...we would like to remind you of the date today :-)
Happy April Fool's Day...
Jatin and Ram
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Blogging by the sea...
This one comes in after a rather long gap from my last blog, which was at the end of last year. There are two possible ways of explaining this hiatus and I know that many of you must have been waiting more impatiently for this blog post than I have been waiting for the next book of the Shiva Trilogy (Its brilliant and honestly, I think it’s the next best read after my blog…no, I am dead serious…it’s that good! Well done Amish Tripathi). The first way to explain this break is a possible ‘blogger’s block’ that many other esteemed bloggers of our times and past have gone through many a times in their lifetime. But, I’ll go with the second one since it’s a bit more pseud that (even :-)) the first one! And that is that I’ve been too busy!!!
Yus Yus Yus! Ladies and Gentlemen, you are guessing it absolutely right…I no longer work in Accenture :-). I joined a young strategy consulting firm called Auctus Advisors earlier this year and have been working quite a bit over the last few months. There you go! I’ve laid it out in a plain and no frills way that I’ve been busy… not on facebook, not through concocted status updates of how you’ve calls and meetings all day and all night and how you’ve been travelling the world for work and how “Oh! I don’t have a personal life now”…just the way a proud and honest pseud would!
So yeah! These days I am working on a project down here in Maldives and would be here for a few months to come. Beautiful country, this one and an interesting place to work. For instance, I stay on one island and work on another…take a ferry (known here as a ‘Dhoni’) from across the road from my hotel and am at work in 8-9 mins sharp…quite a change that one from staying in Ghaziabad and crossing state borders to get to anywhere of any significance for work.
The other part that I like about this place is of course the sea! (I know it’s the Indian Ocean but bhavanaon pe focus rakho yaar!) I love the sea!(arrey baba! I know it’s the Indian Ocean but bhavanaon pe focus rakho yaar bhaavanaon pe!). I love the fact that I wake up to the sea and can just walk and sit by it anytime I want. It’s been called many things many times by many people… majestic, furious, vast, intense, calm…and much much fancier things by much fancier writers and poets whom I haven’t cared much to read but what strikes me the most about the sea is that its very obedient. Yes, you read that right…I think its obedient(now that was a very cliché’d way of expressing that or what ;-))…and that’s what strikes me the most about it. Wave after wave after wave after wave reaches the shore with almost uniform regularity, each one travelling thousands of miles after its been pushed back after hitting some other shore at some other place and it just travels again all the way to be pushed back from another shore at another place. It just goes on doing its job forever without ever questioning the purpose of its existence…we do! (No sir! I do not remember my geography lessons from 8th grade and I don’t plan to revisit them. I am happy being a ‘beach chair philosopher’ without questioning the purpose :-)).
Lastly, (and I know that word came as a welcome relief to many (most) of you who’re generally forced to read my blog :-)) being an Islamic nation, I am towards the end of a 5 day break for Eid and since I couldn’t fly back to India for some reason, I decided to come out to a resort close to Male’. To stay true to the pseudo theme that’s supposed to be running throughout this post, 5 star property hai :-)and to stay true to the honest pseudo theme, I was offered pretty cheap rates since I am an expat in Maldives :-)But damn these terrible Hindi movies…especially Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara! I loved the movie when I watched it each of the three times that I did. But because of that stupid director Zoya Akhtar, I couldn’t do scuba diving. But what she didn’t tell about diving in that movie is that they don’t let you dive if you don’t know how to swim. If Hrithik was afraid of entering water, he clearly wouldn’t have been a swimmer and wouldn’t have been allowed to dive. So that entire part of love shove wala connection happening with Katreena Kaif during the dive wouldn’t have happened. Anyways, if she would’ve made it clear in the movie that non-swimmers aren’t allowed to dive, I might not have come out to this place and would have rather saved some money…KLPD!
No, but it’s been a great few days here in this beautiful property all by myself by the sea most of the time either chilling or reading or working (yeh sarasar sach hai my lord!) and I’m pretty happy that I came over.
At that note, this is Jatin Gulati signing off for this post from a “aah! So lazy and comfortable beach chair” in a “damn! Such a luxurious resort” on a “Oh! So such a beautiful white sand” beach next to the “very obedient” Indian Ocean!
Peace! (Inspired by Vishnu Karthik!)
-j
Yus Yus Yus! Ladies and Gentlemen, you are guessing it absolutely right…I no longer work in Accenture :-). I joined a young strategy consulting firm called Auctus Advisors earlier this year and have been working quite a bit over the last few months. There you go! I’ve laid it out in a plain and no frills way that I’ve been busy… not on facebook, not through concocted status updates of how you’ve calls and meetings all day and all night and how you’ve been travelling the world for work and how “Oh! I don’t have a personal life now”…just the way a proud and honest pseud would!
So yeah! These days I am working on a project down here in Maldives and would be here for a few months to come. Beautiful country, this one and an interesting place to work. For instance, I stay on one island and work on another…take a ferry (known here as a ‘Dhoni’) from across the road from my hotel and am at work in 8-9 mins sharp…quite a change that one from staying in Ghaziabad and crossing state borders to get to anywhere of any significance for work.
The other part that I like about this place is of course the sea! (I know it’s the Indian Ocean but bhavanaon pe focus rakho yaar!) I love the sea!(arrey baba! I know it’s the Indian Ocean but bhavanaon pe focus rakho yaar bhaavanaon pe!). I love the fact that I wake up to the sea and can just walk and sit by it anytime I want. It’s been called many things many times by many people… majestic, furious, vast, intense, calm…and much much fancier things by much fancier writers and poets whom I haven’t cared much to read but what strikes me the most about the sea is that its very obedient. Yes, you read that right…I think its obedient(now that was a very cliché’d way of expressing that or what ;-))…and that’s what strikes me the most about it. Wave after wave after wave after wave reaches the shore with almost uniform regularity, each one travelling thousands of miles after its been pushed back after hitting some other shore at some other place and it just travels again all the way to be pushed back from another shore at another place. It just goes on doing its job forever without ever questioning the purpose of its existence…we do! (No sir! I do not remember my geography lessons from 8th grade and I don’t plan to revisit them. I am happy being a ‘beach chair philosopher’ without questioning the purpose :-)).
Lastly, (and I know that word came as a welcome relief to many (most) of you who’re generally forced to read my blog :-)) being an Islamic nation, I am towards the end of a 5 day break for Eid and since I couldn’t fly back to India for some reason, I decided to come out to a resort close to Male’. To stay true to the pseudo theme that’s supposed to be running throughout this post, 5 star property hai :-)and to stay true to the honest pseudo theme, I was offered pretty cheap rates since I am an expat in Maldives :-)But damn these terrible Hindi movies…especially Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara! I loved the movie when I watched it each of the three times that I did. But because of that stupid director Zoya Akhtar, I couldn’t do scuba diving. But what she didn’t tell about diving in that movie is that they don’t let you dive if you don’t know how to swim. If Hrithik was afraid of entering water, he clearly wouldn’t have been a swimmer and wouldn’t have been allowed to dive. So that entire part of love shove wala connection happening with Katreena Kaif during the dive wouldn’t have happened. Anyways, if she would’ve made it clear in the movie that non-swimmers aren’t allowed to dive, I might not have come out to this place and would have rather saved some money…KLPD!
No, but it’s been a great few days here in this beautiful property all by myself by the sea most of the time either chilling or reading or working (yeh sarasar sach hai my lord!) and I’m pretty happy that I came over.
At that note, this is Jatin Gulati signing off for this post from a “aah! So lazy and comfortable beach chair” in a “damn! Such a luxurious resort” on a “Oh! So such a beautiful white sand” beach next to the “very obedient” Indian Ocean!
Peace! (Inspired by Vishnu Karthik!)
-j
Monday, November 29, 2010
Bal Wale Paranthe
God is a concept that I could never believe in till yesterday...
...and I am still uncomfortable in acknowledging that I accept it or have suddenly turned into a believer...I don't think I have but I certainly have been forced to think about it...when biji took the heavenly abode yesterday.
I have always been uncomfortable with the concept of God because I always believed in the human strength and human will. I always believed that God was like an escape route, like cigarettes, alcohol, drugs or people...temporary addictions to help you escape from reality. I believed it was an imaginary being that we were more comfortable trusting our locus of control with, not keeping it internal for the fear of failing and not keeping it external for the fear of being failed, such that it was always comfortable for us to have this imaginary control center. I believed that it was still always you who was doing what you had to do, while crediting or discrediting God for the results.
However, it was really the credit that was given to him that used to make me uncomfortable and made me almost resent him, at times even a bit jealous maybe. It was the surrender of the absolute power in him that made me even more of a disbeliever, when "God's Will" seemed to be the most escapist expression ever to me. I believed I was an aethist for this reason but being a bit non-confrontational, I was more comfortable declaring myself to be agnostic.
My biji died yesterday, the same day as when papa passed away 5 years ago. This, I am certain is not co-incidence. She was bed ridden for a long time and was just hanging on. I saw her a couple of weeks ago before coming back to London and she wasn't able to move much. She couldn't talk much and couldn't recognize me at times.
But she got some strength somehow from somewhere, at times when she recognized me, to lift her hand to hold my hand and bring it to her lips to kiss them, or to pat on my head when I would go to her room to see her. And she got some strength from somewhere to carry on in this world till it was time for her to join her son on his birthday of another world, on their birthday together in heaven. Not a co-incidence and I am more convinced than ever about where she found the strength to carry on.
"Biji, aapke jaise bal waale paranthe koi nahin bana sakta". I know listening to this always made you happy and I hope it does this time too.
Love,
Jatin
...and I am still uncomfortable in acknowledging that I accept it or have suddenly turned into a believer...I don't think I have but I certainly have been forced to think about it...when biji took the heavenly abode yesterday.
I have always been uncomfortable with the concept of God because I always believed in the human strength and human will. I always believed that God was like an escape route, like cigarettes, alcohol, drugs or people...temporary addictions to help you escape from reality. I believed it was an imaginary being that we were more comfortable trusting our locus of control with, not keeping it internal for the fear of failing and not keeping it external for the fear of being failed, such that it was always comfortable for us to have this imaginary control center. I believed that it was still always you who was doing what you had to do, while crediting or discrediting God for the results.
However, it was really the credit that was given to him that used to make me uncomfortable and made me almost resent him, at times even a bit jealous maybe. It was the surrender of the absolute power in him that made me even more of a disbeliever, when "God's Will" seemed to be the most escapist expression ever to me. I believed I was an aethist for this reason but being a bit non-confrontational, I was more comfortable declaring myself to be agnostic.
My biji died yesterday, the same day as when papa passed away 5 years ago. This, I am certain is not co-incidence. She was bed ridden for a long time and was just hanging on. I saw her a couple of weeks ago before coming back to London and she wasn't able to move much. She couldn't talk much and couldn't recognize me at times.
But she got some strength somehow from somewhere, at times when she recognized me, to lift her hand to hold my hand and bring it to her lips to kiss them, or to pat on my head when I would go to her room to see her. And she got some strength from somewhere to carry on in this world till it was time for her to join her son on his birthday of another world, on their birthday together in heaven. Not a co-incidence and I am more convinced than ever about where she found the strength to carry on.
"Biji, aapke jaise bal waale paranthe koi nahin bana sakta". I know listening to this always made you happy and I hope it does this time too.
Love,
Jatin
Thursday, June 10, 2010
The Oracle
This is yours truly's claim at being one. Just posting a random chat with a dear friend of mine, where I made a strong case for it. Bullshitting apart, I think the chat is funny enough to make its way here. I hope you would enjoy reading this one:
12:23 PM rahul*: wats up mite
12:27 PM mite tell mite wat is up
1:26 PM me: sorry mite been busy all morning and then was off for lunch sorry to keep you waiting for a reply i hope thats ok mite is it ok mite?
1:27 PM u there mite?
respond mite
1:28 PM
rahul: hmmmm ok no problem
1:38 PM rahul: Suna de kuch Navee taazi
me: kuch khaas hai nahin mere paas sunane ke liye
do you have any specific questions that you want to ask?
1:43 PM rahul: Nopes
1:44 PM me: too bad veere
1:45 PM rahul: I am bored
Hv wrk
But nt the will to do it
Suggest sthg$
1:46 PM me: work...
rahul: Will Nahin hai
Kya karoon
me: mummy ko bol chai bana dein
1:47 PM rahul: Done
Drank
me: this problem is getting more and more complex as we explore it more
damn...
rahul: I like tht
Carry on
rahul: Give ur perspective
me: so my perspective on the issue of lack or absence of will is that you need to see the bigger picture
and the bigger picture really is that the amount of money in your bank account when you die is a multiple of the amount of extra work that you did in your life that you shouldn't have
the objective should be that you should have none when you die...
there are two ways of achieving this...
1) do only as much as you need to keep the job
1:51 PM rahul: This shit is interesting
Carry on
1:52 PM me: 2) estimate the extra amount of money that you could have in your bank when you die...calculate the monthly installments of this future value...and start transferring this monthly amount to your friend's accounts starting now
you always have a choice of choosing between the two if we assume rationality on your behalf, which we could we would of course choose option 1 for you
1:53 PM given that...the question that we are really trying to answer here is not if you have the will to finish the work or not...
but if you really need to do the work at hand or not...
to keep your job
rahul: Wow
I don't!!!!
me: then you have your answer
rahul: I can easily laze arnd this evening n still be fine
Yohoooo!!!
I love u gullu
me: there is a caveat realted to this though
rahul: Suddenyl
me: ha ha ha
before you start lazing around...
just give a thought to what is absolute latest by which you need to finish this work before you hit the point where you would lose your job for not finishing it this would help you estimate the minimum and maximum amount of time that you could laze around without worrying about anything else
1:56 PM the reason this question is critical is to make sure you are able to maximize the utility that you get from lazing around
let me know if you would need my help for solving that problem
rahul: Wow
me: ha ha this conversation can go on my blog
rahul: I can easily not do anything the entire evening today
me: whatsay?
rahul: Even tom morning
Btw
This is a pretty cool absurd conversation
1:58 PM I am overwhelmed with the quality Of ur bullshitting And I am also feeling energized To laze arnd
Oxymoron?
Energized to laze arnd?
me: ha ha ha ha
certainly...
and one of the best ones I have heard in a long
2:08 PM me: so do you think i should put this on my blog?
i think i should
rahul: Yes
me: good
will do
2:11 PM rahul: Gud stuff
The reassurance helped me
I'll enjoy my eve without any guilt now
me: you know where to come to ask any questions about life or anything about it that are bothering you
I am the oracle ....
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx
Ha ha ha....bulshitting that I am proud of....hope you enjoyed it...
-j
* Rahul, more popularly known as Rathi, is a dear friend of mine for I don't remember how many years now. For those of you know him, you would agree that there is no worse di*@head than him. For those who don't, I have put a link at the end to his facebook profile if you still want to get to know him. He is looking to get married soon too. In case you know a nice, homely and not so well educated Marwari Maheshwari girl, then please let me know and I shall take forward the rishta with his mom....ladhki raj karegi...
http://www.facebook.com/?sk=media#!/profile.php?id=628486711&ref=ts
12:23 PM rahul*: wats up mite
12:27 PM mite tell mite wat is up
1:26 PM me: sorry mite been busy all morning and then was off for lunch sorry to keep you waiting for a reply i hope thats ok mite is it ok mite?
1:27 PM u there mite?
respond mite
1:28 PM
rahul: hmmmm ok no problem
1:38 PM rahul: Suna de kuch Navee taazi
me: kuch khaas hai nahin mere paas sunane ke liye
do you have any specific questions that you want to ask?
1:43 PM rahul: Nopes
1:44 PM me: too bad veere
1:45 PM rahul: I am bored
Hv wrk
But nt the will to do it
Suggest sthg$
1:46 PM me: work...
rahul: Will Nahin hai
Kya karoon
me: mummy ko bol chai bana dein
1:47 PM rahul: Done
Drank
me: this problem is getting more and more complex as we explore it more
damn...
rahul: I like tht
Carry on
rahul: Give ur perspective
me: so my perspective on the issue of lack or absence of will is that you need to see the bigger picture
and the bigger picture really is that the amount of money in your bank account when you die is a multiple of the amount of extra work that you did in your life that you shouldn't have
the objective should be that you should have none when you die...
there are two ways of achieving this...
1) do only as much as you need to keep the job
1:51 PM rahul: This shit is interesting
Carry on
1:52 PM me: 2) estimate the extra amount of money that you could have in your bank when you die...calculate the monthly installments of this future value...and start transferring this monthly amount to your friend's accounts starting now
you always have a choice of choosing between the two if we assume rationality on your behalf, which we could we would of course choose option 1 for you
1:53 PM given that...the question that we are really trying to answer here is not if you have the will to finish the work or not...
but if you really need to do the work at hand or not...
to keep your job
rahul: Wow
I don't!!!!
me: then you have your answer
rahul: I can easily laze arnd this evening n still be fine
Yohoooo!!!
I love u gullu
me: there is a caveat realted to this though
rahul: Suddenyl
me: ha ha ha
before you start lazing around...
just give a thought to what is absolute latest by which you need to finish this work before you hit the point where you would lose your job for not finishing it this would help you estimate the minimum and maximum amount of time that you could laze around without worrying about anything else
1:56 PM the reason this question is critical is to make sure you are able to maximize the utility that you get from lazing around
let me know if you would need my help for solving that problem
rahul: Wow
me: ha ha this conversation can go on my blog
rahul: I can easily not do anything the entire evening today
me: whatsay?
rahul: Even tom morning
Btw
This is a pretty cool absurd conversation
1:58 PM I am overwhelmed with the quality Of ur bullshitting And I am also feeling energized To laze arnd
Oxymoron?
Energized to laze arnd?
me: ha ha ha ha
certainly...
and one of the best ones I have heard in a long
2:08 PM me: so do you think i should put this on my blog?
i think i should
rahul: Yes
me: good
will do
2:11 PM rahul: Gud stuff
The reassurance helped me
I'll enjoy my eve without any guilt now
me: you know where to come to ask any questions about life or anything about it that are bothering you
I am the oracle ....
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx
Ha ha ha....bulshitting that I am proud of....hope you enjoyed it...
-j
* Rahul, more popularly known as Rathi, is a dear friend of mine for I don't remember how many years now. For those of you know him, you would agree that there is no worse di*@head than him. For those who don't, I have put a link at the end to his facebook profile if you still want to get to know him. He is looking to get married soon too. In case you know a nice, homely and not so well educated Marwari Maheshwari girl, then please let me know and I shall take forward the rishta with his mom....ladhki raj karegi...
http://www.facebook.com/?sk=media#!/profile.php?id=628486711&ref=ts
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Invictus
Its been just a little while since my last post and I am back at it again. This is a bit unusual for me of late as I generally write only when I feel like. Lazy and unimaginative as I am, the 'feel like' feeling has to make a lot of effort to overpower me and force me to write. Actually, that's bullshit - I write almost every month here and most of it is gibberish, just that the first three sentences seemed to be flowing well.
Anyhow, I am writing this one hoping for two things. That:
1) this would be short
2) this would be sensible
...and I have a strong feeling that I might fail miserably on both counts.
I was just reading 'Invictus' by William Ernest Henley. For those of you who haven't read it as yet, here it is:
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
I am quite sure that given the kind of intellectually supercharged audience that my blog attracts, all of you who are reading this post, would have already read this poem and thought through it. I have read the whole poem quite a few times in my life and a significant proportion of the total number of times happened just before I started writing this post.
I really believe that this poem is outrageously amazing, despite the fact that I am obviously quite unintelligent and shallow to understand it any deeper than what it sounds. I wouldn't talk about the poem itself and what it means to me or according to me. But here is a serious suggestion - read it out aloud...really really loud...as if you are reciting it to impress for your life...as if you are acting it out on stage to please for your life...you know what I mean.
I just feel that this poem is so strong that while you read it out aloud, it makes you real. It shouts back at you aloud, telling you what you really want and how bad you want it. I don't know and can't be sure if it would work for you, it certainly didn't work for me the way I described it. Not because what I said above is bullshit but because I was so obsessed by the possibility of writing about it, that I missed the moment :-)
PS: The last two lines of this poem are certainly the strongest set of words that I have ever read or heard in my life. If you disagree or have any other suggestions, do leave a comment.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
The Remote
What do you write when you have nothing to write about?
That's probably the question I may end up answering by the end of this post. Got nothing to do on a pretty enventless wednesday evening, during a break from work that I didn't need with an empty feeling that I don't like. With all these questions ringing in my head that I hate to think about. Why can't life have a fast forward button that we can just press and get the answers to these annoying little big questions.
Just on that thought, it would certainly be very cool to have something like that - a button that you could press to fast forward to the next significant moment in life. Like meeting a new person that is going to play a significant part in your life, or getting that job that you're going to love doing for the rest of your life (if at all something like that exists), or buying that dream home, or watching that movie that had a kickass impact on you (atleast for the next few weeks), or anything even remotely significant like that.
Imagine how cool will that be - we all come in to this world, spend the first 10 years in slow motion, dreading and hating everyday at school, actually doing all the homework ourselves in the evening!!! Then when you turn 10 or any such cut-off age limit (I am assuming that there would be laws about what is the legal age at which children are given their fast forward remote), in a much celebrated ceremony where all your friends and family are present - YOU ARE HANDED OVER THE FAST FORWARD REMOTE!!!!
You're so excited about the remote that you fast forward the rest of the night and jump straight to the zero hour at school where you flaunt it to all your friends who are younger than you - of course the older ones already have theirs and they have chosen to fast forward through the zero hour! Then you go into your first lecture, find it boring, fast forward to the nextat the start of that one, you go straight to the recess. Of course there is a learning curve here as well. You make frequent stops at first, at most things that seem important to you at first - you are curious to see how that chick that you have a crush on is going to look like tomorrow and if she is going to give you a smile at all, then probably to the moment where you embarass yourself by going upto her when she was around her friends - you would for sure fast forward a lot after you come back totally humiliated.
Its a bit fascinating to think back and map the kind of things in your life that you would stop to see and witness, at every stage of your life - the kind of things that take priority at such stages. I started the post with a small sample of things that I would be looking forward to at this moment. That list is of course not exhaustive but indicative. I also spoke of a few things that came to my mind when I thought of the highlights of one's school times. Even that list is indicative btw and not necessarily of my time at school...I do posess a very fertile imagination :-)
A few interesting issues that come to my mind, if such a gadget were to exist. A few random ones that I am jotting down here...
1) Would things be as exciting if this remote had a rewind button as well? I guess not, else some people would forever be young and would keep doing the same thing to the same people ever and ever again...you know the obsessive kinds :-) Imagine fast forwarding your entire life quickly to see if you are ever going to sleep with Scarlett Johansson right after watch 'Vicky Christina Barcelona' (though I wonder who would stop to watch it), and on realising that you won't, you can't go back back and be with any of the other women that you were with!!!!
2) The lack of a rewind button would also mean that you might never know what you've missed out on! You might get to a random day where you are feeling great or feeling absolutely terrible and you also know why - just that you weren't there to witness it. Now that could be really disappointing, really depressing or even ver very relieving, depending on what you've missed! I could go on to low level design and functional issues of the gadget at this point but would totally avoid that since I am just talking about a totally random concept that you're probably sick of and I am not :-)
3) No one would have that many friends on facebook! Everyone would know and be in touch with only the few truly important people in their lives, and at only the few events that are important to both of them.
4) What this might also mean is that there would be much less noise in each of our lives due to random characters that we can easily...well...fast forward! Much less stress and much less confusion. Though, this one assumes rationality and an upward sloping learning curve on part of human beings - an assumption that most significant economic theories stand on and the one that proves to be their most significant limitation :-)
5) You would end up spending a lot more time with your parents. If not yours, most of their significant stops would be around you - when you fell seriously , got your first report card, got expelled from school for the first time, when they found out about each of your vices :-) ...they would certainly stop at many more of those embarassing moments that you would rather fast forward!!!!
I can probably go on with these random implications (actually I can't...had to think hard to come with these ones except for the Scarlet Johansson example :-) ) but it would be interesting to build on this list through the comments section of this post...so go on and write a comment at least now guys!!!!
PS: Its a bit fortunate that we dont have such a gadget as yet, since I would have never stopped to write this post then :-)
-j
Monday, April 5, 2010
A day in the life of a...
...well, maybe you could fill in the blanks at the end of that title via your comments to this post after reading it. I know I might be serving myself on a platter to most of you here but I don't mind...I don't mind and I remain an optimist at heart.
This one is again about the day that I have had. I remember the last time I travelled to London in January, I had had a day eventful enough to deserve a full post and its interesting that this time as well this day has forced me to write.
Unlike the last time, this time my mom cried when I left for the airport. I am still amazed that she didn't cry the last time around...ha ha ha...I am such a mean ass!!! So, I was well on my way to airport and I was already late - you can imagine how late I had been from the fact that a friend of mine pinged me on gtalk to ask if I had reached the airport when I was online from home, checking e-mails just before stepping in for a shower. Managed to reach the airport just about 50 minutes before the departure which was too late even after I had done a web check-in. As I entered the airport, I had a strategy in mind - a simple one at that - to unleash yours truly's charm on the lady behind the counter!!!! And it did pay off well...as a matter of fact, as per the latest valuations it was worth Rs. 21,000 for 10 minutes as you'll find out through the rest of this blog :-)
Essentially, I was very late for the flight and reached just in time before the flight was about to be closed. I was already in implementation mode and had started a conversation with the woman at the counter (Her name was Leena as I was about to find out) when she told me that I had excess baggage of about 15 kgs. I'll spare you guys the details but net net, I didn't have to pay a penny for it :-)
Actually, let me mention some more details here just so that this one follows the tradition of my excruciatingly long posts...ha ha...kidding...i'll try to keep this one short...errrrrrr...I had convinced Leena to waive off 5 kgs to start with as that was the maximum that she could have. I had to agree to pay for the rest 10kgs and that was about Rs. 14K. If you know me as well as my brother, you can imagine that the first person that I thought of when I was told I had to pay an extra 14K was him...his face just flashed across my eyes and I could already hear him abusing me for being how I am! But thankfully American Express came to my rescue here as my card was declined when they took it for charging the money...I couldn't have loved them more for failing me at this moment. I couldn't have loved the 3 ATMs in the terminal as well for failing me at this instance as all three either didn't read my debit card or were out of service...what luck!!! On learning about the situation, Leena's boss asked her to off-load me off the flight but again I somehow managed to get through this situation and was rushed to the plane.
Here I was, boarding the plane and on call with my Parjayiji (my bro's wife - Shubhra) assuring her that I would take care of myself this time around and would not run on the roads or anywhere near them for sure, while walking towards my seat - 39G - that I had chosen while checking-in on the web. On the call, I was telling her (actually just bragging about my exploits) how I had saved the family 21K today and was wondering at the same time that while it was nice to have checked-in but the major disadvantage was that it eliminates any possibility of being upgraded to business....yessssssss....you caught the drift!!!! When I reached what was supposed to be my seat and looked at my boarding pass - I saw that my seat was 12G - in the business class.....hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha....this is what went on in my mind - verbatim - hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!
Now like the last post about my travel experience, there is a cab driver story to this one as well. This time my cab driver was a Pakistani who had settled here for some 3 decades and claimed to be a boxer and a boxing coach. I saw the posters of his gym and he had some interesting stories to tell and interesting topics to talk about. He spoke of Islam and what he was doing to make people aware of the fact that Mullahs do not represent the religion, told me about his fights and the boxers he is now training. Interestingly, his prodigy is an Indian student who is hoping to turn professional soon and that he was training this one for free! The most amusing part about the conversation though was when he asked for free advice from me about his boxing club and gym business on learning that I was a management consultant - I was stumped for a while! Of course, I did manage to bull shit my way out of it and that re-inforced my belief that I have the basics of becoming a successful consultant :-) Though the bad part is that I advised him for free without any excuse for passing it off as a business development exercise!
A day that was funny at times, exciting, interesting or relaxing at others, came to a beautiful end when I decided to step out for food. I realised that my hotel was very close to the tower bridge and decided to walk towards it. This is such a beautiful city that is so capable of giving you so very beautiful moments even when you walk alone through its streets or by the bank of the thames. I find myself quite incapable and unwilling of articulating the totally tremendous walk that brought this day to a close - but I did end up not eating anything as my soul had been truly fed by the end of it!!! Wah wah....wah wah...kya line likhi hai...fir se padho...I find myself quite incapable and unwilling of articulating the totally tremendous walk that brought this day to a close - but I did end up not eating anything as my soul had been truly fed by the end of it!!!
Quite hungry and sleepy now!!!
-j
This one is again about the day that I have had. I remember the last time I travelled to London in January, I had had a day eventful enough to deserve a full post and its interesting that this time as well this day has forced me to write.
Unlike the last time, this time my mom cried when I left for the airport. I am still amazed that she didn't cry the last time around...ha ha ha...I am such a mean ass!!! So, I was well on my way to airport and I was already late - you can imagine how late I had been from the fact that a friend of mine pinged me on gtalk to ask if I had reached the airport when I was online from home, checking e-mails just before stepping in for a shower. Managed to reach the airport just about 50 minutes before the departure which was too late even after I had done a web check-in. As I entered the airport, I had a strategy in mind - a simple one at that - to unleash yours truly's charm on the lady behind the counter!!!! And it did pay off well...as a matter of fact, as per the latest valuations it was worth Rs. 21,000 for 10 minutes as you'll find out through the rest of this blog :-)
Essentially, I was very late for the flight and reached just in time before the flight was about to be closed. I was already in implementation mode and had started a conversation with the woman at the counter (Her name was Leena as I was about to find out) when she told me that I had excess baggage of about 15 kgs. I'll spare you guys the details but net net, I didn't have to pay a penny for it :-)
Actually, let me mention some more details here just so that this one follows the tradition of my excruciatingly long posts...ha ha...kidding...i'll try to keep this one short...errrrrrr...I had convinced Leena to waive off 5 kgs to start with as that was the maximum that she could have. I had to agree to pay for the rest 10kgs and that was about Rs. 14K. If you know me as well as my brother, you can imagine that the first person that I thought of when I was told I had to pay an extra 14K was him...his face just flashed across my eyes and I could already hear him abusing me for being how I am! But thankfully American Express came to my rescue here as my card was declined when they took it for charging the money...I couldn't have loved them more for failing me at this moment. I couldn't have loved the 3 ATMs in the terminal as well for failing me at this instance as all three either didn't read my debit card or were out of service...what luck!!! On learning about the situation, Leena's boss asked her to off-load me off the flight but again I somehow managed to get through this situation and was rushed to the plane.
Here I was, boarding the plane and on call with my Parjayiji (my bro's wife - Shubhra) assuring her that I would take care of myself this time around and would not run on the roads or anywhere near them for sure, while walking towards my seat - 39G - that I had chosen while checking-in on the web. On the call, I was telling her (actually just bragging about my exploits) how I had saved the family 21K today and was wondering at the same time that while it was nice to have checked-in but the major disadvantage was that it eliminates any possibility of being upgraded to business....yessssssss....you caught the drift!!!! When I reached what was supposed to be my seat and looked at my boarding pass - I saw that my seat was 12G - in the business class.....hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha....this is what went on in my mind - verbatim - hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!
Now like the last post about my travel experience, there is a cab driver story to this one as well. This time my cab driver was a Pakistani who had settled here for some 3 decades and claimed to be a boxer and a boxing coach. I saw the posters of his gym and he had some interesting stories to tell and interesting topics to talk about. He spoke of Islam and what he was doing to make people aware of the fact that Mullahs do not represent the religion, told me about his fights and the boxers he is now training. Interestingly, his prodigy is an Indian student who is hoping to turn professional soon and that he was training this one for free! The most amusing part about the conversation though was when he asked for free advice from me about his boxing club and gym business on learning that I was a management consultant - I was stumped for a while! Of course, I did manage to bull shit my way out of it and that re-inforced my belief that I have the basics of becoming a successful consultant :-) Though the bad part is that I advised him for free without any excuse for passing it off as a business development exercise!
A day that was funny at times, exciting, interesting or relaxing at others, came to a beautiful end when I decided to step out for food. I realised that my hotel was very close to the tower bridge and decided to walk towards it. This is such a beautiful city that is so capable of giving you so very beautiful moments even when you walk alone through its streets or by the bank of the thames. I find myself quite incapable and unwilling of articulating the totally tremendous walk that brought this day to a close - but I did end up not eating anything as my soul had been truly fed by the end of it!!! Wah wah....wah wah...kya line likhi hai...fir se padho...I find myself quite incapable and unwilling of articulating the totally tremendous walk that brought this day to a close - but I did end up not eating anything as my soul had been truly fed by the end of it!!!
Quite hungry and sleepy now!!!
-j
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