Ginger & Cardamom

Srivats did this tag on his blog and it was supposedly on one of the most interesting subjects in my life, Books. So I decided it would be fun to do it. So here I share with you my take on one of my passions, books-

One book that changed my life:
Every book we read affects us in one way or the other. But the books which have had the most impact on me are-

Bhagwad Gita
Richard Bach- One

Select Essays by Bertrand Russel

The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

Autobiographies of Lee Iococa & Carly Fiorina

The book you have read more than once:

All the books mentioned in the point above and

Shantaram – Gregory David Roberts

Atlas Shrugged- Ayn Rand

Q&A- Vikas Swarup

Five Point Someone- Chetan Bhagat

Snapshots from Hell: The making of an MBA Peter Robinson

Jonathan Livingstone Seagull & Illusions - Richard Bach

Arthashastra by – Kautiliya

One book you would want on dessert island:
Harry Potter Series

Bhagwad Gita

PG Woodhouse

Ayn Rand Series

One book that made you laugh:

Calvin & Hobes

Haven’t read much in Humor though

One book that made me cry:

None though Oliver Twist & Tuesdays with Morry made me very emotional

One book you wish you had written:

None I wish I would write my own book

One book that you wish had never been written:

Coffee Table Books, I never am able to understand the purpose of Obnoxiously high priced books with fancy pictures. It actually spoils all the purpose of the books existence rather focuses on the kind of money people have.

One book you are currently reading:

The great Secret- Talks on Kabir by Osho

Words of Kabir- Sam Kerwal

Another book on Kabir which just has the title as Kabir

One book you have been meaning to read:

Shivaji: A Hindu Ruler in Mughal India (I can’t read it as it is not available in India, as it is banned)

In the Company of Women - I have read it now, but I actually waited for it so long. The book was in news and controversies and our school library had a copy. I asked to issue it (was in class XII then) and I was refused that it was not meant for us, I actually took it up with the principal that how can a school library has a book which is not fit for class XII students after all it was the senior most class. Anyways was not able to get my hands on it and when I actually got an opportunity to read it, it was 3.5 years later.

So this has been my journey with the books till now. So hows your journey to the wonderful world of books has been? If you are into reading and love your books and find this tag interesting, please feel free to do it.

I spend a lot of time over the internet, and I have an awesome virtual existence where I have friends. But one drawback I always felt about the virtually existence, the personal touch of being friends only comes after a face to face conversation. The online world can start friendships/relationships for you but it’s highly unlikely that it can take it to the next level.

I have always loved the idea of twitter, but surprisingly I have felt that somehow the 140 characters may be enough to communicate, start a relationship but it drops a lot of thinks as well. Here I produce 5 instances I had online where I feel a bit left out/weird-

1- I have a lot of friends on twitter & blogs as I have already mentioned in my last post here but still I don’t think I am aware when are their birthdays and other trivial details like these which I think friends should know. I can add any all of them on a facebook or Orkut but then simply the essence of a virtual presence is a complete persona but it simply isn’t at one place

2- One of my friends Brainstuck, we actually were having a conversation when something conversation happened where actually my comment would have been unjustified if his age wasn’t close to mine (which I had assumed by default). I actually had to specifically ask him his age before giving comments on the situation. Now friends don’t do that.

3- Then another friend of mine Meera, I actually came in touch with her because of her awesome cartoons which I saw during the election period. Now after reading the cartoon and her take on Indian politics I always assumed somewhere she would be an elderly lady around 40 years of age with a very mature and balanced viewpoint on the Political scenario and obviously an amazing sense of humor. Yesterday when she shared her pic on the twitter, I realized the only thing I have misjudged more was to have thought of Meera as a guy. Well this is her pic and you will have an Idea how wrong I was.

4- I met Nikhil the other day at Costa Coffee after interacting with him on twitter and email a couple of times I always had a perception of him as a mature and serious guy. I was actually jaw dropped when I came to know that he was such a chill & cool guy and had actually recently completed his graduation.

5- A lot of times this happens that my friends are not online, I have telephone numbers of them and I have the inquisitiveness why the hell they are not online. Something wrong, something happening but somehow I never call, because it might be inappropriate.

I don’t if it happens only with me, but I think I sometimes feel a need more than twitter, blogs, orkut to make friends. May be I am skeptical, or may be I will grow with time. So people what do you think, have you also made similar mistakes online, do you feel a need for real connect too?

The tag was started by Preeti and since it is called Fun Friday and needs to be done on a Friday, so I am doing it without delaying it. So here goes the tag-

These are the 5 questions I had to answer to complete this tag-

I have just discovered --- Jerry Maguire and I am in awe of the character (Yeah people I hadn't seen the movie before)

One thing that I will unabashedly admit— I am very opinionated and stubborn. I take quick decisions and am often rutheless in communicating my thoughts.

One thing that I would never ever do, even if you pay me a million pounds— I don't know but I think I would not compromise on my core set of values.

Right now I’d rather be ---Sleeping (Yawn!!)

If I had to choose between a date with an ex (with no potential to make up) and a new office hottie (who is a dimwit) I’d choose— Whosoever is hotter :-)

Well anyone who feels like taking this Tag, go ahead and do it.

I have always been very fond of Hindi Kavi Sammelans, the sense of humor of Indian poets is really unparalleled. Its been 2 years since I have attended a Kavi Sammelan and I so much want to attend one as soon as possible. Till then enjoy one of my favorite poets who actually had so much passion for Hindi poetry that he dropped out of an REC (NIT now) to pursue to be a poet. He is one of my most admired combination of Hindi Poetry & Philosophy with a passion for the subject. So Enjoy Dr. Kumar Vishwas, a legend of Hindi Poet.

I have always been a very passionate driver all my life. My interest in cars started quite early on, and I was 12 years old when I drove a car for the first time and never stopped after that. Hailing from a family where there has been an excellent drivers be it my dad or my mamaji both have been an excellent drivers. I have followed their legacy and have been always willing to drive at any opportunity possible. So over the years my total driving experience would be over 200,000 Kms. I used to be a very reckless driver early in my life, and then gradually I matured to be a very safe driver. I have become generally very cool minded and precise on the road taking only calculated risk and accounting for errors on road. So tonight I was heading back from the office and I had promised a friend to meet her at a given time. Now as you would already know that I hate being late, so I sped up as soon as I gate of the office. There was a guy, in a black Alto and I sped across him and moved quickly. I took the first turn on the highway and suddenly I saw in my rear view mirror he was very close to me. Within two seconds he carefully slid to my right covered my movement space and sped across ahead of me, forcing me to slow down. And my instant reaction was, that was clean. Suddenly, I felt adrenalin rushing though my head, this generally doesn’t happens to me that I get in road brawls either physically or with machines. But I guess today was a different day, this was a different guy. Something similar to me, as I was 8 years ago. I sit erect and got involved in a street brawl. He was driving with awesome dexterity and I actually was behind him quite some time where we actually got ahead of each other quite some time. Then as soon as we were crossing the Highway I got a small space and I sped past him and took a lead. He also sped back and was soon tackling just at the tail of my car. Then I swevered left getting non driving side of my car on the raw ground and the driving side of my car on road. I overtook the a long lines of cars from the left. Speeding across through the rough ground. He also followed suit and was behind me, then he came forward and was overtaking from the right. There was a divider ahead and I didn’t moved to give him space and Finally sped past him when my exit came into the colony. This was the end of an awesome ride, and I had a smile on my face when it ended. The smile was not because I actually won it, or I managed to stay ahead a lot of time. The smile was because I was 19 again, I still had the fire and insanity to cross the line, I still had it in me to be 19. I so much wanted to step out of my car, and thank him for giving me an awesome 25 minutes of adrenalin rush, giving me 25 minutes of my teenage years back. Given the fact, I have moved away to be a professional, a person who is practical, who looks for a reason to do everything, who tries and drive as safely as possible. For a person like this it was so much fun to be 19 again. So my friend who works in my company, has a black Alto with an MH number in ET series you are awesome driver and you gave me some awesome moments of my life. Thanks a lot.

Monika tagged me to write about the domestic horrors. Well I have been a very civilized kid throughout. My lazy self and averseness to do anything in the kitchen which includes lighting the gas stove, they are really complicated procedure and should be done only by the trained professionals (Read: Mom). Then upholding of family tradition in taking laziness to new levels, I never experimented with Ironing of clothes or anything of the sorts. Even all the electrical circuitry experiments which was the most I did along the house were carefully handled.

So I have not involved in major domestic disasters, except for a fact where I almost try to burned the house down by leaving a switch open for a fan which had its coils burning or the other time when I burnt down the Hostel room with the incense sticks (Agarbatti) which I left burning on my room after the prayers. But there is one disaster I managed which was not very deadly, but yeah it’s a paramount display of my care and concern for the family, health and hygiene, despite that I got thrashed badly by my mom Hitler V6.0 22^nd Reprint. So here is how the story goes-

I was a kid then you know something like 8-9 years old. The time around May used to be a happening time in the house, as my holidays would have been going on and my cousins Ekta & Shweta would come to live at our place and I used to get someone to play with me and boss around for some time. This was also the time when my Mom used to prepare a lot of delicacies, specially different kind of Achars (pickles). Now my mom is an amazing cook and she puts in lot of effort to ensure that whatever we eat is home made this generalizes from daily meals to sweets to ghee to pickles to papad. As a matter of fact I have hardly seen any of these being ever bought in my home.

Getting back to the story, so this may the mango produces were good and my mom decided that she would prepare aam ka achar (mango pickle) for everyone in the family. Undertaking this mammoth feat she actually put in pickles in a tub must have been around 10 kgs of kacha aam ka achar. I don’t know where and why, but during some part of her preparation this pickle needs to be left out in the air for drying or fermenting. I don’t really know why, so mom actually made place for the huge tub which had all 10 Kgs of Achar on the table and then she left for some work outside home. At this time me and Shweta were at home playing around the house and having fun, when my sharp eye for details noticed the biggest fallacy done by my mom. She left had left the tub with all the Achar open, and there were mosquitoes all over the achar.

Being a diligent student that I was, I remembered my teachers telling me that mosquito bites can cause malaria. Well and I didn’t wanted everyone eating the achar to be sick, so I we decided that we would set it right. So we got which was proclaimed to be the best solution for mosquitoes on national television aka doordarshan, the Odomos and with all due diligence we applied odomos on the achar where the mosquitoes were sitting.

Being the humble person I am, I forgot to report this incident to mom, No point making her feel guilty her responsible son had covered her tracks and the achar was good to go. When my mom saw the achar she tried to figure out what went wrong. She also thought if butter had fallen into the achar. Then finally she asked me, if I knew what happened. Well I surely did and I being a true gentleman, I obliged and narrated the story in full detail. Man what happened after that was real disaster, I got a well deserved thrashing and mom had to throw away a lot of her achar.

Everyone in the family including my sis & mom we still laugh like crazy, over this incident. But deep down I just thank god, the hit & baygon Sprays of the world were not invented, and bombarded from the TV at that time. God knows what would have happened then.

Dark and lonely it was, on the stretch of the road,
Quieter than usual, with the city in holiday mode.
The pathway was familiar, broad and wide,
Atmosphere unusually cool and wind was light.

The life was ecstatic, with fun all around,
And the two of them were homeward bound.
Fired with the youth and the rush of adrenalin,
And the gush of Alcohol flowing in the veins within.

The spokes of the wheel revolving so fast,
The smiles on their face were vast.
Running ahead of everyone, they felt so high
As if they were reaching up and above the sky.

Way ahead was bend a bit sharp,
His speed maneuver he decided to harp.
All they knew destiny had some alternate plans,
Incoming was a dumpster which they failed to glance.

Was it the folly of the youth or the effect of spirits,
The trajectory of path they couldn’t aptly fit.
What they never thought was about to be done,
Thinking about chances, they had none.

The two human figures rose high into the air,
As the wise main said, life is not always fair.
When they touched the ground, they hit so hard,
The two bodies broke with sounds that jarred.

The onlookers heard and came running by,
First-Aid & doctors were rushed, hoping some time to buy.
But the red elixir of life had flown without a stop,
The souls simply left the abode and the pusle had stopped.

The two fine boys in the prime of their time,
For nothing which would be called their crime.
Lost the most precious thing they ever had,
Were the two extra pegs worth for the lads?

I saw a horrible accident yesterday, freshly happened the bodies were still lying on the road. It made me write this.

In India 130,000 people die every year of road accidents which is 30.2% of people dying an un-natural death. Everyday on an average 250 people die in road accidents across this country, which is like a plane crash with no survivors and a mojor cause is Alcohol consumption while/prior to driving.
To set the perspective right the most hedious terrorist attack in India on 26/11 had a death toll of 173 people. If that was so huge imagine the rucus we are creating on our roads.
So from next time drive responsibily and Do not drink and drive.

I had troubles deciding the title of the posts and I actually asked a couple of people on my Gtalk list and they actually laughed it off, and suggested some titles. Alternate titles of the post-
1- Don't Laugh it Off
2- Here too High
3- High on Drive

Its been close to two an a half decades that I have spent living in this country. I have grown up with a lot of things and have seen them changing and suddenly becoming irrelevant. This is a 3 series of advertisements which marks the an amazing transition which Indian society has gone through in the two wheeler market. From the old Bajaj Scooters which I am sure every kid of my age would have driven and would have a memory associated with it, to today's so called performance bikes which kid 10 years younger to us keep zip zapping on the road. I just share the transition from the eyes of a kid who always loved & related to advertisements.







To all the people who curse India for everything, We have come a lot forward, not because of you, but despite you and we will go still further

I have been reading a lot on Kabir lately. Kabir is one of my favorite thinkers and philosophers, he is one of the most underrated philosophers globally and I fail to understand why. The amazing part about Kabir is, that he managed to communicate all his wisdom through couplets (I mean if he would be alive these days he would be the best twitter, communicating amazing philosophy in lesser characters) I would illustrate some of the couplets for Kabir and my understanding of those, and people who read this blog, would like to know their understanding of the couplets-
Kabir on Temptation-

Kabir Man Martak bhaya, Indri apne haath.
Tou kabun na kijiyen, Kanak Kamini ke saath.

Meaning- Kabir says, even for those who have attained a complete control of their senses and have killed the desires in the mind or brain (I don’t know what would be the exact word for Man). Even them, they should be very careful when getting exposure to wealth and woman. Because these two are the greatest temptations for man and they lead him to his downfall.

Kabir on Death-

Pav palak ki khabar nahi, karein kaal ko saaj,
Kal achanak jahdpega, jyon teetar ko Baaz.

Meaning- The fallacy of humans, they are not even aware of what happens to them in next 100th of a second, but still they keep planning for tomorrow. Kabir says that they would not even know that tomorrow the Eagle, the metaphorical death, is going to grab the bird, the metaphorical human life. So Kabir makes a point that one should not waste too much of time and efforts on planning for tomorrow and ignoring present.

Chakki Firti Dekh ke, Diya kabira roye,
Do kunth ke beech aaye ke, sabut gaya na koye.

Meaning- When Kabir sees the traditional Indian flour mill which has two stones revolving over each other and crushing everything in between. Same is the fate of human life, irrespective of rich, poor, achievers, failures, weak strong eventually will get grounded by the grinding stones of death and would eventually meet the same fate.

Kabir on Words-

Shabd Sarikha Dhan nahi, Jo koi jaane bol,
Heera to dame mile, par shab na aavein mol.

Meaning- There is no wealth greater than words, only few can understand its value. You can get a diamond for a price, but words of wisdom, love, care and understanding are simply pricess.

So people I leave you here with this food for thought. May be will come back and do an extension of this again.

Saw this list on one of Farting pen’s blog, really liked it so thought would shamelessly put it up on my blog without being tagged. Yeah that’s my desperation level to post new posts. The gem had allowed every1 to copy it so here I go-

Kissed any of your friends on social networking groups? Yes

Been arrested? Yes

Kissed someone you didn’t like? Yes

Slept until 5 PM? No

Fallen asleep at work/school? No

Held a snake? Yes

Ran a red light? Yes

Been suspended from school? Yes

Totaled your car/motorbike in an accident? No

Totaled a friend’s car/motorbike in an accident? No

Been fired from a job? No

Sang karaoke? Yes

Done something you told yourself you wouldn’t? Yes

Laughed until something you were drinking came out of your nose? Yes

Caught a snowflake on your tongue? No

Kissed in the rain? No

Sang in the shower? Yes

Sat on a rooftop? Yes

Been pushed in a pool with all your clothes? No

Broken a bone? Yes

Shaved your head? No

Blacked out from drinking? No

Played a prank on someone? Yes

Felt like killing someone? Yes

Made your girlfriend/boyfriend cry? Yes, and a lot of friends too

Had Mexican Jumping Beans for pets? No

Been in a band? No

Shot a gun? Yes

Donated blood? No

Eaten alligator meat? No

Eaten cheesecake? Yes

Still love someone you shouldn’t? No

Believe in love? I don’t know

Sleep on a certain side of the bed? Yes.

Believe in fate? Yes, especially when I make my own luck!!

Believe that things “happen for a reason”? No, most lame excuse ever!

Held a grudge longer than a year? Yes, I never forgive, I never forget

Hid a secret for a long period of time? Yes

Miss someone on your facebook list of friends? No.

Changed the oil in your vehicle? Yes

Threw up after riding a rollar coaster? No

Bought a gift for someone and kept it for yourself? Yes, That’s how mean I am

Bought something and returned it worn? Yes

Tripped on LSD? No

Have any tattoos? No

Seen a ghost? Yes.

Done body shots? No

Peed in the pool? Yes

Passed gas and blamed it on someone else without their knowledge? Yes

Have body piercings below the neck? No

Think about the future? Yes.

Tanu tagged me where I actually have to relate my life through numbers and given the NaBloPoMo It’s a good time to do any Tags. So here is Meri Kahani Numbers Ki Zubani-

1- I have had 1 major accident where I badly injured my left arm. The bones were shattered and the doctor was contemplating if he needed to cut my arm. Thankfully he didn’t have to and I am still alive and have both my arms intact but the doc had to perform a complex surgery to actually reassemble all my bones which had broken into multiple pieces and fit the things with steel chips/plates which actually fell out and were left at the accident site. And yes the accident was that I fell of from the bicycle when the a city Bus hit me from behind.

2- My current laptop is my 2^nd Laptop. I have been in love with my gadgets and the computer name for my first lappy was Frisky and for this one it is Maverick.

3- I had 3 places to work as an option when I passed out of my engineering. But I joined none of them.

4- Whenever I leave home I generally carry 4 things, My 2 phones, Ipod and my Sun Glasses. Another thing about 4 is I learned to drive bikes when I was in class 4^th (No I didn’t flunked any classes, I was just taller then too)

5- I have a Hyundai i10 right now and this is my 5^th Personal Vehicle.

6- I have lived in 6 cities till now- Kanpur, Jhansi, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Chennai.

7- I carry 7 cards in my wallet at all points of time- 3 Credit Cards, 2 Debit Cards, Pan Card, Office Parking Card.

8- It has been 8 years for me since I moved out of my home, away from my parents.

9- My birth date has been 9^th and my parents tell me that when I was born there was no sun in the sky for 9 days.

10- I have a shoe size of 10

That was interesting. And I do not tag anyone specifically, anyone who thinks he/she is a number person like I am, take the tag.

I was having a very interesting discussion with a close friend of mine, when she actually brought the discussion to an amazing question. She asked “What would be your Crushes if you were a girl?”Thankfully she allowed me to choose from the celebrities; otherwise it would have been so embarrassing for guys around me. Then on second thoughts this is a very interesting idea and here I declare it on my very own G & C. So here goes my 5 crushes, had I been a girl

1- George Clooney- He tops the list, the guy has a class that any guy would die for.

2- Tom Cruise- Well Tom Cruise is just Tom Cruise. Be it top gun, Jerry Maguire, or a Few Good Men. His style and attitude is simply amazing.

3- Arjun Rampal- Well he is one guy in India who I believe has killer looks.

4- Abhishek Bachan- Well I was really confused to chose his father or him but after Guru and Sarkar

5- Roger Fedrer- Well do I Need to say more about him.

Well so people this is my list of people I would have a Crush on if I was a girl. As a matter of fact, even as a guy these people are on my wanna be list.

As a bonus I add one more for all you ppl out there

6- Well this one is more famous than rest of the other and you can see for yourself

So now I make this a tag, If you are a guy blog about which 5 males you would have a crush on and if you are a gal which 5 females you would have a crush on. And I tag following people-

Monika

Partywithneha

Crazytwism

Deepti

Smita

Reema

I was having a discussion with Reema, Rushme and Jay, The discussion started with men and pink shirt and eventually moved to a point where the center topic was it is cool for guys to cry. Actually R & R think that guys who cry are more sensitive and more understanding which makes them more marriageable, datable etc material. Well this where I disagree, my point is the crying guys are not sensitive, they are sissy. Essentially Reema gave me a long tweet distributed over 3 tweets where she gave me all the high Funda of Emotional Intelligence. I replied that I can’t explain it in such few words, so I would rather post a blog. So here are my 5 reasons why guys should not cry-
1- No Sudden Shock Cry- This is when something really shocking and sad happens making your heart feel sinking, like death of someone close or illness of someone who is important. Well these exactly are sad moments and the loss might be overwhelming, but the fact is in case of death or illness everyone around you would be losing control of their emotions. In this situation it is a responsibility of a guy to take care of the situation, move on with life and help others around you cope with the loss. Not just let yourself loose and keep your tears dripping and just the let the situation go from bad to worse.
2- No Happy Crying- This is when you are happy and your cry out of it. Let me ask you to imagine a situation for me, close your eyes (No how would you read then, let them be open). Do not close your eyes but just imagine, the golden stage of Gladrags Man Hunt, the final five contestants on stage, the host comes does an elaborate build up. Then he announces the winner, the 6’7” hulk perfectly shaped muscles, every ounce of pumped Iron showing comes on the stage to be the winner, the crown is placed and he puts his hands on his face below the eyes and starts “Boooo Hoooo I…. Boooo Hooo am so happy..ssss boo I have dreamt booo hooo….for so long sss for this day”. I mean you get the picture, I am not sure but I think you won’t find him sensitive people, as a matter of fact the Gladragz might take the title back from him.
3- No I got Hit Crying- Well I don’t have to explain this, you remember IPL season 1 Harbhajan slapping Sreesanth, and he crying over the national television at prime time. I mean girls don’t tell me you really like Sreesanth because he is all toucy feely, sensitive, emotionally intelligent. As a matter of fact the world respected Sachin Tendulkar who came back to Play for India in WC even after his father expired and didn’t shed a tear just paid his homage through the bat. So if you choose Sreesanth you know I don’t really care, but fact of the matter is even if all the girls in the world are hell bent on tearing him apart to get a piece of him, I would never wanna be the the guy who cried on National TV because he got slapped.
4- No I lost crying- Well, it’s actually very difficult for ambitious men to accept the fact that they lost. But the point is crying is not the way and it is not going to solve anything. The frustration, guilt, anger needs to preserved to go back practice harder and try again. I mean did you really felt good when you saw Roger Fedrer crying on the Wimbledon Final stage. You might have feel sympathetic, bad for him, but did you actually felt nice about him. Did you feel so toughed with him that he is so sensitive that he couldn’t stand losing a title he had held for years. I would say you would be more in love with him when he was all fighting aggressively defeating Rafa with classic tennis shots.

5- No Lovey Dovey Crying- A lot of people really feel that they should cry because they are in love, they got cheated in love, they got dumped in love and basically they are in love. I perfectly agree that love itself is a good enough reason to cry but still, I am born and brought up feeding on Bollywood movies, I have never seen Majnu Crying, Even dharmendra didn’t cried in love when Hema Malini was dancing in front of Gabbar. Basically the hero doesn’t cries, he either dies a hero or he kicks ass. There is no way between that, so I don’t agree to the fact that the guys should cry for love.
So here I rest my case, and girls I understand that you might love the guys who cry. But Actually guys don’t approve of crying and as a matter of fact you love your guy because he is a sissy and cries every now and then but trust me a high probability is that he cries so often because he is in love with you. But don’t worry ask him to read my post and he will be fine.

Well Ps wrote an awesome post which can actually be forwarded as a tag. As she already mentioned that men find it difficult to do this one, and females find it easy, so me being a single child , materialistic bachelor, living away from home and parents didn’t actually help. But then this falls in line with my 5 things about my series, so I thought I might as well take the tag. So here I dedicate 5 very important phrases of my life-

1. You've changed my life. – My Computer Science Teacher back in Class VI he introduce me to the world of technology and I haven’t stopped since then being a Technology Freak.

2. I need you. – Sumeet Agarkar (He is one of my best friends, He would fit in all the phrases but I guess no one else would fill this column today more than him. He is one person who can, and does knows what I am going through and what I want without even saying a world)

3.I really love you- Mom & Dad

4.I'm here for you- Vikash, Siddharth, Ruchika

5.You are a gem. What will I do without you? Praveen, Deepti, Vikram, Sumit Bhatia, Vishay, Reena, Neha, Wagas, Mahashweta, Shantanu, Ankit.

Well all you people thanks a lot for being there in my life. It feels so good after doing such a post, when you remember that you have simply amazing people in your life. The people who would simply not stop loving you, being there for you and genuinely kick your backside when you try and screw up. Well for everyone who is wondering at the long list, yeah I am the pampered kid of the block not only by my parent s but also my circle of friends who just would not stop bearing with me despite my impossible self.

Well this is a nice Tag, and It would really be fun if you want to do it, But from my own I ask D to do it, you have recently started blogging. It would be fun thing for you.

I have thing for meeting and interacting with new people. Generally, I found the fairer sex getting a wrong perception of me. So here I produce 5 pointers that a female interacting me should keep in mind and correct her perception of yours truly. So here my narcissist self goes-

1- I am not sweet and I am not cute- I don’t know why but Sweet & Cute, these are the two adjectives which I so often hear from females about me. Now listen you people I am not sweet and I am not cute at all. As matter of fact I hate these adjectives, why on this earth you would call a guy “cute”. I am not the pug which used to feature in Hutch advertisements. All I am is polite and courteous, so if you are taking this cute and sweet please be aware that you are going to find me rude and arrogant when I think a matter is not of being polite but being direct. So next time you think I am sweet kinds, please re-align your thoughts.

2- I am a listener not an Agony Aunt- If you tell me about a problem and just want me to listen, you might get some advice if you want it. I am a good listener and a practical analyzer of things and situation. But after that, I generally don’t have too much to say on the topic and I expect you to act, if you found the advice practical or relevant. So if you are telling me things again without some rocket science discovery addendum to it, my opinions would not change. And if you think I am enjoying hearing the story how your boyfriend dumped you again for the 5th time, please let it be known I am not interested. If you didn’t get my advice in the first or second time please let it be known my views are, “For the 5th Time!!!! You deserved it, and no matter what I say right now I am sure he would be sleeping in your pants tomorrow morning and dumping you by afternoon.” (I might not say it loudly just to be polite but that’s how it is)

3- I have respect for women but I hate Feminists- I have immense respect for women what they are, for the contribution different women had in shaping my life, which includes my mom, teachers, friends, sisters, ex-girl friend. Everyone has been pivotal in shaping a part of me and I respect them for that and in general for women. I don’t like when Muthaliks of the world beat the women in Mangalore, or Jessica Lal or some girl in an unknown village gets raped/killed, and I actually get very agitated and pissed by it. But for the feminists of the world I have no sympathy points for your “All men are B*****DS” theory because of the fact is that your sick theory makes “All the Women SL*TS”. I have never met a women in my life who did not like being treated with respect and simultaneously being taken care of. So why don’t you keep your feminist theories to yourself and just be normal when you are with me.

4- I do admire hot girls passing by- Yes, I do that and pretty often too. I admire hot & good looking girls including their face, body, clothes, attitude and personality. What I don’t do is pass sleazy comments or follow them back. I just notice them and appreciate the care they take of themselves. Well if you have a problem with it you can’t do too much about it. I think it’s similar to admiring any natural/artificial beauty. I admire TajMahal, I admire machines like bikes, cars, and computer gear, I admire buildings and monuments, I admire girls in the same way. You know, if I know you then may be I can give you feedback/compliments but that’s it . So if you think you have a problem or Moral issues talking to a guy like this then I have just one line advice to you, “To each his own, Thanks a lot”

5- The sexy conversation- Now if the response in the back of your mind is something like this-
Me: Hey, how you doing?
You: Fine. (He is trying to sleep with me)

Me: Hey have you seen latest episode of How I Met Your Mother? You know Barney Slept with Robin?
You: Oh really, I missed that one. (He is trying to sleep with me)

Me: I really had a bad day at office. Wish this recession gets over pretty fast.
You: What happened?? (He is trying to sleep with me)

So I am sure by above specimen you would be thoroughly aware what I am talking about. So if you have this kinds of vibes at the back of your mind, I advise you that you should not be having any conversation with such kind of a guy who is trying to do this to you. Stop talking to him immediately!!! If you do not follow the advice and I get a hint of the voices in your head. I would make sure it follows.
And the simple reason is, your impression about me is derogatory and false for my self-image and you being around is waste of time. So please find someone else to waste and his time, as I am already short of it. And yes you heard it right, I am that selfish.

Since the beginning towards the end
The sands of time never remain in hand
With the fists so tight and the hands of glue
But sands of time slip out of blue
The wonders all around are so amazing
But the sand of time which we are all chasing
The air so dense, the horizons so wide
With disappearing sands we all survive
The water so black the people so dull
Within then sands it's our lives we pull
The history speaks aloud about those dead corpse
But trapped in thee viscous circle circle are times forces
The life and death, the death and lives
Among the sands only spirits thrive
The world full of knots and tangles
Within the sands watching us, are angels
With our hands outstretched
Eyes burnt to color so red
The mouth torn for water and bread
all over earth are those sands which are spread

You know going to office is an ordeal for me. I have always loved a line from Rachel Green when she talked about her life when she comes to know about how Ross like her and she goes to get him at the airport. She says, “When I saw him get off that plane with her, I really thought I hit rock bottom. But today, it's like there's rock bottom, then 50 feet of crap, then me”

I surprisingly think that my office follows a similar way of appreciation, every time I think I have managed a situation came out of the pit, it dugs up a deeper one pushes me in and says now come up. When I joined my work I thought I really loved it, I love it now too but 5 horrible setbacks they did to me-

1- Changing cities- You know when I was a kid, I used to be so jealous of people whose dad have transferrable jobs because they go to see new cities, new places. They had so many stories to tell. I was always stuck with same set of people and same old stories. When I grew up I also outgrew these idiotic sentiments. But somehow my company was listening and listening pretty well. They thought the perfect way to keep me happy was transfer me across 5 time in two years across 3 different cities (yaar itna to Mayawati bhi UP ke DMs ka nahi karati)

2- Office Timings- Well the place I hear from the veterans used to be a fun land where everyone was only bothered about how sincerely you completed your work and nothing else. But now we have some things called policies & directives in place. The bottom line due to them if I stay is office for less than 9.25 hours I get a leave deducted and if I stay more than it, it is expected. (yeh bhi koi insaaf hai meri salary bhi unke pass aur meri leave bhi unke paas jab chahe tab kaat lete hai :-()

3- The internet- this is a major irritant at my work place. I really hate websense. I am thinking that I should call a meeting of all the people who have been tortured by this F**KING morons sitting in San Diego, lets contribute buy the shares of the company and simply close it down. This would be one gift from us to the entire humanity. Some inventions shouldn’t have been done this damn software is one of them. Well you can read abt this nuisance in my office here as well.

4- Car Parking & Campus - We have a multilevel car parking of 10 Floors with a capacity exceeding 2000 cars. Now this parking is actually built in the corner and any workplace building is around 1 Km from it at least that too uphill while coming back. My one question why, Why this idiotic car place right in the center? Why you expect us to slog our backsides off and then actually fight an uphill battle on feet or cycles to reach our car and then drive 15-40 Kms to reach home. No when you recruited us, we never pledged our life to you.

5- Security- Now this is the latest Icing in the cake, they have reduced a lot many number of guards may be with an idea to cut costs. So essentially what happened today was there was a 2 Kms long line of cars while the remaining guards were struggling to check every care to let it in. Generally there are 15 guards passing around 12 cars at one time. Now this has been reduced to 7 which actually resulted in a huge waiting and I actually waited for 45 minutes to actually get to the Car Park and then another 15 mins to walk to my building.

I hope this damn recession ends and some sanity is restored in the work place. Otherwise one of my most admired corporations would turn into a hell hole which people would despise and loath.

My post today have been 5 irritating kind of people I do not want to meet online. Social Media and Networking has been a great avenue opener in my life. A large chunk of my social interaction has been limited through this medium, be it real friends or virtual friends. Everything has an upside as well as downside; same thing goes with virtual networking as well.

Here I talk about 5 kinds of people I do not like to interact with.

1- The Bootylicious Man-Makers - Well you have nice display picture flaunting your silicon powered assets, and you promise me a lifetime remembering ecstasy which actually make me a man. I tell you I have been genetically made a man and it was stamped right there after detailed verification on my brith certificate by a qualified MD-MBBS doctor around 27 years back. So I am not sure if you can take man and make a man out of him, what I am sure of is that you can take a man and make a fool out of him. And regarding your blissful ecstasies I would like to tell you a secret, We had a server during college where we had approximately 200 GB porn which was neatly classified on the basis of Ethnicity, age, postures and level of grossness. So the thing is I hardly used/downloaded that collection then and I am not really interested in the bootylicious ecstasies you want me to offer. So Man-Makers of the world please excuse.

2- The Rich Philanthropists- So you got the key to make money, that too sitting at home, using internet. Awesome, that’s so good for you. So well, if you are so happy about it go tell it to Bill gates, Warren Buffet, or Larry Ellison they would be so happy to buy you out, poor people seem to be always struggling to make more money. Who you should not come to is Prats, you know actually the dumb guy really hates you. He will never ever make money, but you know what he is like that so please leave him alone.

3- The Make-You-Biggers- This a latest addition in the area of Internet Technologies. They are the Search Engine Optimizers who can make you rich though you blog. They can help you make money through Adsense. SEO’s of the world my single request to you, do you actually see an adsense on my blog. Yes I do not display ads on my blog, and no its not because of my ignorance of google adsense or inability to comprehend search engine optimization, If I could write device drivers for Linux in CPP 7 years back I am sure I would be able to figure out SEO. So please the adsense is not on my blog for a reason and please don’t spam me with an expectation that I would change it.

4- The Promoters- Oh man you people I don’t hate you. I love the fact that you are entrepreneurs, and I admire the fact and you have recently launched a new site which is nothing less than Rocket science and can change the word for me. It illicit my interest only to a level that you can leave a message and link, if you want a feedback say so and ask for it. Don’t expect me that I would fall in love with as much as you do and would like to talk about it day in and day out. After all you are the one who would get the money on the IPO not me right, so let’s keep your excitement limited to yourself.

5- The Spammers- Well everybody knows them and hates them, but still for the sake of clarity I restate that I am not interested in helping any Nigerian prince, or the poor girl who is 5 since last 10 years or the special photo that would bring me luck or the jerks who keep telling my about walk in interviews, selling me Viagra and genuine fake Rolex watches. Please get a life and let me get some.

One night at a railway station
I was sitting in the air,
The world was quiet
Except for a few shimmering cries.
As if it were a graveyard
Full of trembling deaths,
Then suddenly times began changing
The mob began to pour.
As the train pulled in over
The place turned into a hell
Everybody busy from their head to the toes
The vessel made a shrill noise while moving forward
With the chaos gradually started settling
And the era of silence outstretched
I found myself on the railway station
Gazing at the bare railway tracks
The tracks that went together for miles like best of friends
But in reality they never did met
All it was a station
Which was a world in itself
Lots of people to come by you,
But not a single one to be met.


Hey people this is one of my few attempts on a non rhyming poetry. Would really like to have feedback and areas of improvement.
I actually didn't had too much of time to write a complete post today so kind of wrote this poetry in a hurry

I was tagged by Monika on this one. This was a beautiful tag, which gives you an opportunity for introspection, chance to flaunt appreciate oneself. So given the slightest opportunity here I go pulling out my obsession with myself.

5 Things, I love myself for-

1- My Good Looks The Practical self- I am a very practical person. I would have an explanation/reason for everything I say or do. The part of my life I call as “Planner” this trait have always stood by me and given me a lot of Yay moments when all my plans were successful and lot of ouch moment when they failed, but most importantly it always gave me a reason why I succeed or the reason why I failed and the opportunity to learn from my own mistakes. A lot of people loath my practicality, but I am in love with it.

2- My Good looks The Joking Self- I can always crack jokes ( a lot of my friends would say accuse me of cracking horrible jokes, and out of sheer love for them I don’t disagree) I can make fun of anything and everything under the sun. As a matter of fact I have chronic history of cracking jokes on everyone around me including myself (I swear this is a medical condition and I am trying to take treatment for it, but doctors refuse to meet me, lest they themselves get infected). So the bottom-line is that I love my joking self and the fact that people have included a tag line with my name Prats – Specialist in cracking bad ones since 1982.

3- My Good Looks The ______vert self- I don’t know if I am an extrovert or an Introvert. By all means I would classify as an extrovert but somehow I reflect one introvert trait that I need to put in a conscious effort in starting a conversation with strangers and I generally think a lot before doing it. So yeah you got it right despite me being a blabbering extrovert. This dream conversation never happened with me-

Me- “Hey beautiful, If you won’t mind can I ask you out for a drink Coffee(damn I don’t have drinks myself)”

Stranger Hot Girl #1345- “Well and Why would you like to do that?”

Me- “(You don’t know this because I feel you are Hawt!! And I haven’t dated a women in 1 year) Simply because from the moment I walked in the room, I felt that there is something special between us. You know some kind of chemistry (and If I am lucky tonight we might have physics too. What Up!!)”

So basically this dream conversation simply doesn’t happen with me. Apart from the lack of the aforementioned situation I love my mixture of an introvert and an extrovert.

4- My Good Looks The Dependable Me- I am a person who believes in managing the relationships in life. I am one of the lucky few who are blessed with large number of friends in life and I mean really good friends. I treasure all my friends and my relationships with them and I think one trait which keeps people hooked to me is that they can depend on me, that I’ll be there for them always, Friend’s style I’ll be there. This trait has given me so much in my life that I am simply in awe of it.

5- My Good Looks The Enjoyable Me- One more attribute which I really like about myself is my ability to enjoy. I can live everyday enjoying to the fullest, at the end of a busy day when people actually think of sleeping, I am generally out driving, partying, enjoying myself. Another part of the same trait which really make it awesome is my attitude of enjoying with myself when alone (Perverts of the World, One at a time please. No I am not talking about Mas****** self pleasure activities people indulge in). Yes I can enjoy all alone reading a book sipping a coffee, going out for a drive alone, watching a movie or play or a concert alone. I know how to be happy simply by myself.

So people these are 5 things which I really love about myself. Before I close one question-

Would I be gay if I am in love with myself for My Good Looks if no then this one tops the list.

And keeping the tradition of the Tags I hereby tag-

Crucifire

Reema

Neha

Radha

And anyone else who would like to take this tag.

As the esteemed readers of the Blog would already be aware that yours truly is actually a teetotaler and doesn’t know how the so hyped “high” of an Alcohol feels like. So I actually discussed the same with some of my friends who have their more than fair share of being “delightfully high” almost thrice a week. So based on inputs from them these are the list of 5 things that give a high higher than alcohol and my hangover remedies for it-

1- Killing High- Playing a Video Game like Counter Strike, Quake, Unreal Tournament, Age of Empires, When you are left alone in the team still you go all the way to win the game, killing everyone else. The feeling that gives rise to surge of adrenalin can only been understood by the people who can spend days playing the game without getting bored out of it.

Hangover Remedy- Mom shouting with the Hitler v 6.0 look on her face to have a bath (immediate relief guaranteed)

2- Speeding High- You are on a road driving, a sonofab***h cuts you off and goes away. That’s a moment of an ultimate high. You sit straight, the eyes narrow revaluating the distances. Gear comes down by two unit, the foot presses on the accelerator, the RPM and speedometer pick up from the slumber. The distance decreasing, 900m, 800m,…100m Finally you cut him off, giving him a finger with your arrogant and spoilt look in a glance and then speed away. What a high! This kind of high also can come through the first time exposure to entities like Transporter, Fast & Furious, Top gun, Death Race & Dhoom.

Hangover Remedy: Sister, Girlfriend, Wife or female friends sitting on the non driving seat. Or the guy who cut you off had a BMW and you were driving a Honda City.

3- Anticipated High- When you out on a date with someone who you really think is absolutely hot. Halfway through the date you realize you have hit on well and your date is already consumed four shots of Tequila. That’s when you get high in anticipation of how lucky you are going to get tonight. For females it generally works other way round, The date should be prefect and the guy just had a glass of vodka wine.

Hangover Remedy: The number of shots shoots to 6 and the date gets all dizzy anticipating she might puke.

4- Lovingly High- The first one year when you are in love with someone and that someone loves you back is a period of an unmatched high. I mean the high lasts longer than that if you can force manage yourself to love the same person over an extended period of time. This is a very dangerous kind of high, can make you behave erratically and over consumption might lead to untimely death. Case in Point: Heer-Ranjha, Laila Manjnu, Romeo-Juliet etc etc. So bottomline is consume with caution.

Hangover Remedies: Lover’s khadus baap, positive pregnancy tests, presence of the other in life and most effective one- Marriage.

5- Chocolaty High- This is one of the easy obtainable high, You go to a nice place order a Sizzling Chocolate Walnut Brownie (You can also order Chocolate Avalanche @ Mochas). The people will bring you an amazing post of a deliciously sweet cake made of amazing walnuts and chocolate. Which would be mounted (not for dry humping you perverts) by a large scoop of vanilla ice cream and a cup full of chocolate sauce poured over the entire thing. And this served on a sizzling plate. Man you reach the seventh heaven.

Hangover Remedy- Well the only remedy which can work on this high is, keep the bill of the expensive Gym you have joined in your pocket and see it before you order and while you eat. Though this is not a sure shot remedy works otherwise for me I tend to order another piece thinking “Isiliye to Gym kar rahe hai ki aur kha sake”

So these are the things that give me a high higher than the Alcohol. The topic of the post was suggested to me by a very dearie friend, and coincidentally its her birthday today “Many happy returns of the day to you”.

I was thinking of posting on some other topic, but then someone on twitter actually posted a link of this site. My instant reaction was “What the F**K”. For the People who haven’t opened the site, The site is called Mom Sourcing, the homepage goes like this-

“You know you should call your mom on Mother’s Day. But in today’s fast paced world, work, hobbies and “me time” it can be hard to squeeze in.”

I mean who would have actually thought this kind of an idea. They actually have a sample call on their site. The sample call goes like this-

“Hello,

May I please speak with Lauren

Mom, This is your child Michael. I am calling to wish you a happy mother's day. You have always been there for me and I love you very much. I hope today is magical and full of enjoyment.

Your Confirmation number is 4444444”

* The text in bracket is conversation from the Listener (supposedly the Mother)

So let me get this straight the idea is that idea is your customer is some smartass doesn’t has 30 seconds of time in his 24 hours to make a call to a person who gave birth to him. So that very much defines his love, attachment, commitment, relationship, emotions towards his mother and you expect him to pay you to call on his behalf. Did I hear a yes, well hilarious, I feel choked with your optimism.

Then your proposition is that someone in a foreign accent and different voice would call the customer’s mothers as the person. Now let me get this straight a mother who can identify her baby’s voice by howling which is not even a perfect English syllable. You expect her to believe that the voice is her child’s. And to ensure there are no stone unturned in making the mother believe that this is her son, you give out a confirmation number. Oh yes I do it every time when I speak with my mom and I am sure this is the practice from standard protocol of calling your mom, “Rule # 11 (Std Protocol for Calling Mom)- Always leave the confirmation code when you end the call, lest she forgets if really her son called or she was dreaming”

My heart goes out for all the mothers who would actually get the calls from the service, the thought this message drives along “Excuse me ma’am your child was too busy to spare 30 seconds to wish you a Mother’s day, but yeah he is doing well he had enough money to outsource us the work of calling you. Happy Mother’s Day”

Mother’s day I feel is a huge marketing gimmick, but still essence is to love the woman who actually brought you in this world, respect her for what she is and what she has done for you, reach out to her a step more than you usually do, communicate that you do miss her and feel connected to her. Mother’s day is a festival, a day to celebrate emotions, most important woman in your life. It’s not a duty or liability or a fashion statement which you can boast in your friend circle. The above service would have been awesome if it would have been positioned as to support you to wish your mom by playing specialized messages (aka greeting cards) or singing custom made jingles but not by outsourcing your “work” of calling your mother. If you really think it is work, then I guess you shouldn’t be calling her.

And actually If I tried this service on my Mom, I am in for a 2 hour lecture. One hour on respect for elders and appreciating people in my life and second one on why am I squandering on an outsourcing service to wish her Mother’s Day.

On a lighter note “Happy Mother’s Day” to all the woman in the world who have blessed this world with the Human race. Hope you have a great year ahead and yes you don’t need a confirmation number telling you that you have been an awesome mother for your child.

Get your twitter mosaic here.

I have been really very busy with work since last few days, I have not been able to find time to write anything, so out of desperation I am fishing out something which I wrote long back but never put on the blog. I promise would return back tomorrow with a freshly written post. Till then enjoy this poetry I wrote sometime back-

When You're Gone
The World has stopped, Life is dull & slow
The humans still, The tress silent as the seeds were never sowed,
The roads lying speechless all along,
The skylarks are silent without a song.

Yesterday was as beautiful as it could have been,
For me the world, the world to me she seemed,
My life lost all the reasons it had to be,
Every time I opened my eyes in front was she.

Some little fact that my heart refuses to explain,
Her glittering eyes, How they relieved all my pain,
What it a bliss!! It seemed like a boon,
But never understood why it had to end so soon.

The life is empty, loneliness surrounds,
All around is vacuum with memories profound,
A surreal touch and a loving glance,
A long wait for the life to get another chance.

All of the sudden the folklore of life ,
has lost all the untold stories,
Without her I am the sun,
Who who somewhere lost his glory.

I am really sorry to disappoint you folks with such a post. Promise to come back tomorrow with something better.

Ps.: This was written very long time back and I never thought this is worthy enough to be told, but desperate time calls for desperate measures. So you can hurl all the shoes at me you like (pairs would be welcomed, shoe size 11 :-D )

I had a chance to visit Shirdi temple on an extended weekend. The trip was quite a nice one specially given the fact, that it was a 400 km round trip from Pune where I got to hit the highway. The road was decent and the company was awesome. However, my friend who really wanted to visit the shrine inside the temple, being the extended weekend the crowd was overwhelming. We couldn’t even gather the courage to join the line (Okay, we includes only me) so we did a distant darshan of the shrine and came back.

All the time I actually analyzed the root cause of the problem, why visiting any famous temple is such a grilling experience physically. The result of my analysis refers that hard headed humans we Indians are we do not get it at all. Being a part of the society where who you are having “coffee” with is a business of supreme importance for the whole neighborhood, especially if both the parties of the coffee reflect can be classified into two distinct category depending upon their reproductive organs (well after Dostana I guess it wouldn’t matter to make the hue and cry). So we just don’t learn how to respect privacy. This war with privacy has actually reached to a level that even our dear god have not been spared.

If god actually wanted, being the supreme power in the whole world (No I am not talking about George Bush or Barak Obama, I am talking about the Real God) he could have gotten as big stretch of land right across the VT station stretching to Nariman Point & Marine Drive, or right in the center of Connaught Place, or Mount Road in Chennai. But no he chose places like Shirdi, Kedarnath, Badrinath, Tirupati etc. he chose all the places with difficult approach in interiors, sometimes at scary heights and altitudes. There ought to be some reason for it. Yes there is a reason and it is, he didn’t wanted to be bothered the whole day. You know he wouldn’t have liked every time a train gets delayed, a devotee crosses the street from VT station to have a little chat why his train is being delayed. Or a De-Vote-d politician walking across the Connaught place demanding an explanation why he couldn’t get a seat in the parliament. The god being the most visionary power present in the universe thought it would not be a good idea to choose his humble abode amidst the posh localities ( I am sure if he wanted he could have got it, Especially in the times of this recession the property is a steal deal).

But as with most visionaries, they miss out an element which comes as a surprise. With God it has been no different, he chose to stay indoors and run the world. He moved towards interiors putting up a metaphorical do not disturb sign. But we Indians being the superior of the breeds have always been genetically immuned to any kind of signs/mechanism/laws protecting privacies and hence we never get it. So harping all along our core competencies of stubbornness and no respect for privacy. We have managed to crowd the places that god chose as his abode with unprecedented persistence that he actually need a full blown cabinet to manage the visitor (I am hearing that elections would actually be held in the God’s Own Country).

From what I can see from here our god has only one option left to move under water with their abode so that they can have their privacy for still more time. Submarine travel is still not common and he just might have peace at last once the areas are under water. But when these temples like badrinath, Vaishno Devi temple would be under water it sounds like what we call as “Pralay”. Funny isn’t it, if it really would be for the sake of privacy.

I have reached way past my student life (way as in read 2 years) but the student life leaves such highlights on you that they are imbibed on our minds. Examinations are one such phenomenon that they can generate extreme ends of feelings in a human being. I thought that I would write this post on LES but I got a midway riff of my old time memories. So here I convey the emotions I felt during different examinations in the entire span of life-

1- Joy- When you get your examination paper, and you find out it is the same version for which you paid the clerk last night. The feeling first smile on your face yes that’s what you call Joy.

2- Disgust- When you sit for an examination for engineering entrance and you get question for a 8^th Grader. (It happened to me when I gave the University Engineering college Entrance Exam). The feeling you want me to answer Kiddo questions, I want to be an engineer dude. That’s Disgusting isn’t it?

3- Acceptance- When you know you are anyways going to Flunk the examinations and stop trying.

4- Fear- When you never studied Accounts or Fin-101 or Electrical Machines & Measuring Instruments, the damn subjects are so drag that you feel sleepy deciding that you will study in the morning. Only to find you woke up 15 mins before the examination starts.

5- Surprise- When you open the question paper, only to find that you were reading the Theory of Automata whole day yesterday and they by mistake gave you the paper of Discrete Mathematics

6- Sadness- Well by default Exams are a sad phenomenon until you are Monica Geller.

7- Anger- When you realize the question paper you paid for yesterday night was Fluid Mechanics for 4^th Semester Civil Engg. and you are supposed to appear for Engg. Mechanics 2^nd Semester. Damn would have been better if you knew what subjects you were opting for.

8- Anticipation- When the papers like Theory of Automata, Compiler Design, Macro-Economics, Accounts are on the Exam list. The shivering you get is often out of anticipation

9- Empathy- When your Juniors in engineering college flunk the same subject you did and tell you how the entire paper was out of course. At that point of time what shows on your face is empathy

10- Worry- When you realize that you have to give exams this semester, and it would have been a lot better if you wouldn’t have just relied on proxies the entire semester

11- Regret- The feeling when you stand outside the dean’s office explaining why you couldn’t maintain 75% 60% 50% even 15% attendance in the class. The odds are 6 to 4 that he would give you the hall ticket to sit in the examination.

12- Curiosity- When you don’t know a thing asked in the question paper, and the person sitting front/back/ left/right/diagonally to you is writing profoundly as if he has to finish the legend of Mhabharata faster than Ved Vyas could have recited it. The feeling right inside you which makes you lean forward and sneak into his notebook is called Curiosity. No I don’t call it cheating; Curiosity is human instinct right?

13- Desire- When you write on small chits of paper on your hands covered inside full shirts, at the back of calculators and rulers and pencil box and even admit card and its envelope. That’s what is the desire to succeed.

14- Envy- The little emotion you get when the most seriously studying girl (yeah its always a girl who would complete all her homework in time, do all assignments, read two chapters in advance from 5 different books, She’s always a girl) would tell which question was from which book, on what page and how many times she had done it prior to the exams.

15- Pressure- When you step out of your hostel room in the night before going to sleep, to find lights in all the rooms are on. You come back switch on your table lamp and then go to sleep.

That’s all about the Emotions and Exams. To come back to LES as I had already promised Reema, who is having her last exam tomorrow, that I will write about it on my blog today. I had a term defined especially for an occurrence in behavior prior to the last Exam. I like to call it as Last Exam Syndrome (LES). LES as I called it, is the euphoria because of the realization that you are going to be the free bird after the next exam. The joy of anticipation is so unparalleled that you actually start enjoying and feeling relaxed and happy. As a matter of fact you don’t even feel the same emotions when exams actually do get over, that would match the happiness quotient of time between the second last and last exams. So Reema enjoy your LES and Best of Luck for your exams tomorrow.