Ruse, Muse, Obtuse

Life is pretty good especially so when you are proved em all wrong!!!

I've been told on several occasions by people, from all walks of life, with varying amount of asperity on the dangers of wearing high heeled shoes.

Slip disks, back aches, slips, falls....the wise cracks of committing suicide by jumping of my own shoes etc i listen to with amusement.

Today however when i was climbing down the stairs by some freak my dupatta got caught in my shoe and i (note) almost fell.

The high point being that since i was exercising the care my fashionably high heel warrants i was able to prevent the fall. I can effectively reconstruct the image of me tumbling down the stairs like rag doll had things been different

it has happened often to me and my fellow gals so often wherein we tend to trip and stumble and fall more often when we are wearing our sensible flatties.

So as a clumsy always stumbling person..my high heels are my life saver...god bless all my beautiful pairs and may i have many more.

~ She with the most shoes wins

And so as the clock moves ever so slowly towards the seventh hour,
I look vaguely upon the lighted monstrosity,
hoping for words to flow.
Alas soon I will bid thee good bye
I hope the next owner shall look at you more gleefully than i

The dull grey dusk has set in already,
It will be time soon for me to leave
on good terms we shall part
our paths shall never cross again

YAY…I get out of here at last :)

Ooooooohh u cuuuuutee baby. Uuuuuuu aree choooo chhhhwwweeeeet

That about sums up the average reaction of an adult left with a baby for 1 minute.

I am not beyond this cooing myself. Though I honestly believed that's where i'd stop.

But fate and my ever sub- yet hyperactive -conscious proved me wrong. I was spending time with my one year old niece and her mum had dressed her up in a cute pair of pink long-johns. I had the strongest temptation to stick on a matching pair for bunny ears on her head. I also almost always spike up a baby's hair to give a punk baby look.

I wonder why adults dress babies up in clothes they wouldn't want to wear on any day except Halloween(may be). Just cause babies can't express their discontent on the subject and are unable to rip off the costumes themselves, should we really take advantage of that?

These pictures lay the groundwork for future embarassments. I mean we are still trying to hide our own baby snaps where we are wearing bunny hats and that photo every boy has when he was dressed as a girl.

I am glad that i only have to hide some albums and unlike my niece who is going to have to remove it from the hard drive and inbox of every one of my relatives.

Oh yeah!! For some reason R woke up at 6:30 am ...and went for a walk. I chose to sleep in since anytime before 8:00 am is unthinkable for me. R informs me that she wakes up early in the morning. Frankly she gets along with a lots less sleep than I do.
Anyways we tackle a heavy breakfast of chole bhature and poori. I love walking by these little places where they make em hot and fresh in the mornings. We decided to hike to lal tibba which is the highest point in Musoorie and offers a great view of the Himalayas. We set off enthusiastically and faltered slightly when we realised that it was a good 5 kms away and was uphill, everyone we met looked at us doubtfully. I'll admit neither of us looks very fit. We decided to walk anyways after being encouraged by a sweet lady who sells sweaters. She said very nonchalantly that it was hardly gonna matter and it'd take us 45 minutes. Onward we marched. the first half of the hike was mostly though the narrow streets and we were thankful to walk the distance since there were several traffic jams. Once we got past the most occupied area we started walking uphill. It was STEEP and we somehow kept going stopping every 5 minutes to catch our breaths. But the view on the way were totally worth it. We reached the chauraha where the road becomes a T junction with one side going to sister's bazaar and the other to lal tibba. onward we marched till be reached our first roadblock. The road was barricaded. We jumped over it and kept walking. The climb hence forth wasn't as steep so we could walk it easily while taking tonnes of photos. We finally reached what appeared to be the top when
R(yells): Is that the mountains
Me: No they are just clouds
R: No look it is mountains
Me: Wow it really is
I can be excused for the error since the snow peaked mountains where whiter than the clouds and they were actually rising above it.
there was an observation tower which was closed..but R and I had come too far to leave without a good view so we managed to jump a couple of gates and get to the top. My first break-in :)The view from there was totally worth it. I could only see mountains all around. It sure made me want to get closer to the Himalayas. That's where I am heading next. Our reverie was interrupted by a shrill yell demanding how we got up there. Alas the owners had arrived and were screaming since we climbed up :) quite understandable. We paid up for the observation tickets and were able to use binoculars to see Kedarnath, the tibetian border and gangotri too. We headed back down and went over to sister's bazaar where R and I met an very interesting lady who owns a handicraft store there. Her family owns most of the shops there and the Cinnamon rolls that they sell there is delicious. R and I headed back at the chauraha we treated ourselves to some yummy waffles.
our journey back down to the Mall area took us less than 30 minutes. We had lunch at tavern which was really good. We headed over for one last trip to camel back road which was a little disappointing. We managed to see the sunset there. After that one last stop to Casa Mia for some more yummy cakes.
We headed over to a bus station where we managed to find a taxi which was heading to dehradun. The ride down literally had us praying since the driver was probably being chased by demons. Everyone in the car was praying for their lives and controlling Nausea. I have never felt happier getting out of a car.
We checked into a hotel for the night and on checking the ticket found that the train left at 5 and not 6. Thus avoiding a catastrophe. I think henceforth R and I will be double checking all our departure times.
We made it to Delhi right on time and ate some more at wenger's :)
Most Memorable image: R's face at the platform after missing the train
Best food: Pasta at Clarke's
Favourite dessert: Rum cake at Casa mia
Best View: Lal tibba
Favourite Moment: Standing on top of the hillock near the Buddhist monastery and listening to the wind

Ahh the joy of sleep snuggled in a warm railway bunker......
AAck the jab in the back
R: "Wake up!! our stop is next"
A: Grunts
R: WAKE UP!
A: Last stop is ours (turns over and tries to sleep again)
Finally the train comes to a stop..a complete stop...the final stop
We step out and can't believe we have actually made it to Dehradoon and on TIME!!! so far so good
At the station we were accosted by several autowala's "Rickshaw madam" etc etc lots of army people walking around (surprise surprise) We walk around a lil cuz i needed to clear out my befuddled head. Though at this point i must stop and specifically talk about R in the next few line
You seen a Jack in the Box?
You seen a human jack in the Box?
Let's think of sleep as the Box
Now let me tell you that it is no exaggeration that R would be the jack!!!!I
mean seriously, if i had that gift i would'nt need to consume the bile juice disguised as coffee every single day at work.

Anyways my state of beffudleness ends quickly and we find out that the bus stop is on the way out of the station. R and I manage to potter or moossey(?) around as she likes to call it. The bus finally leaves at 7:00 am bright and early, the conductor informed us that we will reach Mussorie by 8:00 am.
The bus laboriously climbed the twisty jalebi roads and paused for a breather every now and then. We arrive at the Palace station. We get off the bus and look for a hotel. We almost settle for a cheap hotel when we find "The Clarks" It is right there on Mall road, the rooms are incredible, it was an old Raj time grocery store which the current owners bought way back in 1926. The place is pristine and extremely well maintained. OOh and did i mention that it was cheap too? R and I fell in love with the place at first sight. The owner of the place is a matronly wonderful aunty who gave us a discount since we were only girls. The room we got was awesome. It had a great view of the valley and was perfectly clean and simple.
Anyways we decide to get breakfast out of the way since I wanted to watch the Japanese Grand Prix at 10:00. We wandered around a bit, taking in the sites and sounds of the place. A good tip while in Mussoorie is that the best time to take in the view in the mall area is before 10:00 am since the tourists are not out and the place is almost empty and one can enjoy the beauty of the place at leisure and listen to the sounds of nature.We found a little place where we hogged on cheese omelets
While watching the race the valley suddenly mists up. The sky was blue as Madonna's veil all morning and suddenly it became dark and grey. We had a fun time watching the mists slowly creep into our room thru the windows. All hopes for a misty room were dashed when we were forced to close the windows because it became a little cold.
An exciting race later we headed out for lunch to Rice bowl. Which is just a hop and skip away from clarkes. it is a good chinese and Tibetan restaurant and i enjoyed my noodle soup. Then we went to Casa Mia one of the best bakeries ever. R had a lemon pie and I a rum ball. The lemon pie was awesome and the rum ball was simply the best I've ever eaten. yum yum. Both these places are just ten steps away from Clarke's.
We buy tickets for the cable car to Gun point. However the length of the queue made us head over to happy valley instead. there is a tibetian monastery there. It is a little off-beat from the main touristy places. We took a rickshaw till the start of happy valley and walked down the rest of the way to the monastery. We climbed a a little hillock, when we reached its peak we had an unhindered view of the valley. the only sounds one can hear are the flags flapping in the wind and the occasional distant sound of prayer bells. It was beautiful! We then headed to the monastery which was at the base of the hillock. This is my first time at a buddhist temple and i liked the experience.
We managed to make it back up without loosing much breath and were happy that we chose to walk as we could see so much more of the area than if we had taken a cab. We took a taxi back to the mall area. There was a huge traffic jam just before the mall road. So we walked from the library end to clarke. After a quick beak where i ate a banana slice and R a chocolate truffle we headed over to the cable car. The queue was still long but we didn't want to waste our tickets and by the time we got up there it was past dusk. We took in a few sites while there was little light had some chocolate milk and headed back down in the cable car after a long wait. Gun hill is very commercialised and the stores have blocked out a lot of views. Next time i think I'll skip the cable car and simply walk up. there early in the morning.
We had dinner at clarkes since R had read that the pasta was good there. It definitely lived up to its name. It was really good. Note that pastas have to be ordered in advance.
We walked over to tavern a restaurant which was also highly recommended but we didn't enter since a party was going on and the music was bad. Instead we were bedazzled by a little shop near tavern which specialised in Tibetan jewellery. The pieces were beautiful and very reasonable. A must stop for the ladies who like a little chunky jewellery.
We headed back to the room but not before buying an apple pie from Casa Mia. The little bakery is seriously awesome!!!!
Our first day in Mussorie was complete and we were both satisfied at having covered a significant bit. We had decided long before that we were going to avoid the touristy spots and it paid off well.
zzzzzzz

Ingredient 1: At least one equally or more insane buddy


R&A managed to do it again and this time it was bigger, better and more chaotic!!!!

Destination: Moosurie
Scope: Eat, Yak, Eat, Yak, Yak....and oh yeah see a couple of places

R by the law of averages managed to get to Delhi ahead of schedule. On account of which blogger managed to make R wait a good 40 minutes at the bustling railway station.We head over to CP for lunch since we had 2 hours and 55 minutes for our train to Dehradoon. R on seeing civilization after several months could hardly contain her excitement. We had good lunch at United Coffee House, a lovely old restaurant in CP whose interiors are probably from The Raj era, though carefully maintained. After managing to stuff on ourselves with the awesome sandwichs we wandered about CP during which blogger reminded R that they should leave for the station by three and R promptly disagreed. (R likes to cut it even finer than me) besides i wasn't wearing a watch and generally was averse to taking care of logistics.
We wandered closer to the metro station and R still wasn't ready to go to the Railway Station. So we wandered even further and came to a delightful bakery called Wegner's. It is dessert heaven!!! A definite must stop for all foodies. I loved it absolutely!!!!! we wolfed down a lemon swiss roll...yum yum. And finally R consented to head to the railway station. We reach the new Delhi metro stop but there was some major problem with the exit gates owing to technical glitches and ignorant and pushy people on the gates. We finally manage to get out..and i notice the metro time and point out that R's watch is behind by 5 minutes.We make it to the station and I look for the platform our train is to be on. When R points out that departure is at 15:25 and not 15:35. I tell her to keep moving and ask her to check the time on our ticket. Hee hee ... we arrive at a gloriously empty platform and on checking with a few people there it was confirmed that we had promptly missed our train by two whole minutes!!! I was laughing and R was simply stunned. NDLS is jinxed for her she has on all occasions either missed her train or arrived really late. her expression was priceless and I was amused that this was the first time in my life that i had missed a train for no apparent reason.
It was pointless to try and board the train at the next station as Shatabdi has very few stops. Ah well we headed out to the nearest internet cafe and book our tickets on the night train. We had a good seven hours to kill before making it for our next train.
We headed over to see the Nizam's jewellery exhibition. The jewellery were on display after a gap of six years and are worth over 2000 crores. He was a connoisseur for emeralds and pearls. Some serious B L I N G !!!!!the emeralds are the size of walnuts or even bigger. Just looking at all those diamonds and emeralds was blinding!!!!. The Jacob Diamond is one serious piece of rock. WOW WOW WOW R and I were finally able to see why women would marry nawabs ;) I loved some of the pieces which had minakari work done on the back of the jewellery and the engravings on some of the emeralds.Despite the size of the stones the work was very intricate with an eye for detail. A primary design feature was pea-cocks. They are incorporated so beautifully. Hard to believe that someone could be THAT RICH..way back then just by ruling little piece of land.
After this we headed over to CP again and parked ourselves in a movie theatre to watch "The Loins of Punjab" (no typos there!!) The movie is average it got a little boring before the interval. Had a good amount of jokes on the NRI culture and some decent digs on Gujju's. I guess the NRI movie goers might enjoy it more. On the whole I would suggest waiting for the DVD to come out. It is'nt a moive that's a must see in the Cinema.
We still had some more time so we were wandering about wondering what to do when we passed by a new Restaurant called @Live which featured a live acoustic band. We wandered in the ambiance was really good and i loved the interiors. R is a singer herself so she absolutely flipped. After some good numbers we finally left for the station.
This time we reached a full half hour earlier and endured the rain of insects as we awaited for the train's arrival. It thankfully left on time and R&A promptly fell into blissful sleep as we knew we were finally getting to our intended destination.

Final Ratings of the day
United Coffee House: A-
Wegner's: A
@Live: B+
Loins of Punjab: C+

Yes i know some of us aren't too fond of the word. Heck you don't want to be waiting in line for a pedicure while a man is getting his done or wait for your hairstylist while he/she puts finishing touches on tiny little spikes of his/her customer. Yes I've heard some groans saying metrosexual = gay etc etc.
May be it is an outdated topic.

But just for argument's sake or just for fun or just because you have time. let's consider the definition of metrosexual. From one perspective it would be a new kind of men who are not afraid to show their sensitive side and take that extra effort to be well groomed and break away from traditional definitions of what a man should be without being labeled as gay or sissy's or pansy's (Technically thats true!!!)

So why am I taking the effort of typing about something I have very limited knowledge is because these are my musings and thru all these writings i am not really looking for a deeper meaning, I just like to muse.

Back to the point. Despite my initial mixed feelings about the subject I've gained another perspective which will makes me want to appreciate this more.

Metrosexual women!!!! (Ha buzz of guys you can't have sole proprietorships on everything) These would be women like me. Non-fussy, independent, non-feminists, superwomen :P who can fix their own punctured wheels, fix their own computers and google for information they don't have without being labeled as tom boys/ lesbians. Ha take that to all those people who think I shouldv'e been a guy.

~hence the title

PS: yes this might be post belonging to another era...

Friday's are probably the day that oddest things happen at the office. At least it has been so for the past few weeks. Maybe because its almost weekend people are holidaying already or since a casual dress code is allowed people are more relaxed. This mood is hardly affected by the presence of stern auditors whose sole purpose slam us with non-compliance. Note to self, become an auditor as you can point out mistakes all day and get paid for it.

Anyways weird things that happen today in sequence

• Someone accidentally gives a print command to print 2000 pages
• Promptly calls sys admin as he is not able to cancel the operation
• Sysadmin restarts the printer twice - no effect
• Sysadmin deleted task from printer server - no go
• everyone standing around looking confused - guffaws
• blogger forced to listen to ravings of colleague on the abundance of good looking women in office
• blogger idle for an hour and at the end of it four people demanding help for different things at the same time
• blogger forced to update document in ten minutes
• blogger finishes only to be told that a different document had to be updated
• blogger will take care of it on Monday [evil grin]
• today is dry day [no smiles now]
• It doesn't END , blogger walks into couple(?) holding hands and deeply engrossed in conversation. Yes in the office!!!
• A cardboard box full of burgers and ketchup lying unattended in the break area. Smells fishy or perkish????

So will it be Aag or heyy Baby this weekend?

Imagine if someday you are told that you don't really belong to this world. That you are part of some forgotten civilization. Most literature suggests that one would rise to the occasion. I guess that if one doesn't then they wouldn't be part of literature. After all literature is rarely about the cowards. No one wants to be spending time writing about them. Life as it may seem is guided by what is right and what is wrong. I wonder if i could ever write a book say from the perspective of someone like wormtail (Refer Harry Potter). May be in an alternate universe where black is white and white is black, it might happen. I sometimes wonder if the good qualities in this dimension is pure evil in another. or is good ,good in every dimension. I wonder if perspective can truly inter-change the definition of right and wrong. So far my perspective shifts have only let me to empathise with the other side. But i can not say that it truly interchanges right and wrong.
just a few moments ago i wished that there was something which could just record my thoughts and i could sift through them when i wasn't trying to sleep. I don't know how that would work since i write impulsively. I only pause to think when i edit, which is rare enough to be unmentionable. Back to the point i have a few ideas that might be worthy of patents. Though a thought recorder is way ahead of technology as i know it now.
when we are younger simple addition overwhelmed us, as we got older they became to simple. With this analogy Would humans be reduced to the level of simple organisms once we decode the human mind. From one perspective it seems like a computer of sorts driven by rules which will be decoded either by the humans themselves or by their creations in due course. May be some authors have got it right when they say we are a primitive species. This could be because there is so much we don't know. But mostly because there is so much we know which will make out lives better, but we have so far universally failed to adopt them.
We all need hope. Which is why I guess most of literature is about heroes. May be i just need tor read more tragedy's. I have not really read a book where the protagonist isn't doing something noble or the other even if it is at the very end.
Everything has a purpose. But why is there a purpose? Why is there an end and what is it? why is there evolution? Why isn't everything just a vacuum? Why does the universe exist and why does intelligence exist which gives rise to these questions?
I may never find the answered to these questions for I do not think that i will earnestly seek the answers. My experience tells me that it will require a massive change in perspective, which my current experience tells me is difficult because an experience of this kind is beyond reach just yet.
I sometimes wonder about those who survive horrible ordeals brought upon by their fellow humans. When innocent people just get caught in the cross fire. DO they feel lucky having lived thru it, achieve a certain peace or seek vengeance?
I know that forgiveness can truly help us move on. but is it possible to ask people to forgive when one has no where close to a fraction of that experience. How does one live with horrible memories? When i read/ hear about the sufferings of others my heart truly falters. How can the massive sufferings brought on by wars never stop us from going into them over and over again.
May be i will think of a peacock now. It is so colourful and shiny, it adds rich colour to any picture. A much calmer subject to ponder upon i think.

Our constitution gives us a few fundamental rights. One of them is the Freedom of expression.
There is a fundamental misconception about this. Please find below the proper usage.

Thou shall (e)print in minute detail the tantrums, secrets, kinky habits of the glamorous.

Thou shall discuss the above mentioned in minute details about thy fellow neighbour

Thou shall not pass fundamentally (in)correct statements about people in power. If thou does it, then the consequences may result in mild cases lock down, riot and/or death.
Thou shall never express their opinion on disproportionate wealth, scandals, corruption, fanaticism about their leaders or on sex education as they do not condone the "modesty drive" and are anti-social.

Thou shall only express themselves when their expressions will affect not effect the vote bank for worse.

It is that time of the year when rains begin to cease and the dull wintry days begin to set. But this isn't about the upcoming dull days or the crazy rains. Its about the sweltering heat. It rains for a brief stint and then the air is thick with moisture and a momentary pause in breeze will drain every liquid you consumed in the last seven years. I prefer humidity but what on earth is this? Why God why?

My office system administrator fractured a couple of his fingers on friday and he is walking around with a big plaster. it looks weird since only two of his fingers are in a cast and the rest of his hand is in a pristine white gauze. Anyways poor bloke couldn't for some reason type in his password right with his left hand. He finally heroically managed to type in his password right with his right index finger which just managed to peep out the cast. I think he isn't going to be showing the finger for awhile.

The caffeine kicks in and i look vaguely at my monitor....click click click.... another day when the systems have crashed, the Admins are ducking from projectiles aimed at them as the system stubbornly refuses to work (may be its from Kerala or WB:)).... Whatever..productivity officially stops now.....click click click...may be my system is going to hang itself by the network cable and commit suicide....click click click
in the loo there is a female, who at first glance I thought most guys would categorise as babe/hot(or whatever lingo deemed appropriate), is combing her hair. As I approach the basin to wash my hand a sudden stench engulfs me, my head reels and i resist my grimace. I wash my hand quickly and bolt out before i blurt out "For heaven's sake use some deodorant." or pass some comment on her broken comb.
back at my desk while my head recovers and my eyes re-adjust to my monitor...click click click...CRASH...fifty pair of eyes focus to the cubicle behind me, we see a couple of people stand up and look down at the cubicle, a few seconds later a rather sheepish gentleman arises and attempting at nonchalance rolls something into the corner. Aah the rickety chairs in office have finally started to give away we look at each other smile and hope our chairs don't do the same to us.....click click click

Another normal Saturday morning dawned in Mumbai. It was a morning like most others with the exception of the one tall unsuspecting man who woke up at a time he usually goes to bed.

The airlines go about their usual business of taking off early, landing late and leaving behind little red bags at the departing airport. A sleepy eyed girl steps of the plane. blessed Friday nights when sleep evades, especially when one has a morbid paranoia for missing early morning flights. YAWN. Aah the bag hasn't reached. Hope it does with the shampoo bottle

Man and girl meet up and head off for breakfast where another man and his dad have almost finished the entire buffet. They have eaten enough to feed an entire army for 15 months. Yawn it is still too early in the morning. they head off to a coffee house as caffeine was definitely the order of the morning.

They head back to the airport and wait patiently, the flights are late as usual. This particular airline is notorious for it. So the girl stands on her toes to spot whom they where there to pick up. And finally she spots her mother when she comes out and stands five feet in front of her.
So they pick up the girls parents and get dropped off at their abode for the rest of the weekend.

Scene shifts. Its dusk in Mumbai now. Man's house, he and his parents await patiently for the girl and her parents to come. They finally come. Thus they met with smiles, formal talk and then ganging up and embarrassing the man and girl.

Scene Shifts. Lunch with a medley crowd. Lovely place where everyone is seated around a long table in the middle of the restaurant. So without fuss a tikka is applied on the man by the girls parents followed by everyone around the table. Then the man's parent's apply a tikka on the girl.
thus they where marked for good (by the mafia?)

The jokes about applying tikka for a bali ka bakra begin to die down. Reality sinks, by such a simple deed the deal is closed by all partied involved.
Yes, and so I've been marked for my man and he for me.

stuck in the middle....



There are times when i wish i wasn't reasonable. That i could just be unreasonable and do exactly what i want, say what i want and not care about the after effects.

Sadly no matter how mad or how upset i am I can't bring myself to willfully hurt the other person. Its irritating to be stuck between feelings of inflicting pain and the compassion aching for the hurt i am about to inflict.



This constant tug of war..leaves me in a state of pained equilibrium.

I wish i wouldn't think so much, i wish i didn't feel so much.......i wish i was cynical enough to be both.

But sadly the vicious circle continues...... more patience u think? me thinks so.

And the Saga ends....

I've been waiting for almost two years for the last installment of Harry Potter. As the days to July 21st came closer the anticipation and longing grew exponentially. I pre-ordered my copy and the week before the release, pre-ordered it in another store which is closer to where i live so that worst come worse I could walk to the store in the morning.

As i lay awake on friday night a part of me was reluctant to see the light of the next day. Once i had the book it would all be over. One of the best things I've read would come to an end.

I woke up early and was outside the store before it could open. I stood out and waved my pre-ordered voucher to the people in the store, who informed me that they were going to start giving the books away in a little while. I got the first copy of the book though i had to muscle out a little kid who was trying to get the first copy. (yeah very childish of me, but i was there first!!)

I spent the whole day reading the book and studiously avoiding human company because of the kill joys who went around announcing the end of the book.

I finished reading the book at 3:00 am. And i felt like i was saying good bye to a dear friend. I know i will read those books again, but it will never be the same.

So long harry, thanks for all those pleasurable hours spent following your journey.

No not Amitabh..i can only wish ..or for junior. Then again may be not.

My dull office life is perked up at times by work and others by people who work there, like the times i walk into the ladies restrooms to find some one weeping. It always amuses me to guess the reasons behind their distress.
My nearest neighbour is a gal, whom i caught shedding a couple of tears on her desk once. She and i are separated by a short glass partition between our desks. We get along well as in i look at my monitor, she hers and we smile at each other in case our eyes meet accidentally or i can ask her for change in case i desperately need change to pay the rickshaw guy. Which is all i hope for when someone is in ur peripheral vision all day

This peaceful balance has been disturbed by this new chap who has been working on her system this week. This guy is perpetually angry and is on the phone most of the time and in the throes of some serious argument. He speaks softly so i can't really make out the context of the argument but i am guessing he is arguing with his current/ex/soon to be ex lady love. I can feel the anger radiate from him and it is distracting and disturbing to be picking up so many negative vibes. Today his neighbour jokingly commented that he should really finish his conversations at home. i think that if he is going to be angry and arguing he should be loud enough so that i will at least have something to gossip about.

I learnt in school that "There is many a slip between the cup and the lip".
I love my friends, we just have so much fun. We are living examples of these wise words.
Something happened this morning and i could'nt resist posting it.

My best friend was updating me on a recent sms conversation she had with a guy she has been mildly(?) flirting with. They were discussing cooking and her cooking skills.
She: " So i sent him a message saying,
Wherever you shall go i will follow
And whatever you give I will swallow "
Me: [Chuckling]
She: "Why are u laughing?"
Me: "You said it wrong"
[Pause]
[Enlightenment]
She: " Oh My God, Noooooooo, i hope that's not what i sent!!!!!!"

Distressed she was cuz she meant " wherever you go i will follow, and whatever i give you will swallow", from the book "Men are like waffles and women are like spaghetti"

Rewind over a year back.
I was chatting with a dear friend of mine

Me: So what plans for the weekend?
He: Got sports bra plans
He: Woopsie.... *bar
Me: hee hee, i would'nt want the details...lol

Flashes of brilliance often end up in sheer stupidity. A couple of things happened to me which made me smile, cringe and question the existence of human intelligence at the same time.

The most recent of which involved me opening my monthly bill for my mobile phone. The first thing that caught my attention was that they had referred to me as Mrs!!! that dreaded three letter word made me cringe and not the fact that the bill was overcharging me. The congenial environment at home has been approaching war like status over the past couple of years to changes my status from Ms to Mrs. It's been fun resisting for the most part but at times the constant tug of war becomes a nag. I was told by customer care that it is a long process to change my title back from Mrs to Miss. So when that someone had wrongly entered the data onto their computer, it made a mockery of my struggle. Sigh...this will be a good laugh or is it a sign for changing times?

Here is one of the funniest and weirdest lines that a guy has used on me. So it was pretty obvious that the guy was trying to impress me and one day when i was escorting my neighbor's 3 year old son back to his house, we run into this guy. After the usual polite greetings, the guy obviously at a loss of things to say asks," is this your son?". Ahem, "yeah right and i got 3 more in the house screaming for milk".me and my friends had a good laugh over it and rest assured the guy never tried to talk to me after that incident.

I love technology.
I love the numerous inventions that make our lives simpler(?) /richer.
I love the mobile phones which makes us accessible anywhere/ anytime even when we want to be left alone.
I love computers that have reduced tonnes and tonnes to dusty files piled on our work station to miles and miles of entangled cables.
I love digital cameras that lets us shoot 1000's of pictures, are small enough to be stuffed in the pockets of our tightest pair of jeans and leave us with links from friends with 1000's of pictures with no description.
I love emails which let us keep in touch with so many people we'd not have kept in touch with otherwise and the tonnes of spam that comes with it.
I love the automatic faucets which work when u place our hands under them....but today i don't like them very much....there was power outage today and the restrooms apparently receive the least priority from the power back-ups...there is one emergency lamp which gives a twilight feel to the entire rest room..and the faucets don't work...so me and this other girl stood in the twilight awaiting dawn.

YES!!! YES!!! we made it!! Took us a test run just to learn where to go and how to get things done but we did it.

I guess all the whining paid off when a couple of guys in my office decided that they'd come along with me n Rads to Rishikesh and Haridwar. Nine of us were supposed to go but in the end there just the four of us.

Nothin like
*being sleep deprived and drinking beer at 7:00 am
*Watching the guys with us flinch and look at us accusingly when asked for their emergency contacts and made to sign a disclaimatory documents ( I swear they wanted to back out at that time).
* happily wading into the ganges with life jackets on and trying to swim in the ice cold water
*Jumping off the raft and floating beside it downstream.
*being told by the guide that the water is 60 feet deep!!!
*Floating on your back down the river
*swimming downstream and guiding the raft by pulling the string tied on ur hand.
*going thru rapids which almost toss one off the boat
*Then being told by the guide that there was a huge whirlpool there last week!!
*Paddling and listening to all the stories of the guide, brad Pitt had used his company when he came to india.
*Eating hot poori's, sabji and halwa at haridwar
*Watching the evening Aarthi there
*Being forced to listen to hindi songs which play only on road side tea shops.
* Getting so exhausted when we were back, that Rads missed her train cuz we overslept and the alarm was too tired to ring.
* Happily declaring that I've taken enough dips in the ganges for me n seven generations of my family.

SO check...everything was achieved in this trip. The rafting, the food, the fun!!

Love that lasts for ever, First love they say is the sweetest. Last night my heart was conquered again by my first love at Karim's.

Karim's is a restaurant open since 1913(?) and the forefathers of the family that owns the place used to be chef's in the Mughal Emperor's kitchen. Apparently butter chicken was invented here and the place has been mentioned in NGC.
We parked at CP and took a metro to chawdi bazaar. The station is the deepest that the Delhi metro has gone. Easy to believe since we had to go 4 floors up to reach the road. The stark contrast between the modern air conditioned metro station and the Old Delhi is the first thing that hit us. We took a rickety cycle rickshaw to Karim's. The ride took us along the boundaries of the Jamma Masjid. It is lovely to look at in the night. The places is pretty crowded even at 9:30 with traffic consisting of pedestrians and cycle rickshaws. The ambience makes you feel like you are in a different dimension.
We walked through a narrow alley to enter the world of Karim's.
Its not a formal dining place so you might end up sharing your table with a couple of other people. The waiter who served is the ultimate consultant. He decided how much, what we need to eat and in what sequence!!!! We deifinitely need to learn consulting skills from the guy and had a good time teasing the MBA's on taking pointers from him.

All the aroma's had triggered a massive appetite. But the waiter insisted on serving Raan first which has a 20 min wait and refused to serve us anything else. It was totally worth it. This was followed by sheek Kabab's where so soft and the chicken tandoori, just awesome. We had no space for the roti and shajahani chicken after that.

The Raan

One of the guys in our group managed to eat most of the Raan and only the bones was left when he was done. We bet that a goat is growing in his belly now.
To finish up our cullinary experience we had kheer. Which can not be missed, no matter how stuffed you are one has to absolutely eat this. It is thick kheer with broken rice which are chilled in small clay vessels, never tasted anything like it!!!

The Kheer


Karim's is a must place for all non-veg food lovers. There are a couple of options for the poor vegetarians who get mixed up with "masahaari's" too.
If you are there and confused about what to eat..just use the WC Inc (Waiter's Consulting Inc)
So yeah I love food.

Hari ki pauri at 7:00 am

So my dearest friend R and I decided to get out of the city for the weekend. As with all travel reservations made 2 days in advance during the peak summer vacations all trains leading to the hills were booked. Now you have to understand that once we’ve been bitten by the bug to get out of the city we absolutely have to as the need consumes us, at this time we are solemnly reminded that we have officially lost it. None the less in an act of desperation we decide to tug along with Rs parents to haridwar, they for religious reasons and we for everything but. R had a very unpleasant experience getting from her city to delhi, considering the train was late by a quarter of a day, but not lacking enthusiasm as by then we had found a group going white water rafting and we were to join them on sunday.
Getting up early on saturday is my least favourite thing to do hence i skip going to my aunts place in the morning and decide to meet R and her family on the way and also not answering about 3 early morning calls ( Please note there is no point in calling me before 12 pm on saturdays). I happily waited at the bus stop for 1.5 hours for R to pick me up. My wait becomes impatient only when my ipod is not working. But due to some fore sight(the source of which still eludes me) i had a full battery, which gave me the luxury to reflect on some of iron’s maidens biggest songs, resist the temptation to drink jal jeera made from gutter water, consume half a bar of chocolate, observe weird people all while sitting at the bus stop on a busy road at 1:00 pm in mid delhi summer.
They finally pick me up and R has promised to buy me ice cream for making me wait so long. I wonder if i will get them along with the 100 bucks she lost in a bet to me, sigh in an alternative universe i guess.
Anyways roads in this part of the country suck. Took us 7 hours to travel 200 km on a straight flat road!! We had the pleasure of waiting at a railway crossing for 20 mins and look at sugar cane juices served in clay vessels.
We reach Haridwar to find that the room we had booked had been given away to someone else. A short quest and some flaring tempers preceded finding a hotel room for us. We had dinner at a lil dhaba. Where food is served in 5 minutes, its piping hot, tasty and cheap. The roti’s are hot off the oven and side dishes cooked in minutes.
In the morning we headed out to Hari Ki Pauri for the religious part of the journey. Everyone wanted a dip in the Ganga. I tugged along to soak in the culture. We walked all the way to Ghaat enjoying the scenery that can only exist in a Holy City. I spent a lot of the time regretting not carrying a wallet which denied me the pleasure of sampling all the tempting breakfast that was being served by the numerous halwai’s. R took a dip in the Ganga while I held onto all the family processions of camera’s wallets bags, etc and taking pictures. R was firmly told after the dip that she sould’nt shower until sunset since she had taken a holy dipped. I was dismayed since she absolutely stank due to the river being not so clean. (I mean it is one of very polluted rivers in the world)
we finally made it back to the hotel and got ready to leave, I had the luxury of having a cleaner ganga dip albeit under the shower. After being made to eat water melon and having our bags stuffed with granola bars we were finally ready to goto rishikesh to go white water rafting. I had been unable to contact the group.
The people at the bus stop are not very bright out there, we were sent from one end of the bustop to the other a few times to board a bus and we finally took an auto to Rishikesh. We reached there just about noon and well there were no slots for us to go rafting. I personally believe its all a conspiracy!! Sadly we booked a bus back to delhi and headed out to laxman jhula. might as well go site seeing. The way to laxman jhula is very interesting. It goes down winding path and takes a good 20 minutes to get there from the road.
There are two bridges in rishikesh over the ganges, Ram and Laxman jhula’s respectively. On our side of the laxman jhula there was a German Bakery and Cafe. So we had au gratin, pesto, lemon cake and apple pie for lunch. All food is strictly vegetarian since its bang opposite the temple. But heck by now we were happy we missed rafting else we would’ve never found this place. It takes talent to find a european restraunt in a strictly holy town. We were close to missing our bus back so we had to run across laxman jhula ttake a jeep to ram jhula and cross over it before getting in another auto to our bus stop. Please note climbing a 1000 stairs from ram jhula to get to the road in the blazing afternoon sun is not my idea of burning the fat acquired during lunch.
Journey back was uneventful but R had to rush to the station to get a train back from delhi and she’ll inform u of it when she gets herself to blog about it.
The "FIND"

Highlights of the trip
*Buying watermelon from a roadside vendor
*eating at the dhaba in haridwar . I will goto haridwar again because i absolutely love the food there.
*the early morning food at the sweet shops
* telling R she stinks
* the site of people coming down the river after their rafting experience
*the german bakery
Religious or not…haridwar is great to goto just for the food.
Bottom line: R&D are adventurous but foodie’s first!

~R u owe me another 100 bucks for putting this post up first

I have been to several Indian weddings these include weddings from different regions and different religions. One common thread in all these weddings is their absolute capability to put a major dent in your savings/future savings. I never understood what the fuss was about, why do we feel the need to invite 300 - 1000 people to show -up congratulate us, smile, eat and walk away. Nor do i understand the zillions of mini rituals that go on before and after the weddings.
The weddings in the summer are the worst last time i went armed with antacids and ORS, and believe me when i tell you everyone came asking for it. I have been to weddings of my cousins, uncles and aunts. Figured it is better when you belong to the grooms party, but i was dead wrong..there is still so much work and so much food and a zillion lil festivities.
Of course another most irritating part about weddings is the million matchmakers “when are u getting married?”,” you will be getting married next”, ” let me find u a nice groom” etcc etc phew man most of the time i just want to say “Go away”, “mind your own business”!!! and some other choice words.
My question is why can’t things be simple!! i get tonnes of responses ranging from it’s tradition to its a once in a life time event, it’ fun ( i don’t consider dolled up in heavy silk sarees in 40 degreee celcius weather, and changing clothes several times a day as FUN) etc. I will have to resign myself to put up with the whims and fancies of everyone so wholly connected or unconnected to me and strangle my consience on the strain i am placing on the planet when i do finally get married.
WEll anyways i am in the midst of another wedding and it is hot…so yeah i am ranting because i had to re-pack some gifts since they wer’nt pretty enough the first time!!!