The Goan Sojourn..

Well.. U might have guessed after such a lull, this homepage of mine wud hav turned dormant.Buck up Guys..!! The Volcano is ready to erupt n brings with it the lava that flowed the past few days, as I sit here n pen down the memories that linger from the Goan Sojourn..

It was about a month back when one of my friends rang me up and said 'Get ready mate.We'l b hittin the roads n a few days'. I quipped - where the hell...Was so stupid of me to even blur something out like that.The answer dint stump me. ,Dil Chahta hai.. Masti mein rahe dooba dooba hamesha samah'.. That killed the conversation but rejuvenated my mind. Goa was going to be a better place in a few days time.Coz we will b ther..

Goa... It wud b cynical if I don't spare a few words for it.Immortalised by Farhan Akhtar's DCH and so synonymous with youthful spirit. And Yeah.. Therz as much beer as water that flows into its seas n with buddies around therz as much warmth as u'd cuddle up in ur mom's lap.

The journey started from B'lore.All landed up in full josh n after the initial hugs n hurrays we got started in a mini bus.That we'd b coverin 2000 odd kms over the next few days was never reason enof to cull our mood.The bus moved on.. The Speakers sprang to life.. ,Dosth bada dosth' went the lyrics....
"nanba vaa naam appavum ippavum eppavum twin-dhaan
oh namellam yaar ondrukkul ondrana oru peg drink-dhaan".. Cha.. naane feelings poda aramichten.. Whatever it may be !! :)

@ Goa...

After a typical lazy start n munching Pav Bhaji's for breakfast we set upon our trail..Where else.. But the Golden Beaches.. Never mind the sun was Blazing down. The Beer chilled us out.Then.. Splash.. splash.. splash.. There we went.. Swinging each other onto the water,rolling onto the sand,playin beach volleyball..!!. Man.. Freakin out had found its meaning today.. Add to it the exotic sceneries !!.. :)..
Shifting gears we got on with the funniest part. The Monkey game,.. played out during PT periods of primaries..The one who gets caught in the centre gets hit by d bal passing around.. Truly.. Therz no point in being grown up when u cant be childish sometimes.. :)

The Cruise followed @ dusk. The excitement was hard to sink in.. Yipee guys!!.. Its finally happenin.. We're in Goa!!!!!.. Aptly Aamir's 'Pehla Nasha, was played. In the "NAsha" that we were in.. the setup was really awesum!!.. :).. A few dance steps here n ther n we vacated the stage. I climbed up the cruise.. Stopped.. Felt the breeze.. Lived the moment.. Man.. Goa is beautiful.. Life is Beautiful..!!

Night time now.."Spirits" brightened up the mood.Reeling under a trance we pulled ourselves out.The clock read 01:00 am.. The beach was 2 kms away.. The moon sparkled up the sky.There we lay on the seashore in a dilapidated boat.. Speechless..
2 rounds Vodka - 1000 bucks
Mustering up side dishes - 500 bucks
Lying down intoxicated - Priceless..
There are certain things money can't buy !!.. :)
A round of icecream @ 2 am.. Puff!!..

Time for adventure...Well ya.. We did decide to go scuba diving and also explore an uninhabited island off the Goan cost.I had my own apprehensions. One.. I can't swim for nuts.. And two.. The awful thought of me struggling to keep afloat made me gasp for air.. The motorboat stopped enroute.. A dozen guyz jumped off before I cud wink.. Man.. If only I knew swimming.. Warding off battered thoughts I decided.. "Kuthichiruda kaipulla!!.. " :).. Splash.. blup.. blup.. Eternal bliss to say the least.. !!

Further down lay the island... Unexplored... Venturing thru the greenery we reached the top. The scenery was breathtaking.The silence of the seas were undisturbed. Moments froze in time.. We hit away a few snaps.. Life really is a never ending celebration..

Turning back.. one finds it hard to pick the most definitive moment.. Whatever it may be!!.. :)..
Rock on..!!
Hai yeh waqt ka ishara..
Zindagi milegi na dobara..!!..
!!..Cheers..!!

Look World !!! ..... We 've won Gold !!!!

It was one of those horrible weekday mornings @ office. There I was.. all bugged up, in my cubicle, cursing the computer for not compiling a Goddamn code that I'd cooked up somehow. My mobile beamed suddenly. Expecting a mindless forward, I just browsed through. "Bindhra wins Gold @ Olympics" read the message. I glanced towards my calender, Thank Heavens it wasn't April 1!!. And doubly reassuring was the fact that the Olympics were really happening! Stupified with amazement I wished to scream out load "Look World !!! ..... We 've won Gold !!!!"

Hard to contemplate if that gives us a reason to rejoice or ponder. Perhaps the most coveted moment of Indian Sporting History, the INDIAN NATIONAL ANTHEM being played, for an individual acheivement, for the first time since 112 years of the Games' inception. Never argue it came so late. Just celebrate.. After all it has come.

Candidly put, that was perhaps the best result we could have expected, pessimistic though it may seem. But even the hardcore optimist would agree, I bet. There is always a readymade answer for people who debate the crust of the problem - Blame the System. They do forget the fact that, we the people are very much part of the System, let alone part of the problem.

It's impossible to sideline the fact that our mindsets are so deeply entrenched in traditional studious endeavours that we term it utmost devilish to pursue sport in the right earnest, beyond a certain limit. It wouldn't take a poll pundit to predict the fact that this is not gonna change in the near future atleast.

The Govt on its part can't escape the blamegame though. Athletes, nurtured on alarmingly poor facilities, stand testimony to not even handful reaching the medals table rounds. Picture this - We've won 9 Golds in the Games' history (Thanks to our erstwhile elite Hockey team that provided 8 of it). It pales in comparison to a single individual.... Micheal Phelps - winning 14!. Pathetic to say the least and horrendous, that it comes from a nation of 1 billion. It might be an oft repeated filmy dialog, but why not even 10 Bindhras from such a crowd. Hard to digest, but the bitter pill is when the chinese have risen to epic proportions, we've fallen flat, celebrating a single Gold satisfying a billion dreams.

Never awake a sleeping tiger for it may pounce anytime. Here the Tiger is extinct, at best we may be termed a domesticated Cat, rejoicing momentuos glories. The million dollar question. Where lies the solution?
The answer doesn't lie in the lack of ability, it lies in the lack of resolve.

My Trysts with Cooking !!

"I dont even butter my bread, I consider that cooking !!"

First of all let me make one thing clear..Am a staunch follower of d above statement.Atleast I was. Then..... I started cooking !! :)

Cooking... Well.. sounds outright Greek and Latin to me.The only memories of my involvement with cooking that lingers on, is me helping out my mother in cutting some veggies,which in turn she'd prohibit me from doing, lest I should make a mockery out of it.I for one, can always draw parallels between wartime situations and the subject of discussion.All geared up, ammunitions in place, U start proceeding. One wrong step, and u are doomed.(doomed with a capital D)

Thought of putting this blog across in a conversation mode.. Let me introduce the characters,My first roomie Rafi, who I swear is the best cook I've known(Atleast after my mom!!) and Karthik,who atleast is prudent in technical aspects of the art and ofcourse theres this good for nothing me.....Wait.. Make that good for something..(Eating what they cook provides the transformation here !! :))Lets get started..

Rafi : What do we make blokes??
Me : Anything edible would do !! :)
Karks: We'l try out sambar today...
Rafi :(Sheepishly).. Well guys.. I don't have a damn idea how thats made.
karks : What, I thought u'd be adept at that.
Then.. the attention turned towards me..
Me: Hey... Y do u guys even bother to look at me??.. I can always eat whwtevr u can make.
Rafi : No probs guys... Lets give it a shot.. I've got a vague picture of how it can be done..
Here.. we were all set..
Rafi : De adi, anda thovaram parupa edu da..
Me : Now, for me.. locatin this goddamn thing was more difficult than sniffing out osama from his den. (Defeatedly..) Machi.. Neeye vandu edu da... Edhunu therla..
Rafi : Periya parupu mari pona??... (Now that was a comment!).. Moves menacingly towards the cupboard.. stops... gapes.. Dei.. Enada rendu parupu dabba iruku!!.. Idhula edhu da thovaram parupu??
Me : (With a downright irked up look).. Dei.. Idhuku than ivlo effecta potiya da... Atleast I accepted my ignorance..
Rafi : Vidra maapi.. Ariyamaiya enikume velipadutha koodadu!!..
Karks : To hell with u guys!!..(Picks up a box and hands over).. Idhu thanda thovaram parupu..
Me : Now that the identification part of the target is over, we can proceed with our execution.!!
Karks : Vetti scene ku onum korachal ila..

And then after following some preliminary steps, we proceeded in our amateurish way..
Karks : Do keep track of the cooker whistles.. We need to stop as and when it sounds five..

Cooking I believe is an art thats innate to certain folks. If at all I can proclaim myself to be a pro after a couple of decent cooking outings, I'd be commiting heresy.But in all eventuality I may call myself a pro,in cooking up this blog atleast..:)

To ward off time till that happened, we positioned ourselves before the TV. To our joy, we found Shah Rukh Khan,lighting up the stage with a thundering performance, at a filmfare awards ceremony.. As was expected we were heavily engrossed in the proceedings and inevitably, lost track of our cooking expedition. By the time we could realize, it was already half an hr since we set up the sambar!! Suddenly Rafi cried out in dismay "Our sambar!!"..We all barged into the kitchen striking up a frenetic pace.

We couldnt believe what we saw. Crestfallen, we picked up the overcooked sambar and started pondering patchup works."An artist's briliance, I'd say, lies in his ability to coverup his shortcomings!".. In the same vein,we proceeded..Adding a pinch of salt,then some masala powder,water and literaly whatever we could lay our hands upon..After finishing up, I took the plunge and tasted it.. Hey. tastes great guys!!.. And I bet the other blokes seconded my opinion that my tastebuds were in place atleast!!.

Just as we prepared to eat up, the doorbell rang.. Here, I guess is space enough to introduce one more character.. Bhai!!

Bhai : Ena machi.. Enada samayal iniku??..
Me : Hey.. welcome... Join us..
Bhai : (Tasting our sambar).. Machi !!.. Rasam super!!....
All three of us gave that baffling look..All our attempts of making sambar had gone down the drain with that comment. Atleast he din't know the truth!!
Me : Dei.. Enadu.. Rasama!!.. (Then I held myself back).. Ama machi.. That was indeed rasam... Nala iruku ila.. We dont take much pains cooking it up.. adhan.

Sometimes.. The best compliments are received when u least expect them !! :)

End of story !!

King of Good Times

Probably one might think this is one of those fascinating interludes with Kingfisher, but lo behold!!
This is an ode to the impeccable experiences that I have derived during the journey of my college life...A rolercoaster ride i'd love to live back anyday, of course interspersed with many kingfisher interludes !! :)

I've always fathomed how unpredictable destiny's plot is, leading people of varied culture and ambitions, of distinct backgrounds, into a pool of common thought, giving them an opportunity to explore a mystique environment, full of unadulterated fun, a paradise called college. "CIT" , for those blokes who've logged in accidentally n dont know me !!.. Sometimes it makes me wonder whether the lyrics of the legendary song "Jeena Yahan Marna Yahan, Iske siva jaana kahan" are tailor made for such instances. Pardon me for turning poetic but could'nt hold myself back at the stark coincidence.To all those buddies who dont understand hindi it roughly translates to something like this "Vaalvum Inge, Saavum Inge, Idhai vital engu povadhu !! ".. Know it sounds extremely comical when bluntly put down, but the hindi lyrics are pretty intense.. Believe me !! :)

Quite bizzare it is indeed, how a "Machi" or a "Maplai" could for the basis for any individual's recognition transcending his status. The demons of segregation arising out of caste based reservations are rendered so much infinitesimal , when pitched against the larger picture. The metamorphosis from being a lanky nerd to an all encompassing adult is replete with experiences drawn with time.

The quartet of years makes one undergo a full cycle. The bottled up attitude of the fresher, possessing a purity waitng to be exploited by his seniors, the hegemonistic sophomore yearning to stamp his authority, the high flying third years who need to be reminded that their feet are still grounded and the sagacity of the final years are all testimony to the game.

Now speaking of the interludes that I mentioned in the beginning, I bet any hostel tale, however fantasised it may be, will never achieve satiation without the inclusion of a drunken tale. Being witness to innumerable such instances its a safe bet to derive the fact that, many a man whose gotten drunk would profess, in all his honesty, things that could have caused a huge furore if not for the intoxicated state of being. All said and done, one cant help but admire the fact that innumerable quarrels however frenzied or whipped up it may be, can always be settled with a bottle of spirit. :)
And that remains an unsaid secret.

From the dungeons of Tv rooms watching cricket to the never ending night studies for semesters abundantly replete with "vetti pongals" life could never have been so upbeat. If at all life is all about those Q moments with buddies, those chito chats shared,those scrambling for food in a single plate,those uncanny quarrels and subsequent reunions or those unrelenting rapport which never needed an expression, then its definately worth living... A hundred times !!..

During my formative years, during a casual talk one of my friends asked me " What's real friendship?? ". I pondered for a while and said " A simple friend, when visiting, acts like a guest. A real friend opens the fridge and helps himself! ", which I swear is something I took out of a forward that I received that day.And I chided myself at saying that ! :).. Couple of years went by and it dawned upon us that we needed to bid farewell to each other. I still remember those last moments that had an everlasting silence and the occasional rolldown of a tear drop. My mind raced back in time. Atleast I wasn't looking for an answer now. I knew, silence had spoken more than words....

Dedicated : To all my buddies..