Miss my country :(

Teri amrit bhari lehro ko kya maloom ganga maa,
Samundaar paar, viraane mein teri yaad aati hai,

Ke har ek khaali pade alind mein teri yaad aati hai,

Subah ke khwaab ke malind teri yaad aati hai,

Kahin dollar ke peeche chup gaye Bharat ke noton par…

Dikhe Gandhi ki jo moorat to teri yaad aati hai,  

Agar mausam ho manubhawan to teri yaad aati hai,  

Jhare meghon se jab saawan to teri yaad aati hai,  

"Hello-Hey-Hi" sun kar nahi aati magar humse ...

Koi kehta hai jab JAI HIND, teri yaad aati hai

Courtesy: Kumar Vishwas

Point to Ponder

In the next match, will BCCI allow the Australian cricket team's captain and team members to decide the rules of the game, where the Indian team will stay, what they will eat, who will play, who would not?

I guess they should. If N Srinivisan, BCCI president and owner of Chennai Superkings can decide the fate of other IPL franchisees, this should also be allowed!!!

Finally, I am off IPL.  

Project Management Tricks - II

Yesterday morning, just when I was stepping out of our home for the office, my wife handed me a big list of items that I was supposed to purchase on my way back home. I pointed (no, not 'protested'. I am not allowed to do that) that it will be an issue to carry all the items since it would become extremely heavy and I would also be carrying my office laptop (which, by the way, seems to have the same weight as me). My wife, being extremely reasonable, prioritized the list of items and indicated the ones that we absolutely needed. 

In the evening, she gave me a call and told me that she will come to my office and then we can together bring all the items. The plan sounded okay to me. 

In the evening, we met in the supermarket (which is pretty close to my office...and ten minutes walk from home) and finished our shopping. After the shopping, my wife chose the lightest shopping bag to carry. She of course carried our daughter but the way i see it, she had our daughter to entertain her on the way home. And me......I carried the remaining shopping bags. Easily a 15 Kg load. Plus the office laptop!!! 

For some reason, I felt slightly duped. However, I am happy that we had that sweet little outing.

So, she assigned the task, listened to the grievances, indicated that she understands the issues, suggested a smaller goal and then made me do EVERYTHING!!! And I am also looking at the positive side. Bang!!! Mission Accomplished!!! She has all the traits of a good Project Manager!!!    

These unpredictable buggers.....when you want them to win, they lose and keep losing. And today, when I wanted them to lose, they pulled off a win!!!

Thinking of donating myself for clinical research!!!

Conspiracy that backfired

It was a special day since chicken was in the dinner menu. Normally, it would have made me very excited but on that day, I was not really looking forward to it. The reason was that I was not going to be there for dinner and that is exactly why chicken was in the menu.

In our flat, on a weekly basis, people assumed the responsibility to run the expenses. We used to pool in the money (100 Rs each) at the beginning of each week. The money was then given to the person-in-command to run the show (only the kitchen) for a week. Then it was the person-in-command's responsibility to (a) decide the menu for the week (b) ensure that the expenses do not exceed the budget (c) ensure that people get good food. For any person-in-command, it was impossible to score heavily on all three criteria, especially in a budget of INR 700. Moreover, every person in the house (in total 7 regular occupants) had a different style of running the show and had different priorities. Except Amit and I, everyone usually focused on criteria (a) and (c). Both of us were particularly interested in meeting criteria (b)!!!

It was not surprising since both of us used to receive the smallest amounts from our respective families. I used to get between 3,000-3,500 every month. A good portion used to go in fixed expenses (rent, maintenance, electricity, maid, cook etc). I used to spend a sizable amount on telephone calls. For me, telephone calls used to always get higher priority than food. There was a phase during those MBA days when I used to skip meals in order to save money for calls!!! Enough of my sob story. 

Coming back to the incident...it was a Saturday night and I had plans for the evening. I was going to my cousin's place for the night. I had recently handed over the person-in-command's role. My week in command was pretty eventful as I was committed towards cutting down the expenses to the extent possible. I was short of money and the group had made some unnecessary expenses on luxuries (like good food!!) in the week before my command. I was determined to bring the monthly expenses back on track and in that pursuit I did not allow chicken to be included on any day during my command. This naturally attracted a lot of criticism.

After my week in command, I had handed over the responsibility to Bhaskar. It was during his week in command that I decided to go to my cousin's place on the Saturday. Saturdays used to be the Khichdi day so I was not going to miss much. However, as soon as Bhaskar came to know that I will not be around, he decided to include chicken in the dinner menu. Someone did point to him that I will not be around and he responded "so what"; loud enough to ensure that I hear it. Nothing wrong on his part as I had asked for this treatment. But I felt bad and angry. Bad because my friends did not understand and appreciate my situation and angry because I was going to miss chicken. It would have become 3 weeks without chicken; a little too much to handle!!!

I decided to sabotage their joy. Before I left for my cousin's place, I sent the cook to bring some stuff. The cook requested me to take care of the chicken, which was in the 'work-in-progress' stage. It was in the cooker and was almost ready. I took the container of red chilly powder and added a 'generous' (read: substantial) amount in the cooker. Then I left for the my cousin's place.

On my way to my cousin's place, I was feeling extremely happy about what I had done. The thought of the expression on their faces while eating the chicken and hopefully in the morning made me laugh. However soon I started to feel bad about what I had done. It was childish and naive on my part to do something like that. After all it was not their fault that I was having a financial crisis.

The next morning, after I returned to our flat, I casually asked about the chicken. It was as if I had asked a bunch of kids if they want ice cream. Everyone got excited and told me that the chicken was mind-blowing and the cook had done an exceptional job in making a really spicy and delicious dish!!! The cook was sitting in the corner, accepting all the admiration and adulation with a big grin!!! A mixed bag of emotions engulfed me. I was feeling stupid, angry but also a little relieved.

This was a conspiracy that clearly back fired!!! Thankfully!!!

But those were the days. Today, all of us do meet occasionally but a chicken dish or a beer bottle does not excite us like before. Those days were much better!!!

Kilkaariyaan

मैं कुछ कुछ रह गया था यहीं कहीं !

कुछ हँसी कुछ झगड़े

यहीं तो थे कहीं

कुछ रूठना कुछ मनाना

यहीं तो थे कहीं

किसी ने न जाना

मैंने खुद भी नहीं जाना

मैं कुछ कुछ रह गया था यहीं कहीं !

आँखों में घूम गए वो पल छुट्टियों के

जहाँ सभी खड़े होते थे मेरे इंतज़ार में

एक साथ छू लेने को तत्पर

सब अपनी अपनी कहना चाहते थे

बासंती रिश्तों की खुशबू

हमारे हर कमरे , आँगन में फैली होती थी

बेमानी ठहाके लगाते थे हम

हवाएँ भी रुक कर दांतों तले ऊँगली दबाती थीं !

..........

क्या यूँ उजड़ जाते हैं बीते पल

दरक जाती हैं दीवारें

फूलों की जगह उग आती हैं झाड़ियाँ .... !!

कुछ भी हो -

इस पल कोई पुकार मुझे सुनाई दे रही है

.....किसकी पुकार कहूँ इसे

सब तो एक साथ पुकार रहे हैं ...

....

कितनी अजीब बात है -

मैं आया हूँ अपने बेटे के साथ

पर कई अपने साथ हैं -

पापा, अम्मा , बहनें , पत्नी

और यह बेटा गोद में है ....

....

यह क्या अफरातफरी है

अचानक क्यूँ समय समाप्त की घोषणा है

मुझे बड़ी बेचैनी सी हो रही है ...

क्या आज यहाँ से चलने के पहले मुझे हिदायत नहीं मिलेगी

'ठीक से जाना '

!!!

जिसे सुनते 'ओह' ज़रूर कहता था

पर बड़ा सुकून था इस बात का

रोष होता था छुट्टियों के ख़त्म हो जाने का

तो ओह ' कहने का यही बहाना होता था !

..............

चलने से पहले कहता जाऊँ

घर वो घर भले न रहा हो

पर यादों की ईमारत इतनी बुलंद है

कि मैं फिर आना चाहूँगा

क्योंकि यहाँ की दीवारों में जज़्ब वो कहकहे

आज भी सुनाई देते हैं

और यकीनन जब जब हम आयेंगे - सुनाई देते रहेंगे

(Courtesy: Minni Bua)

After watching the remakes of Don and Agneepath, I have fully realized that there can be only one Don and Vijay Dinanath Chauhan....Amitabh Bachchan!!!

Blair Witch Project - Part 2

Weekend is over :(

Someone stole my 4-day weekend!!! :(

(Courtesy: www.time.com)

Weekend full of movies

List of movies/shows I watched this weekend and their ratings (on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest):

Agneepath: 1 point

I have heard that the movie is doing pretty well in India but I did not find anything special about the movie. To be very honest, I had not particularly loved the original (and I am not talking about Scarface here) except the personality of Amitabh Bachchan in it. They took that out and hence I did not like it. Simple

Ladies vs Ricky Behl: 3.5

This was pretty watchable. Liked the concept. Though it has a pretty obvious ending but it was still a good time pass

Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyun Aata Hai: 2

A movie that has Naseeruddin Shah, Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi and also Om Puri. I always wanted to watch this movie as I am a Naseeruddin Shah fan. Needless to say that the actors were brilliant and they made me feel their But honestly, I did not find anything special about the movie. Moreover, I found the end pretty abrupt. I enjoy parallel cinema and my wife is a commercial cinema fan. So imagine the expression on her face when the credits started to come

Survivor India - Episodes 10 and 11: 5

I am really hooked to the show. I have never enjoyed the international series but probably due to the connect, I am really enjoying this show

Shor in the City: 3

It was pretty enjoyable inspite of Tusshar Kapoor in it. It has a fresh story and decent performances

Challo Dilli: 3

I do not know who was the person who discouraged me from watching this movie when it came out. I wont say that this is a brilliant movie but for a lazy Sunday afternoon, it was a good time pass

Don 2: 1

So now the Don has become a thief!!! Brilliant. In any ways, there is only Don and he went underground in 1978

Tanu Weds Manu: 4

Have watched the movie in bits and parts earlier and watched the full movie today. It is a sweet movie, inspite of Kangna Ranaut!!! Really liked the performances of most of the actors

Our Idiot Brother: 2

This movie stars Paul Rudd and has an interesting storyline but lets just say that it could have been a lot better. There was nothing too wrong with the guy. He may not have been street smart, he may have been sensitive, he may have been innocent but he was not an idiot!!!

Russel Peters - Green Card Tour: 2

It was enjoyable but it gets a 2 because it was just about okay by Russel Peter standards

Desi Boyz: 2

It was enjoyable in parts but those parts were few and far between

India-Australia 1st ODI: 1

Same old story, no new twists. They keep serving the same dish!!! Something tells me that I should stay away from the sequels

Long journey ahead with only one pit stop!!! :(

Today is the last day of a 3 +1 day weekend. I say 3+1 as the last day of any weekend/holiday is spent in (a) looking at the watch at regular intervals (b) mourning in advance for the dying weekend (c) making to-do list for the days to follow.

Though I enjoyed the break, I personally do not prefer such long breaks. Before you start thinking (assuming I have readers) that I have lost my mind or lead a depressing life away from work, let me clarify that point. Since we do not have a car and we have a little bundle of joy, we cannot really plan trips in and around the city. Though Ananya has been most understanding on most of our shopping trips, it could be a trap!!! We may be pushing our luck too far if we plan a day-long or longer trip. So, we spend such breaks sitting at home for the most part. And...HENCE...instead of 4 day weekends, I would prefer Tuesday/Wednesday and Thursday off!!!

Today is all the more depressing since I know there is only one public holiday between now and August!!! That is a long long long journey with only one pit stop!!!

Hey, where did my tattoo go?!!?

Dear Ananya,

On 4th February 2012, you had your first fall. You fell from the bed. Off late, you have become very active but it was not your fault. I was supposed to check if you are okay and I did not do that. I am extremely sorry about that.

You cried a lot and so did I. I took you to the balcony and showed you buildings, trees, birds and all kinds of meaningless things to distract you. I said sorry to you several times.

After a while, you looked at me and smiled. That made me cry once again. You probably do not remember it anymore but I do not think I can ever forget how you were lying on the floor with a shocked expression on your face and then started crying. It was my fault and I will never be able to forgive myself for that.

I am glad that you are alright. I would try to be a better father.

Love you....always,

Daddy