Life's Onward Journey...

My last week's astrological forecast said that everything on job-front (and other fronts) will take a U-turn and be perfectly fine sometime very soon. I smiled. Then I read the forecasts for other sun-signs and as expected something or the other matched with almost all of them. I smiled again. :)

Picture courtesy: http://www.crosswindschurch.net/images/footsteps.jpg Is it possible to just take a few steps back and undo the hundred steps I walked thinking it was the right direction...

Feels good to be back. Amongst many other things which were on my "Must do while in Bombay" list , taking a stroll at the sea face came first. I missed doing that so much. Evenings there were spent in having tea at a road-side dhaba along with some pakodas. That used to be my daily getaway from the lab. There was no place where I could just take a walk without million other people staring at my face. In the last many years, a walk at the sea-face (either alone or with a buddy) or a long chat sitting on the rocks has helped me in regaining my sanity on many stressful and frustrating days. I was eagerly waiting to get the same feeling. And I did. The rocks and the waves crashing against them seemed the same. And talking to those friends after more than a year (2 and a half years in case of one) also felt the same. I am happy. Picture courtesy: Pavitra

From welcome hugs to good-bye kisses. From counting days before arrival to counting minutes remaining before departure. In the race between us and time, the latter has always won. It arrives punctually before us, thus shortening the moments between 'arrival' and 'departure'. What stays back are new memories in a new chapter of life, ending at "... to be continued (hopefully) ".

Life to hai hi out of control, Aur dimag to bachpan se hai 'gol' (read zero). Ab ye kehte hain ki hothon ko kar ke gol, Seeti baja ke bol.... Aal izz well. Ye bhi karke dekh lete hain... :) Spent a really stressful day yesterday. First half of the day was spent in worrying whether I will get the ticket for the first-day-any-show of my hero's movie. Second half was spent in processing 10 blood samples and painting the white blood cells with four different colours, first on the outside and then inside. Was able to do everything except remembering that it was Christmas. :( Serves me right. Will wait for 25th Dec 2010 now. In between the two kind of stresses I spent some 3 hours with the 3 Idiots . And every minute was worth it. It took me back in time, to school and college days, the good old days of exams...sorry not so good days of exams. I remembered how I could never cram, how I could never write more than a page or two in response to essay type questions, how I failed to ...

Dear Heisenberg, You will be delighted to know that your 'Uncertainty Principle' of quantum mechanics can be applied in other scenarios as well. One of those is the state of scientific research at many of the institutes in this country. Research being a group activity there are people involved at different steps, e.g. administrative staff, purchase and store staff, technicians, clinical or other collaborators, the principal investigator and the graduate students. Apart from the general scientific temper and aptitude, often the graduate students are expected to coordinated with all the above mentioned staff and people for the smooth working of the system at least till the time they graduate. There is always at least one student in this weird hierarchical setup (in which each and every person has the capability of being the rate-limiting step) who drives the system. I was very fortunate to do my Ph.D. from an institute where the system was relatively more organized. But being a...

Waheeda Rehman climbs up the stairs holding a book ( Meghdoot ) in her hands as Dharmendra croons this haunting melody. The song ends as the lady climbs down the stairs and the man remains oblivious of her presence. A song so simple, yet meaningful. A perfect song for a lonely, breezy night. Somehow, whenever I listen to these lines "... dil behel to jayega is khayal se, haal mil gaya tumhara apne haal se " I feel that they describe a smaller degree of sadistic-pleasure. :) Love this song.

Waiting for 25th December 2009. Been a year since I fought and snatched tickets from the rowdy telugu crowd in Hyderabad and managed to watch the first-day-second-show of Ghajin i . Been two years since I pestered my lab junior to get tickets for TZP while I was giving a presentation on my research in Pune. Been three years since I got a chance to be the lucky one to get the last ticket for the preview show of Rang De Basanti . Been many many years...since this silsila of craziness has been going on....and it will go on forever. Love of my life (of 20 years)....here i come. :)

What was the first thing which made me rush and watch the first-day-first-show of this movie? It was the fun-factor which is quite evident from the official website of APKGK ( http://www.ajabpremkighazabkahani.tips.in/ ). The other interesting features were the songs (i love most of them). The story is of a good-for-nothing boy (and his equally worthless friends) who promises his mother that one day he will do something great and make her proud. There are many sub-plots in his way to fame. And of what value is fame if you don't have the love of your life by your side by the end of the story? Prem succeeds in achieving everything (like in most hindi movies). I got slightly bored with all the slap-stick comedy in the first 15-20 mins. But slowly the movie got interesting. May be I liked this movie so much because I really wanted to like it as it reminded me of those good old movies Andaz Apna Apna, Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander and Kabhi Haan Kabhi Na . Amongst them the resemblance to Anda...

I didn't realize it when she said goodbye and we drifted apart. In a flash of a second, she was gone. ...Gone light-years away from me. Today I see her smile from this distance, but I wonder, when did those lips curl into that smile... How many years have passed since then... And how does she look today... Magical she was, and still remains for me. -A man in love

Last night my lovely sleep was interspersed with a funny activity in my brain and resulted in these dreams... I am dead and my spirit is asking my father to stop crying. I am trying to console him and tell him that I am not happy to be dead as I have to leave for an unknown destination...that I will really get bored as I won't have anything to do there. Then I ask him whether I can carry my laptop with me. At least that way I will have stuff to read, movies to watch and music to listen too... (I think I am getting obsessed with my laptop) Another one..... I am nervous before my thesis seminar which should start within a few hours. I visit my guide's office and notice that she is having lunch. She looks at me and asks me to get a few 'papads' for her. I roast 2 'papads' and get them for her. Then I ask her to come for my seminar. (The scene changes) I am standing in a hall, ready to give my presentation. I begin with 'acknowledgment-slide' and this slide ...

Picture courtesy: http://www.razorcd.com/wp-content/gallery/photography/extinguished_candle_by_razorcd.jpg Dhoop ke ujaale si, os ke pyaale si, khushiyan mile humko. Zyada maanga hai kahan, sarhadein na ho jahaan, duniya mile humko. Par Khuda khair kar, uske armaan mein, kyun bewajah ho koi qurbaan? Ghuncha muskurata ek, waqt se pehle, kyun chhod chala tera ye jahaan? Ek lau is tarah kyun bujhi mere maula? Ek lau zindagi ki maula... Saw the movie Aamir today. A 95 min movie without any song and dance routine (or a romantic angle) which moved me to tears. The movie is thought provoking and leaves many questions unanswered. An innocent man who is circumstantially driven to commit a crime. In the end he has to choose between killing innocent people and becoming a martyr himself. The movie took me a year back and made me remember few of those martyrs. And I ask the same question as the song above. Assistant Sub-inspector Tukaram Ombl e Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan

Life is turning into a hurdle race. And at higher difficulty-levels, the hurdles remain invisible.... ...making me lick dust after every few steps.

...Sohail and Salman Khan for delivering 'quality products' like this one consistently. Main aur Mrs Khanna was so good that you would not have been able to distinguish the expression on my face for those two hours from that of a random dead body. The obvious questions which must have arisen in you head would be: 1) What the hell was I doing inside a theatre with the well positioned warning sign which read " Sohail Khan Production s- ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK " ) 2) Am I tired of life and was this an unsuccessful suicide attempt? The answer is that I went to watch this one out of desperation. In the last 2 and a half months in this city the only movies which I have seen are Love Aaj Kal and Kaminey . I missed Wake Up Sid as I failed to get tickets last Sunday and unfortunately it is not running as it had to make way for the 3 great releases this week Blue, All The Best and Main aur Mrs Khanna . I had already received a very 'positive' review of Blue from my ...

How could this go unnoticed? The title of your movie " Dil Hai Ke Maanta Nahin " in Urdu, reads " Dil Hai Ke Maanta HI Nahin ". But Aamir shayad, ". ..ye jaanta hi nahin " :) Ok, I confess I was watching this movie the millionth time last week and I noticed this mish-take.

An accidental peep into the past. Stumbled upon some pictures and videos which remained hidden in a magic folder. The female-dominated corner of that floor of that building. Women, all of them with their own idiosyncrasies . Memories of bonding, arguments and some fights. The 'lone' male amongst us. Sometimes pampered, sometimes kicked the most. Parties. Cake-cutting and smearing. The pranks. The tough to untie 'PFK' bond (shown in the picture above). The noise (some more high-pitched than the others) and the running around. That new-year party which was followed by an animated conversation. Conversation about 'injecting mosquito-gut into humans to make them immune to malaria'. Conversation about who is more scared of the lab-senior lady. Secretly shot videos which got lost in the 320GB disk space, clicked open those old times. The lab that was... in year 2005.

One of those nights, when I had nothing to do I was lying in bed while random thoughts were carelessly strolling in my head. The train of thought got stuck when I could not remember the decor on one of the walls of Monica Geller's living room(this explains that sometimes we don't have control on our thoughts). You enter the apartment, turn right and you are standing in the open-kitchen equipped with shelves full of grocery and appliances. The dining table is placed at a comfortable distance from the cooking space. Adjacent to the dining area, there is a sofa-set and a TV. A poster (with something in French printed on it) occupies the wall over the TV. On the left side of the TV is Monica's bedroom and the on the right is the guest-bedroom (once occupied by Phoebe and Rachel). A major portion of one of the walls is the glass window (that window reminds me of many interesting moments) which opened into the balcony. How did the wall just opposite to this window look like? I d...

Wake Up Sid releases this week. Have been waiting to watch this one for a long time. Been such a long time since I saw a movie, Kaminey being the last one. Will try to catch this one in the coming weekend. Lets see... Jo barse sapne boond boond naino ko moond moond, Kaise main chalun, dekh na sakun anjaane raaste.... Goonja sa hai koi iktaara, dheeme bole koi iktaara... :) I love this song from Wake Up Sid and I love Konkona Sen Sharma . I hope this movie doesn't end up disappointing me.

Brightening up the night The pandal at Mohd Ali park (very pretty) The pratima at Mohd Ali Par k How come we are alive after all that pushing and pulling? Waiting to get in... The pratima at the College Square pandal We came out alive, once again... A pretty panel outside one of the pandals At Karunamoyi, Salt Lake. The theme was "Save Girl Child" I liked this one the most .

In the 30 years of my life this was the first time that I had to stay without electricity for more than 3 days. And I thought UP-Bihar was bad... This place is worse. I hate the laid back attitude of people here. For 3 nights all of us poor residents of a hostel (which belongs to a government institute) had sleep with sweat dripping and swarm of mosquitoes to entertain us whole night. the candle after it had lived its lif e