new project, we plan how to start working on it, we plan who all would be working on what modules, and we plan how to meet the deadlines & submit the project. Okay...that sounds fine enough! But then we also plan when and where to arrange a party, what time to call the guests, what food to order, from where to order, what music to play and the list goes on….Thank God no one decides on footsteps to be followed if it’s going to be a dance party ! This reminds me of how the character Sameer in the movie Dil Chahta hai gets irked when he knows that Pooja’s boring boyfriend gifts her with a balloon everyday at the signal as a token of their love & has made it a routine.

In big IT firms, like ours, there’s this big discussion over what people are “planning” to do on their weekends. We plan when and where to go out for the weekend, where to eat out, where to “Chill out” :P…We plan how much time we’ll chill out and how much of it we’ll soak up in the sun waiting for the bus, to go back home, in a tropical climate with generous layers of CO2 piled up before the Ozone. We also plan what movie to go for, where to meet up to go for the movie, what place to go to next if we get bored in the interval time :P. After we get back home AND having gone to the gym ON TIME, we sit and think what needs to be posted on the team’s blog & who’s “TURN” it is next to make the team coolest :P :D Do we need to plan all this??? We really don’t! We plan all the fun things in our lives way too much beyond anyone including the Almighty would expect us to!!!

I was asked by my mum the other day “What does the word Chillax mean exactly???, why do people of your generation use it so often & how did it originate?” I proudly imparted knowledge of “our generation” & explained to her the etymology of the word & told her it meant Chill + Relax = Chillax. And, while I was enlightening the ignorant from another generation, it struck me… We use these words very often these days, but we actually need to apply them in the way we lead our life. We really need to chill and relax, especially if it’s anything to do with our leisure time and hours of recreation. It’s time we stop tracing out ways and means to increase our “kewl” quotient, chalking out methods & setting deadlines for any kewl activity. We just need to feel the “kewlness” in life, enjoy the small things & spontaneity of the fun times in life.

I was having a good time, but then we ate at Papa John's !!!

My gang (by gang I mean my office colleagues) used to go for a walk daily after the lunch. We were eyeing at Papa John’s newly introduced Tandoori pizzas. So one not so fine day, we embarked in to avail of the Papa John's Introductory offer for the new Tandoori Pizzas - Buy One Medium pizza and get 'pizza for one' (more like 'pizza for one kid', they left that out somehow) free !!!

I am a total Smokin Joe’s loyalist and entirely at blame, got tempted by their tandoori pizzas which looked so good on their advertise paper, how do they do that? Snap some other pizza? Or take a close-up of the teeny tiny pizzas that they offer?


Take this: We ordered one tandoori paneer and one tandoori chicken pizza. The tandoori paneer and tandoori chicken pizzas looked EXACTLY the same with negligible amounts of paneer /chicken toppings respectively and with large doses of tomato, onion, corn… (screams). It was more like a half-cooked utappam than a pizza. The big red chillies, I thought, would be a saving grace, adding spice to the sad ordeal, but apparently that was too much to ask, the chillies were actually sour !!! (had never seen that happen before, hence the special mention). The paneer is white by the way. When they say tandoori paneer pizza, it is expected that the paneer toppings will be red in color.

When the offer said 'pizza for one' free on any medium pizza, we were expecting it to be of normal 7-inches pizza that is actually sufficient to serve one. But here, 'pizza for one' is actually a pizza smaller than 6-inches pizza, which I think, serves a kid. Dun go by this image...its just a 6-inches pizza !!


I did not even find it worth the money we spent on it. It was a badddd baddd experience. So watch out your steps before entering !!

As we were not satisfied with what we had in our lunch, we ordered a medium tandoori paneer pizza the same day from my favourite Smokin Joe's. And trust me it doesn’t get better than that, yummy and mouth watering pizza which finally satiated my pizza craving. :)

Warning: Recently Papa John's have come up with this new offer which says, "Unlimited pepsi and pizza for one for Rs 179 for veggies and Rs199 for non-veggies. Pizza will be served slice by slice. This offer is valid between 11AM to 7PM on weekdays" :) :)

Well, even Smokin Joe's has come up with some reli nice deals which one can opt for. They have the 'Pizza of the day' offer going on...just like the 'Sub of the day' of Subway. You can avail a proper 7-inches non-veg pizza on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday for 100 bucks only, and the 7-inches veg pizza on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday for 75 bucks only...ain't it kool !!!