good, bad, choice, must do

woke up at 10 in the morning at boss' call... told him won't be coming to work as  doc instructed to rest for a day or two. saw those strange orange balls covered in thin small fluffy white petal like things on the tree outside our window. those were there a year ago as well but i could never see them closely. but now i have a gadget. i took my camera and zoomed in to see what it was. a beautiful orange ball, the surface like a honeycomb and from each groove was coming out a small white petal. felt good, obviously.

searched for some more thing before the sunlight gets hard for good shots and saw this. a crow had just hunted a grey pigeon and was devouring it. i zoomed in, curiously, then felt bad, obviously.

of course i didn't captured it, there was no reason. but then i thought, to get into good photography and while capturing this beautiful world, i'll have to encounter a lot many more of such sights. i cant be selective. i cant escape and have to get used to these. some of these shots i wont keep but some i'll have to preserve. coz those some will be the face of some fact of this world. maybe i wont have choice of what i'll see but i sure will decide of what to remember.

i should have taken the shot of the crow atleast, its movement, its caution. i could have chosen some angle so as to hide the dead pigeon behind the grass or anything while shooting.

have to be less emotional. ...? only for such situations.

papa said...

a task-less mind in a lazy body on this sunday afternoon recalled this...

jan '08, we were having tea and snacks with all other chats at one of my father's friend's place. papa had just told him about my job, earnings, my staying at mumbai and uncle was all praises for me. it seemed as if it was one of the greatest thing for him to meet a guy who's an engineer, MBA and now earning good enough to live in mumbai and gift his dad a swanky mobile phone. it was not that uncle was from some lower middle class family to think this way. he owned a car, a duplex house, all those good interiors etc. but still, meeting me was a muse for him.

his 12 year old boy came down from his room, switched on the tv and fixed himself onto cartoon network and immediately got a scream from his dad "go from here and study. all this time you were playing computer games and now watching cartoons. look at gaurav bhaiyya. he used to study a lot when he was of your age" (don't know how he discovered this) then turned to my dad and said "bhaisaab, i am fed up of him. all day watching tv, or busy in computer games or playing cricket. if not these then he will be doing some mischief or just roaming around with other guys in neighbour. ask once to study and then look at his face, as if we are harassing him! don't know what he will do in days to come." obviously, my presence was adding salt to his frustration.

and then this happened. papa laughed, looked at me and then said to uncle "arre, its his time to play and get involved in all this. let him. all will be fine when he will grow up. look at gaurav now. honestly telling you, he was worse than your child at this age! but today..."

i didn't heard what more he said. i was awed, deaf and speechless... was only staring at papa. all those years and all my deeds zoomed in my mind within seconds. yes, i was spoilt, worse, and being the elder child, my parents were really too worried and many a times hopeless about me. yes, i remember well.

but i did well with their help to make it till here. added to all, i was an example now!

if you are average, you'll take average time to progress. and then you cannot compare your's to the pace of a fast horse. but then maybe, knowingly or unknowingly, your stroll will convert into gallops!

i love my parents most. have to set more examples.

LOTR dvds

a 12 dvd edition of The Lord of The Rings is out!

we shall buy it, yesss... soon a copy will be mine, mine, my own, my... preciousss ;)

i'm ok i'm fine... yesss...

after a while

sure i'll call it 'after a while' only. 27th oct was last, so its around five and a half months. no i don't have time to count it to the week and then the day... a know a guy who always does that and each time i don't appreciate.

though its only a while as per me, a lot many things have happened since... just justifying the pace of happenings. blog was a new muse but i got a newer one. took the courage to buy the camera, the price of which actuated eyebrow raising in whomever hearing it and then to make this very expression even more difficult for them, spent a few grands more on its accessories. umm... one stuff is still due... ehh!

then, two of my bestest buddies got married. i still don't believe it today and neither do they themselves, even though we were all personally present at both ceremonies. i did a better job than the official photographer... sigh!

the biggest event was my younger brother's Passing Out Parade from NDA, Khadakwasla. this one thing i cant describe, sorry. my parents and he flew in an airplane for the first time and i felt proud and bad when papa said thanks to me at the arrivals. i just bought tickets for them which were even cheaper than my camera and for that papa said thanks!

more responsibilities came up in job as few colleagues left. am still in picking-up stage for those responsibilities. immediate boss is a good guy :)

will copy-paste from my latest facebook status... o yes, created a facebook account too! copy-paste: Gaurav was doing 33.6 meters in a second when he finished 10k kms with his Pulsar! lets leave this self-explanatory.

new gadget: iPod classic 80 gb. it is quiet only while charging or updating songs and from 30mins of my falling asleep to about an hour of me waking up. when i told mom i bought one she said "i thought you were already having it! how come you were doing without any songs in your pocket??!!" on orkut they should change it to 'Six things you can't live without'

so... all this while i was not idle, just that i didn't peeped in here!

Common man once flew...

And it was not long back when he started. There is this Captain Gopinath who took him for a flight. And the common man flew. Following him, thousands of other common men took to sky and saw the earth, which was the only thing they had, for the first time from a distance high above which they always dreamt of.

Air Deccan flew the common man, which was also depicted as the ‘common man’ of R.K. Laxman on many of its aircraft, starting August 2003.

And everyone was happy because the common man of this country was happy. A new revolutionary pleasant era was started. More and more airlines ventured to give a flight to more and more common men. ‘No Frills’ they called it, but the common man was not concerned about the frills, he was happy with the other title ‘low cost airline’. An air-trip was possible for him and he thought ‘i’ll fly atleast once now!’

“In October 2007 Air Deccan changed its name to Simplifly Deccan and introduced a color scheme that compliments that of Kingfisher Airlines.”

Mallya took 26% stake in Air Deccan and the common man was replaced by the flying kingfisher.

The common man has now grown wings! Hope to see him fly as simply and easily as he did through 2003 to 2007.

issues at hand...

two - three of them,
SMS voting
I condemn it strongly. the results during past few weeks support my stance. the shows meant to hunt the talent and groom it end up in favouritism. public votes, in the beginning of the shows may be for the talent, yes, but as the show proceeds the votes gets skewed towards the favourite participant and not the good, let alone the best talent. and if this doesn't happens then the results still smell fishy and people saying, 'he was not most favourite and best but still he won, we dunno how!?'
no one is to blame as you cant make millions of voters not to vote for their favourite. heart rules over mind here. to an extent, the judges can be held responsible, those eminent chairs who often themselves get onto this track of favouritism. then they fight (for best talent/TRP/ego or whatever) and confuse the voting mass instead of guiding them.
ends defying means... these shows are like movies where you appreciate the actors, their efforts, crib about the director, technical team and dont feel good after coming out of the hall.
amidst all these controversial hours on tv, you still feel good to have a clean talent show, that is 'Boogie Woogie'. running awesomely good since a decade, still fresh and getting better everytime. (me into favouritism here)

Nuclear deal
Red face Manmohan and Sonia and Congress
cant imagine what ppl in US will be talking about us!

India poised
"This site is not being updated.
Having sucked on extra caffeine during the launch of 'India Poised', the administrators and moderators of this website were having trouble remaining glued to their chairs. We decided to send them on a short break."

read this on the official India Poised website. i dont remember when this campaign was launched and the other one called DO. i think one was on 26th Jan and other on 15th Aug.
why Times is doing this... i think just to advertise and associate biggies with itself. coz i dont see any substantial result anywhere where i can see the name of the campaign associated! how many people even recalled it after 15 days of launch of each? if it was to just make the people feel good for some time then i appreciate Times.
so look at the statement above... the campaign seems 'paused'. what was it for and is the purpose getting solved is still a question i have?
even a movie Guru, which was made only for commercial purpose, spirited the people, made them realise themselves and change for better did more than what it was meant to! so whats happening to the campaigns which are made keeping 'people' in mind?

and now we have this Lead India campaign. the shortlised ones are not talking any different from any other 'common man' who also knows whats going around him and hence his responsibility. we want some change agent but we know it would be very difficult to do some good on a big level (which this drive is meant to, leading India) in the existing system. and changing the system, now when we have a lot may intellects and powers already, would be a very tough ride.
so i suggest, dont choose just one leader out of this small bunch of selected ones (public voting here again! phew*). instead, let them work together. they all have good missions in their mind, each with a different idea and different way to execute their mission. i am sure we will see better and 'apparant' results if they work together.

In dark
mobile service providers usually dont declare/inform about the premium sms rates, obviously which are pretty high, that are applicable to subsribers if they are voting for these polls!

feel good
posting after a long time, feeling good!

happiness is...

... waking up at 5 on sunday morning after 3 sleepless nights for a trip to green hills and rains!
... witnessing the skyline change from bricks to trees hanging on the door of local train!
... 7 people stuffed in an auto-rickshaw for an uphill ride!
... counting waterfalls on opposite hill!
... leaving the road to start a trek for the rest of the journey, girls in enthu as well!
... bathing in every waterfall of the same stream uphill!
... holding hands, grabbing legs, pushing, pulling through slippery rocks along the stream!
... pulling a friend, hanging only by your hand, up a fall... like in movies... if the grip goes loose, he drops 7 meters down!
... cuts, bruises, bones hitting rocks, pain... all, courtesy... mother nature!
... wondering, while crossing those tracks, how a train could run on rails just 2 feet wide!
... girls sighing in relief stepping on a flat ground, the road!
... despatching girls with all your lugs in a taxi to the destination and choosing a dangerous up-trek on a straight hill-face with 4 other friends!
... catching a small crab and watch the crustacean wrestle with all its limbs and claws against your fingers, its tiny mouth bubbling!
... grabbing roots of plants, small projections in rocks, searching for the smallest hold or grip when ascending about a 1 km high hill-face!
... turning back, looking down in amazement at the last walkable/drivable path and wondering 'just how did we made it upto this height?'!
... numerous snake holes all around, but not mentioning them to fellow rookie trekkers!
... washing off small squiggly leeches from your arms and legs in stream water!
... exhausting reaching the top, on the road, getting a lift for the rest 2 kms in a swanky luxury cage (i.e. car)!
... (calling a car 'cage' in the above line ;)!
... heavy, very heavy downpour and no shield at hand!
... no mobiles (which are in the lugs with other 6) and no number in mind to contact others!
... clutching a glass of hot tea, sipping it with parle-G in a shanty while you, trees, clouds dripping heavily!
... holding that hot glass in both hands even after the tea is over, not letting a minutest degree of warmth go waste!
... marching in rains, among the trees shouting "angrezo bharat chhodo, inqalaab zindabaad, jai mata di..." on top of your voice!
... finding your lost group in the first restaurant... smart people!
... tea, coffee, (some helping themselves with whiskey pegs), hot aloo parathas to savour and comfort your drenched and shivering bodies!
... rain-water flowing through the restaurant floor!
... setting off for return journey, fudges, paan to start with!
... setting free your short-term pet... that small crab, its small bulb-like eyes wiggling, like saying bye!
... still raining, whats called 'cats and dogs'!
... clouds all around you, visibility shrinking to just 15 steps around you!
... challenging each other to spit-as-far-as-you-can on the roadside!
... the loser challenging others for yet another round of pee-as-far-as-you-can and losing again!
... a friend saying “this is wilderness I saw in movies and read in books”!
... shouting slogans again, this time to ban himesh reshammia and asking him to leave India!
... leaving hills and reaching flats in no time in another cage (a maruti van), having airplane-ear ‘coz of this speedy altitude change!
... cursing railways for train delay!
... standing dangerously close, your nose just 2 feet away from a train passing at about 95 kmph!
... capacity-defying mumbai local!
... a gulp of fresh air and light by cocking your head above the crowd’s shoulders, arms, face etc.!
... getting down from the train and fly-kissing the ground!
... girls commenting that they were comfortable all he way!
... at home!
... hot water bath for a drenched and tired body!
... food and bed!
... a great trip to Matheran!