The day when I reached office at 9 o’clock!

While I thought I would keep my thought process on record mode while the most important interview of my life is awaiting me and play it once it is done but so much is going on lately and before my10 bits get occupied and these memories get lost, I thought I better pen them down. And what better day than this when your manager is on leave!

Lately, half my life is revolving around office and the other half around two important people in my life! For the first friend, "Look, I can say that without being conscious" and for the second one, "If only you can understand but thanks a lot man!" Apart from this, I was too engrossed in myself to read the world around me. But a stupid rather useless friend of mine keeps reminding me the beauty of this prodigious activity :) And while I was getting too vulnerable and predictable which in fact rarely happens, I was also beginning to believe that I had lost my own power of judging people! And I spent a night to get back to the real world, open my eyes and tickle my grey cells. And mean while I met this girl who reminded me of our long gone hostel days. The first time I talked to her over phone, I knew she would be my hanging out buddy in the new city. The first time I met her, I knew she was out going and would be fun to be with. The first time I moved in with her, I knew she was sensitive and logical. The first time we had a girls talk, I knew she was very much like me. The first time we had an actual girls (night) talk, I knew she was a genuinely mature person. This girl is no other than my new room mate who is exactly like what I had hoped for while coming to Hyderabad. Now that we both have got priorities to move ahead on our paths, future might bring some tears again! But I do not want to think about it yet. As of now, I am loving it here.

Not much tension at work, surprise call from IIMB, concerns showered by friends on an international level, friends staying a lane away, movies on weekends, parties and controversies, bomarillu style ice-creams at 2 and lot more. Who would not love it!

I got so carried away that I completely forgot about what the title said! Actually, today was supposed to be an early morning at work since our on site team is visiting us. But no matter what, I had to go to the house next lane, had to go to have ice cream at 2, had to have a g-talk at night and hence got late. Actually not late but it turned out to be one of those days when you get up in a shock that your alarm betrayed you when in fact you were deep asleep in your sweet dreams and you just put on what catches your eye first, empty a bottle of deodorant, comb your hair on way, apply gloss while swiping your card and finally take a deep breath once you are on your desk! (It is a bit exaggerated to add spice :)) We laughed all our way to office and probably will do so again in future recollecting these days!

SPOILed alas!!!!

People smoke and get SPOILed
Some drink coke and get SPOILed
I danced and got SPOILed...

Cheers to the one who SPOILed all of us!!!!
Happy birthday :)

PS: Could not elaborate due to time constraint..

Hence proved.. GOD exists!!!

Sachin on 199

Over: 48.5
On strike: Dhoni
Takes a single
Entire nation boos..

Over: 49.0
Dhoni hits a 6
Entire nation boos..

Over: 49.1
Dhoni hits hard for a boundary
An unfortunate SA player dives and stops the ball
Entire nation cheers..

Over 49.2
On strike: Sachin
Sachin takes an easy single..
Entire nation rises..

Over 49.3
Forget it, no one cares..

The legend reaches the inconceivable mark!
200.. In a 200 CARAT diamond style..

Many matches will come and go, many innings will come and go, many players will come and go.. But only one God will remain and will always be remembered for the greatness he endeavours.. The maestro has proved yet again to the world, his passion for the game and his insatiable hunger..
I am too happy, too excited, too over whelmed to say much here! The news channels are doing enough bragging, to be followed by the newspapers tomorrow morning.. And they will undoubtedly do a much better job.

My friend told me, the happiness quotient of india increases by 3% everytime sachin scores a century.. Today that makes it 6% linearly.. But I am very sure it would be much more than that.
That is the madness for cricket in this country or I should say that is the love for the legend in this country. When I used to read, the man who carries the expectations of billions of Indians, I used to feel proud but could never understand the significance! Had always seen a match at home, at max with 20 people in front of a TV. But today, in office, during work hours I hear a loud shout! I check the scoreboard on cricinfo and YES Sachin on 168 and had hit a six. I gave up. My desire over-powered my responsibilty and I left to see the match. I open the cafetaria gate and what a SCENE! I never knew the capacity of our cafetaria! It was jam packed, people were standing, eyes stuck on the TV and a rising uproar with every glimpse of the man! From workers to managers everyone was in pause mode and moved only to clap when Sachin scored. Finally with all the hoo-haas and the heart beats pacing the land mark was achieved! I felt like taking a pic and sending it to Larry (Our CEO) and tell him "Yeh hai India meri Jaan". I was pondering over the thought when a friend of mine at IIMA told me that they got an early off from a lecture because of the match! And I smiled and thought "Yes, yeh hai India meri jaan!"

When I was a kid, during the matches my brother always used to tell me "If cricket is religion, Sachin is God!" I hardly used to watch cricket then, knew nothing about God and Religion and Sachin was like any other cricketer. But now I know.. And 10 years down the line, the fact still remains.. Undoubtedly, Sachin is God, what so ever you may call cricket!

Wishing my hero for all the years to come and lots of records to be broken and lot more records to be set. Hope he leads his team to a World cup victory and fulfills his last desire before saying good bye to the game.

To the one man who has brought smiles on billions of Indians, rich or poor, young or old, for 2 full decades..

My Name is King Khan

Hereby cherishing the return of King Khan...

Sleeping early on a friday night and getting up early on a saturday morning would not have been so easy had it not been for a Shahrukh Khan movie! And honestly every minute of My Name is Khan was worth all the pains taken.. The story revolves around the life of an ordinary Muslim man, the story of every Muslim man in US at the time of 9/11 disaster. A touching line in the movie says.. "Like time used to be defined as AD and BC, similarly in US it has become before 9/11 and after 9/11"! A child suffering from Asperser's syndrome (Khan), intellectually brilliant, falls in love with a beautiful divorced mother (Mandira), happily married and living a peaceful life with a wife and child and just when everything looks perfect in Khan's life, 9/11 happens. His cute child is tortured and killed by some hooligans and Mandira in a fit of rage blames Khan for his name and tells him to go away from her. And Khan agrees and genuinely asks her ".. but when should I return"! And then what she says results in the rest of the story.

There have been so many movies made on 9/11 but none can match My name is Khan. Starting from the scene where Shahrukh says "My name is Khan and i am not a terrorist" to the last scene where he finally meets the president every scene is stupendously shot. I am not here to promote the movie (for I am a die hard SRK fan) but I sincerely want all my friends to go and enjoy the movie thoroughly as I did. And to pen down a few scenes which stuck me and should not go un-noticed by you include the scene where Mandira (Kajol) cuts Khan's hair and with the back ground music and the lighting effect, it is a treat to watch. At the scene where he is not allowed to meet the President because he is not a Christian, the theatre applauded on the "No, no.. Honey, keep the money, for the people who are not Christians in Africa". Another heart touching line goes like.. "Ek Sikh ko Musalmaan samajh liya toh aapne apna libaaz badal diya par yahan ek Musalmaan ko insaan nahi samjha jaa raha hai aur aap apna schedule badalne ko tayyar nahi hai!"

The most amazing thing is the way in which Khan has portrayed autistic Khan's balance between insanity and intelligence. Though in some scenes including the romantic scenes with Kajol and the heroic scenes at Willemina the autistic Khan gets over driven by his own heroic SRK style but over all it is a commendable performance. And Kajol has complemented him brilliantly with another strong performance. And as usual the perfect chemistry between the two of them always keeps us asking for more! Five hours have passed and yet not over the Khan magic. The beats of "tere naina" are still echoing in my mind and my facebook message is soon going to be "cant stop listening to tere naina"

Over all it is a perfect entertainment package, Contradictory to a certain friend of mine, I strangely rate a movie as proportional to the amount of tears I shed! And generally I do that a lot on every other sad scene. But here, some emotional strings being attached to SRK, even the joyful scenes saw tears rolling down my cheeks and neighbours laughing on me! But i dont care, it was a fultoo paise wasool for me.. :D Hope it is the same for you in your very own way!

And not to forget, hats off to the man in charge, Mr. Karan Johar. Thank you..
And I just want to say it once again.. Love you Shahrukh.. :D

First trip to Hometown - Part 2

After a hectic week at work I have finally gathered all my thoughts on my last two trips to Nagpur which have left me moved more than ever. My first trip was for the engagement of my two close friends and as if that was not enough my second trip followed immediately a week later for a family friend's marriage.

I left Hyderabad full of excitement, some of the many reasons being, it was my first trip to Nagpur after my relocation to Hyderabad, it was my best friend's engagement, it was the first reunion for all of us after college. And I was not dissappointed in any of my expectations. I had the best time after having left persistent! The useless talk with college friends, the leg pulling session, the night stay at hostel, the same old mess food, the much awaited feast and the sunday tiffin, the jokes and the laughs, the dressing up for treat, the non-ending photoshoot, the Persistent reunion with ex-team mates and friends on and off work, everything was exactly as I had imagined or in fact better than that!

But the most over whelming part was the engagement. Now if you are wondering what is so over whelming about an engagement then it would be hard for me to explain. All i can say is you will understand when one of your best friend will be on the engagement chair and you will stand next to her wondering is she grown up enough to take up such a big responsibilty and fearing is my time approaching too!!! Will I be the next! Though it sounds over dramamtic but that is what came to my mind and that is what my dad asked me when he called me then. All through the engagement fro the time I took my friend to saloon and she was turned from a normal looking college going girl to a lovely pretty soon-to-be bride, I could not stop asking her again and again how was she feeling! And all through she told me, "something weird but not fear"! And it went well till she sat on that engagement chair next to her soul mate. And that is when a strange thought stuck me, that now on we cant just hang out the way we used to before.. Till now, it was like. I am bored, I am off, I want to do something crazy, I feel like having pani puri, I want to just hang out with her alone, I used to just ring her and say aaja.. But now!!! I probably cant expect this once she is married. That will be too much to ask for, she might say "wait, unse poochhke batati hu!" and I felt weird after that point. People say life changes. I realised it when I left college and joined job.. But I had never thought how it will change after marriage! Now that I have realised it, I am certain to stay away from it for a good enough period! :D

An intelligent friend of mine once said long back.. "Kya be, log shadi kar rahe, itne bade ho gaye kya ki bachcho ki responsibility le sake!" (This is a subtle version of what he actually said!) I had a laugh then and thought "grow up man"! But now I agree, "abhi toh hum bachche hi hai yaar!"

For our glourious days which will soon be coming to an end..

First trip to Hometown - Part 1

Well.. I have been a bit emotional lately with all the shifting to new city and leaving behind memories and people hustle. And before I could get over that feeling, I am back to the same old lovely green city which has made a mark in my life like no other place. I was extremely happy while shifting to Hyderabad, one main reason of the many being the over whelming feeling of finally moving to my mother land, AP.. (part of which some selfish people are claiming to be Telangana now! ) And "shifting to hometown" was the very same reason that I smartly specified in my exit interview! Though in spite of my infinite efforts to convince myself for the same, a part of me always feared that I was moving away from my hometown! And this fear came to reality when I stepped into Nagpur for the first time after relocating. I told my friend without looking at the station, that it was Nagpur. The recorded sound of "gadi no. 'do saath do ek', hyderabad se nizamuddin jane wali dakshin express, platform no. ek par aa chuki hai..", the kind of people getting down, the stalls visible from the window and it might sound too exaggerated but simply by the air around me I could say I was in Nagpur! When I said the same lines to my friend who kept me a wonderful company throughout the journey with all sorts of serious, funny and emotional stories all night long, he mocked at me! Little did he know, I actually meant it.. (Well, not all but at least a few..)

I am still wondering how the significance of a place changes from person to person.. In my own college I have seen wide variety of opinions about Nagpur. Some think it is just a boring place good enough only to finish engineering and return to their more happening lives at more happening places! Some think it is a calm peaceful place to get settled eventually but not to waste our "jawani ke din". Some do not think of it much, since their world is constrained only inside VNIT campus. While a few like me, give importance to every possible speciality of Nagpur, like the Dinshaws at Sadar that has no substitute in Hyderabad (high quality@low cost) and the delicious Haldirams sweets which make all pure ghee sweets at Hyderabad look OK-OK, and attach emotions with every possible place I have been to, like the college dinshaws (where we used to hang out till 8.29 pm), the Futala lake(whose walls have heard a lot more troubles than even our hostel walls), civil lines ke raaste (where i and a chhotu-motu friend of mine used to love getting lost), the balaji temple (which has relieved me of my tensions whenever i have turned that way), the sitabuldi flyover (which got converted from a phobia to a dream romantic drive), the buldi market (where everything from socks to suits are only a few steps away), the Abhyankar Nagar Square (where in the first half of my stay in Nagpur I used to wait on the signal dreaming about getting admission into VNIT and in the second half I couldn't stop feeling proud for being able to achieve that), and every other restaurant in Nagpur where we have had our mess offs, last lunch, last dinner, birthday parties, farewell parties, job treats and of course the one and only TDS which would not have been renamed top to down sexy if not for our batch.

Oh god.. I have totally drifted from the topic.. Now considering the mood set, it would be impossible for me to get back to the original topic which was supposed to revolve around "Why I was in Nagpur!" where as it revolved and rotated around "How much I missed it!". The original topic would continue soon, keep watching the space..

This one is to Nagpur and to all the Nagpurians I have ever known.. Cheers!!!

Heights of frustration!

This is not the first time, when I have felt like pulling my hair and shouting aloud "Oh God, please spare me". Sitting in a well furnished, posh conference room at Oracle India, Hyderabad and listening to "Why to Automate" presentation, I tried to keep myself involved writing this so that my brain nerves relax a bit and my BP remains normal! And it gets even more frustrating when people ask meaningless doubts and getting into unending arguments simply to come to notice.

This is not the first time that I have faced such rage in a lecture! In college though, I remember, I used to bang my head in Gandhi's class thinking "What is the fool drawing on board and blabbering.. Doesn't he know every book, in fact every chapter has an introduction!" Right now, it is difficult for me to judge which kind of frustration is more frustrating...