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!

I need some quiet

They tried to take away our right to play music in our cars indicating loss of concentration during driving. But there is no noise about us being subject to loudpeakers of varying decible levels during festivals and processions. Now there are so many processions for different festivals (I dont want to name them. I might be subject to lynching by the "religious" people). Each tries to outdo the other leading to more noise, bigger and never ending processions. Are these not disturbing? It not only disturbs the traffic but also your mental frame of mind. Their is so much noise all around that you just want to run away somewhere far where there is no noise. To top that your friendly rickshawala will put on his dhinchak music on his music system.The rate at which noise pollution is increasing everyday in the city, Bombay will soon be a city of deaf people.
Processions have the loudest radios and bands during these processions and traffic comes to a standstill and there is honking adding to the chaos
Maybe like the West, we should have the concept of celebrating festivals during long weekends when everyone is given a holiday. This way you can escape many of these things by staying put in your house.

Bombay is considered the financial captital, the city where dreams come true (though now there are more cities where you can make your dreams come true, if your aspiration is not Bollywood). But the city is not livable. The basic infrastructure should be in place. It should not be a struggle to live, work, travel or maintain sanity. We should have a right to these things.

Stuttgart is More

First Impressions of Stuttgart -

It is quite a small town when compared to Big Bombay but definitely has a charm of its own.

- Quaint little lanes to walk
- There is greenery all around.
- Very Picturesque
- Cyclists from the age of 6 to 60 whiz past you
- Amazing cars - You see a variety of cars from the Porsche, Mercedes and Audi stables
- Houses with gardens. The gardens have flowers and vegetables growing which are then used by the owners
- The people here are quite friendly. I have not yet seen the intimidating German one has in the mind.

Rain Rain here it comes

The sea lashing at you in Chowpatty
The waves going over your head in Worli
The cool breeze in Marine Drive
The lush green trees in Aarey
Pleasant Evenings for a walk
The bhuttas at Bandstand
Enjoy the monsoons in Bombay

Bridge Slithering

Bridge Slithering - Saw this on the schedule given to us by the organizers.
The name made me wonder what I will be doing next in my 9 day adventure trip to Uttaranchal.
I was done with rappelling, trekking, river rafting, body surfing, camping 1000 ft above sea level in a remote place with only the stars and the moon for company.
My question was answered on the 5th day of my trip
I was taken to a bridge which was about 50-60 metres above sea level. It was across the Ganges. The Ganges was roaring and flowing across with zest.
I wore a life jacket strapped on the ropes and climbed over the bridge to stand on the outside of the bridge. It is adrenalin pumping to cross over the bridge and stand just above the water…More so if you have no idea about swimming or even floating.
Then I start my descent by applying friction to the rope using the carbiners and descenders. As I approached the gushing river below I let go off the rope and jump in the river and catch hold of a kayak which will take me to land.
It is a thrilling experience. Hanging onto the rope and looking at the beautiful scenery around is a wonderful feeling. I am waiting for another chance to do it.

West and East

So now Bush wants us Indians to eat less. I am sure all of you heard/ read his remarks that the food prices are rising because of increasing demand for food from the growing middle class in India. He has conveniently ignored the fact that agri produce being used as bio-fuels and given as food to animals for producing meat in the developed countries.

I feel the West particularly United States is getting a little resentful and edgy of the development pace of India and China. They are nervous that they cannot keep pace with the rapid development happening in these countries.

Consider the following –

• Condoleeza Rice remarked that the “improvement” in diets of people in China and India is one of the main causes for current global food crisis.
• EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural development Mariann Fischer Boel has also pointed out to the increasing demand for food from India and China for the food crisis.
• Rising oil prices have also been attributed to increasing demand from India and China.
• The Department of Health in Britian tried to introduce regulations to restrict non European Union doctors (a majority being Indians) from being employed in health services.
• Orient-Express in a letter to the Tatas, said that its customers do not associate an Indian company with luxury. So, a full-fledged Tata takeover would cause Orient-Express to lose its deluxe edge. This is despite the fact that the Tatas are the largest shareholders in the company. They just cannot digest the fact that an Indian company can take over them.
  

The West has double standards. They believe that their success is good and our success is not good. Do they always want the developing countries to have the status ‘developing’? Do they always want us to be poor and have ‘begging bowls’ in our hands? Well considering the growth rate of the “developing” countries and the crises that the West is facing, it will be difficult for them to have the upper hand always.

No Honking

So it was No Honking day on April 7 in Bombay. Did it work? It was not a success because people who drive in Bombay are absolutely short of patience. They also have this ingrained in their system to honk when the traffic is standstill as if honking will magically make the vehicles move again.
However, we should look at it from a different perspective - I do not think they should be blamed entirely. Take a look at the way traffic moves. There are rickshaws and trucks that never seem to be in one lane. They never go straight; you are never sure, when they will decide to come to the lane that you are driving on that to without any indication.
Then there are jaywalkers who take pride in running across the road when the vehicle is really close to them. They think of themselves as stunt masters. They walk slowly when the vehicle is far and the driver thinks, "Ok this guy is going to wait till I drive past him". However, as soon as the vehicle nears him, he starts running giving a victorious look at the driver.
Then there are various animals- dogs, cows and others that take a leisurely walk on the roads. You need to intimate them to move on else, you will face the wrath of Maneka Gandhi and party.
Of late, a new menace has been growing. People drive in the opposite lanes, when the traffic in their side of the lane gets very messy. This leads to traffic on both sides; and ultimately traffic comes to a standstill, and the old habit of honking gets into action. Drivers continue to do this in spite of knowing that ultimately a traffic jam will be caused. Nevertheless, nobody really cares.
I guess the policy is – “If I suffer a traffic jam so shalt thou (in the opposite lane)”

New Career Option

Circa 1985
Parent : Rahul..Stop playing cricket. Get your books and start studying. Don't you know exams are starting next week?

Circa 2007
Parent: Hrithik.. can you please put your books away and go for some cricket sessions? Do you just want a 9 to 5 job with meagre salary?

Cricket which already is a national obsession and a religion has become even bigger now. A person wanted to be a cricketer earlier for the game, the fame, a secure job in the public sector and yes the money was good.
But today there is no limit to the money you can make; the fame you can get. Who does not like that? You get to act, pose, preen in all kinds of advertisements. You get to come on television. You can act in the movies. Oh yes and you get to play cricket.
Now cricket comes in different flavours - 5 day matches, 3 day matches, one day matches and T20 type. Therefore more options for more players. You also get to play for city, state country, different age groups and all the possible leagues. It does not matter whether you are retired; do not play well; or you were dumped by the national team because of your bad performance. There are so many teams today that you will definitely find some team to play for. If by a remote possibility you do not get this chance, you can always do commentary on the game or be a cricket expert doing analysis for any of the countless channels. You can further improve your economic and social status by writing a book ,a blog or even writing 'expert' columns for newspapers (all related to cricket of course). Earlier you had to join one of the "Ixx" to get a jump start in life like IIT, IIM, IAS. Now you can add ICL and IPL to this list.
So do you want to consider joining the nearest cricket camp?

Feel Their presence

Yearly agenda of a political party in our country to make their presence felt

Event 1- Violent actions against people not from the state originally or people speaking a language different from the one spoken by people in the state.
Event 2 - Violent Protests against Valentine Day thus protecting India's cultural identity
Event 3 - Create disturbances in factories of big industrial houses.
Event 4 - Slip a remark or two about one of the religions being practiced in the country and take advantage of the rising emotions of the public.
Event 5 - Protest against a big star in Bollywood or some scene in a highly publicised eagerly awaited Bollywood movie.
Event 6 - Criticise an action of a sportsperson and/ or corporate bigwig saying that it hurt the nation's sentiments.
Event 7 - Raise issues about court cases/allegations present against opposition leaders/members.
Event 8 - Create brouhaha when State and Country awards are announced and broadcast their own opinions (without anyone asking) about who should be awards' recipients.

She

She treads ever so softly on the ground
Lest she hurt the little beings on her path
She never plucked the flowers
She knew that they wanted to be in their beds
She scared children away from catching butterflies and set them free
She came home to a life of slavery
Hard work, insults and misery
She tasted freedom never at all
But knew how much it mattered to all

Jhulan

Jhulan Goswami- feels good to know that an Indian fast bowler can scare off a batting side. I can't remember the last time this happened.
A typical story for a sportsperson in India. Comes from a small village, parents/ society try to supress the sporting talent, but luckily finds a good coach and manages to make it big and get into the national side (which is not so typical).
Ofcourse the difference is that she performed well when it mattered and also got the ICC woman cricketer of the year award. When I hear such stories I always think of all those stories that I don't know, all those sportswomen who have the talent but could not make it big either because of financial or societal pressures or plain ill luck.
Hopefully her next stellar performance will be splashed on the front pages of all newspapers just like our male cricketers were praised to the skies for defeating Bangladesh (!!) after the disastrous world cup.
Point to Ponder- The Bangladesh tournament was immediately after the world cup. There were some matches with Scotland around the time of the England tour. Why is there a tournament with minnows after every tournament with the non-minnows? Face saving technique!

Chick Talk

Chandu: Hey dhondu did you see the news we are in showbiz again...
Dhondu: What are you saying chandu? Is it the bird flu again?
Chandu: Noo not that. Not even that chickungunya business which had nothing to do with us
Dhondu: Then?
Chandu: It is about us being headless.
Dhondu: What are you saying? These humans are always trying to put us down if not on the table then by disrespecting our feelings. What is this new controversy?
Chandu: Well apparently some bigshot Indian said publicly that some Indians are headless chickens. This was in reference to the Ndeal that India is having with US. Here read this entire report.
Anyways I am excited. We are in the news, the jokes and the talkshows. It feels good that we are featured more on television apart from the usual culinary programmes.
There are features on our HERO Mike as well and how he valiantly survived without a head for 18 months.
Dhondu (after reading the paper): Mike carried on for 18 months. let us see how much time the government survives after this headless controversy.

He was walking on his way back to the hotel room after his late dinner. It was already past 11.00. In small towns like this one, the streets are empty as soon as the sun sets.

He had come to the town on an official visit. It was part of his job- travelling for about 20 days in a month to small towns and cities. But he never complained. In fact he used to enjoy the travel, see new places, meet new people, observe the ways of life in the different places he visited.

There in front of him lying on the road was a 100 rupee note. He was surprised. He went near it but did not pick it up. He looked around to see if there was anything unusual. Absolutely Nothing.

Decided to pick up the note and see what happens. But nothing happened. There was the same stillness as earlier.

He walked ahead...another 100 rupee note..picked it again and walked ahead..This happened 4-5 times... He was feeling like a sleuth all excited about the event. He kept looking around for anything out of the normal. There was nothing...He continued walking ahead looking to his left right behind...secretly hoping there might be some adventure...at the same time concerned about his safety..

The picking of notes continued..As he went ahead there were 4-5 notes lying in many places. He reached his hotel..Went to his room quickly.. It was a small dingy room with just one tiny window and a creaky old fan.

He sat on his bed and counted the cash..4500 rupees. A big sum.

He kept it in his suitcase and locked it. He tried to sleep. But he could not. He was almost waiting for someone to come and demand the money from him. He imagined someone might have followed him and would now attack him for the money. He was almost ready for a fight. His imagination went wild thinking about plots of various movies and novels. His throat was dry, he went sweaty and hardly managed to sleep.

It was dawn, a pleasant cool morning. He got up with a start and immediately checked his suitcase. Maybe it was all a dream.

The money was there as he had kept it. But the strange discomfort caught up again.

He had to leave for home that day. He decided to donate the money to the old age home near his house. He started feeling better already.