The Yawns!

Ever wondered, how amazing a yawn can be? I think, its the most contagious expression of humans (or dogs as well - I have noticed them yawning together). So this friend of mine - Ravi, has so many yawning babies in his orkut photo album, and each time I visit his profile, I keep yawning. Once I was irritating someone on skype chat with yawns, and it was me who was actually yawning at the end.




I think, this fascination of myself towards the yawns is the reason my daugher Goldie yawns so lovely. She started yawning with a sound since she was 5 and a half months, and I love it. This is generally an age for kids, when people around them are longing for any kind of non-crying sound from them, and this Yawn is a feast for my ears.

No wonder why researchers have spent a lot of time studying in and around of yawns - even the researchers were fascinated. People do hate yawning, as it indicates bad-manners and lack of interest. But who cares for bad-manners when we have more interest in yawning.

I know the reader of this blog must be busy yawning by now, and yes, I have achieved what I wanted to!

O M G - Another one!

O M G! Run Run Run!

What a pathetic writer I am! I really pity, those who read my blogs with some hope. Well, its a good strategy, that I criticize myself so much, that nothing is left for others :-P

Looks like, there's this 'pathetic pessimistic sadist hopeless useless Ghost' takes control of my mind, and such words are written on my notepad. The ghost story is for them, who might be wondering, what negative motivation, Aj has got to compose such poem!

I know, I have a life, many people can just dream of; and remaining others can be just jealous of - he he ho ho ha ha. I am the happiest man on earth, at this moment, and as long as earth is around.

The Lunch

The Lunch
What's there in a lunch? Especially, when its lunch in the office, when people move their bum out of their seats, just to fill the tummy and get back to work. That too in a 'so called' dynamic and fast paced work environment.

No - this lunch is way more than just a lunch. Now don't start bugging me with questions like, if its a multi course meal, and do we have daily sponsors! The lunch is great because of the preparation that goes into it. Even though the standard time for lunch is 1240, the preparation starts something around 1210 almost everyday - with atleast one of the members dying with hunger, wants to have lunch earlier. But ignoring his hunger screams on skype chat, the lunch usually is at the same time. Whether Bama insists on lunch 'at 1 plz', or I am arriving late to the office, lunch must retain its timings. Yeah, you got me wrong. I was talking about this preparation, not the preparation as in 'cooking the lunch'. Who cares, how the lunch is cooked - all we care is its cooked, and its edible, and snatchable too (especially the sweet from Kanchan's plate being snatched by me and Sam).

To add to the food, we have all kinda gossip about specific people. Dracula and Paapi Gudiya topping the charts. There are few more names but I better rename them before using on this public forum.

Whether the soft target Rana, who's legs are pulled for no fault of her, or its chachu who keeps distributing his food amongst us, the lunch hour is the most energetic. Whether Bama's food is being snatched away, or its Sam's yet another fit of weird attitude, laughter is never reduced. Whether its the occasional guest MoJa who will steal the show or its Deepa who is always in a hurry to end the show, The Show Must Go On!

The best day

What can be a better start of the day than receiving a call from my cousin Sneha to have breakfast with them. Especially when I was longing for home made food. As usual I did not say 'no' for the invite; and reached Mundraji's apmt by 11 am. The stomach feast started with amazing paneer parathas. Home made food, with the blend of perfect spices, and company of like minded people. I knew this day's gonna be best day so far in San Jose.


With parathas for the tummy, and a pixar movie - 'Wall E' for the soul. Some people say, its a animated movie about robots, but I say this is a perfect love story about Artificially Intelligent emotions. The movie made me realise, I can stand cockroach for so many minutes together. Now the hope is restored that, one fine day in this life, I will stop hating cockroaches. (Now its a different story that I killed about a dozen of them when I returned back to my apmt in Chennai, seeing them occupying my apmt).


Then started the long drive to Livermore Temple, with some mindblowing views of the hill side houses. One of my favourite person dreams to buy a house on the hills, for the retirement. And
seeing the houses, I realised the dream is really worth it.



All the Gods were doing fine, and happy together at the temple. After spending some time there, and having prasad, the drive for Gurudrawa started. This was sometimes around the sunset time; and all of us have this likemindedness to enjoy sky colors. It was a good talk while we reached Gurudwara.


Listening to Gurubani and Kirtan, with eyes shut, and heart beating to the rhythm of live tabla, I think this was the only time in a long while that I was quite blank and happy too. I did not want it to finish, but then the langar was waiting. Had the special Tea of the Gurudwara, and drove back home.


I can really call this - the best day in San Jose. 'Thanks' would be a small word for the lovely couple - Sneha and Anuragji.

My Long Hairs

It happened one fine eve, with me, Satvik and AmolB sitting in Symphony, Pune sipping beer and discussing AmolB's life in Singapore. Talking about so many interesting aspects of life, and AmolB's new look, we happen to bet that from that day, whoever of the 3 of us, has his hair cut done first, is going to treat others the next time we meet. This was sometimes in Feb-Mar 2006.

For me it was already around 2 months, that I had not had a hair cut. So I began calculating how much would be the combined cost of hair cuts if I keep doing it over the next few months on a regular basis Vs how much would be the bill for the treat. Baniye jo thehre - hisaab to chalta rahega na. Well, who cares for the cost; I am living my life for the adventure of it, so let me take the risk of people criticising me. Its always fun to do weird things.

So, I did not cut my hairs for the next 6 months until Oct 2006 first week. Meanwhile, whenever myself, Nalin, Anand, Anjali, Komaljee, Amu, Nehudi, Shraddha, Shweta, Shailendraji, Gunjan all used to meet up at my flat in Pune, most of the time, the group used to get divided into two - one in favour of my long hairs, and other criticising it. The discussion/debate/argument used to really last long. I used to love the fight - My favourite hobby to make people fight and I keep enjoying. Ha ha ha.

Reactions during my visit home were really cool -

Mom - Anand (my elder bro), give him some money so that he has his hairs cut. (But its always cool to keep getting pocket money from a elder bro - its my right on his money)

Dad - just gave a silent look indicating that - "nalayak, kab sudhrega?" (When will you grow up)

Granny - Tu akela hi aise hai, ya aur log bhi hote hai? (Are you the only weirdo, or there are people doing things like this)

Brother - Kya hai ye? (What is this?)

Bhabhi - Hmmmm.

Hriday - Didnt say anything; was too young to understand a bit, but I bet he must have been happy to see something new to keep snatching.

Now after trying different looks on my hair lengths, am waiting for some incidence like this to start coloring my hairs. And I dont want this incidence to be 'aging'. I am an eternal teenager! (Ek aur dialogue)

Sushi - Ek khoj

Sushi se pehle sat nahi tha

Asat bhi nai
Antariksh bhi nai

Akaash bhi nahi tha

Chipa tha kya, Kahan

kisne dhaka tha

Us pal toAtam atal jal bhi kaha tha!!!

The moment I made my mind to travel for US, I was excited to be able to eat Sushi (yeah yeah - the routine Japanese rice meal). The Tesco Vegan sushi used to be my routine lunch most of the weekdays in London.

Let me explain - rice rolls, with a piece of vegetable (cucumber, carrot), some slices of ginger, soy sauce, and some other Japanese sauce. O M G, muh mein fir se paani aa gaya! Its been 4 long years that I haven't got chance to have sushi. (Pune and Chennai doesn't have a single Japanese restaurant - this might be a lucrative business idea - great mind at work)

So in San Jose, Whenever I was out in the shops, I was looking for vegie sushi as frozen packets; I looked at Walmarts, safeways, costco, the food store at the gas station opp my hotel, the Kamal spice (just in case)! But it looks like, its not the case as in London.

I happen to see some Japanese restaurants on North First street. But WTF! These restaurant has some timetables - And How the hell can they remain closed on sundays? And on other days, they are closed between 230 pm to 5 pm. Inko zara dhanda karna sikhana padega :P

Now, with only 2 weeks in hand, I have an aggressive plan. I am all prepared to take a day off, so that I can do my findings about vegan sushi. Another day off - to visit and eat sushi. And one more day, as a buffer. He he he!

The Doing nothing!

So, don't ask me questions! But this is the only week of my life so far, when I absolutely did nothing. Yess. Its so fulfilling. I don't have words, but still I am trying to blog - "How I did nothing over this week".

It happened with me biting my own tongue too hard on sunday eve, and as a result not able to eat/drink/speak/scream/smoke/whistle/whisper/sing for almost a week. Am just on liquid food like milkshakes, juices, glucose, milk, etc. (Thanks to Victor, Kalyan, Krishna, Don). One of the unique milkshakes I tried my own hands at is - dissolving sweet biscuits in lukewarm milk.

This incidence made me realize how 'people live life under restrictions' in jails or in marriages.

Well, so the medication I am undergoing made me sleep long hours (Wow); and anyways with my boss giving me total freedom to be off for a week, nothing can be better than 'doing nothing'. No work. No much of TV. No sketches. No blogs. No poems. No talks. Nothing. Nothing at all. It feels so good.

With my empty mind, I tried another pathetic veg recipe - mashing boiled potatoes with a spoon of oil and a pinch of salt n some masala, and adding some more water. Its better than just having sweet food; but its so bad that a 'Good Cook' like me should die of shame. Mil gaya mauka, maar diya chouka. Kar lee khud ki taarif. He he he!

I think, I should be biting my tongue this way atleast once a year, and create a good hype - so that I get a week off just for myself - doing nothing; revisiting myself; rejuvenating.

Towards the end of 5 th day, I was so bored, I called my home and talked with everyone for around an hour, asking everyone to keep speaking and me just doing 'Hmmmm', Hmmmm', 'Hmmmm'. Little Hriday was so bored with this 'Hmmm' - he didn't talk to me the next time I was able to talk. Life is so funny!!!