So i was watching a supernatural horror flick about ghosts, how and why they communicate with the living .. the usual stuff and it got my thinking about AFTERLIFE. I have read and blogged previously about Afterlife or the life after death but that was more from a spiritual point of view. What the Yogi philosophy tells us or what we as Hindus believe in or what the other religions like Christianity have to say about afterlife and resurrection, etc .... but lets pretend for a second that we haven't read anything or have no reference .. in such a situation what would your views be about afterlife. Would you believe that we just disappear after death or that the souls just roam the earth in search of some medium to communicate with their loved ones or that we are just reborn, only the body perishes but the soul remains iternal ?
I personally have always believed in the supreme being. oF a higher power who guides us all. But then again if you believe in God then you have to believe in the Devil. The good cannot exist without the evil, the sun cannot rise without setting first, there cannot just be ups and no downs ...every coin my friend has two sides to it.
Just some fodder for the mind. I wish one day i would get a chance to devote a lot of time in researching the paranormal, the occult. After all don't we all want to know where we would be after this life. What the Afterlife would be like? Would it be black or white like heaven and hell, or would our Karma in this life decide what our afterlife would be like or would we be reborn each time until we achieve the highest spirituality or worst just hang around the living hoping to be able to communicate.
Mar 28, 2009
Mar 27, 2009
Its getting harder to RESIST the Temptation.
so it has been around 4.5 months, 137 days to be precise since i have given up eating meat and drinking alcohol. The first 3 months were alright, i wasn't craving for chicken and was content eating vegetarian food. All though i avoided going to my favourite places which had the best buffet or the sumptuous lamb shwarma or the amazing Hyderabadi biryani or avoiding Thai, Chinese, Italian, Mediterranean cuisines. i tried to eat only at Mexican places cause they have a decent vegetarian option. but when my friends ordered chicken or when i saw the menu with the steak specials i did not crave for it. i was alright with no eating it for a while. even when we went to a buffet i did not want to eat the chicken kebab or the lamb do pyaza or the shrimp masala. i was content with drinking mushroom soup and eating samosas, dosas and the paneer the sabzi. though it wasn't wort 14$ that I paid it was still alright.
But now when 9th April is so near i am getting crazy cravings. If not for chicken, i crave for something sweet every day after lunch and dinner. Yesterday i wanted to eat at this Mexican fast food place called Taco Bell really bad. i have never had such whims before but now its getting stronger each day. When my friend went to an Indian buffet place which had a delicious variety of tandoori chicken, biryani, lamb masala all i could think of is when would i be able to get there and eat em all. Even though i know that if i crave for something that i have given up eating then it does not count, but i cant help it.
All i could conclude from my little experiment is that its gets harder and harder as the day to end your experiment approaches. it might be due to anxiety or just the fact that you are so weak that you cannot go without thinking about it. As for me I am not sure if i am meant to give up eating things that i love and only time will show if i once again take up giving up meat, but for the time being i await the day i start eating meat once again.
Ooh by the way i forgot, to help me along the way (get the sarcasm please), Neha decide to make some yummy chicken for my room mate, not once but twice. I was lucky the second time since she left the chicken pieces for too long outside and they went bad. And frankly i was always hoping and secretly praying that something like this would happen. ya ya I know , i am sadistic and very selfish when it comes to sharing my yummy food. but then again that's me, take me the way I am rather than try and change me.
But now when 9th April is so near i am getting crazy cravings. If not for chicken, i crave for something sweet every day after lunch and dinner. Yesterday i wanted to eat at this Mexican fast food place called Taco Bell really bad. i have never had such whims before but now its getting stronger each day. When my friend went to an Indian buffet place which had a delicious variety of tandoori chicken, biryani, lamb masala all i could think of is when would i be able to get there and eat em all. Even though i know that if i crave for something that i have given up eating then it does not count, but i cant help it.
All i could conclude from my little experiment is that its gets harder and harder as the day to end your experiment approaches. it might be due to anxiety or just the fact that you are so weak that you cannot go without thinking about it. As for me I am not sure if i am meant to give up eating things that i love and only time will show if i once again take up giving up meat, but for the time being i await the day i start eating meat once again.
Ooh by the way i forgot, to help me along the way (get the sarcasm please), Neha decide to make some yummy chicken for my room mate, not once but twice. I was lucky the second time since she left the chicken pieces for too long outside and they went bad. And frankly i was always hoping and secretly praying that something like this would happen. ya ya I know , i am sadistic and very selfish when it comes to sharing my yummy food. but then again that's me, take me the way I am rather than try and change me.
Mar 13, 2009
Still get my pay cheques BUT .......
So today is 13th March 09, Friday the 13th, and my company had decided a couple of months back that this would be the day when the employees would know whether they have a job or not and also this would be the day when they hand out the bonuses from last year. So basically everyone spend the last couple of months worrying about their status, it was business as usual but there were times when you couldn’t help but wonder whether you would have a job or not.
So anyways as I was in my cube earlier today my manager came up to me and told me he wanted to have a word with me. We then went to his cube and he told me “your job is secure”. I felt relived, I told him so, and that I had certain things lined up back home and that keeping this job means a lot to me. And thanked him for the confidence that he had shown in me. It was over in a matter of minutes, something you were thinking about for the past 2 months got over before you could even blink twice. I then made all the customary phones calls to ma, jiza, Neha, bhaisaaheb, uncle-aunty. Everyone told me they were very happy for me and glad that things worked out for me. I told Neha that we would go out for dinner tonight and celebrate the occasion.
An hour flew by and I heard news about some of my colleagues not making the cut. 3 cubicles around me would now be empty. Friends that I worked with for quite sometime now wouldn’t be around. I prayed to give them and their family the strength to survive these difficult times. I called Neha and she immediately realized that I was feeling very sad, depressed. It was as if everything around was gloomy and dark. You always hear these numbers, around 668,000 jobs lost in the month of February, 650,000 jobs lost in January and for us these are just numbers. But its when you look around do you realize that behind each of these numbers there are dreams, there is a family to support, there are emotional set backs, there are uncertainties. I know "whoever you believe in" has plans for everybody and things will work out eventually for everyone. I pray that he gives them the courage to face it all and not forget that in spite of the hardships he is still with them and looking after them.
I can’t help but quote a few lines that I truly believe in
“Jo hota hia aache ke liye hota hai and ek wajah ke liye hota hai”
“Agar mann ki ho to aacha, agar nahi to aur bhi aacha”
“Yadi aap koi cheez sache mann se karte ho to aapko kabhi nirash nahi hona chahiye”
So anyways as I was in my cube earlier today my manager came up to me and told me he wanted to have a word with me. We then went to his cube and he told me “your job is secure”. I felt relived, I told him so, and that I had certain things lined up back home and that keeping this job means a lot to me. And thanked him for the confidence that he had shown in me. It was over in a matter of minutes, something you were thinking about for the past 2 months got over before you could even blink twice. I then made all the customary phones calls to ma, jiza, Neha, bhaisaaheb, uncle-aunty. Everyone told me they were very happy for me and glad that things worked out for me. I told Neha that we would go out for dinner tonight and celebrate the occasion.
An hour flew by and I heard news about some of my colleagues not making the cut. 3 cubicles around me would now be empty. Friends that I worked with for quite sometime now wouldn’t be around. I prayed to give them and their family the strength to survive these difficult times. I called Neha and she immediately realized that I was feeling very sad, depressed. It was as if everything around was gloomy and dark. You always hear these numbers, around 668,000 jobs lost in the month of February, 650,000 jobs lost in January and for us these are just numbers. But its when you look around do you realize that behind each of these numbers there are dreams, there is a family to support, there are emotional set backs, there are uncertainties. I know "whoever you believe in" has plans for everybody and things will work out eventually for everyone. I pray that he gives them the courage to face it all and not forget that in spite of the hardships he is still with them and looking after them.
I can’t help but quote a few lines that I truly believe in
“Jo hota hia aache ke liye hota hai and ek wajah ke liye hota hai”
“Agar mann ki ho to aacha, agar nahi to aur bhi aacha”
“Yadi aap koi cheez sache mann se karte ho to aapko kabhi nirash nahi hona chahiye”
Mar 11, 2009
HOLI hai Bhai HOLI hai
HOLI ... the festival of colours and brings back so many memories. Of all the things I miss here in "Hell Hole", the biggest one is my inability to enjoy Holi with my nephews, sis and Atul back home. Though jiza is a spoil sport and Yash doesn’t like playing Holi I still miss being there with them during this wonderful wonderful festival. This festival is of great significance for me, I enjoyed Holi with my dad, "pappa" as I affectionately called him. We enjoyed this festival second only to Diwali. For me there were three distinct phases of Holi.
First there was when I was in school, standard 5th to the 9th. Holi fever for me would start days in advance with my constant cribbing for a new "pichkari". I had a good working one from previous year but every year something new and cool would come in the market and I would want those. Then going out with pappa to get the different packets of balloons and colours. There used to the red, blue, green packet of balloons and then the white ones. And usually pappa got me gulal and a couple of packets of purple and green colours. On the day of Holi, I still remember not being able to sleep all night in anticipation of the festival and the things I had planned to do. Pappa would get up very early, around 4am, and start filling up the balloons with water. I was so useless, I would just sit there and hand him the balloons and then take every single one of them and place them in a bucket of water. After this he would start filling the white balloons with coloured water. These were my favourites. We used to done only by around 7-8am. Pappa would be exhausted after this but every single year he would do this for me and I enjoyed the ritual. I enjoyed spending the time with him which I realize only now was priceless.
Holi started with putting gulal on pappa and mummy, and then heading out to play Holi with my friends from the neighbouring building. We started out with throwing balloons on one another. Then we would go to the terrace and have balloon fights with the kids from the other buildings. After all the balloons were done then we played with the colours and the gulal. Occasionally we would throw each other in the pool of muddy water that was formed. After coming down from the terrace we would ask people in the building to throw buckets of water from their houses. Ooh that was so much fun. Soaked in colours, water, mud I would come back home around noon time for some food. Then after lunch head back out to play some cricket with my friends. Yep cricket is an integral part of Holi. Once we made the mistake of throwing a packet of gulal in the water tank of the building. Everyone got red water that day and that’s when we were prohibited from ever playing Holi on the terrace ;)
Then there was the college time, in Bhavans and DJ. Holi changed for me while in Junior college. I used to play with colours only with my friends from the building and head out to Atul's place in Andheri. Yep in spite of having colours all over me I would take the train and then the bus to reach Atul's place in Vijaynagar, Marol. The ride was so amusing, I used to see people in all different colours, some in red, some in green and blue, the worst ones in Silver. But that was all in the spirit of the festival. Anyways after reaching Atul's place we used to play Holi for sometime before heading out to play Cricket. Though I didn’t play too often, cricket in Vijaynagar was always rocking; there was an incident when Neha and Swapna were invited to Atul's place a couple of days after Holi. Knowing how much Neha disliked Holi colours me and Atul decided to now throw colours on her, but instead throw it on Swapna. Alas fate had something else in store and instead of Swapna, Neha got gulal all over her. Me and Atul were terrified and were afraid of the consequences, but thankfully Neha took it very sportingly. Till date she doesn’t believe me that it was an accident and that we never intended to throw colours on her.
And finally the last stage was Holi here in "Hell Hole". Nothing to write about except the last year when I, Neha and a couple of other friends went to a small gathering of people enjoying Holi. We played with colours and the best part was there was a DJ who was playing some of my favourite Holi songs and every third song was Rang Barse. I never thought I would enjoy Holi with Neha and with colours. But it rocked. The best Holi in like 5 years. And now in 2009 there are no parties, no place we can go to celebrate this wonderful festival.
My only regret is I never got a chance to play Holi was my sis; she might be a spoil sport when it comes to Holi but I know she would never say No to me. So Jiza here's hoping that I get a chance to throw gulal and enjoy Holi with you soon.
First there was when I was in school, standard 5th to the 9th. Holi fever for me would start days in advance with my constant cribbing for a new "pichkari". I had a good working one from previous year but every year something new and cool would come in the market and I would want those. Then going out with pappa to get the different packets of balloons and colours. There used to the red, blue, green packet of balloons and then the white ones. And usually pappa got me gulal and a couple of packets of purple and green colours. On the day of Holi, I still remember not being able to sleep all night in anticipation of the festival and the things I had planned to do. Pappa would get up very early, around 4am, and start filling up the balloons with water. I was so useless, I would just sit there and hand him the balloons and then take every single one of them and place them in a bucket of water. After this he would start filling the white balloons with coloured water. These were my favourites. We used to done only by around 7-8am. Pappa would be exhausted after this but every single year he would do this for me and I enjoyed the ritual. I enjoyed spending the time with him which I realize only now was priceless.
Holi started with putting gulal on pappa and mummy, and then heading out to play Holi with my friends from the neighbouring building. We started out with throwing balloons on one another. Then we would go to the terrace and have balloon fights with the kids from the other buildings. After all the balloons were done then we played with the colours and the gulal. Occasionally we would throw each other in the pool of muddy water that was formed. After coming down from the terrace we would ask people in the building to throw buckets of water from their houses. Ooh that was so much fun. Soaked in colours, water, mud I would come back home around noon time for some food. Then after lunch head back out to play some cricket with my friends. Yep cricket is an integral part of Holi. Once we made the mistake of throwing a packet of gulal in the water tank of the building. Everyone got red water that day and that’s when we were prohibited from ever playing Holi on the terrace ;)
Then there was the college time, in Bhavans and DJ. Holi changed for me while in Junior college. I used to play with colours only with my friends from the building and head out to Atul's place in Andheri. Yep in spite of having colours all over me I would take the train and then the bus to reach Atul's place in Vijaynagar, Marol. The ride was so amusing, I used to see people in all different colours, some in red, some in green and blue, the worst ones in Silver. But that was all in the spirit of the festival. Anyways after reaching Atul's place we used to play Holi for sometime before heading out to play Cricket. Though I didn’t play too often, cricket in Vijaynagar was always rocking; there was an incident when Neha and Swapna were invited to Atul's place a couple of days after Holi. Knowing how much Neha disliked Holi colours me and Atul decided to now throw colours on her, but instead throw it on Swapna. Alas fate had something else in store and instead of Swapna, Neha got gulal all over her. Me and Atul were terrified and were afraid of the consequences, but thankfully Neha took it very sportingly. Till date she doesn’t believe me that it was an accident and that we never intended to throw colours on her.
And finally the last stage was Holi here in "Hell Hole". Nothing to write about except the last year when I, Neha and a couple of other friends went to a small gathering of people enjoying Holi. We played with colours and the best part was there was a DJ who was playing some of my favourite Holi songs and every third song was Rang Barse. I never thought I would enjoy Holi with Neha and with colours. But it rocked. The best Holi in like 5 years. And now in 2009 there are no parties, no place we can go to celebrate this wonderful festival.
My only regret is I never got a chance to play Holi was my sis; she might be a spoil sport when it comes to Holi but I know she would never say No to me. So Jiza here's hoping that I get a chance to throw gulal and enjoy Holi with you soon.
Mar 8, 2009
And Finally God Smiles on Boston
After 4 months of one of the worst winters in and around Boston, the temperature finally rose to an all season high of 50F (10c) with sun shining nice and bright, no wind chill , in short a perfect day.
So far Boston has had 45 inches of total snow, about 3-4 snow storms already, temperatures that have been in the single digit F for months on end and not to forget the wind chill that makes matters worse. The number of times you have remove your car from the piles of snow it is buried under, cleaning the foot of snow around the car so that you can take it out without getting stuck in the snow and then there is the driving. Ooh the driving in the snow, driving at speeds of 10mph where the posted limit is 55mph, making the turns as slowly as possible so as to not skid and hit the other car or worse the electric poles. And not to forget the hundreds of dollars you have already spend in buying snow tires and having them mounted for the winters. Then you have the umpteen layers of clothing to just step out of the house, I generally try and run for like 4 days a week whenever its possible thanks to the weather and boy do you have to cover yourself ... First you have the thermal wears, then you have the track suit, then to top it off you have a jacket, gloves, something to cover your neck and your ears and head. So basically you step out of my house at 6.45 in the morning looking like a thug, yet shivering for the first 10-15 minutes. It still feels good to be out and you feel lucky if you have some sunshine. Though the sun shine is just an illusion cause the temperature is still in the single digits (-12 to -6C). But you know that this is the only time you would see some sun cause you would be holed up in your cubicle all day long and before you realize the sun sets on you. In this part of the world, during Nov - Jan sun sets usually around 3.30 to 4 pm and in Feb around 5.
Which brings us back to yesterday, 7th March 09, a beautiful day. The sun shine actually meant something and you wished you have enough friends to play a game of volleyball or better yet cricket. you are aware that such a day is extremely rare and you wouldn’t see such a day for at least another month or worse for two. But alas you don’t get to play any sports so the next best thing to do is go out for a run. But this time around all you really wear is just your track suit, that’s all you need .. and this itself makes you feel good. You thank god for this day and pray that you get more of these. And then when you step out you see all sorts of people enjoying the day, old people brisk walking, the couple walking their ooh so beloved pet dog (still haven't figures out why people have/need them and the kind of affection they have for the drooling animal), kids playing out in the open instead of being holed up in their houses, the enthusiast couple also running ... Smiles everywhere, people waving at you, the comments about the nice day.
You introspect about the things going around you, the calm breeze and the still water (much of it is ice still) help you relax your nerves. You feel extremely calm and at peace and you think about any and everything while still running. You think whether you would still have your job by the end of the next week, you pray for the good heath and well being of your loved ones, you think about your nephews and your nieces and how you wished you could play with them and watch then every single day as they get older, you think about the your first days away from everyone and how hard those were and how you got over them, and occasionally you wish you could do what you really like .... start a new beginning, no more boring engineering, no more living far away from people that really matter .... but alas you thoughts are soon interrupted and you are brought back to the world of harsh reality.
Mar 1, 2009
Which Actress Do you Think is CURRENTLY ruling Bollywood?
So which was the first name that came to your mind. Was it Kareena Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan or was it Katrina Kaif.
Before i get into the details let me give you guys a background of why i choose to blog on such a frivolous topic which has no consequence.
It started out with me having diner with Nika and few of our usual friends at an Italian restaurant. The topic started out with me very casually mentioning that Katrina Kaif is currently ruling Bollywood. And as always everyone took to debating our this issue. By debating I mean me on one side while all my friends on the other, as it always happens. Now i have got into a habit of not pursuing the discussion and just giving in but due to some reason this time i decided to prove my point. And since no one listened to my argument there i decided to vent it out on my Blog.
Anyways my friends key points to oppose my argument was "Katrina cant even act?" or "she just looks good, but should keep her mouth closed" or "She could never be nominated for a best actress". But here is the deal i NEVER said she was the best actress or that she had given stunning performances. I based my argument solely on facts and figures that can be quantified. Now acting skills are something that are very subjective unlike box office figures. For some SRK cant act and hams in all his movies, but for other he is an excellent actor. (Sorry Atul for taking another dig at SRK), but what one cannot deny is that all his movies strike gold at box office. these might be senseless ones like Main Hoon Na or much better ones like Swades.
Similarly my argument was based solely on the sheer number of hits that Katrina has given in the past 2 years (2007, 2008) as compared to her contemporaries. Here is how the comparison works out
KAREENA KAPOOR
Jab we met -- 2007 -- Hit
Tashan -- 2008 -- Flop
Golmaal Returns -- 2008 -- Hit
PRIYANKA CHOPRA
Salaam-E-Ishq --2007 -- Flop
Love Story 2050-- 2008 -- Flop
God Tussi Great Ho-- 2008 -- Flop
Drona -- 2008 -- Flop
Fashion -- 2008 -- Average
Dostana -- 2008 -- Hit
KATRINA KAIF
Namastey London -- 2007 -- Hit
Apne -- 2007-- Hit
Partner --2007-- Hit
Welcome --2007 -- Hit
Race --2008 -- Hit
Singh is King --2008-- Hit
Yuvraaj --2008-- Flop.
Facts and Figures speak for themselves. A string of 6 straight hits for Katrina Kaif. Now i could have also put in the Box Office Collections but Unfortunately I don't have the time and you all get the idea right.
Another argument was "Even if Katrina wasn't in the movie the movie would have been a hit" or "That wasn't a Katrina Movie" ... but who is to tell whether the movie would do the same business as it did without Katrina, can we quantify the figures. Moreover since Katrina was the lead actress in all her movies means that she has every right to stake the claim on her movies. A similar argument can be applied to cricket. During the times when Ganguly was the captain and when India won in spite of him not being the key contributor with the bat, that does not mean Ganguly cant claim it as his victory. He might not have contributed with the bat but maybe with his captaincy or field settings or bowler selections.
Anyways there are just my thoughts and it usually happens that my thinking is a little different from popular opinions. So i want to hear for y'all and what your arguments would be. Do remember the topic for discussion wasn't who is the best actress but who is ruling Bollywood currently.
Before i get into the details let me give you guys a background of why i choose to blog on such a frivolous topic which has no consequence.
It started out with me having diner with Nika and few of our usual friends at an Italian restaurant. The topic started out with me very casually mentioning that Katrina Kaif is currently ruling Bollywood. And as always everyone took to debating our this issue. By debating I mean me on one side while all my friends on the other, as it always happens. Now i have got into a habit of not pursuing the discussion and just giving in but due to some reason this time i decided to prove my point. And since no one listened to my argument there i decided to vent it out on my Blog.
Anyways my friends key points to oppose my argument was "Katrina cant even act?" or "she just looks good, but should keep her mouth closed" or "She could never be nominated for a best actress". But here is the deal i NEVER said she was the best actress or that she had given stunning performances. I based my argument solely on facts and figures that can be quantified. Now acting skills are something that are very subjective unlike box office figures. For some SRK cant act and hams in all his movies, but for other he is an excellent actor. (Sorry Atul for taking another dig at SRK), but what one cannot deny is that all his movies strike gold at box office. these might be senseless ones like Main Hoon Na or much better ones like Swades.
Similarly my argument was based solely on the sheer number of hits that Katrina has given in the past 2 years (2007, 2008) as compared to her contemporaries. Here is how the comparison works out
KAREENA KAPOOR
Jab we met -- 2007 -- Hit
Tashan -- 2008 -- Flop
Golmaal Returns -- 2008 -- Hit
PRIYANKA CHOPRA
Salaam-E-Ishq --2007 -- Flop
Love Story 2050-- 2008 -- Flop
God Tussi Great Ho-- 2008 -- Flop
Drona -- 2008 -- Flop
Fashion -- 2008 -- Average
Dostana -- 2008 -- Hit
KATRINA KAIF
Namastey London -- 2007 -- Hit
Apne -- 2007-- Hit
Partner --2007-- Hit
Welcome --2007 -- Hit
Race --2008 -- Hit
Singh is King --2008-- Hit
Yuvraaj --2008-- Flop.
Facts and Figures speak for themselves. A string of 6 straight hits for Katrina Kaif. Now i could have also put in the Box Office Collections but Unfortunately I don't have the time and you all get the idea right.
Another argument was "Even if Katrina wasn't in the movie the movie would have been a hit" or "That wasn't a Katrina Movie" ... but who is to tell whether the movie would do the same business as it did without Katrina, can we quantify the figures. Moreover since Katrina was the lead actress in all her movies means that she has every right to stake the claim on her movies. A similar argument can be applied to cricket. During the times when Ganguly was the captain and when India won in spite of him not being the key contributor with the bat, that does not mean Ganguly cant claim it as his victory. He might not have contributed with the bat but maybe with his captaincy or field settings or bowler selections.
Anyways there are just my thoughts and it usually happens that my thinking is a little different from popular opinions. So i want to hear for y'all and what your arguments would be. Do remember the topic for discussion wasn't who is the best actress but who is ruling Bollywood currently.
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