Monday, March 23, 2009

Tata Nano - Sorry for the inconvenience...


Well, the car has been launched. A car most of India has been looking forward to. And going by the Tata Nano's web site this is what you get!

"Our website is experiencing heavy traffic. Please try again a little later..." (note the spelling mistake in the apology)

That brought me to think of what the conditions of the roads in smaller cities which don't have any flyovers, which have cattle and goat on roads, which have tea stalls, paan shops and even parking in the middle of the road.

Will there be signs that say "Our roads are experiencing heavy traffic. Please try again a little later. Sorry for the inconvenience"

So be it...

Monday, December 22, 2008

Getting to know me - tag by Tikuli



Tikuli tagged me on this on ;-)

The age you will be on your next birthday - All of 45 in March 2009


A place I would like to visit - Leh, Laddakh 

My favorite place - Home, sweet home!

Favorite food - Anything, provided it doesn't move in my plate!

Favorite drink - Vodka

Favorite pet - Dogs


Favorite colour combination - sky blue/carbon blue

Favorite piece of clothing - cotton shirts

All time favorite song - Oh! I love so many songs... can't say which one...

Favorite TV Show - Currently Prithvi Raj Chauhan

Town in which I live - Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India

Screen name - I prefer my name please...

First job - Registrar in Ophthalmology, Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Sewagram, Wardha, Maharashtra, India.

My dream job - Nature/wildlife reporter (provided I'm paid well)

Bad habit - Waking up everyone as soon as I wake up.

My worst fear - Losing someone precious!

The one thing you’d like to do before you die - Apologize to those who may have been hurt by
 things that I did when I was younger (and brash)...

The first thing you will buy if you get $1,000,000 - Stocks (with the market as low as of now)






I don't tag anyone this time...

Sunday, December 21, 2008

On all fours - tagged by Ritu

Tagged by Ritu

4 places I go to over and over again

1 Kanha National Park
2 Bandhavgarh National Park
3 Pench National Park
4 Bombay (Mumbai)

(Yeah! You guessed right, I'm a wildlife freak! Of course that has nothing to do with Bombay, thats where my favorite maternal relatives live :-D)

4 people who mail me regularly

1 Jaspal
2 Asha (my wife)
3 Aparna (my sis)
4 Nandu mama (maternal uncle)

4 of my favorite places to eat

1 Home
2 Chinese restaurant (any good one)
3 Tandoor joint (any good one)
4 Sea food joint (any good one)

(Not in that particular order :-D)

4 places I’d rather be now

1 On a flight to Mars
2 On a luxury cruise surrounded by (heh heh)...
3 Home (I'm at work right now :-D)
4 Bombay

4 favorite TV shows

1 Who's line is it anyway
2 America's funniest home videos
3 Gunisses Book of World Records
4 Prithviraj Chauhan

4 Movies I could Watch again and again

1 Macenna's Gold
2 Guns of Navarone
3 Terence Hill/Bud Spencer movies or even the more sober Westerns
4 Carry on series :-D

I would like to tag these people

1 Dr Aparna Bagwe
2 Tikuli
3 Ashvina
4 Jogesh

Monday, December 1, 2008

Whoosh...

It was a lovely summer evening, the crimson sun had just set and I was there in the jungle by the forest lodge overlooking a melodious rivulet that I loved so much. Nothing feels as good as the evening breeze that rushes through old undisturbed trees and grasses as tall as little children swaying and playing to the wind... bringing in a whiff of that very smell of nature that we have forgotten living in the concrete jungle built by us.

Nearly a forgotten pleasure to be an audience here, standing silently and hearing the trees talk to their friends and the crickets gossip while a lone distant wolf declares his importance! Oh! I could stand there all night and just listen to the jungle... there is nothing that pleases me more!

It was then that I felt a gentle nudge, it was more of a feeling of someone passing by. Very close indeed, enough to make me reflexly balance myself! Though I'm sure I would not have fallen. And it was as if all the flora and fauna around me had suddenly stopped to look at this little "accident". The sudden silence was chilling!

And then after a few baited seconds, the symphony of nature began humming its tune again, completely forgiving contact by mischance between man and spirit...

Whoosh!

(this being the second and final brush that I had with "spirits" click here for the first)

Friday, November 28, 2008

Mumbai terror attack - a black day for India

Blood and gloom, the guns the blasts,
You shake our home, but see? It lasts!

You may create panic o'monsters terrifying,
You may see us screaming and even dying!

You come with one and only one intent,
You want to see us cowering and impotent!

You feel you can shake our foundation,
But you realize not we are a strong nation!

You feel you can make us hate your religion,
But you don't realize we see no division!

To us all religions lead to only one God divine,
In Him we have faith, in Him we align!

You call yourselves martyrs, but we know better,
Violence in the name of religion is no trend setter!

You think God will accept you when you go!
My dear fellow human, let me tell you, gladly, NO!



Links:

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

The Brush

This is a true story...

This story goes back to the summer of 1983. My best friend Pradeep and some of our very close friends decided to make a trip to the forests of Bandhavgarh in the month of May. Bandhavgarh at that time was not a developed tourist spot as it is today, now it even boasts 5 star accommodation at the maharajah's palace...

At that time there was only one lodge, with a small restaurant besides a flour mill and a general store on the ground floor and 4 rooms on the first floor. An elderly couple owned and ran the place. There were 8 of us, we took 3 rooms. My friend N K Singh (Neki) and I were to share a room in the far end and the rest would share the 2 rooms in the middle.

The lodge itself overlooked a rivulet and luscious green forests behind us and the only road that passed through the village in front of us. Dusk was fast approaching and we were tired from the 200 km ride over rough road in an old Willis petrol jeep belonging to Pradeep's elder brother, that had brought us there. We quickly ordered dinner and prepared to freshen up over some rum and water... yes, that was our favorite drink during student life!

With a couple of pegs, or one more or one less :-D we had dinner and took a small walk in the dark along the dusty road till we decided it was time retire!

Our room was small, it had two tiny cots, one cupboard built into a wall, one small window, a fan, a tube light and a night lamp, and of course the sole door that lead to our room. The night was dark and the forest sang its expected song which lead us to keep the night lamp on and the fan of course, it was peak summer time.

Not much time passed before we were fast asleep... then, somewhere in the middle of the night I felt a soft caress on my leg!

Fully expecting the naughty sardar in mischievous drunken stupor, I turned over to face him... and found him fast asleep!

Well, it must have been my imagination, I thought!

Soon I was asleep! But this time I felt a slight but cold touch on my cheek, that jolted me into an upright posture with a long drawn scream that catapulted Neki right out of his bed straight at me. Seeing the expression on his face, it looked like he had seen a ghost - out came another involuntary scream from the depth of my lungs... and that of course drew an equally agitated yet inquiring scream from Neki!

The came the deathly silence, mouths agape! And then the obvious question...

"Why did you scream" asked Neki. So I told him what had happened. He assured me it was not his work and I believed him.

We turned on the tube light fully expecting a cat inside the room. Checked everywhere, the window too had a fine mosquito mesh on it that was secure and the door was bolted from inside! There was absoutely no way anyone or more importantly anything could have got in, touched me, and exited

With that came another obvious statement form Neki, "...must have been a ghost, heh, heh" ending in a nervously polite subdued laugh!

I tended to agree with him, but I'm not one of those who accept the existence of ghosts publicly, at least not then since it was my maiden encounter in first person.

"No, thats rubbish, it must have been the rum" I said to him, "now lets sleep"

This time it took us much longer to fall asleep, but we did finally!

We woke up in the morning with Pradeep banging on the door. It seems he had heard us scream around midnight and had come to inquire if we were well! How nice of him, couldn't the rest of the guys have asked us how we were when we were screaming? Bah!

Er... they were too afraid they said, "Your screams scared us enough, we could not gather the courage to step out of our rooms" Just great! So much for friendship!

And then when we finally caught up with the owners as we went down to the restaurant for breakfast. The elderly gentleman asked us if we had a good nights sleep, I grew suspicious and immediately asked him what he meant by that?

"Well, you see, sometimes, in that room on the far corner, you have unusual things happen. There was this young couple that had stayed in that room about an year ago, they committed suicide. I heard some screams last night and knew they had been visiting my lodge again!"

Again?!

Neki and I exchanged glances. The rest of the boys too didn't like the sudden change in atmosphere. We decided to pack our belongings and head home on the double...