Word Game

1 board
2-4 players
100 letters
Lots of places to form words
Many nooks and corners to make words
Scores galore
Scrabble - My favorite board game

Random Conversations with Rickshawalas

Moral Police Rickshawala (RW)
Friend and me wearing saris for "Traditional Day" in college struggling to get into the rickshaw with our saris as it was probably the first time we were wearing saris. We also keep telling him not to start the vehicle unless we sit properly .
RW smiling obviously at our discomfort.
We were quite irritated and asked him why the smile and he says Aaj kal ladkiyan sirf salwar kameez aur jeans pehente hai Aisa hi hoga na - meaning. Translated -
IN a very moral police tone - Nobody wears saris nowadays obviously you will be uncomfortable.

Wonder why he did not wear "traditional" clothes.

True Friend RW
He started shouting at another RW whose wheel was not properly set. He was so interested in that vehicle that he was not even seeing where he was driving.
So I pointed out this to him and he explained that the RW he was shouting at was his good friend and therefore he felt that he should help him.
He then told me his friend's story as to how he was not serious about life and how he wastes money on frivolous things.

Concerned RW
This RW was quite chatty and then went into a social commentator mode. He said Bombay is such a unique city. There are some people who are so rich. They have so much money that the next few generations can live off the wealth. On the other hand pointing out to people living on the footpaths, he said there are these people for whom everyday is a struggle for the basic necessities of life.
This RW was also very concerned bout the slowdown in the market as it was affecting his business as well. He was making less money compared to what he was making last year

Such conversations take your mind away from the potholes on the road, pollution and traffic for sometime at least

Tolerance

India is supposed to be a tolerant nation. When we got this title it meant that we accepted people of all religions, of all castes, speaking different languages as one country and learned to live together. But now the tolerance seems to have taken a new meaning altogether.

Terrorists come and hold a whole city hostage for week and we have not done anything concrete.

Sena number 1 workers go on a rampage disrupting Republic Day celebrations at a school in Nashik as there were songs in Bhojpuri (an Indian language). It is so ironical that such an incident happened on Republic Day.
They had earlier vandalized a theater in Pune for showing a Kannada movie
Of course everyone knows how they burn greeting card shops damage property and threaten and beat up couples on Valentines Day in the name of protecting Indian culture.
They have been doing such acts since late 1960s and are still at it.
There has never been any serious action taken except for the routine taking them to jail for a day and releasing them on bail the next day.
We are still tolerating their acts and do nothing about it.

Sena number 2 goes one step ahead and beats molests women going to pubs as according to them it is against Indian culture for women to go to pubs. It is a different matter/ post that according to them men going to pubs and drinking is totally within the Indian culture. Goondaism, attacking women are also inline with Indian culture in their books.
What happens to them...the usual they get arrested and get released on bail and are also garlanded and applauded for their ghastly acts. It is more than a week that this has happened and absolutely NOTHING is done about it.

We Indians are carrying this virtue (vice) of tolerance too far.

Listed

Indians or Persons of Indian Origin have been coming in a lot of "lists" in the last two years or so.
There were four Indians in the top ten of the Forbes’ 2008 World’s Billionaires list-Mr Lakshmi Mittal, Mr Mukesh Ambani, Mr Anil Ambani and Mr K.P. Singh.
Daughters of three Indians - Lakshmi Mittal, Mukesh Ambani and K.P. Singh - have grabbed the top three spots in the Forbes list of 10 women likely to inherit the most from their billionaire fathers (Not very surprising considering the previous list). We are present in lists in other fields as well -Sonia Gandhi, Ratan Tata and Indira Nooyi were present in the TIME's list of World's most influential people in 2008.
Six Indians cricketers - Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma figure in The Guardian newspaper's World Test XI of the Year.
India also holds number one position in the growth in the number of millionaires in 2008. China was in second position followed by South Korea.

Now we have topped another list again but this one is kind of the opposite of most of the other lists that we were proud of topping or being present in.
Anil Ambani who was listed for having added the most wealth in Forbes magazine's annual billionaire rankings and was also named the sixth richest person in the world topped the Forbes' list of the biggest billionaire losers of 2008 (Billionaire Blowups of 2008). He is supposed to have lost more than US$30 billion which is more than 71 per cent, of his net worth.
This is a real life example of - "Life comes a full circle".
Of course he must be hoping that there is a quick 360 degree turn and he tops other lists where the money is in his hand.

Bring an End to This

I do not want to be resilient
I do not want to bounce back
I do not want to keep my spirits high after every attack
I want the terror to end
I want Bombay to be safe


BTW Where is Mr. Raj T

Just some thoughts

How do you know the spark is still there in the relationship? How do you know you still want to be in the relation.
You both are busy in different things, meet each other little, speak about your day not about the other person's day and yet do not feel the vaccuum.
It is not like the heady days of the beginning of the relationship where you messaged each other every hour spoke many times during the day, waited to meet the other. It is not like the earlier times, where the tiff began when the other person did not respond, did not call.
Now you don't even have the time, don't feel the need many of the times.
But a human being always yearns for an intimate relationship But when one gets it, the intimacy goes away. Yes i know it is called a matured relationship. An economist would probably call it the law of dimishing marginal utility. I think you just get used to the other person. I do not like it. I would prefer a relation with some sparks rather than a mature understanding relation where everything is understood with little communication. I think you should strive to keep the spark alive else everything will be routine.

My First....Tag

The rules for the tag are:
RULE #1 People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs and replace any question that they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves.
RULE #2 Tag 6 people to do this quiz and those who are tagged cannot refuse. These people must state who they were tagged by and cannot tag the person whom they were tagged by continue this game by sending it to other people.

1. If your lover betrayed you what would your reaction be?
My first reaction would be to bludgeon him and make him payback bigtime. But after some thinking, I would give him a second chance only after a major interrogation session. But the second chance will be given ONLY ONCE (I don’t want him to read about this second chance by the way)

2. If you have a dream come true, what would it be?
Be the world number one in tennis and then retire to become a hotshot sports journalist/TV presenter (Meanwhile endorse a lot of products and generally have a jet setting lifestyle)

3. If you could, whose butt would you like to kick?
The guy who deceived me to join the company for the lousy pay. All those dirty men who have done some kind of eve teasing on me

4. What would you do with a billion dollars?
Go on a long trip to Australia.
Invest a lot of the remaining smartly so that I can live off comfortably
Give money to people promoting sports genuinely or to deserving sportsmen/women

5. Will you fall in love with your best friend?
Never happened to me but the one I love is my best friend now

6. Which is more blessed: loving someone or being loved by someone?
I would choose being loved by someone.

7. How long do you intend to wait for someone you love?
Not very long. I hate waiting

8. If the person you secretly like is attached, what will you do?
Forget him.
Find someone else to like. It is a big ocean out there

9. If you could root for one social cause, what would it be?
Equality and Empowerment for Women in the Rural Areas in India

10. Do you lie?
No

11. Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?
Making more money out of writing. Less or no commute to work
Having more time to do different kinds of things

12. What’s your fear?
Being alone and sick in Old Age

13. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?
She is smart and has a sense of humour. She writes well and I would be happy if her book gets published.
I know a lot more about her after reading her blog. I would have taken a long time to know these aspects of her otherwise.

14. Would you rather be single and rich or married and poor?
I would like to choose one word from each option – Rich and Married

15. If you fall in love with two people simultaneously who will you pick?
The one who loves me more

16. Would you give all in a relationship?
Yes.

17. Would you forgive and forget someone no matter how horrible a thing he has done?
I cannot forgive and forget

18. Do you prefer being single or in a relationship?
Being in a Relationship is nice! But I do like being by myself from time to time. And I am really better at the relationship thingie when I get back

19. If you were a movie, which movie would you be and why?
Chak De!
It rocks. It is about women empowerment and it is about sports and in the end, somewhere you feel life will be back to normal for them

Well I tag (I do not know if they read my blogs but well!)
Tarun Chandel
Samrat Sengupta
CeeKay
Meghna
Random Traveller
Rada

Oktoberfest

Well, Priya has given me a wake up call and I better listen to it.
I am in Munich just in time for the Oktoberfest. Definitely a good time to be here. It was a fascinating experience to watch the Oktoberfest.
First of all I have never seen so many people together in one place in this part of the world.
I caught the train to go to the Oktoberfest and there was no need to ask directions as everyone around was going there. You just needed to follow the crowd.
Imagine Dadar station in Mumbai and an escalator in the station and then imagine the number of people that would be there. I can say there were so many people in the train station of the Oktoberfest arena

Many people were dressed in their traditional gear i.e the women wear the Dirndl a and the men wear lederhosen which are special three quarter length panths with special cotton shirts, long socks and boots. It is basically a huge carnival with lots of crazy rides, games, shops and ofcourse the beer tents. I did go inside a couple of tents. The tents have a huge huge party going on in there. There are many many tables and people are having beer in the special 1 litre oktoberfest mugs and eating the typical specialities. There are bands playing in the tents. People are singing along, dancing and generally having a blast.
It is on till October 5th. So if you are around, do visit the fest. Cheers!