The Good and the Bad that happened to me lately...

Note: These are some of the events that come to my mind when I think of the good and the bad that has happened to me recently. And these are not in any specific order!!.

Bad:

1> One of my colleagues, with whom I was in regular contact over phone, thought that I was a gal!!! Later, she thought that I was a old guy (in mid thirties!!!)
Do you believe that??
And her reason, I had taken a sick leave!!
Are only oldies eligible for sick leave? :-(

2> Bought an IPOD on ebay from a powerseller!!!! The IPOD doesn't work ;-(

3> Got into a restuarant and ordered food !! Realized later that I had left the wallet back home ;-(

4> Warney came to Canary Wharf. The queue was so big that I did not get chance to meet him. ;-(

Good:

1> Shifted my residence to a beautiful apartment in Canary Wharf

2> Played Indoor Cricket @ PlayOnSports along with some colleagues. Though i was in the losing team, it was awesome!!

3> My trip to the Scottish Highlands. ;-)

4> The number and the seriousness of the defects in my project has drastically reduced!! Yipeeeee!!

The Walk - Part Two

I had promised myself that I would record my complete trek details for future reference. It's been a long time since I wrote the first part, so most of the details are rather blur.

My map read -

Terrain: Hilly in places, but mostly easy walking. A section of the climb up to Shacklow Wood can be difficult under foot in wet weather.

And as the weather was just perfect - perfectly wet!!! ;-(

Our route:
1. Walk across the field guided by the marker post to the far right hand corner and go over a stile onto a farm track.

2. Go to the left up the track until it enters a field, when you immediately turn left up a slope, keeping close to the wall on your left.

3. After crossing the stile in the top corner of the field, turn sharp right keeping close to the stone wall and go through the next stile onto another farm track.

4. Continue along the well signed track, shortly to follow the edge of the steeply sided valley round to the right, to climb a short flight of steps to Monsal Head.

5. From here take the signed path down a flight of steps to Monsal Dale and the viaduct, turning left at a gate by the end of some farm buildings.

6. Cross a footbridge and turn left to follow the path close to the River Wye for just over a mile to reach the busy A6.

7. Walk across the road to the far side of White Lodge Car Park, and take the surfaced path across the field heading for the trees high up on the left.

8. On reaching a waymarker bear to the left to enter a narrow limestone valley. In about 50 yards cross a stile on the left and follow the winding path to another waymarker taking the route signed ‘Ashford and Sheldon’ leading up the hillside to the left.

9. Go through a stile into Shacklow Wood heading for Ashford. Continue along the path as it gently descends to follow the riverbank to the Sheldon Road where you turn left.

10. After a short distance turn right along the A6 and then left at Sheepwash Bridge into Ashford. Carry straight on up Fennel Street, turning to the right at the top back to the start of the walk.

Amazing trek!!!! And we had our map to guide us.

The only problem was point 6 : `follow the path close to the River Wye for just over a mile to reach the busy A6`.

We walked and walked and walked......for more than a mile... more than 2-3 miles but no sign of A6...
Either that, or our definition of a mile was way off target!!! :-0

P.S> We completed this trail in 5-6 hrs at quite a steady gait!!! And I still do have nightmares about the almost 45 degree climb in Shacklow Wood, under very slippery conditions and inadequate shoes and nothing to stop my fall before the valley hundreds of feet below!!!!

Life is beautiful...

On a gloomy day while travelling through the highlands of Scotland, the rain decided to give us a break. The sun came out beautifully through the clouds. And thats when I saw this most beautiful rainbow that spanned from one village to the next. This was a sight that would have brought cheer on many faces that day....

And I couldn't help singing to myself : "It's a beautiful day!!"

While travelling on the bus on my way to office i saw this mom of two smartly dressed kids, and a toddler, dropping her kids to the stop nearest to their school. The brothers took their turns to kiss their mother and kissed the youngest sibling goodbye."Cross the road safely!" reminded the mother.

The mom stood looking from the back window of the bus till her children were out of sight.

At "Heights of Abraham", a theme park, said a father to his 2-3 yr old son : "You know this was the place where Mommy and Daddy decided that we wanted to make you. Now after these 3 years all three of us are here".

The mom continued hugging her hubby and kept smiling!

While climbing dowm a very tricky 500 spiral steps of a watch tower, I saw a saw a couple of kids ahead of me all alone. Since I could not overtake them I chose to observe them carefully. The elder gal had a firm hold on her younger sis. When at last we reached the ground, I saw a guy running towards them shouting "Where have you gals been? Why did you climb the tower without telling us?". "Your mother and I were worried!"

The younger of the two gals replied: " Don't worry Dad. Sis was holding my hand all the time."

It' when you see instances like this, you realize that life is so beautiful.... If only we open our eyes and look around!!!

Munnabhai's Chemical Locha...

Well if you felt Munnabhai MBBS was the best movie that the Dutt-Warsi-Hirani could pull off, you definitely need to watch the 2nd installment.
You will be left spellbound diring the entire course of the movie and in some cases even days after.

"Lage Raho Munnabhai", is about our 'sweet as Halwa' Gangster Munnabhai, played by Sanjay Dutt, who recreates magic once again in the awesome company of the the 'crunchy as Popcorn' sidekick Sarkeswar (a.k.a. Circuit) played to perfection by Arshad Warsi.

One request. Please for God's sake don't call this a SEQUEL!!! This is an entirely new chapter in Munnabhai's life. A chapter thats is entirely new and refreshing but still retaining the essence of their first outing.

This time, Munna's love interest is a cute RJ Jhanavi, played by the beautiful Vidya Balan of Parineeta fame. Her "Good Morning Mumbai" really seemed like a good show and her voice was near perfect for a RJ. I say near perfect because the last time someone played an RJ was so horrible.(Remember RJ (S)ambhar of Salaam Namaste :-0).

In this instalment too, we have the talented Boman Irani, playing a punjabi contracter. What he likes to do best apart from usurping other peoples houses and lands, is to pose for photograph which he morphs later with Aiswarya, Bush, The Queen, and so on and so forth. He shows us why he is considered one of the finest comedians in indian cinema.

Also it was nice to see Parikshit Sahni on screen after a long time.
Jimmy Shergill is refreshing as ever and Dia looked beautiful.

But the best part of the movie was Munna's interactions with Mahatma. Those scenes were truly endearing. Hirani really managed to teach us all a bit of Gandhian principles... principles that we had long forgotten. For once, there is a sane director who doesn't shove 'Gandhigiri' down our unwilling throats; Instead he lets these feelings sink in rather smoothly.

Warning: SpoilerAhead!!!

Abhishekh seems to be the only choice for all directors for a special appearance. He is totally wasted in this movie.

This movie was one of my best cinema experiences. Hirani really shows us that the exotic locales, grand sets, superstars need not necessarily make a good movie. There is more to it.

There is a thing called HEART!!!!

The inS(h)ane Way...

Guess what! It was my lucky day today. I had the good fortune to being within couple of metres reach from my favourite cricketer.
Warney had come to Canary Wharf for the launch of his new book "Shane Warne - My Illustrated Career". Unluckily for us, there was such a long queue for his autograrh that we had to returned empty-handed. ;-(
I just love Warney .....for his for his wildly beautiful legbreaks and the perfectly pitched flippers(..or zooters or whatever you care to call it),... his intense concentration interspersed with the broadest of smiles, ....his sporting nature(I just love the way he applauds the batsman who has thrashed him all over the park), ....for his ability to stage a comeback when almost everyone had lost hope(remember the diuretic drama).
And the list goes on.... and on... and on..... Like the energizer bunny they show in the advertisement. ;-)
His life is nothing short of a fairytale crafted in the most inS(h)anely way possible!
If only everyone had a little bit of Shane in 'em... Life wouldn't have been this Ordinary!!

P.S>While we were standing in queue for buying the book, we noticed a much bigger queue for shane's autograph. So we decided to split and one woul buy the book and other block place in the autograph queue. But, Your's Truly noticed that no one in the queue were buying the "Shane Warne" book.
Me: Arey yaar!! yeh book to koi nahi khareed raha hai... There is no point in splitting up and me standing in the autograph queue. Jisko bhi wahan jana hai, woh yahin so to jayega!"
Atul: "Yaar. Woh aagey wali ke haath mein hain na, Dekh
Me: "Kahaan yaar!!"
That aage waali (in the most Britishest of indian accent): "Main hindi janti hoon!!"
Me(dumbfounded): "Sheeesh!" ;-(

A place called HOME...

John Denver is one of my favourite singers. Whenever I feel like relaxing, I just put on some tracks of his. They take me to a different universe altogether... where everything's beautiful. If you haven't heard "Country Roads" then please do listen to it.
I am quoting couple of stanzas from it:

"Almost heaven, west virginia
Blue ridge mountains, shenandoah river
Life is old there, older than the trees
Younger than the mountains, blowing like a breeze

Country roads, take me home
To the place, I be-long
West virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads"

Take me home ... to the place I belong... Beautiful! Ain't it?

And talking about HOME, my home is where my family is. Dad, Mom, Sis and our Loving Lord. A small happy home. It wasn't always happy, but we reached there finally.
All thanks to our wonderful God.

O Lord, today I pray that you stay in our home and our hearts for ever. My family needs you.. My friends need you.. And more than all I need you in my life for ever.

2 Corinthians 12:9 - "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." I just saw part of this quote on one of my friend's msn, and I couldn't refrain from quoting it here today.

This is one of my favourite verses from the Bible. Whenever I am in trouble of any kind. I just think of this verse. It calms me.... for I know that I can face the vilest of demons because My Lord is with me and his grace is sufficient for me.

I wish.....

Note: This picture was taken during the fun beach carnival last month at West India Quay. England is trying hard to promote cricket, so URBAN CRICKET was distributing free softball bats. I too picked up one. ;-)

Cricket being my favourite subject, is the topic for today's post too. Here it goes...

After being hit all over the park on my bowling today, I have only ONE wish.

I wish, I could bat against my own bowling......

Among the bubbles....

After a very tiring day out at the beach (We went there as a group of 17 people. Also I haven't been at a beach in a very long time.) at Bournemouth, I came back home and had the most amazing bubble-bath ever..and I mean EVER!
I don't have the patience to take bubble-bath daily, so most often than not, it falls on a Sunday.
I could feeld my pains just vapourize and float away leaving me with the most intense feeling of peaceful calm within.
And that's the time I reflected on my past. I wasn't the two shaded soul, I thought I was. I had lot's of different shades to me.
Only that it too ages for me to realize this...

Warm bath with muscle soak bath salts and lots of bath creme to get the required fragrant bubbles.... And just lie down in it for an hour... It's a beautiful experience. Now, I know it sounds kinda girly stuff.
But, if Chandler Bing can love bubble-baths (Remember the Friends episode?), so can I.

Cheers.

P.S> I am trying hard to finish off my "Ashford in the Water" trek details( i.e. the Walk - Part 2). I have almost written it twice and deleted, soz I am not able to capture the beauty of out trail in words.

Addiction....

Bob Coorgy and his family lived in a small crack in the wall in Mr. Sharma's house. Papa Bob...Mama Sue...The triplets Peggy, Megan, Rea ... and young Randy! A perfect family!!

Mr. Sharma was a very religious man who worshipped with so much rigour that it used to shake the entire Coorgy household. Apart from his pooja hours, Mr. Sharma was as gentle as a lamb.

Mrs. Sharma on the other hand was an Amazon. She was very beautiful but could look menacing when she needed to be. One glare of her's could make you wet your pants.
The Coorgy household had learnt by experience, never to cross Mrs. Sharma.

One morning, the entire Coorgy family woke up to the hysterical screams of Mrs. Sharma. Bob, looked through the crack and saw Mrs. Sharma weeping, holding a saree to her bosom. Mr. Sharma sat beside his wife and tried had to console her. Someone had dared to venture into Mrs. Sharma's closet and bitten her favourite saree to shreds.

That was the day when all hell was set loose. Mrs. Sharma wanted "those darn rats" to be exterminated.
She went to the Tuesday market and bought a rat trap and a big packet of cheese. Bob and his family were totally oblivious of this happening.

That day Mrs. Sharma put some cheese in a small bowl and left it overnight. Bob and his family had a feast,the same night, not knowing what the future had in hold for them.

Now this became a practice. Mrs. Sharma would place some left over cheese and the Coory family would wipe it clean. Cheese was the best food that the family had ever fed on. Slowly, they were so addicted that could not live without cheese.

The following week, the mouse trap was set and cheese was placed on it. It was the little Megan who first saw it. She looked back if any of her family was in sight. Seeing no one, she breathed a sigh of relief. Now she had the whole cheese slice to herself. She steathily crawled towards it.

SNAP!
Mrs. Sharma knew what had happened. She rushed towards the trap. She was victorious. She asked her husband to get rid of the mess and set up the trap again.

From the crack in the wall Bob and his family witnessed the aftermath. They knew that something bad had happened to Megan. Bob and Sue, explained to their kids what Mrs. Sharma had done. They prohibited their kids not to eat cheese out of the trap again.

That same evening, a trap was set again. A beautiful round piece of cheese lay within. Peggy and Rea both saw it. They had witnessed what had happened to Megan. But, they loved their cheese.

Peggy tried hard to look away from the dazzing white cheese ball. She could not resist any longer and leapt for it, even before her sister could.

SNAP!
This time the cheese ball fell out of the trap. Rea ran after it, not even bothering to look what happened to Peggy.
Randy, playing behind the chairs, saw the cheese ball roll towards him.

He had never seen such a beautiful sight in his life. He wanted it. He wanted the cheese real BAD!
He sprinted out of his hiding towards the cheese only to find Rea take a huge bite of it. How could she take something that belonged to him? His own sister had tricked him. Without any further thought, Randy attacked her.

Rea, small as she was, could not protect herself from the sudden attack and lay bleeding nearby. Randy fed on the leftover cheese. He took the largest bite possible, so that no one else would take his share. He tried to chew it but the chunk was too large for his small throat.

His face turned pale as he chocked to death!

Bob and Sue, not finding their children at home, came out only to find the the blood soaked body of Rea..and a motionless Randy, lying next to a half eaten piece of Cheese. A metre ahead, lay the trap with Peggy in it.

Tears flowed like streams.... But there was nothing Bob or Sue could do. Their life were changed for ever!

The Walk - Part One

Aug 27th 2006

7:35 a.m:
I woke up to the buzzzzz of the big radio clock on the nightstand. What a wonderful day!
Yes. That's the first thing that I said to myself.
Got out of my bed... walked over to the window... pulled the drapes away... and witnessed the most beautiful morning in a very long time.

7:40 a.m:
"Hey buddy, We are getting late for breakfast!", I shouted at "X" who still sleeping. He jumped up at once, as if he had seen a nightmare. "Chalo. Get ready." I said.

7:45 a.m:
Took my toothbrush and walked over to bathroom. It was one of the best bathrooms I have been to. I don't know how to compare it.
Let's see. For the benefit of all my female audience. It was equivalent to the best dress that you have seen at Harrods.
Or, for the guys this was more pleasing than witnessing the best game of Football or Cricket.
I bolted the door, and looked at the beauty of the place for some time, before I £$$$$%^&*(($%^& It's all CENSORED %&*(("£$%"£$%% :-0

8:03 a.m:
Fresh as a daisy, I stepped out of the bathroom. As soon as I came out, "X" sprinted towards the bathroom, beating the elderly next door neighbour, by almost a metre. When he bolted the door from inside, I saw the poor old man frown, disapprovingly shaking his head, and then walk back into his room.
"Y" had got ready much before me. "Chalo let's start for breakfast. X will join us later", Y told me.

8:10 a.m:
"Good morning Martha. Hi Paul!", I greeted my hosts before moving towards the dining table.
"How are you boys doing today? Please help yourself with the cereals." said Martha.

8:18 a.m:
After a huge round of cereal hogging, we were served hash browns and vegetarian sausages, we had requested, without any peas, beans, roast mushrooms or tomatoes.

8:20 a.m:
"X" joined us. After our breakfast, we rushed back to our room and carried all our luggage out.
We thanked Paul and Martha for their hospitality.

8:30 a.m:
Your's Truly plays the guide. We had downloaded a walk map online, that promised to show us the entire township of Buxton.
Our first bus to our final pitstop, "Ashford-In The Water", was supposed to leave at 9:55 from Buxton.

9:56 a.m:
And due to our lousy estimate of time, we had to run at the last moment to catch it. I think the Peak District is only meant for the retired,
coz I did not see any young gun there. Even, the bus we boarded was packed with people over 50.

10:13 a.m:
"That's our stop" said I. Y, looked at the old quiet village, and asked if we wanted to change our plans?
"Do you want to get down here? Or we can go further to Bakewell.".
Fatty got excited at the thought of Bakewell tart/Pie/Pudding and tried to convince myself and others that its better we skip our Ashford trip for Bakewell.
But, Yours Truly, rose to the occasion, wore his backpack and moved towards the exit.

10:14 a.m:
"This village looks deserted!" said Y. "I think we should have gone to Bakewell instead".
Fatty gave us that, "You did not listen to me" look.
"Guys, lets give this a try. We have this 6 mile walk trail. Let's see if this is any interesting and then we will decide on further plans.
said I.


To be continued...... ;-)

Teesri Ankh - Cheap thriller at its best!!!

Have you ever watched a movie completely and then wondered why the hell did you watch the movie at the first place itself?
I did today! I watched "Teesri Ankh" on DVD ;-)
I wouldn't say that the experience was bad. But it might not, for obvious reasons, suit everyone's palate.
The following sections may contain spoilers. But, I am certain that no one will mind. Coz I trust that none of my readers are crazy enough to rent out a Sunny Deol DVD.
It was extremely supportive of one of my roomies, Mr X, to watch the movie with me. Thank you Sir.
;-)
I had a wonderful time listening to your expert comments than the movie itself.

Coming back to the movie, I am going to tell you the story of "Teesri Ankh - The Hidden Camera".
"Villians" have become more technology oriented. They use hidden cameras to capture innocent people in compromising positions on video.
Good Cop, Sunny pra ji is engaged to voluptous Neha "Julie" Dhupia.
Neha wants to do something BIG so that Sunny ji can be proud of her. So she goes to "Videsh" for a beauty contest.
The Villians take some nude pics of her while she is in the changing room. She is blackmailed and not allowed to leave "Videsh". Our Good Cop, starts an investigation in Videsh to expose the crimes of our Villians.

The Villians split, have a fight, and our poor gal Neha dies in the process. This death is witnessed by our mute herione Amisha Patel. By the way, Mr. Black wants me to tell you that it was good that Amisha did not have any lines. "She cannot act!!!" Well that's what he said.

Now our mute herione is the only witness to the crime, and finally meets our Good Cop.
Good Cop fights all goons. He kills them one by one.... ;) with the typical Sunny Bhais "Dhai pound da mukka" ke dhishum ... dhishum .. dhishum. Add to it amazing super power kicks too which he uses to kick away villians and cars alike....And icing on the cake Sunny can even stop and pull apart motorbikes with his bare hands.
;-) I am telling the truth. You have to watch it to believe it!!
And thats where the story ends.

It is a Humpty-Dumpty movie. You definitely know that they are going to fall, but still wait it ;-). Very very predictable with some really out of place item numbers. A Jazzy B track!!! LOL. Who hears Jazzy B anyways?

The movie will bore you to death if you do not enjoy some desi action. If you have seen as many B grade thrillers as I have; you might actually end up enjoying it.
Make sure that you have people around you who are ready to whistle and dance at every fight and cliche'd sunny bhai's monologue.
Mr. X hats off to you for making this movie viewing so interesting. We were laughing and whistling more at the cheap action stunts then anything else.

Hurray!!! Sunny pra ji is the MAN!!

Cheers.

Shades of me..

Have you ever played this game where you are given a word and you need to tell the first 5 things that come to your mind.
I tried my hand at this on the two colours that I like the most.

BLACK : sarcastic, wicked, sad, liar, rash, lazy, daring, rude, shameless

WHITE : happy, emotional, honest, hard-working, witty, scared, courteous, thoughtful

Why I don't smile more often?

Mr Black:

1> I hate smiles.
2> What should I be happy about? I hate myself?
3> People just kick me around... I am a nobody!!!

Mr White:

1> I am happy but maybe I don't express my happiness enough.
2> I am so much charred within, that even if I smile, it will only increase my pain.
3> I am scared of relationships.

What do I like/hate about my Job?

Mr Black:

1> I don't like being pressurized by someone.
2> I want to start something of my own. But,at present, I cannot afford to lose this job. I am angry at myself for not having the guts to take this step.


Mr White:

1> I am good at what I do. My work satisfies me.
2> Money is a key driving factor. I earn good money. Happiness can be almost bought by money.

Just two questions and I have already have multiple answers ready. And moreover all totally diverse.

Why is my life so two dimensional? Why is that I am always at the extremes? Why is it that I don't have the varied array of emotions that I can see in most of my friends. Why can't I be just a normal guy?

My life is only in Black and White..I wish I could change.....
I wish there were more shades of me!