I don't like it here....

Yeah. Really. I am not liking it here. Here in UK. In London. At work. Around my home. Agreed, lots of people like it here, and are really happy. Happy to the extent that they do not even think of going back to India. I fail to understand the reason behind their happiness. Am simply being an idiot. Trust me.

Years back, I used to be so excited talking about moving to UK. I was so excited when I took this bold step. I was super happy, when things were falling in place for flying to UK. I was on cloud nine, when I was rejecting job offers here. Finally, agreed for the current job. Wellwishers were more than happy to congratulate me, and were falling short of words to praise this bold step.(Khud ki tareef). Those jealous of me, had to keep mum (fir se). But, why doesn't my excitement/happiness/cheer last longer? I know, the architecture of the system on which I am working is kinda similar to what I have worked on, so after a few months, I will not have drastically new things to learn. But, there's less chaos and less politics(it seems) and less management involved in the daily work. So, what I have to really concentrate is only the technical aspect of work. Was't this the thing I was looking for?

Apart from finding work and starting to work, there are lots of other challenges life is offering as a good/bad side effect of moving to a new city. And yeah, it keeps me occupied most of the eves/weekends. I am doing my risk calculations, thanks to the uncertainty here. I know, I am missing the adventure/fun I used to have in Chennai/Pune. Loads of good friends, lots of good times with kids in the society, frequent visits to native town, lots of phone calls with friends (and incoming calls for credit cards, personal loan and what not), biking on the new Avenger, visits to temples, beaches, malls. Life will definitely take a new shape over here. People here are quite busy(or atleast they are expert in pretending to be busy). Even if the city is said as cosmopolitan and welcoming, I have contradictory experiences. People here smile at strangers, but they like to maintain a blank-expression-face for those they already know. I was so tempted to ask one of my colleagues at work - 'Hey A$$&^&^, do you know me' when he crossed by me in the staircase with the most expressionless face I have ever seen.

Well, enough is enough. I think, this is too early for me to judge. It's just a cross-over phase and it would too pass. I would also be comfortable with this new city and environment. So I better be prepared to make most of it, rather than lamenting.

Friendly guest house :)

It was 3-4 long years that I was planning to move to UK for career. Sometimes, it was me who was not strong enough to take the step, when certain things in life were not on track. And sometimes, it was external forces which were playing spoilsport. But yes, finally, external forces were in my favour, and it all happened quite fast. I was all set for a new and exciting challenge. Add to the silver lining, I was moving back to the city, where I had amazing times. Add more to the silver lining, Anand-Ashwini were happy to host me in their 1 bed house. Yeah, it was their own 'kulhaadi'(axe) and it was their own 'payr' (leg).

6th Aug 2010 : 7pm : I landed at Heathrow. Anand was at the airport to receive me. Straight to the picadilly line tube, then bus 144 from Turnpike Lane, and finally to NRV. Ashwini came down to the building gate with a smile. Stella was waiting upstairs (Stella Artois). We had so much to catch up. Little did we realise that it was 2 am and our talks still not ending. But, it was time to be flat.

The weekend gone just like that : taking rest - eating out - finishing some formalities. We were having a gala time - recalling so many things of the good old days. Anand was happy because he got some company for drinks, and to experiment the adventure of new and better wines and beers. Ashwini was happy because, she got a new animal to try her cooked dishes - hehehe. Well, she passed in all of her trials with flying colors. But, 'ras malai' is still pending. And I was super happy - coz I get to be the kabab me haddi of this lovely couple. But, it was too early for them to realise the meaning of 'Apne payro par khud kulhaadi maarna'.

I must say, I got some very good memories from staying with Anand-Ashwini. Some of them really happy, when we laughed our stomaches out. Few of them being - the 'Newyorker sizzlers' prank calls with Rahul-Dhiraj-Dhaval, listening to marathi and hindi and angrezi prank calls on youtube, 3 idiots watching 3 idiots together :P, and yeah, how can I forget to mention the alignement game 'Jenga' we played after having a couple of drinks. For those who dont know - Jenga (as u guessed it right) is a indoor south african originated game. We had some tough times too, when there used to be 'smashaan ki shaantata' in the house - sometimes, coz I got some unexpected rejections at interviews, sometimes work issues of Anand. But yeah, let me mention here - some of the silences were when this so-much-in-love couple used to fight. Hehehohohaha. Your fights are no more a secret, buddies.

But all in all, whether its the kissa of my 'Room Temperature' issues, or whether its Ashwini's domination in kitchen, not allowing me to help her with anything, or whether its Anand's fascination to his again-new-found-love-in-midlife - his iPhone, the time spent at this house is something I will cherish lifelong. And I know, Anand-Ashwini will think number of times before inviting any guest to their house.

Life so far...

Well, here I am. Once again, a long long gap. This time, because life is way too happening. Lots n lots of them. On the career front - right from passport hassles for renewing my expired passport at Chennai Regional passport office, to applying for UK visa, getting stamped, applying for Goldie's passport, and then requesting for urgent treatment, Anjali's health issues, completely packing our rented house in Chennai, selling the bikes (yeah - I have sold my babe - my brand new Bajaj Avenger), finally landing in London, relaxing, dakhalandajofying Anand-Ashwini's life, tasting new and better wines, beers, visiting London pubs and so many things. O M G - life have been happening. The best happening so far being - no cockroach terror. Those ugly - red-brown - huge - flying cockroaches - they had literally made me not-so-carefree. Yuck! Why the hell am I writing about cockroaches here. Puke!!!

And yeah - I did study a lot, a lot really. Secured few offers. Declined few of them - but finally agreed to commit for this Amadeus one. After 2 months of relaxation, its gonna be too tough for me to confine my bum to one chair for entire day (read work hours). I am really not sure, if I am excited about this position, but I look forward to another long duration of unsettled life. I look forward to the uncertainty that this new career path brings, this is gonna keep me on my toes, and I really get to live my life on the edge for the next few years for the least. I look forward to the financial risk it brings. I look forward to the constant stress, and I look forward to the distraction from negativities of life.

On the personal front, I look forward to the playtime with Goldie in parks. Letting her sit on my shoulder, and roam around on streets (while she snatches my hairs :) ). I look forward to see her learn angrezi, and this accent. I look forward to us talking to her in angrezi, which at this moment looks like a huge task for me. I am so much desi at heart, how do I get to connect with her, if angrezi is the language. I look forward to this. Another class of life. Another few teachers and another few subjects. Another few lessons!

Nothing has changed.. nothing's gonna change!

Yeah. Really. Nothing has changed. Contrary to what I initially thought, core properties of people do not change with age, geography, current affiars or anything else. Yeah - experienced it. But, no one apart from those who are closely connected to myself, Anand, Rahulya, Dhirya and Dhavalya would understand.

I am till today, the same casual guy. Not serious about career or life. Bhanda still walks with gheesofying his footwear. Rahulya still gets angry the same way he used to in those good old days. Dhiru is same old dhandrat. Dhaval is still slow by default. Though, each one of us (me inclusive) have got abilties to behave on top of these core properties, but 'Hey world, you leave us alone, and we still are
unchanged".

After spending all these days with Anand-Ashvini, as an 'athithi' in their house, a few long duration phone calls together with others (Dhiraj - Dhaval - Rahul), I still bet, we want to retain our core properties forever. Whether its Bhanda saying 'chalo' without even meaning it, or I pakaofying; whether its Dhiraj's professional attitude or its Dhaval's slow paced delivery of words, rahul will never ever clean his moustache. Hehehe!!!

Bhangda Bhangday!

It was a not-so-sunny afternoon of a lazy Sattiday, sometimes in Mar 2006, when my commandar(read - my wife) was not in town. Co-incidently, all my partners in crime were ready for the act, and available. So! It was decided. Amol DM was the one to arrange raw material. My flat in Pune was declared as the venue. And the ones involved in the act are - Arun, Amol, Ketan, Yogya, Aj, Sahu Saheb(it's a crime to call him just 'Sahu'), Raina. Rakesh used to be a sober soul, so he dropped at the last moment. Gals were anyways not invited. :P

So, Amol was the cook for the actual drink. Arun was for the main course. And all others were helpers. Main course consisted of Dal Fry n Jeera Rice, which Arun cooked to the best of quality, quantity and taste. Amol was too good at the 'drink' cooked with lots of sounf (badishep - fennel seeds). Time around 2 pm. All the cooking was done, and all the guests arrived.
The eating-drinking session started by around 2:30, with lots of excitement. Hell lot of non-veg jokes and statements, scenarios, information (I still remember the info shared by Amol about Bachchan and entire bollywood lifestyle - Hehehe).

Though, all were excited, no one felt anything even 30 mins after gulping a glass full of the drink. Amol DM took the stand, and asked everyone to be patient. And yess, the drink had the effect by around 4-4:30. And as the world knew, everyone found himself (and everyone around) doing the repetitive task in hand. Some kind of very very interesting 'for' loop had taken control of us all.

Arun was all confused - sleeping for few mins, getting up, asking everyone - what's going on, and again going back to sleep.Amol DM all concerned - checking on everyone, if everyone is fine. And yess, everyone was fine, and high.I got company of Sahu Saheb to constantly laugh. Bursting into laughter for any thing under the sun. I do remember, 'Style' movie was being aired on TV, and I was laughing looking at the actor - Sharman Joshi. I don't think there was any reason behind the laughter. And Sahu Saheb joining me.Yogya - found himself busy munching on dal fry - jeera rice and the drink. Sleeping for few mins, waking up again to get busy with food. I can imagine the time he would have spent in the rest room the following day. Now you know, why I said above - Arun cooked to QUANTITY, quality and taste.Avlya - was the only sober guy - he just had few sips of drink. He was sober at a wrong time. Ask him now, and he is miles ahead of us all, when it comes to any 'high' drink.

By 8 pm or so, everyone was at the peak. Everyone had amazing extended orgasms, as compared to the quick one which people experience after drinking alcohol. It was extended and it lasted for long. By 11 or so, people started leaving. Amol DM was checking and re-assuring everyone if they're in a condition to ride the bike or not. But everyone knew, if Amol DM was in a condition to do this checking - hehehehe.

One of the best 'boys day' I have ever had in my life so far. And we make sure to discuss this, whenever all/some of us are together. We made promises to each other umpteen number of times to repeat this, but God only knows if this will ever happen.

But I do have a hope. History can repeat for happiness too!

A revolution called AZAADI

"Maine apni zindagee desh ki azaadi ke naam kar di hai! Mai jaanta hoon ki aap chahate ho, meri shaadi ho, mera ghar basey, par meri dulhan to azaadi hai!"

Oh God!!! These are the best dialogues, which has given us so many laughters. Now, the group correctly knows the context of what Azaadi means, and who is Desh and who is Bhagat Singh.
Whether its the beer session for some unreasonable reason, or a sutta break, or any other damn purpose of we guys meeting up, the 'Desh ki Azaadi' topic must be triggered - followed by ear-to-ear smile. Even if the Desh is currently in Videsh, and Azaadi is about to follow the Desh, we are missing Desh in so many of discussions and sessions.

It might look like from the above dialogues, that I am talking about something very patriotic, and some sacrifice for the nation. But no. I am not that great. This is just an analogy, and all I am talking about is some eternal-pure-true-moral love. In today's world, where an individual would be all set to hit the dance floor the very day, his/her relation goes sour, or separation is in-evitable. But, as we all know, this particular lover is an exception in this ghor-kalyug. The soul mates have had some amazing relation in the past lives and they will continue to do so in this life and in all next lives. Azaadi may have different names in different lives.

Let me add some info here - 'we' means the current suttebaaj(active or passive) group involving - Vikas (the hero), Manish (kuch dino ka mehmaan), Anurag (bhai sahab k barein mein kya kahen), Nischal(one creative mind), Viru(VP - aka Virendra Pratap Singh or Virus, in 3 idiots terminology), Ankur(the silent killer), Dinesh(Guest of honour :P), Ram (the distant hero), Trinadh(Trinadh) and myself(ab khud ki taarif mai khud hi kya karoon).

Its amazing to see the vibrant chemistry between the two of them - similar to what we have seen in Laila-Majnu or Heer-Ranjha or the one between Patriot and Nation. So much of devotion, any level of sacrifice, all done with this huge smile on the face. Smile as wide as the distance between two ears. Hehehehe!

Feel the difference, Feel like God!

You can suddenly feel the difference when you move on from one 5-6 year long relationship with a non-performing and cold being, to someone real Hot. At traffic signals, you get the stares. For real. You are always looking for opportunities to be with the new one. Spend more time together. And the best thing with my new Bajaj Avenger is that it doesn't have a kick lever, so I can never kick her, even if I want to. Dirty mind, what were you thinking ?

Yeah yeah! After waiting-trying for a long time to get my bum out of Chennai, and failing miserably for multiple reasons, I decided to finally not wait for a new bike anymore. Analysed for a couple of weeks, booked and got the delivery in a week. And here I am, riding everyday to office, feeling like God. No No, I am not promoting the Bajaj Avenger - I am just doing some dialoguebaazi.

Well, it does have a bigger turning radius, and quite heavy. Plus there's no kick lever, so if my battery or electrical system goes off, this space will have a blog entry of that experience. Hehehe. But overall, it does give me happiness. Who says, material happiness does not long last? It has lasted me for over 2 weeks and counting. Oju is super happy with the bike. She gets to see her face on the stainless steel cover mounted on the fuel tank :) Grown ups need to learn from kids about finding happiness with whatever resources we have. Ek aur dialogue ;)

Bike Ride to Mahabalipuram

Well, this one is a delayed write up of something that was done in Oct 2009.


Decided during the weekday, in the last week of Sept, about a bike ride to Mahabalipuram. Oct 4th, Sunday was planned to be the day. Participants - None other than Aj n Vikas. Asked a few others too, but I guess, no one dared the bad company of Aj n Vikas. We are notorious, the game of 'leni-deni' achieves new heights with the both of us.

So, as per plan, I was to reach Vikas's place by around 3 pm. I called him up from my mobile to his mobile around 3:15 pm - saying - "Hey Vikas, I am sorry yaar. Nai aa paunga. Tabiyat theek nai hai". Pissed off, Vikas was - I knew how much he wanted to have this outing. Actually, I had called him from just outside his door, and rang the bell. His expressions awesome. Leni-Deni had just started.

As it happens always, we started off with few clicks in his parking area, as if this is some major event. The bike ride started, with we discussing on how/what to do if the policemen caught us at the check post. One stop near the famed Crocodile park, with due justice to Chai n Sutta. And there it was - a nice low tree, where Vikas climbed, and I followed. Kabira baitha ped pe... Hehehehehe!


Reached Mahabalipuram - directly to the main beach - but instead of reaching the beach, we found ourselves busy with a 'Hat' vendor. And clicking many photo shots with each different hats without buying them, infuriated the vendor. His facial expressions changed from a gentle salesman to dont-ask-me. This was another version of leni-deni, and an innocent salesman was trapped.


Well, it was time for us to get out of this beach to move to some more silent and serene beach. So we picked up two bottles of Sea Gull beer, and reached the isolated beach, which had many fishing boats. The town lanes thru which we passed, had sea food hotels on both sides. Vegetarian people are not treated well on this planet I felt. Anyways, this isolated beach had very few people, and a couple of foreigners. We took control of one of the boats. Gulped beer, shared emotions, puffed butts, had tea, shot more pics and talked a lot.

Decided to start back when it was complete dark. Vikas took the steering handle of the bike - with this ultimate statement - Beer pine ke baad mai sahi se bike ride kar sakta hoon. Within few minutes, it was proven. He was not wrong. My bike was in safe hands.

Had a brief halt at Mayajaal, where Vikas met one of his friends, and was keen that I leave the bike with him, so that he has the liberty to take 'this' friend back home. I was sorry to be cruel and not let him do this. We both reached his place, had Pizzas from Dominos, and I got back home.

Next two days, I was running fever and sore throat, but mind still happy with the bike ride.

Life Under Control

Well Well Well!

Life's been so much fast paced these days. My bum and my thought process, both are not getting time to settle and rot. This is good in a way - "Khaali dimaag shaitan ka ghar". So very well said.

Nov/Dec were ultra busy with Amu's wedding, and let me remind myself here that I had treated myself with a full 2 weeks off work. No official phone calls, no internet. Just the family time. Love it. Jan-Feb were busy and 'stress' was icing on the cake. Far too many threads running in life's main() than I can handle. Finally, gave up a few of them witnessing the magic of layer by layer de-stressing. Have to get back to my normal self, have to get back to the good-but-not-so-old days of blogging, sketching, laughing, living. Don't want the time to run ahead of me.

Looks like the things are falling in place now. Paid the money for the gym, during mid-Feb; but finally the day 1 happened on 1st March. Finalized the bike - Bajaj Avenger 200 way back in Nov-Dec, but finally booked on 10th Mar. Finalized the vacation, and to get Hriday over to Chennai, but the month is not finalized yet. But yes, it gotta happen pretty soon. Finalized that I gotta get my a$$ out of chennai, but, there are so many buts and ifs. Let me stop here.