Night Shift

Here is a heads up on how I feel pulling off Night Shifts.

Before starting about it want to share briefly about my sleep patterns during school/college days & professional days.

All throughout school/college, I was always early to bed and early to rise. It wouldn’t matter even if I had the crankiest exam the next morning. I had to dwell into the world of dreams as soon as possible on any given day.
Moving over to my professional life, I suddenly am a nocturnal person, rather animal.
My night starts only after 1 or 2 AM and the sun rises at around 9 AM during the weekdays and at around 11 AM or 12 PM during the weekends. I have no clue about the reason for this transformation.

Now hitting the topic of this blog “Night Shift”. Two weeks of regular shift followed by night shift for another two weeks in a month can really confuse the most loved & cared about aspect (sub consciously) of a human being “ SLEEP”.

I very strongly feel, sleep has its own personality with loads of attitude. No matter how much we love it (or) are committed to it, it occasionally heeds to our needs. It can shock us by bothering us at the least expected time and can evade us when we need it the most. Boy, I bet!!!! Priyanka Chopra could be an easier personality to woo.;-)
This turns into belief when I vividly experience all my feelings related to sleep during night shifts.

It is a Herculean task to keep my eyes open from 4 AM – 7 AM and when the shift ends sudden excitement of having accomplished one more night on the mission (mission here is not the work, it is to be awake) offsets my sleep and I just cant fall asleep before 9 AM. Impulsively as if I had a nightmare my eyes are wide open by 1 PM. Then all throughout the day I keep hoping sooner or later sleep would embrace me so that I can carry out the mission effectively, but in vain.

To pass 9 hours in office during regular shifts demands lot of patience & alertness, now imagine a single being in a night shift for 9 hours with no soul on the entire floor!!!!!!!!!!

Night shifts make me feel I am a victim of split personality disorder (lol :-D) because two weeks I am trying to drift into the sea of relaxation at a particular time and the next two weeks at the same time I am trying to fight off very human urge to sleep. I am always preoccupied with “SLEEP” during night shifts hence the need for this post.

Enough ranting on sleep!!!!

Signing off for now, PEACE!!!

Saturday Night

There is lot that one can do on a Saturday night. But I had a refreshing experience previous night or early morning.

I had spent some good amount of time around 3am in the morning on an isolated beach(thankfully there was no police patrolling party )with my friends in our high spirits ;-) .It was absolutely peaceful with no hustle bustle. We could only hear the waves roar in all their might. To top it off, it was a full moon night!!! Trust me it was fabulous. With your friends around you, pink floyd being played, cool breeze blowing and to compliment the breeze, cig smoke. What else could one ask for??? I felt --

THIS IS LIFE !!!!

The serenity was really pleasurable. This made me wonder would I feel so good if I were in a night club with loud noise being played. Ofcourse not and a night in the club would come along with a price-tag which I am sure would burn a hole in my pocket.

This exact moment reminded me of “Master Cards” advt which says “Somethings that money cant buy , for rest there is master card”.

Indeed true(am not sure abt master card) few experiences cant have any value and can never be bought.

My First Clubbing Experience in Chennai !!!!

It was night before diwali and we were a group of 8 friends of which I had met 6 of them for the first time. Two had come from hyd and bnglr to celebrate diwali.We wanted to show them around and ensure they have a good time in Chennai. We all were in high spirits to start celebrations for diwali and were wondering how? Then it was unanimously decided we go clubbing as it was a long weekend and night before diwali. We knew that these reasons would draw many people to the clubs to party and we were surely going to have fun.

So off we were in our party clothes to one of the happening clubs in Chennai –Club Pasha (we were recommended to party there by our local friends).We reached Pasha and peeked inside the club and find no one there except the bartenders, floor manager and d.j. My first reaction was “Oh cow!! Nobody in a night club for diwali party!!??? “.Then we instantly checked out the time, it was around 10 pm and we were glad , assuming the party starts late in Chennai and goes on late (the way we like it).We did want to check out other clubs ,but we were not aware of the party scene in Chennai. So, after lot of discussion we get in, to party. We settle down and start going through the menu to order our complimentary drinks and guess who goes out of the club? It’s the D.J!!! Good 15 mins pass by and neither do we have a crowd(except us) nor the D.J. Finally we demanded the management to get us a D.J or we would walk out and in another 15 mins a different D.J was at the console. It was 10:30 pm now and we still had no crowd, we enquired with the bartender what time would the crowd pour in and he replied, post 11pm.That was a respite to hear. Once again, assuming we would shortly be joined by some crowd on the dance floor, we all 8 of us got into the groove. Whenever the club door would open and if ,someone would walk in, our energy levels would go up and we all would be happy thinking finally we got to see new faces and dance with different people. Unfortunately that didn’t happen often and the club had around 15 people by the end of the night. In the meantime we 8 of us were having a ball, we were in possession of the entire dance floor and danced to glory with our killer moves(lol :-D) !!! When we were actually enjoying the party having stopped bothering about the count of people in the club,at around 12am the lights were switched on and d.j killed the music. Upon enquiring as to why the party was ending so early ,we were informed the cops were at the door and were demanding the club be closed for the day/night .

My first clubbing experience in Chennai couldn’t have been better than this!!!!
In spite of all the hitches faced, we all had a good time and thoroughly enjoyed the night in the club. It felt as if we had booked the entire place to host our personal party for our special friends who had come from hyd and bnglr .

The party couldn’t die so young and in the true spirit of party we had continued rocking at our friends place……

Moral of the story was :Assumptions can prove to be costly.

Hoping and looking forward to good party times in Chennai in the future,( lol :-D)

Peace !!!!

Obssession with fairness !!!!

John Abraham appearing in a men fairness cream product advt!!!!! It’s so awkward to see such a fair guy trying to sell a fairness product, which I am sure, will never work. This leads me to think why we, Indians are obsessed with fair complexion.

So many advertisements of fairness products only emphasize our liking towards that complexion. Prospective bridegrooms looking out for fair complexioned bride or a prospective fair complexioned bride turning down a guy because he aint fair!!! I have been witness to such incidents which made me mention this over here. These miniscule reasons made me pity them because they’re still dwelling in a fool’s paradise associating beauty to fairness. I wonder if the fair complexioned person would love or care her/his partner any different.

It amuses me, what difference does it make if someone is fair or dark complexioned or any complexion between it.

The fair complexion phenomenon in a way is being aggressively implanted into peoples mind by the media.

Check out the numerous advts on television. Weatish complexion girl/lady (mind you they’re not even dark complexioned) has no confidence because of her skin tone but the fariness products get her the confidence she needs to conquer the world. Same goes for the guys, very unsuccessful with girls because of the skin tone and once the guy uses the product he is an instant hit with them. In that case I think I don’t stand any chance to impress girls ( )What is the point that these advts’ or companies are trying to make? Shouldn’t the Govt be banning these advts by being aired on t.v rather than being a watchdog and imposing restrictions on Fashion t.v or Axn as to what they air post midnight?

Looks, it’s more or less a personal choice of an individual.

The point I am trying to convey is, it is a trivial matter for which one shouldn’t worry much (I know most of us don’t) .Rather accept what they’re and start working on how to look good in their own skin. Dark or wheatish complexioned people as well are very successful and they look beautiful!!! To name few barack obama, halle berry,bipasha basu,mugdha godse,carol gracias,lara dutta,sanjay dutt,suneil shetty,suriya,vikram,salman khan,Michael Jordan,ajay devagan,kajol,rani mukherjee,konkana sen and finally my own favorite priyanka chopra !!!! (The list is never ending and I don’t wish to mention Shahrukh Khan on this list as he himself has appeared in an advt for fairness product.Feel like laughing out loud,Shahrukh !!!! ).

Peace!!!!

Look out for new friends

Whenever someone moves to a new location, he is faced with a challenge, in not one but many ways, climate, language, food and people to name few. Chennai by far has been the most challenging city to adjust with regards to the climate and language. But as is the nature of human being; we tend to adjust to our new surroundings.

I always think one should be surrounded by friends and so starts my quest in meeting new people and acquainting them. My experiences in Bangalore & Pune have been good to befriend new people. But, for some strange reason which eludes me I can’t seem to understand why am I having problems finding new set of friends here in Chennai. Maybe it’s the language!!!

Whatever is the reason, moving to a new location can always be a pain if one doesn’t have known faces around you. But then this is life .One has gotta do what one is supposed to do and move on. Have no regrets and no complains about any particular place or thing. How much ever positive a person can be, facts can’t be ignored.

I am not sure whether this is my cynicism or pessimist outlook, but this is what it is. However, the good thing is I am in Chennai and actually spending time here which who knows I may not be able to do so in the future. One more city added to my experiences.

Dedicated to my pune friends

It’s been long since I bid adieu to Pune and this post has been long pending. They were fun filled 8 months and all this time wouldn’t have been fun without my friends.
So this post is all about my pune roomies and Sourabh.

There is one very interesting facet of the people who stay in it. We are 5 of us and come from 3 different religions. We represent Hinduism, Sikhism & Islam. I felt this kind of heterogeneous mix under a single roof was unique and first of its kind in my experience. We would wake up to the alarm tone “WAHE GURU” hymn. We have our own small mandir & of course I had my own spot to offer “NAMAAZ”. These everyday instances in my room filled me with hope that it’s not really difficult to forget our differences and live as one race “HUMANS”. I may be exaggerating it, but I feel my room stands for “SECULARISM” in its purest form.

I have been very fortunate to have Mohit, Nirdosh, Rajan & Vipul as my roomies.

Now its time to share few interesting traits of my roomies and friends:

Rajan ( Chingaarey / Jugaadu ): My rooms irritating & mild Sardarji. Oh Boy !!! This guy is epitome of patience as he had to put up with me and my nasty jokes and sarcasm. I can never tire pulling this guys leg. He would respond with a very warm smile most of the times, though would get offended by my sarcasm at times. Bhangra dance is his forte and I have picked up few steps from him. He has some strange habits which I can’t discuss so openly, so that’s about it. Dude be true and don’t take life too seriously.

Vipul(Chunni babu /Baniya ): An intense person and keeps to himself most of the time. He very tactfully avoids indulging in meaningless discussions. People, he is the guy to talk to before investing your money in the stock market. Most importantly he has got more than one sweet tooth. Simply gorges on sweets. Aur chunni babu maine abhi tak demat account nahi khola hai ;-) .

Mohit (Mr.Bada Lan***b**d): His friendly demeanor and cheerful smile was the only reason why I moved into the room with these guys. My pune stay would be royal boring without this guy. An extremely fun loving, smart person to hang out with. I am pretty sure I will run out of space if I start writing about the fun we had together in pune. Dude keep it real & stay the way you are.

Nirdosh(Anna/Mama): I am the reason why this guy ever moved from Bangalore to Pune. Guess that sums up about him and his commitment to friends. No, I aint too emotional guy but his commitment has been overwhelming which I had to share with everyone .He is more on the serious side and highly disciplined and principled guy. He has seen all my emotions over a period of 8 months. Thanks buddy for all your support and being there for me. We shall have fun sooner or later in Hyderabad.

Sourabh : Monty for me. Boy, we had some reckless and careless parties in Pune. We worked hard and partied hard. We have gone great lengths to get couple entries into discos and were partners in crimes and setting up the dance floors in motion wherever we would party. He was my confidante and the person with whom I would share office grapevine. My parties wouldn’t be fun without this guy. My smoking partner and partner in lot more things (please don’t start working on your dirty minds)

I had a rocking time in pune. My gratitude to all the above guys.
Thank you guys for all your love and support. You guys rock !!!
Your comments are most welcome.

Embarrassment or Uncomforting

The other day I was on my bike engrossed in deep thought and suddenly I see a girl right in front of me pulling her t-shirt down to cover up her midriff and stares at me angrily as if I was looking at it and lusting for her. I felt insulted and humiliated!!!! What the heck?? For the record I wasn’t staring at her midriff and a guy like me doesn’t need the view of midriff to turn me on. Sometime later in the evening on the same day I was sipping coffee at a coffee house and what do I notice? Another girl adjusts her top to cover her midriff and looks around as if all the guys were interested in her crack. This time I alone wasn’t the target and all the guys around her were culprits to corrupt her midriff with their stares. I had been observing such incidents for the last one yr or so since the so called “hep” babes got on to the low waist jean like wildfire. I would always ignore this but the babe on the bike gave me such a dirty stare that I really started thinking about this.
I have nothing against babes wearing a low waist jean and showing up their midriff (In fact I like babes who wear slim fit low waist jean.)Each and every individual have their freedom to wear and do whatever they want to within certain acceptable boundaries.
So, I am going to analyze this with the girl’s perspective and here it goes: I would want to be fashionable and the latest trend is low waist jean. So, I buy a pair of this hot jean and pull it up and team it up with a bright top and OOPS,, I forgot to check whether this covers me up entirely or not ,( I am assuming that they weren’t careful while buying the top ) and what do I do now ?There are two possibilities to it
(1) I will not wear this top and buy a new top which would cover me entirely

Or

(2) What the heck? I put in so much money let me wear it (with a thought in mind, anyway I am gonna be hot in this and attract lotta attention)
Now let’s focus on the second possibility. If this happens to be their first time I can understand that they would be uncomfortable and be very conscious about it and maybe they wouldn’t wear it next time. What if they like the attraction and continue wearing it and causing nuisance out in the streets? For sure they would be uncomfortable knowing the fact that some part of their body is visible to the public. So why wear it and cause embarrassment and discomfort to yourself and people like me around you. What high are the hep babes getting out of this, is something which is confusing? They know that India is not that a free country where sexuality is in your face and only behind bedroom doors, then why wear something like that if you’re not confident about yourself. Just for the heck of FASHION.I don’t deny the fact that there are many perverts out on the street and they as well are a reason to make the babes feel uncomfortable. But when many of us know about this fact why not be careful about our attire and wear accordingly to the place where they are heading towards.

Now moving to another assumption that: I like attention and all the girls these days wear this kind of stuff so let me wear this and turn some heads around. Throw unnecessary attitude around and keep adjusting your top to cover up. Nuisance is a too small a word for this. Why try to be something which you are not confident about? It is not wrong to try out new things but no point in continuing it if you’re not confident about yourself in it. For hep babes like these I have got only two words “GROW UP”.

Now last assumption: The girl is confident about herself and her sexuality and doesn’t mind if she shows off her midriff. She would be comfortable with herself and would save me and herself from embarrassment unless she encounters some cheap tapoori on the streets. Well this is what I like, being comfortable with what you have worn and don’t give a damn as to who stares or not. Because it’s not your fault, you’re being yourself and if some sexually frustrated guy is getting a high out of it, one can hardly help such people, but at least these babes save guys like me from huge embarrassment and humiliation.
I am gonna stop now and conclude by saying Know & Understand Yourself and then go out and buy stuff in which you would be comfortable if one can understand what it really means(I am sure dumb ones will take it for something else). Giving into peer pressure or wearing things for the heck of FASHION doesn’t help at all. As one of my friends says “they will only be a feast to the polished and the unpolished hungry eyes, feeling fresh."

PS:I am not generalizing about all females and I am sorry if I offended anybody.

Dev D

What a movie!!!! It’s sad, intense and disturbing. It’s a very good portrayal of modern Devdas. Something the current generation can really understand. This guy Abhay Deol will any day qualify as a better Devdas compared to SRK (mind you not a better actor but a better devdas)
The actual difference in these two movies according to me, SRK’s version was full of clichéd dialogues, whereas in Abhay’s version, the protagonist’s actions delivered the actual message. Hardly does the protagonist say anything clichéd about his pain which might sound weird in today’s world (which is more practical). I pitied the guy for his condition. The self-destruction he inflicts on himself made me speechless because this way of destruction is something new in hindi cinema. The crude dialogues & the songs which were part of the script really added flavor to the movie. Director of the movie broke the conventional conservative image of fairer sex by showing up a scene where one of the female protagonists takes a mattress rolled and placed on the carrier of a bicycle to the nearby fields for clandestine tryst with the lead actor. Never have I seen such bold description of female sexuality except for few other movies. Non-linear story -telling and the songs which form a part of the narrative really keeps one captivated, but the movie has its own flaws. Movie gets dull during the end and feels as if it has been stretched unnecessarily. The heavy usage of alcohol and drugs can at times get on nerves but I think that’s important part in the narration of the movie.
If anybody watches it, I am sure either he/she would like it a lot (like me) or hate it. Enough said about the movie. Grab a DVD and watch it. I am sure it’s worth a watch at least on a DVD.
Do watch it and let me know your views about the movie.

COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS !!!

I am going to start writing about this topic by referring to a very glamorous person Ms.Pooja Chopra, the pantaloons femina miss India-world 2009.Today when I was reading the “Times Life” a supplement of Sunday Times of India I came to know that she had a very challenging past.

Want to share few things that I read. Her mother was abandoned by her father for giving birth to two girl children. (Preposterous)Her mother chose her daughters over her husband and started working to support her children. Her mother says, and I quote “Their tiny hands would do homework on their own, feed themselves on days that I worked late. My elder daughter Shubhra would make Pooja do her corrections. This is how they grew up. At a birthday party, Pooja would not eat her piece of cake, but pack it and bring it home to share with her sister. When Shubhra started working show would skip her lunch and pack a chicken sandwich that she would slip in her sister’s lunchbox next day”(Unquote).Here is a lady that rose above her conditions and challenges and triumphed over them and provided her children the best life she could(in her capacity).
Every family goes through their share of hardships and challenges. What is important is how we handle them. Look how Pooja made her mother proud. This is what true spirit towards life is, never say die!!!! I felt really happy for that family.

Now, I want to share a personal experience of mine. The other day I was at Symbiosis College, Range Hills, Pune.I noticed an old gentleman on wheelchair all alone moving along the road very confidently with all his effort. I wondered as to how this gentleman can manage all alone in a wheelchair on a busy road. Later, I happened to mention about this guy to a friend who studies in Symbiosis College. So, he informed me that the old gentleman does that everyday quite often as he has two shops on that road at some distance. He told me that the guy started off a tea stall longtime back and it is a huge success with college crowd. After saving enough money he started a stationery shop on the same road. After hearing all this I wondered what could be that one reason that is driving him. Here is a guy whom I consider as a very successful entrepreneur.

What do I intend to say?? It is simple, many of us have a good decent life but still we keep complaining about the things we don’t have. (It is good to move ahead in life, but remember not at the cost of our peace of mind and happiness.)We often compare ourselves with others and crib about what we don’t have.

I don’t wish & mean that someone should go through adverse hardships in life to understand the importance of what we have.

I am of the opinion that it would be great if we for once can compare ourselves with the people who haven’t been fortunate enough to attend school.

Every now & then, if we could Thank GOD for his graciousness to give us loving & caring family, friends and for blessing us with a decent life, I think we would look at life with a different perspective and for sure be more happy !!!

For my friends who don’t believe in GOD, be grateful and happy for having lovely family & friends and a decent life.

So, guys after reading this post, I request you to halt for a moment and think what GOD has gifted you & please COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS.

After Thoughts after reading "The White Tiger"

This is the latest book I finished reading, indeed a good read. The book highlights the grim & very grave reality of INDIA. Poverty & Corruption being in the forefront.

Reading this book got me thinking about our culture & we (Indians) as a society. I am not being judgmental about everybody but talking about a certain section of society.

We really boast about our culture saying "we have the oldest culture full of traditions & values”. What values are we talking about??? I am evaluating our culture based on couple of practices that we were or are still following and they are as follows

1) India is a land where "certain sections of society were considered un-touchable" (how in-humane?? and I am pretty sure this is still being followed by many of our developing or developed Indians).Who the hell gave People the right to decide who belongs to lower status or higher status??? It sickens me to think about this.

2) Child Marriages!!!!(We were the front-runners in this and never ever had competition in this regard) Shocking isn't it??? But everybody in INDIA knows that, this is a fact.

3)"DOWRY" wins hands down, .I will put dowry in the simplest form. Way of begging or stealing money from a brides father in the name of marriage (btw we INDIANS, I guess, think marriage is sacred!!! Imagine this in a country where marriage is considered so sacred .I feel like laughing out loud).This is a huge price that the bride & her family have to pay to get married. Better the amount better the prospective bridegroom. This is something nobody in INDIA and INDIANS abroad can deny.
What is shocking is, even the well educated people (who have graduated from famous missionary schools, IIT's and IIM's) indulge in this horrible practice. (I don’t mean to say the guys who graduate from missionary schools, IIT’s and IIM's are saints).

Shouldn’t we be ashamed of this?

Moving on, the country is still divided based on religion, caste, region & language. There are not one but many instances to prove this point. For your reference, switch on any Hindi news channel post 11pm and you will understand what am I trying to convey.

There is a very clichéd statement that I keep hearing time & again. It is as follows “We respect elders “.Again, I am going to prove this wrong. How many times haven’t we disrespected someone elder to us on the road in a fit of rage???

The culture was never wrong. All our great scriptures never taught or preached us to indulge in all these shameful practices. We Indians (rather our ancestors) fooled around with it and voila we are unique in our own way. We were and are too rationale and worked around things to our convenience.

I am not cynical!!! However the book got me thinking about all this and I must say I am confused now as to whether we really have such great culture!!!!!

Finally !!!!

Finally I have decided to blog.This has been long overdue since one year.What made me finally decide to blog?? Well,many ideas brewing up in my head.Thought I should serve the many cooked up ideas in my head to all of you.I sincerely hope I keep returning to my blog page and keep posting random and collective thoughts.Sitting down to write ,I must tell you demands lot of patience and passion.I hope you guys like reading what I post and keep coming back to my blog, be active members and give me sufficient support & feedback to keep BLOGGING !!!!!