The Chillo Effect

So Once Upon A Time in Mumbai at about 11:00 pm me , SG and AS were having our dinner along with the regular meaningful discussion on challenges in life and it was decided to eat some ice creams so as to ease out on the sufferings coming because of the challenges in life( as well as the hot humid weather of mumbai) .. And so we trooped towards Naturals outlet nearby .. But due to some reasons the natural's ice cream was not upto it's natural mark .. so we decided to seek refuge at the Baskin Robbins outlet to overcome the disappointment at Naturals ( not to forget the challenges in life ) .. as we reached the shop , we observed that the baskin robbins vendor was closing off the shop since it was midnight.. The Thane SME suggested that there is a Mocha near the hiranndani complex and it was suggested by the honorable SME that we walk over to Mocha @ Thane and beat the challenges in life ( as well as the midnight blues ).. I had some doubts about Mocha being present in thane but knowing the stature of the SME, was afraid of speaking out my thoughts ..

And so we reached the Hiranandani complex and discovered that there is no Mocha over there . And so we took this opportunity to curse the no longer honorable SME to our heart's content .. A brain storming session was held outside CCD @ midnight to discuss on the plan of action for overcoming the challenges in life and it was decided that we will all be going to the CCD.

We entered CCD to What the glare from the attendants who were about to begin their winding up business for the day ... We made ourselves comfortable on the couches provided as the attendant came to take our order , i asked for some ice cream shake. I heard mr SG asking for Cappuccino whereas Mr AS went for some ice cream. I wondered out loud how come SG can have a capuchinno @ midnight to beat the mumbai heat-humidity combo to which SG responded back in his customary unprintable words .

And so our order was delivered.I sipped on my ice cream shake ,AS nibbled on his ice cream and SG stared at his cappuccino with wonder. And then he looked at us .. AS quipped you got what you ordered ( in a tone similar to as u sow so shall u reap ) . SG said this was not what he ordered and proudly called up attendant and asked him what he had bought.. The attendant in full innocence said capuchinno .. Mr SG says it was lo and not no, it was chillo and not chino , it was cappuchillo and not cappuchino.

As all present in CCD realized the implications of the lo and no, Me and AS exploded laughing , the attendant pushed the menu on the SG and said we don't serve any cappuchillo , only cappuchino is mentioned on the menu.

It is rumored that next day mr SG was asking for cuttin chillo at the office tapri ..

The End Da Style .....

Today had been a bit of a hectic day .. So as I, after a sumptuous sub , walked towards my house I met KS and RC chit chatting. They told me about the various happenings of the day and how the stock markets tumbled over the day because of the some official getting caught for corruption ... And as I opened the doors ,I cursed the Indian leaders and concluded that nothing can be done ,I saw a video from AM1 on the facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/nitin.kp#!/video/video.php?v=143035945734046&comments

And as I was watching this video , i thought about all the things which had been happening for past few days and wondered with the type of institutionalized corruption prevalent in India and even a bribe needed for a person to do his job can things ever change.. At that time the below video came to my mind ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0m9G0nacuP4

I hope the political leadership of the country has the will to weed out the corruption from this country otherwise it will be The End for the country and whatever this country stood for .....

A meaningful week , finished of two books
- Before Memory Fades by Fali Nariman .... Nice book about most of the various meaningful court cases in India specially those challenging the constitution or seeking to amend/tamper it or the ones dealing with interpretation of the law as well as what happened in India during his lifetime.. One sentence which made me pause for a minute - "Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly"

Three Mistakes of my Life by Chetan Anand -- Ok novel .. bit like the Indian Movie .. One nice sentence which made me pause for a minute "Am i missing something by being agnostic?"

finished of reading P Chidambaran's A view from outside ... Nice informative book

JRD - The effective execution of a plan is what counts and not mere planning on paper; it is not what we put on our place or even what we eat that provides nourishment and growth , but what we digest ..
Paulo Coelho - The hours of waiting have been transformed into tension, the tension has become fear, and the fear makes you embrassed about showing affection.

Of Calm and Content in Mumbai…….

I had always wanted to write about Mumbai, the obvious reason being all good famous writers write about Mumbai. However Mumbai as a subject turned out to be very difficult for me, the main reason being I was not able to find any good headline for Mumbai .And so I started searching for an appropriate headline for whatever I was planning to write about Mumbai somewhere last year (2007). And this search saw lot of good ideas being lost in the mist of time. Anyway some of the headings which I thought of where:

Sleepless in Mumbai : This topic was inspired by one of my friends in Seattle who had made her orkut profile as Sleepless in Seattle . Well, I had this peculiar problem of sleep eluding me in Mumbai .There used to be time I used to be awake till 2:00 am and then when I realized that the problem is becoming too much , I started going on nightly walks through the bylanes of Borivali . Long walks on the road divider armed with a umbrella to protect self against unexpected rains as well as curious dogs. When my roomie started cribbing about my night walks, I was forced to cut down on this simple inexpensive hobby.

Of Love and Longing in Mumbai: This was a very catchy topic with a lot of commercial value considering the way bollywood love-stories had fared recently on the box-office .I am a person who can go and go and go and go and go and go and go and go on writing about Love as a subject. But then the experience of Longing is something with which I am not very familiar with.

Of Calm and Content In Mumbai: This topic came to my mind when I was going through the book Shantaram by Gregory Roberts. I got hold of the book during my 2008 India visit. And the author was telling about his serene peaceful sleep in his hut in a Mumbai slum. At that time, i recalled one incident which happened in Mumbai Local Trains. Mumbai Local trains are famous/notorious for the huge mass of human race who board it daily from suburbs to reach their work places. For a person visiting Mumbai , this is an experience which he should not miss and for a person who lives in Mumbai , this is one experience which he would love to miss.

Anyway coming to Mumbai and the day, after a 18 hr flight and 2 hr sleep, I was roaming around Mumbai covered in a mist of jet lag with famous Mumbai rains giving me a steady company. At about 8:30 in the morning, I pushed myself into a local compartment loaded with a huge bag on my back ( courtesy Santi’s consignment ). As expected , at the next station one of the person standing behind me started cribbing about my bag and as I resorted to my once familiar tactic of ignoring such bickering on locals , a person standing in front of me appreciating my strategic ignorance, gave one of that illuminating smiles about which I had read a lot in Santaram. And as I smiled back to that unknown person who I will not be meeting ever in my life again I had this feeling of serenity and calmness pervading me, the same peace which one experiences when being surrounded by familiar ones. For a moment I was surprised on how I, with less than 8 hrs in the hot humid climes of Mumbai, can be at so much peace inside a crowded local train in Mumbai

Tum ho to gaata hai dil !!

Ok .. time for some philosophical ,sentimental crap ...

On that day while i was busy sleeping on my way to office , I remembered my longest running roommate . One very decent and innocent person with whom I had shared my room for 2 years 8 months ..Just the thought of him bought a smile to my face as well as slight pain.. Smile because he had been a pillar in my life during the 2 years 8 months we were together, being a worthy partner in the crazy adventures which we used to impose on him in Mumbai( including nights spent sleeping on a chair after being locked out) . Slight pain because I was not having any contact with him for past 1 year or so ...I remember the way I had first resented his conservative arrival , on how he used to think ,think and again think and then act and how this thinking business had stopped me from running wild at many times ..

As i got up to hide that tear drop running wild from my eye , I saw the crowd standing on one of the umpteen busstops in Mumbai and I remembered how AK1 had ran to catch a bus for me last week and how AK2 jumped in front of that bus to make it stop since both of them knew I wont be able to catch bus in my tearsome state .

As that incident bought a smile on my face, i gave up my sleeping business and thot of checking on others in the bus ..

It was at that time , I realized that even though my life has always has it shares of ups and downs.. Ups which I had celebrated with lot of people , and downs with some people knowingly , unknowingly helped me navigate. Even though I had been fair to some and unfair with lot of other people. Even though I had tried to manipulate people who had put their trust in me whenever I felt that my course of action was the right way , i cannot deny the indelible mark left by all these on my life and it would be good if I make an attempt to remember all those moments which really made me extremely content about my life ....

So this blog is dedicated to all those

• Angels who helped me experience heaven by being a part of my life.
• Rascals who helped me in my dreams of devising and enjoying hell.
• Victims Who were forced to experience , enjoy/tolerate my presence along with it's quota of impulsiveness , bad jokes , goof ups , mishaps ,clean ups ..
• Humans who helped me realize the importance of being a human ..

And this dedication begins with the Rock On Song ...

Tum Ho to Gaata Hai Dil

· My parents for pretty much letting me do what I wanted to do ( most of the time )

· Dad for enforcing the rule that If I wanted to smoke ciggy or anything ( i assume ganja , hashish etc ) , i should do with my own money and not his ..

· My brother for being an ideal competitor in most of good things ..

· Mom to explain very very early in my life that friends are much more important than the differences which you have with them.

· DG for being the best example for this very early in the life.

· My brother , Princy , NH , SJ , PG , SR and others from that gang whose devilish tricks kept me on my toes till the time I started playing the same tricks on others..

· SG for keeping quite about all my failed attempts to be a devil in the childhood and still keeping quite. I hope , prays she keeps quite.

· M Uncle and Chechi for being the Mr Wilson and Mrs Wilson of Dennis The Menace phase of my childhood.

· SG for that one big jump which still continues to illuminate my life

· SG for all the time spent making tents , catching tadpoles and assuming them to be fishes , running after dacoits on tricycle and wooden horses, hanging on the swing , enacting spider man and spider woman and protecting the world or running of at betaal's entrance during Bikram & Betaal .

· M Uncle for always waiting for me before starting the Diwali festivities .

· RM1 , RM2 , BA , SG , SA1 , SA2 for letting me believe that I can play all my terror tricks safely on them.

· DG and HW for always being there

· R teacher , P teacher , F teacher , K Teacher for being what they were ( ok I am tonguetied ).

· P teacher for taking responsibility of the below bunch of devils for most creative time of their destructive childhood ( or was it the other way round ). This can be termed as beginning of Calvin & Hobbes phase..

· DG , HW , HQ, YR , NB , SM , NN , GM , LG , YB , DP , PD , AG , AN , PH , PS ,AU , DT , HH , PT , PZ , YS , RC , BP for all the time

o Spent running wild in Bhandara on foot , cycles , hand carts , cycle-rikshaws , jeeps , cars , trucks , tempos , horse carts, bullock carts etc etc

o Perched on trees in backyard of my house

o Perched on trees in civil lines

o Perched on Mahal walls

o Fighting of Monkey invasions :)

o Played gadda- gaddi

o Player Chor Police

o Played Nadi-Pahad

o Played Hide n Seeks

o Played football with a stone

o Played football with a plastic table-tennis ball

o Played football with a cricket ball

o Played football with a tennis ball

o Played football with a over-sized cricket ball

o Played football with a volley ball

o Played football with a football ball

o Played cricket with a stone

o Played cricket with a plastic table-tennis ball

o Played cricket with a cricket ball

o Played cricket with a tennis ball

o Played cricket with a over-sized cricket ball

o Played cricket with a volley ball

o Played cricket with a football ball

o War games in the construction plot with brick trains

o Cheered the school football team under heavy rains

o Bunked classes under pretext of cheering the school football team

o Bunked classes under pretext of running for the intra-city marathon

o AG for discovering the short cut in the city marathon track

o Making the Rajiv Gandhi Square the most happening spot in Bhandara

o DG , HW , HQ for the summer 2K run to the football grounds

o K sir for keeping quite about all the volley balls which we used to burst after playing football with it

o K sir for taking in a sporting way when we used to shout his name during the class parades

o DT for the first Arnold movie I ever watched in my entire life. That evening is still fresh in my mind.

· HQ's parents for all the parties which we used to have at their house in the guise of preparing for school events , Independance days , Republic Days , Fun feasts , annual meets , Teachers day etc etc

· And not to forget the annual after exam parties organized in the guise of Id Parties :D

· Q Uncle for showing us how good a person can be in spite of all adversities.

· M Uncle for always ensuring the jeep to carry us to school on rainy days :)

· M Uncle for once forgetting to send the jeep to school after rains and we celebrated by having a picnic on the jail road :D

· All uncles of Friend's colony for letting us use the store room for storing our sporting stuffs

· M Uncle for asking the truck driver ensure that our playing grounds are always flat :)

· MSEB for leaving our area in dark continuously for 3 nights

· All Friend's Colony people who went on a construction spree during our time there thereby always ensuring a ample supply of half built houses for us to play.

· SM1 for all the good time we had in the pretext of running a comics library

· SP Snr for turning Xth maths into an interesting challenge.

·

· SP for his regular calls which begins with 'Nitin bhai .. bahoot din ho gaye aapse baat karke'

· RC for coming out of the RK's group when he crossed me on the way

· AB for his innocence. Really dread the moment this innocence will crash into the corporate world

Readings

Five Point Something -- Chetan Bhagat -- Ok
Fifth Mountain -- Paulo Coelho -- Ok
Witch of Portobello -- Paulo Coelho -- Ok
The Pilgrimage -- Paulo Coelho -- Good
Veronika decides to die -- Good
Eleven Minutes -- Good

Things to do

1 -- Copy all my blog postings to blogger
2 -- Finish of PC
3 -- Finish of the Zahir blog
4 -- Refinish PC
5 -- Plan the North India trip
6 --

Good Intentioned Gafoor .. The GIG Feature 1

So the date was 05/14/2010 .I had gone with Gafoor to watch Ironman 2 at the nearby theatre.The ticket fellow informed us that the English movie will be in Hindi. So instead of wasting our time inside we decide to waste some time outside the theatre before heading for home.while we were wasting time sitting and watching the nightwalkers , good intentioned Gafoor started playing songs on his cell.After close to 30 minutes' we headed back home and the tragedy strikes or rather i purposefully hit the tragedy by starting the song Hare Rama Hare Krishna from the movie Bhool Bhulaiya. And this song brings out the devil inside Gafooor who starts dancing.as the lifts door opens one kid comes out who also joins Gafoor in his dance. As me and Gafoor enter the lift,the music stops. With no music ,I thought Gafoor will also now logically stop his dance. But then Gafooor always had a very uncomfortable relation with logic. And so Mr Gafoor continues with his dance while the lift tries to rockets itself towards the 14th floor.

As the lift shook with Gafoor's dance maneuvers,I tried to impress upon Gafoor the risk of indulging in such earth shattering dance inside a moving lift when suddenly, somewhere close to 4th floor, the lift stops. Some "tearsome" incidents over the past year has robbed me of creativity in dealing with the unexpected and has sapped my mind of enjoying the thrills a adventure can bring. various images and news items of lift crashes went through my mind.but in spite of all my doubts I was optimistic about Gafoor's optimism. Supremely confident Gafoor represses the button for 14th floor , nothing happens. The reasonable person inside gafoor takes over and this time 4th floor is attempted.Again nothing happens.Now Gafoor presses alarm key inside the lift, again nothing happens. Bit shaken up, Gafoor now presses all buttons expecting something to happen.Again the lift repeats its earlier behavior of not reacting to stimulus Gafoor has beeen applying.With all the buttons now lit up , Gafoor with a glint in eyes shows me how good it looks when all buttons on lifts dashboard are lit.

With no indication of any help coming , i stared at the stupid cell the origin of all trouble and saw that one bar on the cell was still there to give us some support.I called up SG hoping he will come rushing to help us i found his cell engaged.after several minutes Gafoor was successful in disengaging him. In spite of best attempts by Gafoor, SG understood the seriousness of the situation and we heard him talking to the security fellow over the phone. Seeing the control completely going out of Gafoor's grasp my optimism made a renewed comeback however i being aware of Gafoor's reputation of positively screwing any positive situation, instead of showing my sense of relief i threatened him with a sms complaint to Lady Gafoor. Suddenly there were bangings on the lift door indicating the presence of rescue team on other side of the door.

So after close to 30 min inside a stuck lift I experienced first contact with the intelligence. As me and Gafoor waited patently for the door to open , There was some arguments on the other side of the door and suddenly all sound ceased. With nothing left for Gafoor to do he again starts twiddling with the lift controls. With nothing left for me to do , i again threatened Gafoor with a sms complaint to lady Gafoor. I threateningly opened my cell and type in the name of Lady Gafoor, an excited babble comes from the other side of the door. Finally the door opens, there is a crowd of ignorants waiting for us on the other side complaining bout the lack of maintenance of the lift. Gafoor is kind enuff to let me go out first. As gafoor climbs out of lift, his cell rings. It is the Lady Gafoor.

As Gafoor looks at me , I stare towards the ceiling.

The 5 People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom - Good
Zahir -- Paulo Coelho - Very Good
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho - Good
Vector - Robin Cook - Ok
Two States - Chetan Bhagat - Ok
Chowringhee - Shankar - Good
The Winner Stands Alone - Paulo Coelho - ok
A book on Nov 26 2008 Mumbai Attack - Ok

Mumbai roars , MNIK sinks the Sena

As Marathi Manoos kicked sena in its guts , the message is loud and clear. The common man of India will no longer be intimidated/fooled in by parties trying to disguise hooliganism with politics/patriotism/nationalism . The party which tried its best to use democratic tolerance to strangle democracy in the country and the state has been given a fitting response by this simple act of maharastrians of watching the Khan movie.

I was shocked when I saw a person who was once speaker of Lok Sabha i.e presiding office of the highest democratic insitution of India ,Mr Manohar Joshi supporting such moves to force khan to apologise .And as Maha Govt seemed to be dithering before the possibilities of violence, everything seems lost . And at this time , it was the common man who took upon him to show to the rest of world how deeply the values of democracy and respect for individual views are embedded into the Indian psyche.


This simple act will go a long way in strengthening the Indian democracy and justifying all the sacrifices which were made in order to ensure individual freedom in the country ..

Hats off to the Common Man ! Hats off to the Mumbaikars !!

Aye Mere Watan Ke Logo

Well I am in India and the nation celebrated it's 60th Republic Day with the traditional fervor :
- India to deploy Trishul Missiles
- Read a book about the Nov 26 2008 terror attack in Mumbai
- Re-reading the books India After Gandhi and Shantaram
- Maha CM tried to make Marathi as a compulsory language for taxi drivers in Mumbai
- Govt has just announced the list of Padma Awards winner
- AP is burning because of the Telanagana issue
- Prices are going up and the govt is working very creatively to look on whom to blame.
- IPL people snubbed the Pak
- SK was forced to go Delhi on 26th in spite of it being a holiday

And with all these thoughts creating a muddle in my mind i logged into the internet and i saw the news on IBN live about Naya Mile Sura and how it had became a Film industry Integration Program rather than a national integration program .. I checked it to see Big B and Big B's Family telling us about how their sur met ... I logged on to orkut and saw each and every person Jai Hind'ing each other ..

And so I thot why not join the crowd and do something similar .. But then the familiar urge of doing something different than the rest of crowd raised it's head and I thot of putting in the Aye Mere Watan Ke Logo Song.

And while I was searching on You Tube for this Song , i thot why not listen to this Song once before pasting it over there.. Maybe I can come up with something more different than the rest.

And as i listened to the Song ,the first thought in my mind was Nehru had cried on listening to this Song and the cynic in me responded that he had to cry after what happened to his China policy ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyAhYbwUr2U&NR=1

And as the Song progressed , i started recalling the words of this great song ..

Koi Sikh Koi Jatt Maratha
Koi Gurka Koi Madrasi
Sarhad pe Marne Vaala
Har Veer Tha Bharatwasi..

Jo Khoon Girra Parvat pe
Voh Khoon thaa Hindustani

And as the words hit, i realized the futility of all the small things for which we are fighting amongst ourselves.If we take a look at the history of this piece of land, India as a one single country, as a nation never existed. But somehow the idea of a one single nation for the teeming humanity living in Indian Sub-continent was born and nurtured. And lot of sacrifices were made in order to ensure that this nation survives.