delhi winters and chai..

its not unusual when you start deriving vicarious pleasures from something.

In fact it is this virtual experience which enables you to strive through hard times, especially when you are working towards converting the virtual to reality.

2-3 days back i woke up ; it was a weekday and had to go to office. for the morning tea i had to go to the tea stall near my home as we ran out of gas. Seven in the morning and you find school kids going to school, hand in hand with their mummy papa .. auto rickshaw drivers watching people coming out of their homes and speculating their chances of getting this passenger for their first fare.tea stalls are already in full swing by then, because thats when people need tea the most.

its a very fresh feeling to see the start of the day. in decembers, mumbai gives you a tinge(mind you, only a tinge) of delhi. mornings are similar and nights too.. what happens between these two is poles apart from what delhi experiences in december :)

the sunlight was at just the right angle. i was sipping the morning tea at t stall and observing all this. They dont make good tea in mumbai, trust me.. have no clue what they put in their tea but its tastes highly inorganic and chemically treated.. they call it 'cutting ' ..

some places are exception though.. my office pantry serves awesome tea.. right amount of ginger and sugar and milk..

thats it.. nothing else to put here.. there nothing else which mumbai gives me when i am missing delhi.. :(

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are younot to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Marianne Williamson

a simple equation

if you cant explain it simply,

you have probably not understood it ....

nainitaal

Time: 2nd year college

Place: nainital,saat taal

The dog used to sleep inside the spacious robust hut. In fact it would slip in your bed while you dreaming. And sleep peacefully. You too would not mind it , considering how cold it is outside and that the leopards are out looking for preys in the night. Leopards kill dogs, one of the guys there told us.

The isolated hut was among 3 other huts put on the top of that mountain. If you go downhill for any reason; be it a stroll or cigarettes/liquor, you ought to ask the cook(Jungi da, if i am not mistaken) if there is any necessary item to be brought to the kitchen(grocery, etc.).

There was no electricity there. Only a genset to fetch water. everything else was un-electric.

Probably that is what gave that place a distinct feel. They told us that during winters foreigners throng this place to sit in solace. Foreigners from Israel, Italy, France. They smoke pots and remain high every time.

At night they made aaloo pyaaz parantha in dinner. Jundi da served it. They said Jungi Da is the coolest and most contended person alive, at least in nainital. He would reject a bag full of money for the life he is living now. Torn and shabby clothes. All this man wants is his two pair of trousers and some shirts gifted/given away by guest foreigners, a glass to put in some desi/vilaaiti daaru or some tea and beedis which he always puffed irrespective of what he was doing.

One of them put some whiskey in a tapri glass and sipped. He was humming 'Ma rewa' from Indian ocean. That was the next best thing you could listen to after listening to Indian Ocean Live.

Later , one of them asked us if we wished to sit out and look for the leopard. We agreed. While we were sitting there, they lighted some stuff(ganja/marijuana/?? whatever!!). I could see that weed is part of their lives in mountains. Shiv ji too used to have it with Parvati ! Then one of them said with hushed tone, "dekho Udhar!! Woh us taraf, saamne!! "

And it was there... two eyes looking towards us. very similar to the cat's eyes; the way they illuminate in the dark. Still .. Rock Still.. And then they lighted up their search torch to shoo him away.. And instantaneously they disappeared...

We were two boys.

Me and my friend Shishank.

''Theres something about this world that i know, which nobody knows... and the same thing will take me places... ''

mantra...

"I will NOT be outworked. Period... You might have more talent than me, you might be smarter than me, you might be sexier than me, you might be all of those things. You got it on me in nine categories. But if we get on the treadmill together, there's two things: Either you're getting off first, or I'm gonna die. It's really that simple."

-Will Smith,

free !

I am free !!!

No , i am not referring to the freedom which is fundamentally granted to me. I am talking about the current status i have in the office. Recently deputed into some other profile, i am basically free. Everyday i sit in my office and listen people talking to others on phone or gossiping about each other. It has helped me to assess them and hence plan my attitude at the workplace.

Whatever it is but this new office life is also very interesting. Prior to this i used to roam around, meet clients and come back home. Now I am supposed to sit at one place and work with a team. And it feels good.

facebook mania

of late i have been noticing people clinging to facebook(FB). And when you ask them the reason they are quick to respond that its better than orkut.

However there has not been one single instance when i felt that facebook was making it easier for me interact with my friends. Now its a personal take and people might differ but heres what i have to say >>

* first of all i find facebook very difficult. Its like understanding something new for no good.

for example : lets say i log into the FB site. The first thing i find is the whole package of unnecessary information (rather data) all over my screen [ like; 'ABC gifted a teddy to XYZ' , ' PQRS is happy today' , " MNO just found out his friend for the day' , ' wxy commented on EFG's photograph',] . Now this data, is all useless to me. Why would i like to know how is ABC treating XYZ; if he is gifting a teddy or a fresh cabbage to him is of no concern to me.. and even if i would be interested to know it, i will definitely call my friend or he/she will call me. I don't want to know how is everyone gifting and treating each other with the help of virtual bouquets/hugs/smiles and rest all items in the FB kitty.

* Secondly, I think FB is very confusing too. If i wish to write anything to my friend, i have an option of a WALL. A wall which is too big to keep anything personal or even little unreachable. I mean, i don't mind people reading my messages to my friends. But please do not paint them on a stupid wall which is intentionally made very public. I guess orkut does a very handsome job here. People who are free enough to read messages scribbled on some one's page can do it only if the take pains to get inside others profile and read the messages which were not meant for them. In fact to ensure that you have a privacy, you can easily set the privacy option and disable any user to read the scraps not meant for them. So here's a very customized option available with orkut.

* thirdly , I am prejudiced towards orkut because it is owned by Google, of which i am a fan. Simply because Google is awesome and a smart way to do things.

While concluding , i can only say that FB might be the talk of the town, but eventually its the robust and simpler things which win. Yes! the variably sized display picture which you can put on the FB home page is one of the things people admire( in orkut there is only standard size which is possible) and FB scores over Orkut when it comes to the texture and over all lookout; but the sheer simplicity and clarity in Orkut is overwhelming.

One of the prime advantage Orkut has is the fact that Indians got addicted to Orkut well before the advent of FB. And that everything in Orkut seems to be more simple and clear.

Whatever the reason is, i am a fan of Orkut.

I am not sure if , by now , FB must have published it on my FB wall ' shwetank sharma has become a fan of Orkut'

[:)]