A sour journey to my Paneer Butter Masala !

While shopping for weekly groceries ( Never thought it would come to this day), I decided to be adventurous this saturday night and make a Paneer dish at last after trying dry sabzi's only for quite some time owing to my fear to use pressure cooker that it might blast itself to pieces, I really need to get over that. So I quickly had to check in recipe that whether it required pressure cooker. It did not and off we go. ! Of course if I would have been more vigilant, I would have learnt that dish required various pastes and purees which required arsenal that I could not comprehend with my modest kitchen capabilities.

So once I was about to start on it, I was missing a hand blender first of all and then cashew nuts and then cream. But somehow I was determined, undeterred that tonight this needed to be done. Enough with Aloo* sabzis, I had test my hand at this. Went to Walmart, out 24 hour open supercenter and got the food processor and cashews and cream for the dish. As I started working my way on puree, and it was time to blend the tomatoes, my new food processor betrayed (or I thought) and decided not to start. The exchange center generally closes early so I had to wait till morning to get it replaced. Yes, 30 day return/exchange policy on everything everywhere. Bizzare when I first came to know about this !

Sunday Noon, I decided not to give up and decided to dedicate this day to a successful dish, so I went back to walmart and exchanged that for a new one. But as a typical Indian, I decided to test that at walmart itself so that I do not have to get another round in if something does not work. I opened it up and decided to plug the base in one of the sockets and Woh ! it would not start as well. I took it to exchange lady again and she wanted to give it a try so she also tried her permutations and combinations, but to no effect and success. While waiting 5 minutes someone in the line suggested these things don't work if you do not fix the cover and plug in bowl correctly. I knew my foolishness then, asked that let me try this at home again and I will bring it back if it does not work. By the time, the exchange lady also had the motor started. I wrapped it all up.

That's something about me. Each day, I find new ways to embarrass myself. It just comes so naturally to me. Other day at the San Diego airport, I got in line to get a Muffin, there was a nice poster in front of glass where they were kept which said "Freshly Baked Muffins" and when it was my turn, the counter girl asked my what kind of Muffin I wanted, I replied Freshly basked ones and she gave me a look that said that "of course they are fresh by default you idiot".

Back home with new blender  (old one was also functional if I had read the manual, sometime applying just goes out of the window), I decided to make the pastes. Cashew paste took me 4 times to get right in the end. I added water and cashews together 3 times in different proportions and each time I got a soggy semi solid thing was no closer to paste. Finally got it right. Tried mixing it all up got a dish though a tinge of sourness in my final result. Maybe I added less sugar or added a little but more onions but edible in the end. And of course not to forget the colossal mess that I created in kitchen today. ! Of course had to clean it all up too !

   

San Diego !

Work taking places. ! And probably San Diego is prettiest of the lot. Loved it so far out here. Serene Beaches , Amazing sunsets. Each day after work at 7, I have been going to Torrey pines beach and standing on the beach witnessing scintillating views offered by sunsets on the beach. Flowing Wind , Gushing waves and a retreating Sun. Enough to take away a day’s tiredness. People have no job taking 9-5’s each day in this place. Qualcomm have probably played a masterstroke in retaining employees. The place has so much to offer that people won’t feel like leaving. The only place in US (of little that I have been to) where you I have felt European touch is probably in La Jolla coves, the artistic arches for the old buildings giving a renaissance type aspect to the place.

Did some sightseeing as usual and went some places. It’s such a great destination with so many touristy places , theme parks etc. Missed on sea world with whale watching, but maybe for next time. I want to get out of work early on Friday if possible and want to visit the Midway carrier if possible. It’s just a history thing with how jets actually can get launched from such a short take off length.

Definitely want to visit again at a future point of time, but not alone ! 

Finally !

It took me 7 weeks. 7 full weeks to finally sit down and write. It's been some crazy times and hard too. A change of place, a change of culture, a change of lifestyle. lifestyle is the one killing me. "Roti , Kapda aur Makaan" Nah, just exaggerating but very close to not too.  April 14th, I made a move to US to take up a position with Mentor in Austin and it has been "this or that" on both sides of the date ever since.

Of all my previous sojourns in past 3 years (can happily say about the company paid world tour accumulating to 1 year or so), I have always looked from the other side. Posh hotels, rental cars, Taxis , arrays of restaurants on offer to eat and experience the culture of the cities and above all everything expensed. Lifestyle is a different matter.

Since the relocation, it took me 3 weekends at Ikea(a place everyone recommends for newbies like me) to collect all the "furniture". When I say furniture, I am actually referring to cardboard boxes who come with components of different shapes and a manual that if you do everything right might ultimately look like something that you looked at at the store. No free deliveries and no free assemblies. One might thing, that what a laze ass I am that can't I get this much done, but thought process arises from those "carpenter dihadis" where you can pay someone some money in India and get all things done. Ultimately, I did it myself with a lot help from Aditya and Naveen, my colleagues and friends.

Though I had been to Austin before, I had not actually been to South Austin, where I have taken up place. So initially, it was all hunky dory with new restaurants to explore, new cuisines to savor but soon the realization started creeping in, that its not going to be expensed, so its a fine time to pull out those utencils and crockery that you paid extra dollars to the airlines for all those extra baggage pounds. Pulling them out and placing them in the cabinets is one thing but what to do with them is completely another. Again, my though process comes from the cooks which were so freely available before that you never had to do even go and buy some haldi or sabzi. As appalling and shameful as it may sound, I could not even bake eggs properly. Here thanks to my dear mom and my dearest friend Suruchi a.k.a tillz to help compile a list of all the list complete buffoons and amateurs like to me need to get started. Being in California, Tillz helped a lot with all those recipes and step and step by process to make aloo pyaaz for a start. But the aloos remained hard till the very end. I took them for lunch hoping that another microwave round might soften them up. My admin came near microwave at the wrong moment that day when I was heating them up, so I had to offer here some as courtesy. She looked at them and said that "her husband and me had been conspiring to kill her" of course jokingly but they did not taste as bad as they looked.

Its been a few weeks but I am getting there. Now I can make Baingan Bharata, Aloo Gobhi, Aloo Pyaaz that are edible to some degree and I have been experimenting out of my laziness to finish the last night dinner without making anything else with maggi + baingan bharata, nachos + aloo gobhi. I am pathetic.

But the apartment is almost set, I am still looking for a Sofa that I do not have to assemble. But I am getting there. Slowly slotting into a daily schedule to cook,eat,work. I won't go to cleaning and washing as you already know where I am going to get at, but they also arrive with bandwagons once every weeks :) . This all is not going away so lazies like me who are not good at anything also have to fall in line. Do get my started on closets. They do not have almirahs. !

All has not been that bad too, but I will keep that for another day !

The Winds of Winter

Considering that the winds of winter have started hitting again here quite ferociously at this time of the year in north India,  there is still no sign of winds of winter, that we have been waiting for, in the near future. Listening George RR Martin ! 

It would be 3 years since dance with dragons' release in March 2014. If we look at the rate of books coming out and pace of game of thrones series, it looks more probable that they will converge beyond a point where game of thrones is already done with 8 seasons. 

Surely we want to find the 3 heads of the dragon and go beyond the north. With the feast of crows having POV from the most uninteresting characters and dragging the story at lethargic pace, the Dance with.. brought the depth that the whole series has been known for, despite being a very long but satisfying read. The morality of Jon Stark, the at times considerate and at times ferocious nature of Tyrion to find his place and continue to survive are my most favorite arcs in the whole series. 

Undoubtedly, It's still the best fantasy series that I have come across with the series offering no clear antagonist even after 5 books, there is still so much to look forward to. The depth , the theories, the characters all contributing to an intriguing and a fascinating read. Wish the book comes a little soon ! 

Logic and Doubts !

Logic :

Recently, visiting one of my semiconductor design customers in Bangalore, I came across something funny in a form of a pamphlet that could be directly co-related to what the company actually does. One of the employees was keen enough to make the correction to the logic to add preciseness to the instruction being given out by the pamphlet, considering that "and" in the statement does not cover all the cases of having a clean toaster.

Being an electronics engineer and having to deal with the and/or logic gates, which in fact in retrospect are my bread and butter, rather jam in this case, I could so easily relate to the statement and went smiling at my desk after seeing this.

Doubts :

While flying outbound from Delhi, in the check-in queue at the airport, a fellow lady traveller came and asked me what she should be doing next post her boarding pass collection. I had seen her having similar conversation with other people as well before she approached me with the query and I was not the last one. Considering she might have been given a wrong advise at some point of time, this time she just wanted to be sure if she was doing the right thing, but how many times do you need to convince somebody before the doubt can go away.

Life is never perfect, everybody makes mistakes, each person is able instigate a series of doubts in the other person by his actions. But can counter actions remove the doubts, and what is people are too arrogant to change the and logic with "doubts && atonement" in their mindset which would always be a failure (a logic 0 in digital electronics with doubts clouding the logic), to "doubts or atonement" which just might be a success (a logic 1) if atonement is good enough.

Consideration is important in life. Being considerate towards others makes us a better person. Giving second chances sometimes is important in life. We are not perfect by any stretch of imagination. We can spend a lifetime living in doubts. Get the closure or consider the other's person atonement. Maybe and just maybe the doubt might be dispelled ! good people do realize their mistakes at some point, but they are not immune to making them. 

A Tribute

Hi Papa ,

I am sorry. It’s been a year. Despite the fact that I have written about so many things, somehow I just could not bring myself to write about you or anything. I tried it many times, but my thoughts about you always got the better off me. But I had to write. 

It’s been on my mind since quite some time now. This is not a eulogy, it’s rather a tribute to the person that has loved me more than anything, someone who lived the life the way it should be, with love, compassion, a free spirit and an open minded outlook that is just so hard to find.  We talk about you when I am home, but we still can’t talk about you at length. It always stops at : “if you would have been here … ….”  I know you would not like that. We keep on having glances at your photo frame on the wall, shedding a tear without anybody noticing it. We were all there on there on the 16^th, the way you always wanted us to be, together.

A larger than life attitude with a charm that always meant you had your way with things, fierce love for your family, immense faith in god and plethora of interests that varied from cars, books, traveling, sports, writing, cinema defined your life. Born to a liberal 1^st class government officer and being a single child to an extremely liberal father, I can see how you had an environment, time and upbringing to help inculcate passion in such varied arenas.  The enfield incident never skips my mind, the bike you possessed and were so in love with, when Bade Papa sold it behind your back while you were away and replaced with a scooter because he thought it was too dangerous for you. And you were all ballistic at your parents for that.  

Recently I cleared my doubts about your marriage from Mom. I knew you were in GNDU together, but I always wanted to confirm if you guys had a love marriage, just couldn’t do so being so shy myself.  She of course said that how can I be so foolish not to know, after all arranged Hindu-Sikh intercaste marriages were pretty uncommon 30 years back and she herself was surprised when your father did not once object to a prospect of having a hindu daughter in law. She relished the little time that she had to spend with him but Bade Papa had a great influence on her. She adores you both for the freedom she got a express herself, pursue her career. She was joking, despite the fact that you had a liberal paternal side , don’t expect me to be that liberal. She is keeping herself busy very well, her job, meditation, spirituality had made here quite strong to move on in life. She’s driving your car now, but she has somehow managed to keep it very well.

Mahajan uncle and Sudha Aunty miss you a lot, they keep visiting, discussing  the college days you all shared together, how you went to Kapurthala and sat outside Sudha aunty’s home when her parents to objecting to her marriage to Mahajan Uncle and you guys did not bulge till they agreed to reconsider. His mind sometimes drifts on the scooter that you had in college and how you all the college shared it for that errands. He always comments “Sonu, he did not refuse anyone”.  Compassion was something that came to you very naturally. Watching tennis together on television, you would always discuss that match that Pete Sampras played against Jim Courier, when Pete’s coach had s stroke during the tournament. How Sampras cried during the match and Jim Courier, his best friend, urged him to play for his coach. You always took that example and asked us to be great at what you do, but never to lose your human touch.

I miss your 2 calls per day, that no matter what, we always had despite the distances.  How you used to tell me how you roamed on scooters throughout himachal, only letting know your status through telegram whenever possible when you were in college and never letting us be outside home after 8. You would happily recount your expeditions of 4 guys and 2 scooters, treks but warning me that roads are not what they were back then, so don’t attempt anything of the sort. Your love for engineering, canals , dams. How you would take me to hydroelectric power stations/thermal stations to show me the wonders of science. Bhakra Dam was your favorite place, your indepth knowledge of how it was built, it my favorite place as well. How we never missed going to Bhakra when we went to Anandpur Sahib, Naina Devi and to Nangal. You had an amazing knack for finding new roads. Always keeping a roadmap in the car, exploring new ways to cut down on the traveltime.  Once when you took me to Pong Dam for the first time, you explained the whole way, what an earthen dams is , spill ways, penstocks and then you turned the car around to head to your meetings in Ropar and I saw the sign which said Dalhousie this way. I insisted we go there, you resisted. I made a face, you tried to console. After driving for 5 minutes, you turned the car around and we went for a night in Dalhousie, I still have the pahari jacket that we had to buy as were in our half sleeves there.

Your passion of cars and driving. An Avid reader of every autocar magazine, that’s what I inherited from you. How you did not miss a single AutoExpo ever. How proud you were when you saw the Nano for the first time, how revered you were when you talked about Ratan Tata. Your know-how of engine technology, your love for Mercedes. You always said “Asi Ral mil ke Mercedes zaroor lawange ek din”. Sure Dad, we will. When I was making a decision to buy a car, you always talked about VFM, Value for money.

Your love for brightness in life,  I remember getting a 3000 Rs cash prize from school in 2001 and me bringing a Grey Shade Polo neck for you. You said its good, you went with me to the shop anyways and exchanged the same for  an orange one. You never had a dull moment, you never wanted one either, always booming with confidence. You loved buying stuff, for each one of us, especially for mom. You travelled for upto 20 days sometimes on your business trips but it was never a case you did not bring something for her. Suits, Sarees, Handbags, Sandals. How, when you stretched your hand from thumb to the little finger, you knew that was the size of mom’ foot, while buying sandals with a choice so impeccable, people complimented her so much on the colors she wore. Mom did not have to buy a single thing all her life, she still does not, there are still bundles that she has not touched. I do get her handbags though, she says I have inherited this much from you atl east. I don’t if she just says that to keep my heart.

Your immense faith in one true god. How Anandpur Sahib was your favorite place in the world. How you adored Guru Gobind Singh for the leader and warrior he was, hence your love for the place. You always said, the vibrations that you felt in Tirupathi were the same that you felt in Golden Temple and Anandpur Sahib. You did not deviate, you maintained your faith till the end. How you touched your father’s photograph when you came home after your regular trips, we do the same now.

Mom was telling me that Bade Papa wrote you some letters when you were growing up and he had to be in Denmark for his engineering course. The letters like JawaharLal Nehru had written to Indira, encompassing how to lead a life, how to achieve your goals, how to be in life. Mom said that she would find them and keep them for me to read next time I am at home. How you kept a photograph and newspaper cutting of him when he passed away , in your briefcase always. You used to tell me how Bade Papa would not let you guys hold me when I was just born, telling you guys you did not know how to hold a child.  

Your love was cinema was unparalleled, how you would collect cassette of movies that you loved. I inherited your love for Lamhe, how you adored the movie for sentiments that it showed. On one of your business trips, you saw Terminator in a theater in Bombay and you brought a cassette home to make us watch it, It was my first Hollywood movie.  You loved your books, reading for your first love, you exercised it when you were travelling very often on your business trips. Big fan of Wilbur Smith and John Grisham, You would always kept your collection up to date. It would very often happen that someone would come and borrow a book never to return and despite asking for it back, you would always buy a new copy. You gave me my first novel , the client by John Grisham when I was 14. You asked me to start it off with this. You did not like when I told you I was reading Ayn Rand during my college, you asked me to read it later in your life, I never asked you why you asked me to do that. Your almirah and shelf are still the same way, full of books you possessed.

The last trip that we had together, I had come home for a weekend and you mom and me went out to the market for some general household stuff. It was 1PM and on our way back, you said why do we not head to ChintPurni, its not that we get to be together each day. Mom protested telling that its already too late, but you ignored her. You asked me if I wanted to go, always knowing that I would never refuse and we just headed on the road. You never let me drive when you were in a car. The first time you saw my driving was when we landed on Amritsar airport from Raipur and mom came to pick us up. You just had your first cardiac arrest in Raipur. It was the first time we were not home for a new year and the last we were together on one.

You always were strong willed, your heart had left you very weak. You wanted to go for a Bypass surgery but the doctors never gave their yes, saying it was too dangerous. You would try convincing me that you needed to do that, that the half life that you were living was not how you had lived for a single second previously in your life  that you could not go on living like this. You wanted to get better or go away trying. When it happened, I thank god that you were in Amritsar close to person you loved the most. Mom was telling me later that when she was trying to calm you that we were going to soon shift you to Escorts as soon things were stabilized, you told her “ Bas Neelam koi lod nahin,” , gave her your spectacles, “Meri Aenkaan sambhal le”. Those were your final words.

You were the smile of our lives. If I say we miss you, that would be a big understatement. But I also know that you would not like to be remembered in this way. You spread joy and you would like to be remembered in a happy state of things. You would want your memories to make us stronger and righteous. You led a life that were very much on your terms, a life that I see very few people living. I have had seen my friend’s parents and I was very surprised when I compared them with yours. As your friends, still say, he lived a King’s size life and nothing can take that away from him.

I have so much to say, I can keep on writing. Despite you are not with us, but you are still part of our lives, our thoughts, our actions, our decisions. We have preserved everything you possessed, your clothes, shoes, turbans, books, and spectacles. The only thing missing is you.

Regards

Your loving Son 

Soothers !

Apart from the junk ads that I have recently seen , I am particularly intrigued by one aired for Emirates on TV. Its nothing fancy, but a very holistic representation how different lives are connected each other's , but the best part about is the music. Its just so light and warm , that you feel moved by the harmonious notes. Its a track "Trek" by Antfoot, specially edited for Emirated ad. There is an amazing stillness about the track, representing and inculcating the calm that is inside us , that we are trying to achieve.

And, its not about this piece only, its about the music on the whole. Its such an essential part of our life, right from celebrations, ranging from matrimonies to the silly bugle in the IPL matches ( after hearing which people go berserk , to the solitude. No wonder, Apple has grown on selling ipod's , by bringing the music we can relate to most easily in a convenient form. I still remember when 99% of people putting "listening music" as one of the hobbies on the resumes. I just found my soother for the week, its time you found yours.

Scrambled eggs !

I aim to make fried eggs and always end up eating scrambled ones !

The Self making breakfast : one thing that has become a tradition on the weekends since a long time. I think, I have the stint in bangalore with 7 others mates to thank/or not thank for that. Right from fighting who was going to get the materials to the person who was going to wash the maggi pan in the end, it was a a nice way to kill of the time and feed the stomachs. What that also meant was variations that was on display with sometimes scrambled eggs, butter in maggi and sometimes raw eggs in maggi as well. I, who never had to make an effort at the food that I eat , also had to succumb to the constant pressures and nagging and deploy efforts to satisfy the hunger while rest were doing the same.

So Since then, it has clearly become a way to start the weekend day and no matter the efforts, aims and wants, the result is always the same. The scrambled eggs. I guess , I also need to thank my prowess with cooking as well as I just do not seem to learn in this regard. I won't put the blame on my handless pan, or my tilted stove, its just that sometimes it helps not care, not aim for anything. Its just good to let go sometimes and see where life takes you. Away from needless pressures, expectations and pretenses . Sometimes, you might get a surprise. I finally made the perfect fried eggs.

Sweet Round up to a Not-So-Good Sporting Weekend

It was a big sporting Weekend and hence a lot of expectations from the teams I duly support. Formula One Championship showdown, Premier League Action , India-NZ test series to look forward to. It turned out to be a cracking weekend, though not swinging by completely in my favour.

I really thought Sachin would get that magic number 50 after missing out in the first test, but New Zealand attack did him in, yet again. They seem to have have figured something people have not been able to do in the past one year or so and are faring quiet well against him. But I know number 50 will come eventually. Like me there are a lot of fans who worship him and may give up watching cricket that day he walks out of the cricket pitch for the final time.

Still there is one batsman whom NZ have no clue about. Bhajji has really come into own in this series, clobbering the ball like he normally does, but what really has made the difference this time around is the consistency with which he is doing so. Real fun to watch him. India have crawled back into a good position in the test and can make a result out of it if they bowl really well. Meanwhile Bhajji might get his second in a row. Really hope he gets it again.

Manchester United have drawn again, and again in the same week. They just haven't been winning away games. Have to agree they made a great comeback against Villa, but was really disappointed to see them again being pushed in a position where they have to take the leap to make things level again. Good for us, they have been doing that consistently atleast. This season ManU are really lacking the creativity in the midfield and they better improve !!!! Go Red Devils !!! Rooney, We need you to fire.

What a finale to the such a close Formula one season. It was such a great season and Schumacher, despite being there, was not in reckoning for the championship in a 4 way battle at the end. Ferrari screwed it in the final race. What should have been a comfortable top 4 finish for Alonso to claim the Hat-trick of World Championships turned into to fiasco. Early Pit-stop meant he was stuck behind Petrov's Renault for the entire race, left at the mercy of whatever good came his way with the retirements/pit-stops ahead of him. But Vettel, You beauty !!! Never having lead the points race the entire year, you scripted a perfect race to clinch the WC. Hats Off to Red Bull and Vettel. There is a lot left from Vettel I am sure !!!

Something Sweet happened as I started this post in disappointment. Chelsea lost. Yay !!! That ought to level some things at the top of the table.

The unrecognized hero : Eminem

I first heard Eminem way back during the college. Somebody had put on "Lose Yourself" and was trying keep up with the rapper. Somehow I let him pass as a wannabe singer mumbling random words making no sense whatsoever, never quite giving him the attention, jerking off whenever mention of the guy came in the dorm. Just like many things in life that dont matter to you and you don't matter to them.

Last week going through the latest hits on the itunes, I listened to the 30 second track for the Eminem ft. Rihanna "Love the way you lie". Loved the initial chorus and somehow felt that the music was overall quite inspiring. Generally I have that notion of downloading numbers after listening to the complete track with lyrics on youtube. After reading the lyrics along with the track was the so evident realization. Its about the lyrics and how his voice powers them.

The way he has put his personal emotions in lyrics is absolutely amazing, at times even witty. I moved onto "When I m gone" , "Stan", "Not afraid" and many more. Since then, I have been taken aback by the sublime intensity of the hip hop and rap genre he follows. The guy is a damn genius.

Thanks Eminem, You came out with the recovery album, else I might not have discovered something that I am so moved by today.

Relapse

I might be keeping the title name as Eminem's return album, also want it to mark this a re-return. I dont know why I stopped this in the first place. The only thing that comes to resemble the day I started blogging and today is the level of sensex, then also it was around the same level. :)..

Really hope, I can continue it this time around.

The pen is rusty, cant think of something to write
The path is dull , life is not all that bright

There are things that need to be said
Else the feeling will go unfelt

Telling how you feel requires the right timing they say
Opening the heart to someone is important they say

But what, if the words dont come out then
But what, if the words dont matter then ,

So the expression is the tool I only got
With scribbling something and something to jot

Hope this brings relief one looks for in the end
Hope for something on the path to look for in the end

Life's been a theatre whole week !!!!

Dont take me wrong with the title of the post because it aint a quote from a shakespeare novel and nor I am trying to be philosophical (which in the most cases I am). This week has just been so full of movies . Right from oscar-nominated recommendations to general public choices, I have just managed to view most of them. Somehow, there isnt a better time pass than movies. I always have a new reason every evening a little early to come back happily from the not so interesting job these days I have got ( well the downloads done till then ). As I write the post, Michael Clayton's next in line and I am just done with Juno. Breach, 40 year old virgin, Heat, In the land of women( which was Arjun's recco) have all become part of the extravaganza. Weekend had a special attraction in the form of prison break. Well Michael Scofield's done it again ( Sorry for breaking the suspense on you prison break fans). I still remember how Rohan, Bangia and me covered the whole season one in one go the day ( rather it was late night ) we got our hands on prison break in our final year.

I had a chance though once again to visit the legendary Paranthe Wali gali in chandni chowk once again when I had gone to see a friend of mine in CP on sunday. Oh Man what paranthas. Being from amritsar ( A place serving some mother of delicacies ) and me not being so praiseful of desi foods elsewhere generally, really have to commend them with ten on ten for their taste. Being in delhi, Everybody must go atleast once to enjoy the sheer pleasure of typical tel mein tale paranthe. You will really keep licking your fingers.

Rest, Anil Ambani seems to have grab the attention once again with the bonus share allotment. Anil Ambani gave up some 5000 crores of his personal wealth for the bonus shares. With the horrific opening bell at the exchanges, Reliance power might just have pulled a rabbit out of a rather empty hat which I am sure many of you will understand. But still I cant understand the fact that how come bonus shares will prevent investors from turning the stock around once again. People are still looking for every exit out of reliance power highway. It is a very interesting scenario which is developing right now. It remains to be seen what will actually triumph in the end - The faith in reliance with bonus added or the true sentiment of an injured investor in the current market conditions. chao !

Dates with the stars..... One on the screen and one off it !!!!

The unexpected does it again. After an uninspiring 5 day trot at the office, I always expect my weekend to be full of fun and frolics. Well the start was just about perfect as it gets. First of all I would thank the cook for it who once again didnt make it to cooking a dinner for us at home. So as I was entering the GIP mall in noida with my friends, there was a swarm of police guys outside checking each and everything entering the mall premises. When we enquired about it, the one of the guys said " Koi hero aa raha hai ". We shrugged off the comment in a very unconvincing way thinking there might be a minister on the way. After dinner when we were about to make our way back there were like herds of people standing by the circular rails on each floor.Could this really be ? May be hrithik was on his way for the red carpet premiere of jodha akbar at the recently inaugurated Adlabs. But this was not to be. In fact, hrithik and Ash both were on their way. Oh boy.. this had to be witnessed. People had been waiting since two hours for the arrival. I was a bit reluctant to stay and wait for them. we all went to see if some tickets for the current show for the same could be arranged.

We didnt get those , so booked the tickets for saturday's show. After getting the tickets booked, my friend Piyush insisited that we all have one more shot . Maybe a glimpse was possible of the stars. So we went again to the mall and after a five minutes wait, it happened. First Hrithik made his way up the lift waving his hands to all. The man is awfully smart and dashing though not as tall I was expecting him to be. After a little while , Aishwarya came up the lift. She was looking damn gorgeous in a red saree. Believe me, I havent seen a more stunning woman face to face in my entire life ( The earlier one was a foriegner I saw in Nehru place, Delhi in last december). She is a flawless beauty. The fact that " Ash is the one of the most beautiful ever to have step in the world" was looking an embarassing understatement. Now I can well imagine why Adlabs was booked for the whole weekend.

My guess is that Anil Ambani who owns Adlabs and is extremely close to Bachan family must have come up with the idea for the red carpet opening in noida for promoting the new multiplex. Though Delhi would have been a much more comprehensive option in this regard. Well thanks Anil... Your reliance ipo may not be a hit. But you surely made up for it with this little stint. That surely made the day.

After waiting eagerly for the entire day at home, We finally made to waves for our 7 PM show on saturday. As for the movie, First of all its a visual spectacle. One has to appreciate the flamboyance with which the movie is given a 15th century look. Daunting and beautiful sets dressed up with appealing blend of alluring fabric materials. The curtains, the costumes and the tapestry all give you a rich feel . And as for the movie , its a classic. Some might call it boring but there isnt a better way to present a historical. They are of mammoth durations so that one can truly experience the demeanor of those days. And the movie belongs to Hrithik and Aishwarya. Hrithik once again reinstated why he is in the top league with a truly remarkable and commanding performance. The scenes have been shot in a truly clinical manner. Full marks to Ashutosh Gowarikar. Music is top notch ( I have been listening to the songs for the entire day now even as I as writing the post). Kwaja mere Kwaja takes you a step closer to eternity if you let it through into yourself. AR Rehman at his very best. I think it has all the ingredients for a great all time classic. I might be talking more like a movie critic. But you have to see it to believe it. In case you have some other views do lemme know about them as well........
Here s a video of the aishwarya the other night in red saree in the mall , shot with a mobile..... You have to wait till the end of it to have a glimpse of her.
chao !!

Rajdhani To Darbhanga express...... Everything in one night !!!!!

Friday night was once in a lifetime experience which crossed every limit of wackiness I had experienced during travelling. It even surpassed the experience I had during my college days when I was thrown at sirhind from a train after boarding from Rajpura( which is about 30 kms from the former) for not having a sleeper ticket. The past week was kind of a confused week where my decision to go to amritsar was inverting everytime I thought about it. But finally when I was up for it on tuesday, I couldn't find a single availablity for any class in any train. But now, i always wanted to go. I decided to ride on my luck by having a go at a couple of trains leaving delhi to asr that night. Well the "Jugaad" with TT had worked before and I really hoped it wont let go this time around as well. I reached the station on time but couldnt find a single berth in any class of Golden temple mail which had an arrival time of 3:30 AM in ludhiana. It was 7:50 PM then.

Well "NO PROBLEMO" I said to myself, There are still a couple of options left on the desk. Lets try out the other one, Muri express. Well I was left stranded when i heard that Muri was running late by six hours. One more option I thought which I knew was a sureshot. So I enquired about the chattisgarh express. Another bsombshell dropped on my head. Chattisgarh had a route bypassing Delhi since last month. Oh boy, this was already heading about to be dramatic night. I tried every train I could get my hands onto heading north, But to no avail. As I was thinking about a Volvo deluxe bus option for which I would have to wait another 3 hours, I saw a Rajdhani express to Jammu standing on a platform from a distance. I enquired about its timing and stoppages. It could have been an option to reach jalandhar. From jalandhar I could go to asr even in a bus. To my surprise It only had a stoppage at Ludhiana at 1 AM. So I started planning for a way to get to home. A foolish yet could-be-effective strategy was sprouting in my mind. I decided to talk to TT and tried to have a connection till Ldh . I could always catch the golden temple again at 3:30 AM as their would plenty of vacant seats in Ldh. The TT was quite stubborn and demanded that I would have to be made a ticket which would have cost me a fortune. I with the old cheap college convincing that " sir, college ke hain, padte hain, train miss ho gayi , sir itna nahin". He finally decided to give me a seat for a fare compensation. It was a very comfortable journey and had a grand dinner in it as well. I slept for a couple of hours and reached Ldh at 1AM.

As I left the train, Darbhanga express was standing in front of me. It was supposedly running late by some sixteen hours or so. I asked if it was heading in my preferrable direction or not. Now a darbhnga isnt a kind of train you would generally get onto unless there is an emergency. The train is one of the rickiest you will ever see with the wood panels above windows coming off. At some parts even the roof is missing. It was a train we made fun of as " the time and over raided train coming from bihar" during our college days. At that hour of night the train was scantily filled up with human souls. I looked up my options once again. Either I could wait for a couple of hours at Ldh or move with the flurry of events and get on board. I decided the latter option. I had not seen a more dismal train compartment than this my entire life. Some luggage shelves overhead were also missing. I took a place in a vacant window seat and the train started moving. I was completely taken aback by sheer speed at which the train was running. It was lightening quick. I could feel the chills of the plains of punjab which was such a discussed topic in the last couple of days. Oh boy, It was cold.

As I thought that all comedy of errors had ended during the night, A shabby looking young man came up to me after hearing some people whispering about "finally we will be reaching amritsar and all" and asked me that " sir, yeh train darbhanga hi ja rahi hai na. Main to ambala se yehi poochkar chada tha ke yeh darbhanga express hi hain na". I had no idea if I should be amazed at the heights of ignorancy or the lack of communication proficiency. I told him that the train was right, just that the direction in wihch uou were travelling was wrong.

I finally reached Amritsar at 3:15 AM. When I think about it, I started at 8:45 PM at reached at 3:15 AM. This is almost the same time Shatabdi express takes to reach Amritsar from Delhi. Fine, I agree that the manner wasn't the most sophisticated one. But still turned out to be an out of a box experience once again.

After all this, It even feels much more better to be home. Slugging it out in metros and comforts of being at home are two different things all together. The experience again gave the messy feeling of the college travelling days. And being messy makes me feel that I am living, and that too in the best possible manner filling up an out of the world experience stack each time with some new foolishness.

And , Relaince power listing on monday. Really looking forward to it like you all. Lets hope that it gives nice opening gains to capitalize upon !!!!!!

Its all about Friends...........

When I was in TIET last year, sleeping my way around lectures, rather never making it to them in the mornings, Little did I know things would be so different ahead in life. I felt like a free bird the very first day I came to college like caged birds released from the wraths of tuitions, the tensions of AIEEE and the expectation of IIT's. And the most amazing journey of my life gets the head start. And some people become part of your experience and you become companion in their journeys. They come for free and stay till the end. I guess thats why they are called Friends (free ends.. huh ?). They just need affection and compassion to bind with you. We all come in this world with some relations defined by blood and we make some defined by love and trust. We sit together, laugh together, share joys, divide griefs, cry, dance ,drink, celebrate, talk, chat all the rubbish in the world. But still the time is more valuable than the hope diamond.

In this monotonous and perpetual job life, I have come to know the real worth of my friends and the times spent with them. I always wish that life gives me one more chance to be together with them and complete all the unfinished errands and share the times of joy once again. Still I like making the most of all the little opportunities life brings to me. So this weekend when i got to know that aameen and later on Dd will be coming in to noida, I was quite overjoyed to hear about it. It had been such a long time since I had met them. It was a superb experience talking to them of the old times, discussing all the foolish, weird and insane instances we all have been in together.This was always going to be a great weekend.

We people who started out as 7 in the first year ended the final year as 12. Aameen, DD, kunal,Gautam,chetan,ekansh, Sharma, Yogi, Rohan, Moti, Bangia and me. Its been an exquisite journey altogether. I have been taught so much for all the idiotic things i had done in my four years by you all. I thank all of you for being there at all the times. It would be very tough to choose one particular instance when we were at the peak of our friendship and experiencing it more than ever but I would put the night when we all celebrated for everybody's placement somewhere in september right up there at the top. Life would never be the same without you. One day we shall all sit together, once again. And you know what i mean by sitting together. You people make a difference in my life and I wish this continues throughout life.

A Weekend Of Surprises

I usually never liked the look of the 50's and 60's hollywood movies. I always thought they were too boring and colourless for my liking. Somehow these movies always had that an unvaried and a monotonous feel to them. If this was the case of 50's and 60's you can very well imagine what i felt for the 40's black and white lot. Yesterday after recommendations from many and lack of movies in my laptop ( which was the bigger reason ) I finally decided to have a look at 1942's so called classic Casablanca. And didn't it turned out to be a ripper. The people back in those days knew their cinema real well. The movie shot in the background of second world war has its own nice share of twists and turns and was complete in every way. The movie is a tale of a man's actions based on morality where he must sacrifice his love for what he considers is righteous. The movie depicts every bit of chivalry men had in those days ( I dont mean we people dont have it in us these days. Its just that we dont get a chance to show it ). The characters were beautifully defined and the roles played in exquisite manner. I was amazed to see how beautiful one of the protaganist Ingrid Bergman was. I was delighted to see the graceful manner in which she lit up the black and white screen. The swede was truly a flawless beauty. I would recommend to everybody who thought early cinema was slow and boring. You will fall in love with the simplistic and proficient was the movie is actually presented.

Finally after trying for nearly 3 months on CNN-IBN'S Rajeev Masand's Now showing's "A real tough movie quiz" , I finally won. Guess when you expect the least , you get the most . Earlier I used to wait impatiently for the results every week , check them on the net. But this time , the result thing had completely slipped out of my mind ( Maybe due to the stock market frenzy throughout the week ) . My friend Suruchi called me up to ask me if i had given some quiz because my name was there in the winners list. And Oh boy , Wasn't I overwhelmed to hear that. It feels so good to be a winner in life. It doesn't matter if the stage is big or small. That extravagant feeling running through your veins making you feel special in every way , with your cheeks getting all fleshy with some real nice blood flowing through them. The good results keep you driving on with momentum. Only thing I dont know still is that what i have exactly won. I Guess I better expect less , maybe a nice DVD gift hamper is on the way . Huh ....?

A Few days back , I read that a NASA satellite for monitoring mars had captured a photograph of a naked woman sitting on a rock on mars. Keeping this in mind, I can hardly imagine what we are gonna witness next on mars . lolz....!!!!!!!!!

Wackiest Nightout In Delhi ....... A Leaflet Out Of College Memoirs

The night somewhere in may 2006 was one of its kind experience for me and four of my friends in delhi. We people just got a chance to be together for a night during out six months training from jan-jul 2006. We had a plan to stay at my PG in noida that night. There was hardly a night during my training days when electricity at night wasn't there and that night was no different. What made things worse was the fact that my PG had no battery backup. One of my friends,Moti came by car. So we decided right away that this was not a night to be spent in sweating in beds rather to roam about. so we got into that 1998 model Maruti 800 and took off wothout a destination. We took iced teas from former nescafe branch on main road , sector 18.

We had all the ideas propping of what we could do with a car and a night. Gautam , suggested we could go to Agra which was just 100 Kms from Delhi by his wonderful calculations.Seeing Taj at night would have been amazing, so we moved in that direction. When we reached Badarpur Border, his idea for distances struck up when milestone read AGRA - 202 Kms . Oh boy! Didn we wanna smack the guy up. So we manage to find a U- turn 6 kms ahead and turned back our cars towards Delhi again with the same question - what can be done with a car anda night.It was like 12:30 AM in the morning.

We followed the second Advice - Going to for drive on Noida - Greater noida expressway. Now the journey upto to Greater noida was truly enjoyable with cool breeze blowing across our faces. Going full out on 110 Km/hr - the top speed our 800 would allow us to go at. It hardly took us half an hour to be back from where we started and back to square one. Again with the same question. I had heard that ice cream vendors stay up all night at India gate. So we were off in that direction. This time i was behind the wheel and and had my first shot at the Noida toll bridge road and driving experience on that road was fantabulous. We somehow managed to reach india gate with our vague directioning sense.Seeing the rajpath all lightened up was a delight to watch. It gave us that RDB(rang de basanti) feeling. We had our icecream stayed there for half an hour. Then it was time to head back again. we decided not to take the same route we had come from. We would go back by connought place. So again trusting our directioning, we set again. we could have asked for directions though. when we thought we were lost and decided to turn back, My friend Divyadeep told us that he had seen the place before in auto he came by in the evening. And I forgot about the fact that delhi has got some places that look alike. So we took a turn and our two lane road was turned into a four lane very well lit up road. Just as i had completed the turn , a policeman stopped us.He asked us "Do you have any idea where you people actually are". We nodded and said "Bas bhaiya CP ke raste mein hi hain". He showed us a spiral buildingwith huge pillars some two meters ahead and said"Rashtrapati Bhavan Bhai sahab". And we were in total disbelief. Our mouths virtually open. The guy said "mujhe bade sahab ko bulane do, 5000 ka challan katata hoon tera ". Our hearts were virtually in our mouths as we heard that. I could already see Moti's Dad spanking us in middle of connought place. My friend Ekansh. a total baniya was already counting the per head cos tof this experience.We tried to convince the guy to settle this in under the table fashion.He settled for 500 rs. We agreed. We checked our wallets and discovered that we had only 205 bucks in total. We tried convincing him with this much . He didn even leave us with 5 bucks to spare. But the hilarious thing had still to happen. The icing on the cake - As I put the car in reverse suddenly there was a reverse alarm in 800 shouting "OM JAI JAGDISH HARE". We just couldnt laugh to the situation too as we were still in shock. And we finally asked directions from a guy we saw on the road and decided to head back. But one thing i cant still forget about his experience - Ekansh on our way back saying "Consider this , We paid 205 bucks and still didn get to meet the President. Wat the hell ". This was the only conversation we all had onour way back . Each of us in his own sub conscious must be thinking about things that happened and the things that could have.

Inevitable , But of Utter Importance

Somehow I felt todays stock market fall was every important. Inevitable, yes but important, even a BIGGER YES. One could have easily seen that for the past few months the momentum behind most of the stocks was meaningless.These markets just work like a strip club. Someone has to strip in front of the audience to attract customers. The better you strip the more is the degree of bringing the people closer to you. Those who got the money can have all the fun and rest without enough money can watch them play and enjoy a glass of drink. The people with money are the FII's and one watching from the back are the retail investors like us. The markets today are absolutely bare for FII's to enter again. Today we offering them valutaions of around 16 times the Forward Earnings And with the growth story of india intact , there is hardly a reason why we shouln't be back in a bull run once again.

It was foolish to hear people demanding resignation of P.Chidambram for todays mishap at the stock market. How can one blame him for this carnage.

Also some good news is just pouring in from US right now. They have dropped the discount and funds rate by 75 basis points and the FED doesnt see a recession likely in next two years. In simpler terms , putting all the jargon aside , we should see everything back on track within next few days.

p.s. - Thanks a lot garima for correcting me. I mistakenly put the crash from 16000 to 12000 in the last post at may 2007 instead of 2006.

Saare Zameen Par .........Crashed , Burned and The Revival of the Phoenix

Some expensive stocks would have cost you today less than a jockey underwear which i believe some definitely would have auctioned after today's disastor. Atleast mine are intact for the time being. ( Down at 10000 bucks). Just joking by the way.... its just the funny stories of the day getting to me....

If yesterday would be addressed as thrashing at the stock markets then today definitely was souls being burned alived in the morning session of trading. I got up in the morning at around 10 and was a bit astonished to see the countdown for start of trading at 10:15 ( Official start of trading is 10:00 AM ) and voice of dismal looking Udhyan Mukherjee explained it all. And so did the breaking flicker news at the bottom of CNBC-TV18. The sensex hits the lower circuit of 10% . Another witness of a kind of its own and the trading halted for half an hour. The market was a remarkable 2200 points down. Bulls have been torned apart by the bears. The losses are incalculable. Pure carnage and mayhem has been witnessed yet again.

Loads of people are cancelling their reliance checks to invest in the stock market in the news again. Oh boy what consequences.........
If these kind of enigmatic experiences continue day by day then you people would have to BEAR me a lot at this blog, Mind you....

Wouldn't great fans of reliance like me would have been delighted to watch and buy reliance industries at 2120 this year. Stock prices were tumbling like a pack of cards on the table and it was time to put them back where they actually belonged. You wouldn't call it a resurgence , but Indian Financial Institutions and retail investors stepped in at the right time to put a stranglehold on the venom of negative sentiments being spilled everywhere. I think the indian markets recovered well to put them above 17000 levels for a while. Burned to ashes and recovered again like a phoenix. You could see all the inflated valuations being driven down at the speed of knots. After all in the long term I feel that Fundamentals are everything and rest all is Bull shit. This after all was the best time to buy stocks and enter the markets with the risk to reward ratio finally on the side of the buyer. I myself was confused at one point of what to buy and what to leave. Everything was looking just so tempting.

Crashed & Thrashed !!

AND BEHIND ALL THIS , A NEW START...........

I always used put up an excuse that the day i get first multibagger in stocks would be the day i start writing the blog. Not because i wanted to boast about it ,but because that day i would have experienced the enigma i wanted to feel for the past three years since developing my interest in the field. But that feeling came a bit oo early. When i reached my offfice today and started my moneycontrol , I saw something mindboggling. It is what stock market fundamentalists claim as a " Free fall" - a stock market crash , and the witnessed was the biggest in the history of indian stock market. I had seen and heard the crash of may 2006 when sensex plummetted from 16000 to 12000. But being a part of it was an experience of its own. A feeling like someone is pulling your pants down in the middle of the town and you cant do anything about it while a strip tease is going on in front of you. You can neither enjoy nor despise. It was amazing to see markets lose all its sheen among a plethora of uncertainties of all kind. There was weird data of the amount that was at stake and was lost converging from every side. It was around Rs. 6.6 lakh crore which I read later was ( of which 6500 was my personal wealth ).

I right now, can imagine what people have to bear while facing such an onslaught of bears. ( not the polar ones mind you). It makes you realize the fact that things look good when you are on the other side watching as spectators. But then there are highs and there are lows. What is life without the element of risk in it. I being a great believer in the power of the unexpected , expect that its power shall reign supreme in the end. But then there is no point expecting !

The auspicious day 21st January 2007 also happens to be birthday of my dear friend Manish Bangia. Happy b'day bangs and these events better not happen next time , atleast on this day!!!