Life's Onward Journey...

We (my buddy and me) stayed up whole night, glued to the tv set, surfing all the news channels to catch any new update. Finally sometime before 9am the NSG and the other police force were seen casually strolling with mobile phones in there hands and a smile on there face. Operation Cyclone at the Taj was finally over with the last of the terrorists being gunned down (hopefully the last one). But it has left several wounds which will never heal or will take a long time to heal. The young Major Unnikrishnan, the Rabbi's orphan infant, ATS chief Hemant Karkare, encounter specialist Salaskar, young Gautam (a trainee at Taj)... all these faces will be difficult to forget. And many memories of times spent with friends all over the area which is covered with rubble and blood now... I remember... the first treat i gave to my friends from my own money was at Leopold Cafe. sitting on the cemented seat at the gate way and counting the number of floors in the new Taj Hotel. strolling in the Ta

It is going to be 24 hours since it all started a few kilometers from here. Half an hour back I went to the sea face just to have a look at the city skyline... whether it looked any different. It didn't. The lights at the governor's house, malabar hill and marine drive looked the same at least from this distance. It looked like any other evening. But it isn't the same. Last night around 10:30 pm, I was flipping through the pages of Bombay Times to see if there is a late night show of any decent movie aroung south bombay. I was wondering whether i should go to INOX (nariman point) or Metro Adlabs. The shows at both these places were just 15 mins apart and i was still deciding when a friend called up and asked me to switch on the tv. As i was talking to him, i could hear loud noises which seemed like thunder (or blasts) and finally when i set the tv at NDTV, i saw the visuals from Leopold cafe. Speechless... At that time it wasn't clear as to what actually happened. Initi

More than 10 years have passed without speaking about him. I have maintained contact with only few others who know him. And with those few people, i never initiated talking about him. Because it pains... Last week I got in touch with a very old and dear friend from school. We were great buddies back then ( more than 16 years back). Somehow we lost touch and couldn't get back to each other after passing out from school. The first time we spoke, he mentioned G. I was dreading that moment. I dont like talking about G. I get reminded of everything and then it becomes really difficult to push it at the back of mind. But this time i didn't feel that sad. And the reason was that i was talking to somebody who was as close or may be more close to G than me. Still i just chose to stay quite and listen to what my friend had to say. We talked about school and many memories. Memory of G is becoming fresh now. He was one of the most brilliant students (very good at Mathematics) of our class.

I wish I didn't have to answer these questions... not now at least. What are your future plans? (A vague trick question. It might mean either of the following 3) When are you defending your thesis? (This one is not very bad, but irritates me when i am not in a good mood) When are you planning to get married? (I thought that at least one more person is required for this one...Right? I can't see anybody around. Sorry.) What are you going to do after your PhD? (It is none of your business!) I remember the year I could not get through the All India MSc entrance exams and i stayed at home doing some random things like preparing for Bank P.O. exams, reading Pratiyogita Darpan , making 1 and a half paintings and just doing household chores. In between all this i also prepared for the next year's entrance examinations. There was this particular Mallu Uncle who stayed near our home. Often he used to see me either watering the plants or sweeping the verandah. At such moments, he

The way I have been using my memory space, I am sure it will crash sometime soon. I cannot imagine how it would be... Just in case it happens, you all, my parents, brother and my friends will have to remind me who I was and what was my dream, my aim and the love of my life. Actually all of you will have some or the other special way of doing this job. But let me give you some ideas which might really help and result in quick recovery. Make me watch all Aamir Khan movies in chronological order (please skip Jawani Zindabad, Daulat ki jung, Isi ka naam zindagi and Tum mere ho as it would be a torture for poor me) I remember certain food joints and shops where i used to hang out with my family or friends. Take me to those places and these are a my few of my favourites. Badam milk from Janpriya Dairy, Alambagh, Lucknow. Aloo tikki chat from Moti Mahal, Hazratganj, Lucknow. Cakes and Pastries from Sweet Home, Boring Road, Patna. Emotions, Boring Road Patna. Baigan Bharta and chapati from

Guys, Priyanka Chopra is one good reason to stay 'straight'. :) Dostana is as funny as it was projected to be. Me and my buddy went mad laughing. I don't remember when I had laughed so much. May be either I have lost my mind or my sensibilities are not at the right place. I really enjoyed watching this movie. Abhishek Bachchan (he is the only Bachchan I can tolerate now) had a perfect comic-timing like always. The 'Venice' story was well-narrated and well-acted. You have to see it to believe it. John Abraham was also good in the movie, but the former stole the show (according to me). Certain things were a little far from reality (oh yeah its a Hindi movie, so it should fulfil this criteria). Though both the guys love the same girl, there is hardly any feeling of competition amongst them (except once). May be that was to make the viewers believe in the 'buddy-factor' of the movie. There were some moments when the 3 of them really look like great buddies. A

The fever is back again. The cough is bad too. I realized something. That I become a 'little' more sentimental when I am unwell. Or may be it is estrogen... No, I think its the fever because this is not the first time I am feeling this. I have felt this before . Last night I cried watching Full House . There have been plenty of emotional moments in the series but i have never cried watching it. But when Jesse surprised Rebecca with a special Christmas gift- snow (when it had not snowed) all over the backyard with a cute snowman standing in the center, because for Rebecca Christmas is incomplete without the snow. That was really cute. Because of the cough I am not able to talk a lot. That's the reason for blogging this often. On normal days I would have told this to my buddy and then forgotten about it. Since I am not able to do that, I am expressing here. This is my corner. :) Today I saw 'Pyar ke side effects' finally! I liked the movie very much. Shame on me. I

Okay...it is 7 am and normally I am not awake this early. Last few nights were terrible with coughing and wheezing keeping me awake till this hour. I can feel slight improvement on that front now. So, I was looking forward to a peaceful sleep tonight but I didn't get any. I oiled my hair, then watched a few episodes of 'Full House', then read a few pages of a book and solved a sudoku puzzle (too much!). The last one actually made me feel exhausted so I decided to lie down. At the same moment the sleep vanished and my mind started to wander. These days I keep thinking about my weaknesses and the ways to overcome them. 'There is a lot of room for improvement'. The title of this post is more about that improvement and not about my health. I remember quite a few times when I should have been a little more assertive when decisions about my life, my career were being taken. Not that it has affected me very badly, but things could have been better (may be). I didn't

I am not getting time to blog these days. In a way it is good. I should be concentrating more on my paper and experiments. I am doing that. But blogging is like catching a movie on a weekend or having an ice cream, meaning it is not done everyday, it is not essential but still when done, makes me feel good and rejuvenated. My mind has been quite active for the past 2 weeks or so. I have been reading a lot (both scientific and non-scientific stuff). There are so many things which I want to write about. But if I don't scribble it somewhere, I forget the content and just remember the theme. Once this happens I am too lazy to develop the whole idea again. I finished reading Ismat Chughtai's Kaghazi Hai Pairahan . The book is her autobiography describing her unconventional life as a young muslim woman in the pre-independence era. What I appreciate most in her character is the strength and self-confidence with which she opposed her parents and completed her studies. She had made up

Ghar jaane de, chhod mori bahiyan.... (from the Theme of Fashion) Fashion belongs to Priyanka Chopra. I think it is the first time she has played the main protagonist in a movie and she hasn't disappointed her fans. She should get full points for both her look and her acting. From the naive-small-town-girl to an aspiring-model to an arrogant-supermodel, she has done justice to the character of Meghana Mathur. The movie is like other 'relaistic' Bhandarkar movies where the truth and tragedy behind the glitz and glamor-world has been shown. Some of it has been inspired by real-life incidences (like the Carol Gracias wardrobe-malfunction and the life of Geetanjali Nagpal). Kangana Ranaut fits such roles. She is fine in the movie (except the innumerable times when she expresses her feelings for her boyfriend by calling him b*****d). Mugdha Godse has done a good job too. The movie has just too many eye-candies for men and sadly not for us women. If it was not a glimpse of R