Move On!

Easy to say, difficult to implement!

And however I try, somewhere I keep finding myself standing at that same point. One full revolution round the Sun I have made and like the Earth am also at that very point.

Saying these words to one of my friend few days back was not that difficult. But after saying, thinking that I myself don't buy this idea, makes me feel bit lost. Wherever I go, whatever I do, somewhere or other I keep connecting things. It has become a big crisscross with me stuck somewhere in between. And seriously, why so many coincidence in life? One thing that when we have something in mind everything starts getting somehow related to that and we stop seeing outside this frame.

When such thoughts come to mind, sometimes I wish there could be a delete button and sometimes you just cant stop yourself having that sad smile..!

Who is God?

Type "Suresh Raina is God", in Google Translate. Translate this to Serbian. Now, translate the result back to English. 

Leave your reaction here! Google /\

Travel Cafe

When Vikas told me that he is sitting in KunZum Travel Cafe (http://kunzum.com/travelcafe/) I thought that it will be like any other normal stuff..CCD or Barista type. But what we saw was something not expected..!

It all happened when I reached Delhi and asked Vikas where you are? He said "come home, I am sitting in Travel Cafe nearby. Its like Dulhe Raja movie. Jitna marji khao! Man mein aaye to chukao! Warna mat Chukao!"

On Saturday Afternoon, In the summers of Delhi, Mudit and I came from Gurgaon to Hauz Khas Village where Vikas lives. Box was already waiting with a water bottle (It was so hot and we forgot to carry the water bottle) with uncle to meet me! :)

Uncle dropped us in Hauz Khas Village and as expected from Box...he didn't know the place :P ( But to my utmost surprise, bhai ne Metro Card banva liya :P)

Vikas was still in his office and his room was locked. At that time I remembered of this place Travel Cafe. Called up Vikas to ask where this is. It was just behind his house. A small flight of stairs and we were in the cozy little place, filled with photographs across India. Light music playing and few people sitting with their laptops sipping in the freshly made coffee.

Three of us pulled cane chairs and sat. It was altogether a different place. Mudit picked the card lying on the table.."PHEW! Finally a place for travelers to meet.  In the real world – not on social media.  To simply bum around.  Exchange travel stories. Make travel plans.  Read up travel books in the library.  Post travelogues & pics. Even write books.  And buy travel books and photographic art. Over coffee and cookies. Pay what you like. Use free Wi-Fi!"

You can sit entire day and there is no compulsion to buy anything. Meet people from various parts of the world in this one small room,(Hauz Khas Village is full of foreigners and shops selling Indian arts, ethnics etc. which will make you turn out your pockets) share your thoughts, your work. Enjoy!

There were travel notes from travelers, photographs, a wall full of messages, few collectables, travel books/guides! You can make yourself cozy on rug lying on the floor or pull out cane chairs or the sofas. And if you have your iPod, just put it on the dock and share music with others.

Box, Mudit and myself sat there for an hour or so before Vikas turned in. After that also we spend some time there. We had a good topic to discuss over and Mudit was in no mood to leave Vikas :D Finally when Ma-Papa came we said bye to this place.

Something good was there in the atmosphere of this place and if by chance you happen to pass by that area.. do check in..!

For another version of the same, read - http://shashanktandon.blogspot.com

N70 my lifeline~!

And today after designing Niveshak for the second consecutive month via internet on this handset, I am so much in love with this phone. Downloading an image at a time..uploading the drafts which took half hour for 5MB..!

Thats true. This phone, bought in Decemeber 2007 has seen many accidents but is still living in a rocking style. 

Throughout the earler years, its use was more of camera as I was not into sending mssgs or calls. But since it is a smart phone, there is more to it.

In TATA Chem, it used to be my remote for my laptop via bluetooth.And this feature continued to the classrooms of IIM where silently with the help of mobile I operate my laptop. 

These 2 months in Mumbai showed the multicapacity of this phone. My 3 hours of daily to and fro journey was soothed by the music/fm while sending all the mails through this in bus in morning. Synapse was handelled completely over this 176x208 pixel screen. Though their were problems because of the screen size in reading a bit but still..!

Then not to forget the maps...getting to a location here in mumbai was so much easy because of this. Just key in the name of the place and it tells the exact location, direction, route, rating, review, everything. Standing on Bandra station with Sunil, finding place for the junior senior meet was greatly solved by this.

Regarding messages...T9 is like the fastest way of typing anything. With daily message travelling on this handset reaching figure of 150 a day on average (thnks Bhim :P ) this is simply awesome..

What has changed in last one year is speed dial. Numbers till 6 are reserved for papa, mummy, vikas, home phone etc. 7-8-9 which used to be box-shantanu-vishrut now shifted to shashank-box-sakshi, work requirement changes with time..!

As i said accident, let me just jot down. One was in Sector 18 Noida when one bike hit me while i was walking. Phone flew in air and landed on mid road with moving traffic. Although battery and everything got separated, nothing happened. Apart from this falling from table is a regular affair. Last week only it fell with such force in office that Radhika asked "what happened? Taking out some anger on phone?!"

The funniest part..for last one year the earpiece was creating problem. Couldn't hear properly so whenever someone calls, I had to put the phone on Speaker and talk. Everybody said to replace it/ get it repaired but i didn't. Then yesterday I just thought of checking the problem myself. After searching on net how o dismantle the phone, I opened this up. What was there was some impounded dust on the earphone. Removed that and now :D :D

For now my latest crush is on Nokia C6-00 touch +qwerty with 5mp camera/wifi/gps and whateva you require..! So if you want me to part from this n70 of mine..you know what to gift me! its just for 12,000! Anyone?!

Why?

Was thinking of writing this down since long but was not getting time.

Now I don't remember the exact date when this happened! One evening while returning from office as usual Shri and I were in 310, the bus which we take from Bharat Nagar to KalaNagar. And as usual it was on the verge of bursting out with double the capacity already in that double decked bus. We both were standing on upper deck and I was looking out the window. At the BNP Paribas bus stopped at red light. This light always take at least 3-4 minutes to clear. At that time I saw 3 children, 2 girls and a boy aged about 10-12. All were holding crutches and knocking on the glass of BMWs and Volswagons (Specially mentioning these two because have seen so much of them in the 2 months in BKC) expecting to get something. Somehow I was lost seeing them and was thinking. One thought crossed that who will give? All in these cars are top level executives from the best of the industry companies in BKC. When children didn't get anything after trying 3-4 cars, my thought was getting firm. But then someone in one of the auto-rickshaw gave money to one of those kids.

Their was sort of happiness on the face of children. Slowly helping each other they crossed the road. I was watching them cross.

But what followed was something that i had just seen in movies. As they crossed the road they went on the road side small patch of grass with few flower bushes. All 3 went towards the back side where they were not visible from the autorckshaw or these cars. But as i was in double decked i could see them. The boy threw his crutch aside, walked a stretch and sat on the grass. And the two girls also dropped the crutches and started talking. Their was some sense of happiness in them. One of the girl started showing a dance step to the other one which other one was not able to get it.

I was taken aback. Bus started moving and I called Shri that look at those kids. A minute back they were holding crutches and now they are playing like normal children. By then bus has taken on its speed.

The rest of the journey i was thinking that what would have forced these children to do all this. Was that person in autorickshaw right to give them money? Because he might have been touched by seeing them in such state that he gave them or any other reason. Or were those people in cars right by not giving? Because ultimately they stopped such thing. Might be that these kids were forced to beg as in movies.

For next 3-4 days I kept looking for those kids in the evening but never saw them again there! What still keeps me thinking is one word - Why?! There was a different kind of happiness when one of the girl was showing the dance step to other. But why?

NighTravel

In life you do all sort of things, some good, some bad; some sane and also some insane; some are very suave and some as crazy as it can go..!

Today while coming back from dinner with Sakshi, Sushant and Sana this one incident just somehow took me back about a year. This case of drunkard cab driver and the slight hassle tonight kept me thinking that we some times do things which on fully realizing our mind never allows, but our heart throbs, and we do them.

Whether be it today the urge of going out with everyone or the last year's urge of meeting someone, we do things which we should not. Tonight agreeing to the fact that we are very late, we went.

And last year, just a mere desire to meet someone made me travel 40 km in the evening. Although the 'luck' was not in favor and I could not meet the one for whom I went but met some old friends. 'Luck' was so angry with me that day that when at around 10.30 in night I reached my second home (the one in Ghaziabad which company had provided), house keeper was not there and the house was locked. Standing on the street, trying to call the keeper (his name is Chhavi) all sorts of things started coming in mind. Where to go and what to do. At first I thought of jumping the wall and sit in the courtyard to wait for him. But then I was not sure where he is. Will he be back in the night at all or not. Sometimes these cellphones make you feel so much dependent on them that you think what life would have been without them. I called Deepak. DKD (read Dfak :P my colleague in BHEL and room mate) assured me that you come till wherever you can and I will pick you from there on bike. With this ray of hope,  I decided to go back 40 kms to Dadri. I woke some sleeping auto drivers, persuaded them to go. I knew that they were all drunk but still...He dropped me at one point. Walking on the silent street, on NH24, on those dingy village roads, I had no clue why I was walking alone dead in night, in the region where crime is at its max. I changed 5 modes of conveyance and spent 300 bucks to reach back my place at 1.30 in the night. On reaching back, first thing I did was to go and hug Dfak. And then when we were sitting and discussing my this misadventure we discovered that Dfak's bike was punctured. The very hope on which I traveled those horrifying 40 kms thinking that this bike would come and pick me was blown out.

We laughed.. yes...now the things were normal so we could afford to do that. But then thinking about other end was as scary as it could be. Best was next morning, no one was believing that I had traveled such a distance. Got strict warnings from my boss/seniors etc. of not repeating this thing again.

What ever be the case, traveling alone in night is extremely risky. However strong in will you are, there are some bad forces out in the dark which you never know when will strike you.

Love vs Life

Needed a clarification on a so called "controversial" topic by my lovely friend Swati Borda "Love happens only once , Rest is just Life".

To her, this is true! For me, its not!

And I say "Love vs Life" because thats what this topic of discussion gives an impression to me..! Love happens only once. All set now. Sit, relax. Because rest is all life. But where has love gone???

I do not agree to this because for me, love happens all the time. You may have "loved" someone deeply, but that person never valued that. Eventually you may start feeling low, then depressed and in the end this all won't matter. Now you move ahead in your life. New aims, new people, friends, and ho ho ho.. you again find someone with whom you think you  can spend the rest of you life. Those same sweet feelings starts developing again. Isn't that love now?

I don't know where the line of infatuation ends and where love starts? Or is it just the term given by those who haven't found love yet. After all some grapes are always sour...

I say, till the day you live, you never stop loving..! 

 

...a year back!

Time do fly ... and that too silently!!

Whatever be the chaos, sad times, merry times, anything, all become just pictures in mind which keeps getting archived. And when we open those old shelves to find those memories, a small smile always crosses our lips reminding the great time we had. All the problems of those times seem so trivial. We laugh at our own stupidity of getting worried over things which were matter of life and death at those times. Its like standing at the beach and watching waves after waves coming and smoothly touching your feet...bringing one episode after another..and taking you deep inside those time.

And am writing this because I had a (good) habit of clicking pics from my mobile. Those pics kept accumulating in a date wise catalogue. And today, I just randomly typed the date to see what I was doing this time, a year back.

It is Rahul's Birthday today...!! Happy Birthday Bro :)

I remember, how I had travelled 3 hours to come to Noida to have lunch with Rahul, Sagar and Ritesh.. and then there were Box, Pandey and Kaka not to forget Meet (someone now indispensable when the name Noida comes). How I saw my boss there.. (its funny..boss can have day off whenever they want but we had to be working as per they say) and was all worried that I skipped office for this meeting with friends. But now seeing this pic, I am happy I did that.

Its all upon us how we want to live. Afraid from the external factors and keep worrying or listen to your heart and make your decisions cherish able for life time..!

It Hurts..!

It hurts momentarily when you fall down and the hard ground leaves pain
It hurts for some time when some stone or ball or something comes and hit you!
It hurts for a day or two when you are sick and are getting medicated..!!

And..

It also hurts when you see your close ones in sad mood and you are unable to do anything..!
It also hurts when you want to say something to your best friend but he/she is not understanding..!
It also hurts when the person you love sits right in front of you and talk about his/her love towards someone else..!

But what hurts the most is the silence between two friends.....

Somethings to remember

The story behind me getting this particular compliment from beloved Sreya ... yes our very own "amma".. is something which can take rest in a graveyard because somethings are best forgotten than remebering. After all the chaos and shouts.. a big time thanks and hugs to her for talking me out my anger :)

Sreya: i have a feeling your real smile is like the sun in this region

always hiding

but the day it emerges

man oh man!

 

Thanks Sreya for being here. Your presence gives a state of serenity to all..! Life is beautiful because we have someone like you with us..!