Life's a crazy mess!

Hey guys....hope I haven't dissapointed all of you with a very short post earlier. The orkut one ie. Been too busy trying to have a life and well just realised I didn't have one.

The past few weeks has been a world of changes. For one, I had a lovely birthday!!! For all my readers who don't know when that was, it was on the 5th of July. The day...rather night started off with my mom calling me up at 12 in the night...she sang me the birthday song while my roomies were busy plotting on methods to pick and kick me on the ritual "Birthday Bumps". Mom kept the phone with the last words being...tell your roomies not to hurt her little son....and yes they didn't listen! Bang Bang Bang and well there were many more, I just lost count. Finally they pick me up and wish me a happy birthday.....for the record, this was my first birthday when I got the bumps. Usually its the summer vacs or something like that and the Bumps are delayed till school reopens....uhm...well that kinda makes it worse though.

It was a lovely morning, Bangalore was smiling at me with its cool breezes and fresh (well almost fresh) air. Got calls from all over India, thanks to my friends being spread across geographies :) Ofcourse calls from family too. My orkut scrapbook was overflowing with messages and so was my mailbox. Thanks to my company's portal and orkut, everyone around remembered Shanim was born 23 yrs earlier on the same day.

As usual there wasn't much work and I kinda left off early to meet up with a friend. A real cool pal of mine...and well mind you, she's got a pinch that stings baaaaaaad!!! I ended up with a scar on my arm thanks to her....bet she's enjoying reading this. Got home a notch late after doing a bit of shopping for my sis and mom as I was heading home that weekend. And the surprises just didn't end, my roomies got me a cake from CCD and although it didn't last long and was more on my face than in anyone's stomach, it was absolute fun!

Getting back home for the weekend was all the better. My second sis, Sanee, managed to arrange for a Birthday Cake from the US! I got to cut a birthday cake with my eldest bro in law (his birthday falls a day before mine) with my family watching over and my cutest niece singing the Birthday song along with her mom, my sis, Saina :) This was probably best week home I had in a long time...and probably the best birthday too!

But well...life isn't just about happiness is it? Its been 23 yrs that I've spent in this world, and well I've been thinking....thinking a lot lately. Besides this blog and a bunch of smiles, I've achieved nothing! There's this huge void in me and I can't understand what its for.....and no its not the void that pops up everytime you breath in air....but something a lot more confusing. Everyday I wake up to the world with a joke on life, and well have been looking at my life as one big comedy show. The world and God as spectators, having a ball of a time seeing me make blunders every second. From the days when I forget to fill fuel on my bike and drag it for over 2kms uphill, to the days when I go to my manager and utter something utterly irrelevant, its been just a joke.....yep that's my life....a joke. I don't aim for anything, I don't look at myself doing something good, and I don't bother thinking of something to make this world a better place.

Guess its time something changed. Time I grew up..........time I thought of what I want in life....and time when I decided on ways to chase that dream of mine....


For all those who know me well....stop laughing!!! :) Fine so maybe I just can't grow up so might as well quit trying. I'm sure the day I get married, there would be a case against my parents for child marriage ;) A kid I am...and I guess its never gonna change

Its been ages since I penned down something and well I apologise for the same....was never in a mood to really write.

A few days back I was just browsing through a few of my pal's scrapbooks on orkut.com and well I was having a ball of a time laughing away. There are waaay too many ppl who are jobless in this world and this is just proving the same. But hey, they do deserve some credit, it does take a lot of courage to come up with the most corniest lines ever. I've picked up some of my favorites and am putting it up for you guys....Enjoy!

• Hello XYZ, I ABC from Gurgaon. Hoping To be winning your friendship in life. God don't be giving chance to earning friendship every moment. Good friendship comes by in lifetime only once, maybe twice... max thrice, but not more. I await your friendly respond.
• hi...to be frank u r so cute...that only impressed me on u.........can u be my friend..waiting for ur reply..............
• Hello...How r u.. Whre r u frm.. What r u doing... Can we start a good frndship from today... If u r ready, I will be very happy... Expecting ur rply...Take care...XYZ...
• you re really good looking...wht u do?
• hi wana scrap with me for long period the srap and tell me yes or no
• hey i dont know who r u, how u look, but dil na chaha ki tum sa dosti karun, so i am here, mujsa dosti karogi
• I am XYZ Software Engineer in Mumbai(India). I have come to you crossing the limits of borders and relegions ,just to say lets be friends .Hope i deserve one scrap from ur side may be acceptance or deniel
• hi lady....whats up in life want to b efrnds as i guess u looking fr some....will wait to hear frm u
• Hi how r u???????Cochin a nice place,,,,,,,like to be ur friend
• hi gorgeous :)
• im in love with uuuuuu
• hey ms XYZ u look so cool and a wonderful gal u r !!! u have a wonderful gang of friends do u mind accepting me as ur friend ???u can feel free to contact me on this number (He put his number here)
  take care bye
• hi sexu how r u...... like to be yo fren check out my profile...n reply
• hi there..how are u doing?? To the true mantrap creation of the almighty... a call for an eternal frenship
• U look BEAUTIFULL and CUTE with a SWEET smile.want to be Ur frnd.will U add me as Ur frnd.waiting for ur positive reply...
• Haiiii...How ru????Cool profile and nice snaps with attractive smiling face which attracts the person very easily for friendship...I am XYZ from bangalore working for an MNC telecom in accounts & Finance...i like to know more about and keep in touch to build up good friendship..i hope u will reply me soon to get introduce...Have a nice day..Keep reply..bye for now..take care..
  Cheerrss...XYZ
• hi ABC how ru i ahve cn ur profile so i thougt y cant i invite u to join in my friends group.u look sweetwhen u read my messagesweeter when you read and smilebut you look sweetest when u read, smile & replyso try 2 look sweeest always
  

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The year is 1947, our leaders stand proud and announce that the Republic of India is now a reality. No longer will we be ruled by a queen residing in an island nation over 7000 miles away, no longer will we have to listen like slaves to men and women from a different nation who claim to be our masters, and no longer will we be split up in the name of caste, colour or creed......or so they say!

A law was then put forward, to bring up those who suffered in the name of castes, by which Scheduled castes and Scheduled tribes were given priority in both education and jobs to help them climb up the ladder in a society they were long forgotten in. 59 years hence, we have politicians who believe everyone in the nation is now equally backward and handicapped and they too need help. The solution? Reservations for OBCs!
Isn't it time we woke up to reality and re-assessed where we went wrong? 59 years and things haven't changed? Doesn't that seem to ring alarm bells telling us we went sorely wrong assuming reservations were the answer. And yet its being implemented once more under the pretext that things will work out this time around. Come on! This ain't some sort of video game where all we have to do is move a dial and things just seem to work out. Real world scenarios ain't about just increasing or decreasing things, its about working out solutions, something our present politicians just run away from. Guess thinking is too hard a process for them..it would actually involve some work.

A recent interview of our HRD minister proves how incompetent our ministers are. The guy didn't know what percentage of the country are OBCs and yet he intends to increase reservations to a value much higher than the percentage of OBCs in the country! What's worse? Its just reservations...if you can't get a person to complete high school with good grades how can you expect him to study a course that even the best in the country end up dropping out of. Not stereotyping here, there are quite a few brilliant SC/STs and OBCs in our country and I'm proud to know many. Without competition however, they're minds are left to idle their way through education and pretty soon it will cover the job domain too. Are we really helping anyone in this context? I doubt it. Our minds excel only when placed in a situation when its challenged. If it isn't, we're just animals...or worse "bots"....we don't think, but just let others think for us.

"To our dearest ministers, I'm pretty sure you ain't listening to us but what the heck...if you really want to do something, do something that would help our nation rather than rape it of its good.

Bring in scholarships for those who do well, you want OBCs and SC/STs to get a bigger share, then give it in terms of scholarships rather than reservations. Remove our country's biggest hurdle, the caste system, once and for all. Its been over a thousand years and it still lingers in our nation, you are just making the whole system more concrete by doing this. Give aide based on the present financial status of the person rather than ancient castes which should no longer be relevant in our country!"

"Could you teach me a little bit of that subject. I can't seem to understand how we do that" he said and without hesitation she agreed. They moved to two empty seats in their college classroom and started engrossing themselves in intense studies. Exams are nearing and its not easy to mug up the whole course material without some help. An hour passed and suddenly the room fell empty. It was just them and then suddenly he held her hand and rubbed it around his body moving it closer to his privates. The girl was shocked and tears popped out of her eyes when she realised what her "friend" was doing. She pleaded through her tears to let her go and pulled her hand back but he wouldn't stop. He slowly moved his hand around her admist the tears and her pleas to let her go..."No...No!...Please Don't..." He wouldn't stop...and then he heard someone coming and let go off her and she fled.....her tears flew fiercer than a river during a flood but she couldn't complain for he had a girlfriend and she was too innocent at heart and couldn't hurt someone by telling her girlfriend how ruthless and pathetic he was. Time passed and the hurt girl continued with her life, suffering all the pain she had gone through and the incident just never leaves her, haunting her everyday as she sees him sitting on the other end of her class....tears escape her eyes everytime she thinks about it...yet she can't speak it out and ease her pain...

Why is this world so cruel???? Rape attempts happen all over the world every other day. These days 4 yr old kids aren't spared either....I had to learn that the hard way when one of my best pal's sister was raped and murdered. And the court of our beloved nation let them go 'coz they were juveniles! If I were the judge I'd probably put the kids into prison and put their parents in too. Are we guys that bad? Can't we think of anything besides sex in our lives and constantly abuse the fairer sex? Life just doesn't seem to be fair.

How many of you girls reading this can relate to incidents like pinching or fondling in public places by strangers around you? Or even further a casual touch on the wrong parts with all the wrong notions by guy friends of yours?...or worse...an attempt of something a lot more serious? Why haven't most of you voiced out your pain? Do you think the respect we have for you will die down 'coz of it? Get real ppl, its just gonna get better and we'd probably help you fight it. It took one of my friends 10yrs to tell her parents of being molested when she was a kid...I'm glad she did. Most don't and things just seem to get worse for them in their lives.

People often condemn my religion and its concept of Hijab. I'm no religious preacher but there's one part of the hijab that most of you might have not heard of. The first part of Hijab is meant for the guys and not for the girls. If a guy were to see a girl who is provoking his desires he should not look at her and keep his eyes down. The covering up for the girl and the scarf is the second part of the Hijab. Its funny how only the second seems to be practised now.

The world seems to be going to the dogs and nymphomaniacs....and I'm getting pissed with life 'coz of how many of my friends are being victims of such crazy acts.........

As I say..."Life's a Crazy MESSSS!!!"

After a lousy post...I'm back :) Apologies to all those who'd gone nuts over the last post...to tell you the truth, I have no idea what was going on, guess I was just disturbed...uhm....but then again, I always am....

Pepsi Cola, Pepsi TV and now Pepsi C.....uhm...naaa lets not get into that. That was a topic I had already talked about in Sam's blog. SRK seem to be on a roll now. He had a ball of a time with a number of chicks posing next to his nude body in the bathroom for Lux explaining how his skin's beauty was from it and now he's out as a couch potato in the Pepsi TV ad. Awesome concept I must admit, drink Pepsi and all channels become Pepsi TV...hmmm...do I see a lawsuit coming up? Enough of the guy who has just two emotions pasted on his face which he uses in a number of permutations and combinations to generate "sad, upset, happy, romantic, constipated, nausetic.." and various other emotions to perform award winning movies.......somebody please buy brains for all those jerks who actually judge for movie awards...they really need one and seem to have lost it after the last David Dhawan movie.....speaking of which...where is he???

Gangster, the music of which had blown me away, and the acting of the lead female which has kept me away from the theater for a while now. Alright I do admit, she has her good points...for one she dresses well..except in the hot scene with Emran will-scr*w-anything-that-moves Hashmi....wait...she wasn't really wearing anything then....aaah! The movie started off pretty good and I was hoping it would be a good one for a change...but I was disappointed. I expected more with all the hype going on about it. hmmm...but then again guess I was still all high after "Ice Age 2". The censor board must be pretty happy with all the E.H movies coming in, they really needn't watch it and just stamp in an "A" on the certificate. You can't expect him to go around in the movie without doing something to the lead female which would eventually lead to adultery right? Its against his way of life. He was born with just one mission in life...cause adultery and prove that there is absolutely no use of condoms...speaking of which...couldn't Kangna Raut think of protection? Come on..with the keep away from AIDS and soft drinks messages Pepsi has been giving out...someone's bound to notice!

There's a huge commotion about quotas these days in India. Some hilarious ones being, what if we had only OBC and SC/ST doctors treating politicians and blah blah....We are splitting our country and loads of other things...yep guys I'm very much against the quota system but seriously take a look around, we've been splitting up with every second of the day. Be it quotas in education, the income divide or even the never ending arguments between religion. One of our arguments led to us breaking up with our brothers and uhm...no i can't call them sisters...and ur bhabis ;) from pakistan! Its kinda shocking how the media there potrays our country to be blood hungry of all muslims and everyone in our country wants another country of their own. Hilarious statements keep coming around forums all over the internet about the same. I really can't understand what's with the hatred.

Getting back to quotas, ppl all around who don't seem to understand what the comotion is all about, well its something that's been in everyone's heads for a while now. I for one, am part of an OBC community and although I'd be the last person to be complaining, I'm not happy with the system where true competition is not being welcomed. We don't need you to keep aside a seat for us and the various other communities in India but what we need is a more sound education system and scholarships for those who perform well. This can be implemented with a higher regard to those who have greater challenges in their lives, which maybe physical, or monetary. The only reason why the whole caste system still seems to linger within the minds of everyone in our country is probably 'coz of the reservations that the earlier govts had introduced...something that needs to be wiped out at the earliest! Bring in more quotas and we're just gonna get all the more angry.

Well I'm signing off for now and shall be back with more later. For now, its Tata bye bye see you from me :)

I'd been on a short trip to my hometown this weekend and it was real good. Both dad and mom had come down for a vacation and being there felt great. But alas...good things never seem to last long and I had to return on a Sunday evening by the low-cost airline we call Air Deccan. Not really low-cost since I had to shed some Rs.2.9k on the flight tickets thanks to me being extremely late in booking. I realise now that procrastination doesn't really help.

Dad and mom dropped me off at the airport and my journey began. A quick walk through check-in and the security got me into the passenger waiting lounge...well obviously I don't like attracting too much attention while I travel, picked up my copy of the Alchemist, which a pal of mine recommended and forced me to try it out....(hehe rather advertised it well...Sheetal, you seriously ought to go in for marketing, coding ain't ur area of expertise..marketing surely is!)...alright so back to wat i was doing...took the book and pretended to read as I observed two real cute females who were flying along with me :) yep...I just can't concentrate on a thing...The reading never really worked there in the lounge...but hey it was an effort...

They finally asked us to board the aircraft. I don't think many of you have flown in Air Deccan, if you have...try skipping a few lines. We fly in ATRs from Trivandrum to Bangalore....all small sectors have tiny planes while the big ones like the flights between Mumbai and Bangalore have Airbuses. This is a aircraft's equivalent of a rickshaw. Ofcourse its not that bad, it does carry around 40+ passengers and is sufficiently spacious. It does have a low roof so I end up head banging quite a bit....and yes my bag never seems to fit in the overhead cabins.....speaking of which, that bag never fits in any airlines overhead cabins....someone remind me to get a new bag!

The plane being small doesn't have seats reserved as per your boarding pass...you just sit in any seat you like...more like the ol' cinemas in india where you run in the moment they open the doors and jump to your fav seat and book all seats around u for ur friends claiming that there are ppl sitting there (and argue like so "Can't you see...there are people there...to which the person sighs and moves on thinking as he does on how he missed seeing a human being on a seat!). Yep pretty much the same scenario with additional headbanging. So I finally pick a seat...thankfully a window seat...sadly on the wrong side of the aircraft...it faced the west and the sun was setting...the bugger didn't let me open my eyes till we decided to land....yeah i know we have the shutter there but hey...I wanted to observe nature's beauty...which again didn't make much sense since it was cloudy all the way.....now why didn't i put the shutters down....hmmmmm.....I really need to get my head checked!

After a long procedure of settling down and a take off later, I finally opened up the book, and this time started reading. Yep the girls were still there but they were beyond my vision owing to the poor design of aircraft seats...how I wish they were designed like trains :(

The book is about a boy who ventures out to the unknown to live his dream...a dream that told him of treasures on the other side of the world (well almost)...and how he worked his way there through all his troubles...walked away from the person whom he'd fallen in love with just to live that destiny and not spend his life regretting he hadn't tried. The book really moved me. And well it got me thinking. I can't seem to figure out what I dream of....what I aspire...my life has no definition. I live in the present, plan too much in the future and now I've realised, I've lost all creativity and along with it....my dreams. The boy...an educated shepherd leaves his family and prospective career to travel along with his sheep. His dream tells him his treasure awaits him much farther away and he persues his quest...leaving his sheep and his country to a strange unknown land where ppl speak an unkown tongue...crossing dangerous deserts and living through numerous miseries to live his dream......

"I may have left my family and my.....fine i don't have sheep, but well I've left my family and come into a strange land to persue a dream...which....i don't think belongs to me. I don't know what I dream of....I really don't know what I want..." Crrrrrk..."Ladies and Gentlemen, we are now approaching Bangalore Airport and will be landing in a short while...." That broke my thought and as I looked out I saw the beautiful city which I now call my own...I landed and I saw her...she smiled and there was a spark in the air (fine it was lightning but hey gimme a break...i need to add some pizzaz into the story)...we were moving onto the bus that took us to the terminal and a minor miscalculation in the trajectory of my bag's path as i put it down resulted in me almost hitting her.... A "Sorry" and a smile later she looked into my eyes....and returned the smile...stealing looks in between a crowd of ppl where there was barely a volume of space for a hungry mosquito to jump in on his buffet dinner...something seemed to be happening. We finally alighted at the terminal. I slipped...yep as usual...and managed to control my fall as she giggled at the sight. A slow walk into a smoked terminal (nope it wasn't on fire and there wasn't a guy trying to make the whole scenario more romantic by placing a fog machine but our dearest BMP had a wild idea of blowing in pesticide smoke all over the terminal....you could see numerous moqsuitoes running around trying to find the word exit written somewhere...i believe some where trying to help the others by flashing fireflies who appeared in the midst to assist in the easy evacuation...it was a depressing sight.....I was blinded and with all the might in my navigational skills found the baggage delivery area and the story goes on...). She stood a few feet away from me and chatted with her pal as I waited for my luggage...a few looks were exchanged...my bag appeared and the fog subsided...I moved off with a final smile and was off in a rickshaw to my apartment....

......and once again my quest to determine my dream was lost somewhere high up in the air never to return.....for a while atleast.

A whole five months have passed since I joined my company its been one hell of a ride. A good one at it :) After a month long training we were made to put our learnings to practice. This involved skills on kite flying, dancing, and screaming the hell out of our brains with the Rock Concerts followed by strenous physical torture on the basketball field, and the TT tables of the campus. The fun was short lived though. They had then realized that although our skills in the above were great, we were far from their desired requirements on the IT front. And poof...another training. And now another....which will be followed by another and another and another.....basically its just gonna go on till they are certain we have brains. Sigh....a never ending scenario in my case. Its what one would call an infinite loop.

Start -> Does Shanim have the required intelligence? -> * If yes, Place in project ; * If no, Place in training -> Add another training to list -> Repeat query, if no re-iterate, else case yes.

Basically I've never been able to reach the "case yes" criteria as of yet. Hence, I'm enjoying the training :) But hey I ain't complaining, I'm joining my time in the company, its an absolutely lovely place to be in, not just for the chicks, but for the work culture and every bit of the company. Uhm.....guess I haven't mentioned the company's name yet have I? Its none other than the third best IT firm in India, the Rainbow flowered Wipro Techonolgies :) The place to be in!

Last night I'd met up with one of schoolmates at Indranagar. Sundays do change the whole traffic scene in Bangalore. The roads are more or less empty, and I love riding around in my ever-loving CBZ then. A quick trip on the Inner Ring road and through CMH, I finally got to where we had decided to meet. "Cake Walk" was our destination but to our luck, it was full. We decided then to move onto the Cafe Coffee Day at CMH - Full again, 12th Main...full....100ft Rd....Full...finally after a long ride into Jeevan Bhima Nagar CCD we found a space to sit! Phew! And this is with Coffee Days ever few metres in Bangalore. I wonder what it would have been without them. hmmmm....yeah I guess the Barissta at Leela would overflow then. Oh well back to what I was getting at. We had this conversation that kicked off with the traffic at Bangalore and moved onto VAT and Power distribution in India (which according to a mag which he'd read is poor in india with approximately 50% loss in distribution alone!).

What got most of my attention was his conversation on the traffic scenario. Its true, Bangalore does have its share of good roads, why it has good roads all over and not just in select regions but the catch? All roads lead to Rome they say, in Bangalore, its more like "All Roads lead to a galli". Wide roads that have over 3 lanes suddenly disappear into tiny half laned roads with the same volume of buses, cars and ricks plying. Its more like a funnel trying to stuff in as many cars as possible to their destinations (A good example beng the Inner Ring Road as you head towards Koramangala). What more, we have a junction or a traffic signal every few metres, on an avg 500m apart. Yep, these are the reasons for our gridlocks.

"What about Hosur Road?" would be your question. Yep that was mine too :) Local traffic and the devious plan on BMTC to place all bus stops immediately after a junction! We spend over 10 minutes waiting for all the bikes, ricks and tempos to cross over in a junction...say in Singasandra and just as we assume the road has been cleared for movement, a BMTC/Tamil bound bus decides to stop and take in passengers, taking in not just the hard shoulder but the left lane to prevent anyone from moving ahead.

For the first time, I seem to see a solution in the right direction by our govt. They're off to build an elevated highway. But what I can't seem to understand is that why couldn't they think of this ages earlier? Did they really have to wait this long?? Bangalore, 5 yrs ago was probably the best place to be in...lovely roads, great weather, beautiful green promenades, shady trees, sparkling lakes and the works! Now, when you think of Bangalore, you think of cars, bikes, cars, bikes and more cars, and dust all around. A prayer goes out to all those who decide to take the Hosur Road to work (Electronic City ie.) for we may not know which Hosur bound/Wipro/Infy bus or truck would run over him. Quite a contrast won't you all agree?

The world hasn't really ended and there's always a second chance, lets just all pray that things do get better and the present HDK govt. keep their word on bringin back the Bangalore that we all once knew to be the "Green City of India"

A long conversation with a friend made me realise how narrow minded the whole world is....

It all started with a lousy forward which involved a kid's hand being run over by a vehicle all 'coz he had stolen food. The blame was targetted on Islam and the muslims who enforced the punishment on the poor kid. Kinda shocked me actually, seeing such a forward was nothing near amusing and I still can't understand why the acts of fundamentalists end up being blamed on the religion. I responded (yep the idiot that I was...i actually did) by saying that it was not the religion but the idiots who felt their religion preached violence and nonsense. This resulted in a huge debate on how that person's religion (not mentioning names or religion) was superior to others. Ok, it kinda got far and I had this lousy taste in my mouth at the end of the day....

First and foremost, I'm no orthodox believer of my religion, but the essence of my religion or any religion for that matter is nothing but love. Impart love, do good and be good. Although all religions seem to impart the same thing, why do we argue over the fine prints of the religion and make a big issue of the same? Does any1 have a clue on this?

I'm an Indian. A land where almost a zillion religions (literally) survive together and our laws promote secularism. But hey its not like we don't have our share of problems, we have our Muslim Leagues, VHPs and a billion other extremists who test the country's secularism but hey...wats the deal?? Why bother with such lousy arguments?? Life has better things which are far more important than religion. What makes a billion ppl around the world argue on religion and make a big deal out of it i can't seem to understand. Take a look at the US for example. All muslims according to them are extremists Jihadi terrorists. And this about a religion that talks about love for all humans.

Sigh...oh well this is more or less a lousy topic, but I just had to get some steam out. Oh well...sorry guys, shall get some better topic next time around..

Hey ppl...yep i know its been a while since I last posted something significant...so let me attempt something :)

Last evening was great...barring the cold that I caught in the night walking around in the terrace of my flat...yep I was nuts to walk around in the cold for about half an hour doing practically nothing..but hey...we are talking about Shanim here...let me get back to what I was trying to bring out here..."Rang De Basanthi" happened yesterday...roughly translated as "Give me color Basanthi"....if I've made a bunch of heads spin in confusion by what I just said its a movie guys and a really good one at that! Alright so I'm gonna give you an idea of what the movie is...India has a wonderful history, a history that most of us are proud of, on how we managed to get the British colonists out of our nation after a 200 years struggle....and what worked was non-violence. Our freedom fighters did a great job by sacrificing everything they had just to give us the world's largest multi party democracy.....but what we are with right now is not a democracy, but more of a democrazy...

The movie brings out the patriot in us, the guy who sitting behind most of our heads wondering why we are doing nutty things and screwing up our nation instead of actually doing something to make it the best in the world. And we needed a bunch of kids to come out into a revolution and kill a minister in the movie to awaken us. But guys...seriously, is that the solution? Killing a bunch of politicians? Yeah...all you end up with is a name that you are a terrorist and a traitor to the nation.

True we are in a country of free speech and a lot of things along with that, but free speech just causes more confusion to an already confused nation. We have corruption out here that reaches all the way from the roadside beggar to the journalists who bring us most of the news. Wouldn't want to speak too much about our journalists, they seem to be running out of topics to talk about that they've actually come up with some of the most hilarious reasoning for issues that pertain our lives here (with reference to some guys working off TOI). Hey I ain't saying the whole country is a mess, but we have our share....and we have our share of greatness....thank you NDTV for bringing the best out of journalism in india.

There have been a billion and one comments about me complaining of everything under the sun. Why do I do that you ask? Well I'm frustrated. Our country doesn't deserve the treatment we give it. Our country would probably be the only country in the world who's so obsessed with everything and anything that comes with a sign that says "foreign". In a country like Britain, they shy away from all products that are not "British"...some of which aren't half as good as the foreign counterparts...I know of many restaurants out here in India that actually charge you tenfolds for something that has imported written on it. What's with us?

Now this would get me a free visa into the world of Shiv Sena and the million others who talk about patriotism and swadeshi blah blah. Hey I don't believe in that. We need all the foreign influence we can get in our country, 'coz that's the best way to learn and work on our own. As an example, look at the car industry...if it wasn't for competition from the likes of Toyota and Honda, we wouldn't have seen a Mahindra Scorpio....or for that matter a Bajaj Pulsar (one of the best bike in india purely designed in India...atleast I was told that). What we guys lack is the drive to do anything in the country we call our own.

Where have we made the mistake? Blame the govt...they don't do anything for us....i beg to differ, they've given us education, good (atleast some) roads, freedom to do anything we want...even get to the parliament and scream out our views or spit on the roads and get away with it. If there is any1 to blame it would be us, our education and everything else.

We have been told, from the moment our minds can recognise an apple from an orange, that the world in india can be taken for granted. And our minds are moulded to mug up anything and everything that has the word 'Text' on its title. We haven't really given the oppurtunity or the freedom to think for ourselves. I remember when I was a kid, I had written an answer for an exam on my own with the end result more or less the same as what was written in my classwork note book (yep we had a bunch of questions which were pre determined as important by our gurujis in school) and I was scored low for the same. When I had asked for a feedback from my teacher on the same, the response was that it wasn't the same answer as that in the classwork book.....come on!!!!! Thankfully my lecturers and teachers in the later years were the kind who encouraged me to think and bring on my own thoughts in the books rather than a bunch of nonsense in our texts...

So where have we lost it? We have lost our imagination. Even the IT industry that our country is so proud of is doing more or less the same. The prime of our imagination is when we have just joined a company fresh from college....when management jargon hasn't taken over our minds and what are the jobs we are alloted? I'm sure most of you would agree when I say its either documentation or some unworthy jobs....thankfully I haven't yet been put into a project so I can't really say where I'm headed. Everyone in our country is here to jeopardize our imagination and they are pretty much succeeding in the same.

Oh well...I may just never end with my cribbing....but someday I hope...I too would be able to leave a mark on my nation and the world as many in our country have.......someone like a Bose maybe....or uhm....Sabeer Bhatia? Oh well...life's just begun...I'll get there....

Peace out ppl

A very merry Christmas to all of you out there! I love this day....quite a few reasons, one of it being gifts...sadly Santa seems to be forgetting me almost every year, but its always fun seeing kids' eyes glowing when they see themselves surrounded by gifts.

And there is something else special about this day. Its the only day when overweight guys (I plan on joining this group pretty soon) are really looked upon :) After all...Mr. Claus is hell overweight! And all of seem to be spoiling his diet by treating him with milk and cookies on X'mas eve......hmmm...think about it, with a population of over 1.5 billion, lets say around 40% of the same celebrate Xmas.....of which a generous 40% (most of us are lazy to bake those cookies in the first place, the rest would've finished it before our moms could leave some for our fat delivery boy :) ...ok ok sorry Santa...now i know why he's been forgetting me)....now with those numbers, its a lot of cookies...the guy must be gaining atleast 300kgs every Xmas eve! Poor him...uhm...wait I should be feeling sorry for his reindeers!

Speaking of giving, since I'm completely broke, I've decided to dedicate this blog to all my friends whom I had planned big gifts for but ended up being broke and couldn't even afford a 'Mentos' for them. This blog is dedicated to all my pals who made me who I am....will be mentioning a few names, but since I have too many complaints coming around about how long my posts are, I wouldn't be able to put all your names...sorry guys

First and foremost, let me start with my dearest gang in school....Akshath, Jameel, Jasim and Livin....the five of us were often call the Backside boys...no we weren't a band and we sucked at singing...but well there was another reason for the name. It all started with our Math sir in the 11th grade..the bugger couldn't speak english for peanuts! We guys prefered sitting at the back, you see its more comfortable sitting there and sleeping rather than smelling his mouth stuffed with 'paan' and suffocating to death! He hence called us Backside...we modified it a bit :)

uhm...small rewind, going back to my 9th and 10th, it was Mudassir, Abizar and Osama...something common here? Yep all four of us are muslims and we lived nearby...I was the only southie in the gang and maaan did I have a tough time learning Hindi (Mumbai-style)....rather learning how to speak the language...I still can't write well...hehe I studied the language for over six years and I still suck at it! The last Hindi exam I wrote, I passed with just 5 marks above the pass mark...and this was after a 11 hour phone conversation with another pal of mine Ajay (the guy was a brainiac!!!!) discussing every single mathra in the bloody classwork book...did it work? naaaaa...:) Muddi is out in Dubai trying to figure out why he is still studying when all of us are working and Abizar is in Pune trying to figure out which chemical would result in the next fuel revolution (he's a Chem Engineer)...as for Osama....if any of you know where this guy is, please do inform me....the last I heard was that he was walking around someplace in Mumbai looking like the local "Bhai"....hmmm...

Mumbai reminds me...Vicky...buddy how can I forget ya??? Vikas is a guy who is still a kid by heart....and he's got a stomach that seems to have no end. Doctors tried to figure things out by telling him he had a stone and operated on it...they're still baffled. The guy can stuff himself with two whole pizzas, 2 burgers and a 1 foot Subway sandwich and still have enough space in his stomach to eat dinner at home.....which usually is a lot of rice and a couple of curries. Yeah now you guys know where I got my eating habits from! The guy is a big fan of Manga cartoons...so if any of you have a bunch of Pokemon or similar cartoon tapes...let me know..

The blog would seriously be incomplete if I don't mention two gals who really left a mark in my life...Aparna and Zahabiya.......yep yep thaliya thaliya...and yes I was teased with both these gals in school....uhm...come to think of it I was teased with all gals in school....sigh...A2Z...now I remember :( alright let me get back to wat I was trying to write out here. Two real sweet gals, seriously! Zahabiya was the short tempered...wait...wat am i saying "was"...she is still the same short tempered idiot who keeps getting bugged about everything around her...esp me :) hehe I'm scared to meet her now actually, might end up getting my leg amputated or something....but I admire the gal a lot for the strength she had and got through some of the worst things in life :) as for Aparna...she's one of the sweetest gals I know...yep I know there are quite a few of her classmates who would beg to differ...but hey...she is!

Speaking of strong ppl...I can't forget Sushmita there....she's actually the strongest gal pal I've made in my life...and probably the most creative of the lot...she's out there planning her new Youth Mag for Chennai...the very best of luck to her!

So I've missed many pals but I better move onto college else I just won't finish this post! College got me a big sister (yep in addition to the three I already have)...her name's Sheetal...the gal has soo much energy in her, I'm sure it would be enough to power the whole of South India!!! She was more or less my mini mentor in college, esp during those lousy Jr-Sr ego clashes...Vicky is busy looting her off her salary at this very moment by hogging away a bunch of free dinners :) Sheetal...don't worry, I'll be there soon :)

My hostelmates....Vijay, Ajith, Aji, Aneesh, Bobby, Jom, Saras, Abhi, Fiyaz, Ameen, Jose, Sujith, Jobin, John, Mathai, Pattar, Sukesh, Thahsin, Shaheen, Tinku, Shamju, Anuraj, Geo, Sony, Costy, Naigil, Sanju and every1 else from the MH....thanks for bringing a smile on my face everyday and the billion kicks on my ass for my birthday!

My roomie for three years, Shameer....the guy has seriously great talent with his guitar...wonder if he'll make a good replacement for Santana.....hmmmmm...naaaa maybe not ;)

My projectmates...Basheer and Manoj...these guys are the best...Basheer for one taught us all to take life as cool as possible and Manoj...the guy can make any situation hilarious.....if he were writing this blog instead of me, I'm sure half you guys would end up having a high BP for the laughter induced!

Anu Jose Pala....the idiot whom I made my little sis...she's the gal who taught me how to talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk....and then realise that my bill has actually sky rocketed!!!

Jayarani...a gal who thinks of everything...let me explain, on our tour to Goa and Bangalore in the 3rd year, she carried everything except the kitchen sink....seriously! anything we needed, she had in one of her bags!

Deepak, Manu, Vivin, Silas, Sajan, Sneha, Bency and all the other juniors in the Training and Placement Cell of my college...it was teamwork in lieing to different companies about how great our college was.....it was only when I was out of college that I realised we weren't really lieing!!!

Alright so maybe she's not from my college, but Susan...a friend who has always managed to bring a smile on my face even at my worst days....yeah she doesn't realise this but everytime I call her to console her about her endless problems ;) (she's surely gonna kill me for this), she goes on laughing at every sentence I speak...yeah some call it madness...but I call it cute...and yeah...she's one of the only ppl who comment on my site every other week....(Sameera you're another one...shall include you in my next post for sure)....speaking of Susan...how can I forget dear ol' Anoop...the nutty idiot who does the craziest of things...as an example...this guy actually travelled from his college to his place in Trv around 4 hrs and then went back halfway and got back home all in a day's time (or was it two?)....watever and the reason was pretty funny...not getting into that, 'coz im sure he's already ready to beat me up!

And last but not the least...Tina...the sweetest gal I've met...she's celebrating her Birthday today, so lets all wish her a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! :)

So that's my Christmas gift for this year...hope all of you enjoyed it....

Merry Christmas once again!!!!!!!

PS: To all those whose names I haven't mentioned....am reeeeally sorry, but this post is getting waaaaay too long...sorreeeeee

Did you guys hear the latest? The ppl in fat chairs who call themselves politicians have finally decided to heed to the tears of the 6.5million people in Bangalore and are doing something about it....uhm...well i guess they took it a bit too literally when we asked for a change in Bangalore. They've decided to rename the city to Bengaluru....hmmm....sigh if only they had the brains of an ant to think straight! And what more? We've got a bunch of crazy journalists who have suddenly voiced their concern regarding the same, and that the government is making a mistake by doing so (to which i partially agree...not until i read the rest of the sentence) as this may lead to a confusion with the state 'Bengal' (trust me guys, i couldn't stop laughing reading that...I'm sure a bunch of my senior managers would have been staring at me when i did). Talk about the world going nuts! We've got a city who has barely 10m of tar remaining on all its roads (which theoretically comes to over 300-500kms in length) and yet all they can think of is a change in name to bring back the sentiments in Kannadigas...Man I'm glad Kannadigas ain't as insane as the bunch who rule the state....watch out kerala...you've got competition!

Now that you get an idea of how much i detest crazy politicians who seem to crap a lot about doing stuff let me get into another thought. Have any of you bought gifts for girls? Maaaan seriously complicated...its an absolute injustice giving us sooo much of choice....gals have it simple, all you need to do is get something that uses a battery or an AC adapter and we are absolutely happy, on the other hand with gals you've got a billion and one choices and you are bound to go wrong watever u get! (and this from a guy who has three sisters!!!) If only we could get into those heads for just a tiny second to figure out wat they would like and not frown thinking how cheap/boring/unimaginative/....and anything else that matches the criteria of loser about us.

Haven't really talked much about my company to you guys have I? Well its a fun place, you get good food for cheap, and Wipro has done a great job in improving the environment (no not just in terms of gals, but the campus is kewl). We've been having fun from the day we've joined, no pressure, no1 to boss us around, our managers are all smiles when they talk to us (and yes...quite often I've wondered if they are plotting against us while we think they are happy about us) and well........yep we're jobless! Atleast for a while...we are in what we call 'Free Pool'....

Its pretty simple, we come to work early morning at 8:30 and we are asked to report to the billiards room and play pool till 6 in the evening...:) alright so maybe we don't have a billiards room, its just what companies call 'Bench'. The transition period between training and being in a project....won't be long before I curse myself for having written this post coz of how busy I will get....sigh....being a Software 'Techie' (don't really know wat that means but it sounds kewl when Times of India keeps referring to us like so) can be a pain, but well it pays for my food, fuel, iPod, cellphone, etc. etc :) so can't really complain!

Taking off for now...CIAO

Ever heard of a place that sells you Reebok shoes for under 1000Rs? You do??? hehe address please :)

I really can't understand the concept of charging over 30% of the price for just a lousy logo which is bound to come off in a month's time anyways. Anyone from Nike or Reebok who could enlighten me on this? Ok so I guess all of you are busy trying to figure out what the @#%#$#@ is this bugger getting at? Is there a point...uhm...confession..nope :) Was out shopping yesterday, went out to Marathahalli...and for all those guys who haven't heard of it, its a part of town where you can get almost all branded products for half the price...why?? why you ask me? well these are factory seconds...and no that doesn't mean that the janitor in the textile factory used the clothes to wash the floors or something like that, it just means that there is a defect in the clothes which no1 would notice in the first place...uhm..yep an ant might, 'coz u see the bugger might just trip over the loose thread as he heads to his destination..with only his mission in mind...'bite shanim bite shanim'....ouch! alright I get the point, won't steal your bread crumbs anymore...happy? alright now that the guy has gone to reinforcements I shall continue...

Just realised I hadn't finished my earlier sentence....alright so basically we were there buying clothes and shoes and whatever food I could put in my tiny stomach (it ain't all that tiny actually) and at the end of it we decided to push off to MG Road...nope we had no plans of comparing prices and no we weren't there to tell every1 how brilliant we were to have purchased all those things for under 400Rs each...but well I need some eye exercise you see....Its funny how we always manage to enjoy the beauties of life when we are there....but its sad we wouldn't even bother speaking to a single one (to all those who have been confused till this point about heavenly bodies...nope im not talking about stars...talking about the fair sex :) ) 'coz somewhere deep within you feel they just might end up being a pain in the ass eventually. Come to think of it...most are...and yep half the world is out to get you broke...and the other half is already broke 'coz well...that half are us guys! A friend of mine was just telling me how she makes her guy recharge her cellphone and how she doesn't call him but makes him do so....hmmm...tragic situation i must say...but then again...hehe if I were the guy, I would do the same....maan we die for attention don't we????

Enough of that crap....the worst part of my day was just approaching...we had this long day and we decided to end it by one last hurdle...getting into a BMTC bus from the commissionarate bus stop (yes yes i got the spelling wrong and I have absolutely no plans of walking all the way there to correct myself!)...It was waaay past 9:30 and my last bus, which is the 9pm '141E' was long gone....speaking of which, BMTC has this lovely way of numbering their bus routes....they put numbers and this is followed by letters....and the source and destination of the bus will always (as a law set by a saddist who is laughing away somewhere in his guest house at this very moment) in kannada. The number seem nice and well organised, but there are over 26 routes on a single number...as an example, there is a bus route 201...suffixed by A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S,T,U,V,W,X,Y,Z,AA,AB.....etc etc and if you were dumb enough to get into the wrong bus, you wouldn't know until the bus driver suddenly took a turn off some traffic light from where it is absolutely impossible to get off...simply because the buggers in the bus just don't let you move! Mumbai Suburbans seem soooo much better...you ain't travelling blind there!

Alright so as I was saying...we were waiting at the bus stop and I had just realised that I was to take one of the million 201s....sigh I hated that bus! Why you ask me? Well for one, I almost lost my mobile in that bus and well its almost always crowded and most of the trailer type buses that run on that route barely move...I'm sure a snail walking behind these buses would be cursing the driver to move over so that he can overtake us....I had absolutely no choice but take the bus...lest I decided to walk which well...I wasn't in the mood to after walking around the whole of Marathahalli....stepped in and I was just too late to realise that I had forgotten to get some change and was stuck with just 100 buck notes. Yes all of you...not just those from India, but those abroad do know how irritating it can be for a conductor/driver when you give him a huge note and expect change for a ride that costs you a measely 5% of the note...oh well...I was faced with my tormentor now and presented the 100Rs note and spoke my destination as gentle as I could. He gave me a big smile and handed me my ticket after writing 95 on the back of it and just walked onto the next person. Now I was confused...was I just presented with a new currency which was used only by people living in the buses of Bangalore or was that just an autograph?? I bumped into him again and asked him for my change...."Change illa saar" and then there was a lot kannada which just passed by my brain as though they were directed to the person walking on the other side of the road....I rougly figured out that he would give me the change when I got off at my stop.

A little info to all those people reading this from countries in Europe and America...buses are pretty busy in India and when I mean busy, it doesn't just mean we have to stand and we don't get a seat to sit down, I also mean most of the people are either hanging on their arms outside the bus or defying every single law of gravity by actually hovering in air all thanks to the N number of people pushing them from behind. This was exactly how this bus was....I was stuck inside this bus and was just praying I would get home in one piece....sigh...I stood there wondering where all these guys were headed to late in the night at 10pm....guess they were wondering the same about me....my destination arrived and jumped off the bus and started walking as fast as I could away from the bus...trust me I had had enough!

Reached home and decided to lie down and watch a movie and that's when i put my hand in my pocket to find the ticket with the magic number '95'....oh CRAP!!!!! yep....i had lost 95 bucks :( I had spent 100 bucks for a lousy bus ride...the bloody ricks charge just 50 which again is pretty overprized as the ride is generally just 28!

Sigh...guess that's life and for one thing, I've learned my lesson....if a bus has the number 201 on it, I'm not stepping in again!!!

Yep...even i felt the earlier blog was crappy!!!!!! alright so basically it was like this...i was in a bad mood and needed something to cheer me up and well blogging didn't really help....a phone call did cure it though :D

So let me get started...firstly...a big thanks to Sameera for suggesting Chethan Bhagat's books to me....maaaaaan that guy is good!!! That guy actually got Shanim...yes Shanim of all ppl stuck to a book on a Sunday!!! I just couldn't put the book down although i had this huge test the very next day...aaah it was worth it...and luckily i did manage to do the test pretty ok...Speaking of the book...its a must read..ofcourse the making out scene reminded me of some lousy porn posts put up on sites...so don't get disappointed......modify the things there and suit it to your own thoughts...and guys..don't get carried away :)

Speaking of bangalore...I'm loving it!!!! and yes...the pretty heavenly bodies are just part of the reason...the rest of it...uhm...well its tons better than being at home in Trivandrum counting the droplets of sweat dripping off my forehead....alright so maybe that was a little gross...but that's wat usually happens when i stick in front of my pc for over 8 hrs at a stretch without the fan or ac working......

You won't believe this but when i typed or...i was wondering if the syntax was right...yep the IT fever has stuck on...and I've been doing a bit too much of SQL....that reminds me, guys I've been put up in the Oracle division of one of the depts of Wipro.....the name of it won't really matter...trust me...hehe it took us over 3 weeks to figure out wat exactly the dept was :) and I wouldn't want you guys..my poor readers to break their heads on it...no i don't underestimate you guys but...hey come on...its not worth it :) So guys..the next thing you know, you'll hear of a professional DBA named Shanim who has suddenly taken over operations of Oracle and brought the share price of the same to an all time low with over 40,000 databases crashin at a single instance....yep the day is not too far away!

Alright outta there and into another weird thing that happened in my life...yeah i know it should be called normal since its my life but then again...i need to emphasize na? alright...have you ever had a situation when you a call a friend and you get some1 else on the phone asking you wats your problem and why you called? Well yep...I've had this situation once when I was like...uhm...12 and now!!!!!!! For a moment I thought I was finally admist professionals and stuff...but hey the kids are still around...had a fun laugh after that situation :) reminded me of how we used to fight for girls and say things like "you keep off or we shall meet outside"....uhm...wait...that was a dialogue in one of our bare-shirts' movies.....fyi...Salman...oh well...kids :)

Hmmm.....can't think up anything more....food just arrived and i've lost all concentration :) that reminds me...been working out a lot...its more of being stingy...been walking like 10kms a day :) hate paying for a rick...so i prefer walking..yeah true it takes a lot of time and energy...but well i gotta burn the thousands of calories i put in every day don't i? hehe...been eating like I haven't seen food ever in my life...food's cheap in some places and I managed to find out exactly where those joints are...and I've been feeding myself crazy! Shall explain...we were getting free lunches during our training at an external location...on Fridays we get noodles, fried rice, some chinese dish, another fried dish (usually paneer or potato) and then a bunch of other goodies....I usuall have four servings on these days....two for the noodles and another two for the fried rice :) ....not to mention...deserts!! and guys the food is amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alright...me quitting for now...till next time...Peace out!