Busy Bee

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I am in Jaipur for about 68 hours now. I knew the classes would not begin until 26th but had plans to execute and assignments to complete. Anyways the task still hangs loose as I enjoy my time completing works and preparing for the coming Monday as we would have teachers expecting us of completed assignments, as if they don’t know we have more important and urgent things to do, including the maintain-weight drives in this haunted-food zone!

In last 3 days, I have been part of a happier lot, crazy things of life being more visible to me. As I make my 3rd round to library to return a book which is already 3 weeks overdue I see this guy walking as if a tall camel is cat walking in this dry but colourful (have too say this, need to be gentle and generous) city. The person is my ex-roommate, and you never get over friends and roommates, tells another ex-roommate of me (I hardly can make any difference between both, they all are people who are part of your life), certainly another ex-roommate of mine will never understand this thought as to him a birthday party is a regulated buffet (a Chapatti costs Rs. x, Curd will be another Rs. y and so on… annoying 3rd-first-year-roommate of mine, he is still with me!) thrown to repay birthday parties and treats given by, classmates, roommates, friends and those who wished him on Orkut.

Anyhow I was able to complete this novel by Chetan Bhagat, reading 38 chapters over night, writing two page letter by myself and avoiding internet for some more time. Don’t blame me for I couldn’t help but compare myself with the protagonist of the novel, with some edits. Ananya is a heart throb and am jealous that am not totally Krish, or say there probably is no girl who likes me like Ananya liked Krish! Some answers were there in the novel apart from the entertainment and yup I accept Punjabis are like this, can I oblige by showing you milder and more tamed versions of the breed?, but that is the way they have to be!

As I find some time free from drafting, shopping, anti-ant and break-lock drives in room am engrossed in Call Of Duty. Turning my room into a war zone and taking pride in killing morons from Japanese and German sides. Gun battles, tanks, anti-aircraft guns, grenades, head-shots… … is all that my world is comprised off. Am trained enough to take any bastard trying to tease a north-eastern chicks on the streets of New Delhi, or for that matter Jaipur, Goa or any other city, as the morning newspaper tells me of another such thing happening. Currently I can take pride in saving the world from getting assaulted by German and Japanese forces.

Sheets hanging at window are keeping my room comfortably dark, excessive light doesn’t let this rather sleepless soul have his share of peace. Feel like killing Aman for the asshole has not yet booked the domain I need, though I too have not completed the final design of the website that is likely to shape our future.

Excessively busy for I made rather excellent efforts in about last 3 months to land me in a situation with no time to think of anything else but to meet deadlines. Hardwork pays off, but only if you continue to be patient and don’t loose hope any soon.

And to tell the truth, this life has turned really unpredictable and more in control of me, except the fact that am 99% sure that I will receive a miss call from Foo daily. :) :D Hope you learn to make calls buddy!

Unwind

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You wake up late, 11:02 AM, to find no newspaper being delivered in the house, Diwali break! Make your bed and arrange your laptop and stuff. Its time for the 'morning walk'. Headphones in your ears and you are busy walking round the garden footpath, listening to that English punk, romance, soft rock and electronic stuff while letting your brain fantasize about the drifs along some nice boulevard, a coffe cup in Central Delhi, walk down South Delhi malls and that stage performance ending in a proposal to your dream girl.

Suddenly a call breaks the fantasies and you are back in real world! Guddu asks you to come to another park, you should walk some rounds with her. As we walk the talk and discuss some 'serious' issues the phone rings again! It's Abhishek, still recovering from dual heart-break. He asks to get ready to leave for Divya's house as we have to meet his father who is just out of hospital after getting treatment. You argue over the timing but can't borrow more time than 12. You quickly call Piyush and ask him to reach your home by 12 and meanwhile take bath and brunch.

12:20, Piyush is here and you have no time, even to discuss his 10 month effort growing those lovely shoulder length curls as he strives to correct popular opinion of IIT people being nerds, geeks and dorks, since Abhishek must be at bus stand and you as usual will be target of his blames for being late. Leaving apart the 'tension' of being tagged 'late-comer', you and Piyush talk things. And it is going to be a sexy day, as you brag having knocked 6 or may be 7 hapless night-owls during single chat session last night. Abhishek is obviously target of pranks before you meet him. Reach the meeting point and this time Abhi is smart enough to not wait for you and make you walk towards his house, time teaches. As you meet this estrogen starved hunk, you are all but praise for him as he looks smart in that black ironed shirt and blue denim. :D

You take route 801 to Dabri Mod. And obviously it in itself is an experience to have a ride on almost endangered, rickety, 'no horn' old DTC buses. Get tickets and sit to talk. Chocolate you got is still not eaten and Divya should be given his share! We reach the place soon, nobody noticed but the bus probably made no noise. You call Divya to recieve us as you learn that volleyball was a game invented, or probably designed for athletic old guys and not teenagers neither young adults! :( As Divya comes with two guys you are terrified at the thought of being beaten in an unknown territory, but for the time being you are pleased that your favourite game is no more being humilated in a modest way.

In Divya Prakash's house its time to get a bit serious as it is learnt that it was a major health care issue that his father has gone through and prevention is always better than cure! Learning all the details, RBCs, WBCs, plattelets and ECGs and all those big things that only those white coat wearing big docs know better than you but all pretend to have learnt them over years. You share your concerns but are obviously hapless as the best you can do is to advice or better let the person have rest and not visit them frequently. Enough of Sanskaar TV, guys make move to have some chat with Mr. DPS.

Well cricket is hot discussion topic, not scores but play! Mind it you don't know who Andrew Symonds is but an off-spin is what you know how to throw! There are ingenious talks about pads and l-guards and then talks are about football and yeah the room has a PC with an 'active MTNL' internet connection! Broadband means minimum 256kbps, but if you are able to log into Gmail and chat fluent, its a nice deal.

So here you go, happy-go-lucky. It surely is not a good start for Miss Raj Laksmi, teacher's-most-obedient-student-in-school-day-girl, as Abhishek pranks her by coming up with quite bold and assertive talks, engrossing all in the thing and later pranking us too! She downplays the things to the best but soon it is out-of-her-wits to stand the wicked things as her statement, "Shastri sir is not OK abhi bhi? Or is he out of home?", tells that she is not able to take more of it!

Well here is this girl, one of the heart-breakers, online and Abhishek just gets you into the things because of your so-called experience at wooing girls online! Well you must confess you are not good at it as you just know to have simple chats that are amusing but thrown to a challenge you had to do it, and as you are supposed to be good at it, it ought to be fun! This girl in some NIT was quite kool in start but went hesitant in later parts of chats as she probably was convinced that Abhishek is really serious about her and the group had to act out fastly to not let things go too haywire! Soon she was reassured that it was all prank and it is supposed that she must be happy that you were good fun and she got so many admirers, though Abhishek was worried a bit too much, and obviously he must be. Well almost forgot, but Piyush and Abhishek try to dupe you of the whole packet of Dairy Milk as you are 'busy' setting a girl for later.

On way back to home you talk all things but girls, you have to make carriers so GPAs, placements, prospects are to be discussed. Get to meet Abhi's parents. It always is fun to be with this really frank family :) Lovely are these people as you need not listen to those daily big doses of serious talk and obviously you learn that you are someone to be trusted upon! You love that Kaju-Katli and cold drink. Abhi you are great at making sketches and it is still unknown if Emma Watson was more beautiful or, being formal, you were more cute in childhood.

Back in home you are again aloof not knowing what to do. Having newly learnt patience and practiced happiness you enjoy this lazy day, checking laptop, talking and doing almost all things you hardly expect of yourself! :D

Multi-Task

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02:46 by the clock on my mobile. I turn off my laptop and take out the latest novel by Chetan Bhagat, my fourth one and the latest bought by me – I have read all of them till now. This red covered paperback has been titled 2 States - the story of my marriage.

Earlier I had a chat with Foo and one more friend of mine. The later one was mixed stuff, I just acted as if I actually believed this guy’s rather ‘true-looking-jokes’. A walk in the colony’s garden at 01:15 made me an object of suspicion and I had to explain to this guard and another night-crawler, why I like to listen to music on HIT 95 FM at this unearthly hour on an early winter night in mid-October.

Anyways, I read first 3 paragraphs under the dim light of reading lamp and soon move to loo with novel, only the second time I have made an effort to read a book in the washroom. Last time it was social sciences book during class X. I used to be determined to score perfect 100s and was on occasions lucky enough to get 99s, reasons being beyond comprehension, sounds embarrassing these days.

The novel seems interesting for it has a feline and quite real feminine character introduced on page 1. One reason I love writings by this guy is that these are real, even if he claims them to be fictional then. Ruskin Bond too catches my fancy, these guys make it appear so easy and fluent and are not fond of those ‘out-of-the-box’ heavy words.

Anyways I keep on reading and drawing analogies between the main male lead and me, do you really need to know the reasons for this behaviour. Am not much like him but there are similarities, though am in a technical field and like it, still given choices I would like to go for more leisurely works like writing or mark-up coding.

It is fun to flip through the pages of the novel in the loo and taking note of some words, to be looked out for meanings in dictionary, on your mobile phone. Of course it is tough to handle all this stuff, but then multi-tasking is all about being efficient and enjoying the stints. As I flush it is difficult to handle the book and maintain its sanity, though a little practice makes you perfect.

Back in my bed, I continue reading under the lamp and wonder how similar hostel traditions are all around the campuses, my buried love for economics; I still regret not having changed my school in class XII to get a bio-economics combo in science stream, and yeah eye-candies are always the part of the gossip, somewhere I feel nobody wishes to be next on the dump-list of the girls and everyone wishes to have a backup list (…do I have one yet?Let it to be to you to guess!). Hey guys suggest me, need I be silent a bit?

03:20 - 2nd last line of chapter 3 and I plan to write up this blog post and start writing as soon as I save message I have composed, containing the ‘difficult’ words. 3 minutes down and am posting this article, still looking for sexy vocabulary and acting critic as well as editor to my own writing. And please do tell me, for I am still doubtful, is it nice to multi-task in loo? Your opinion will not change things as I will continue to respond to SMSs, listen to music and do more such important things from the ‘best place’ in the world.

04:17 – Still no sleep in my eyes, internet forbids to work properly. So, I would continue with my reading. Wish to experience the fun most of my friends get in completing a novel in a day or two, while for me it is a task needed to be done at a rather slow pace…

The Tailor Guy

Image Courtesy : ell brown, on flickr. Check usage terms before using images.

Am taking bath in noon as this tailor guy comes to our home to discuss about the new curtains we wish to have, as we just got our home re-painted! Mom and Guddu are busy talking with this person, who wears a red shirt, grey trousers and brown polished shoes. the fat man is well versed with his work, so it seems.

Suddenly he receives a call from Dubai and to my amazement he has a lot of information about so many diverse fields. As per him “Tatlkal” is the best way to get a rail ticket booked. Vaishali Express is far better than Bihar Sampark Kranti and very importantly it is always better to shop in Delhi’s market and not Patna. He would tell my mom about prevailing situations in the Kuwait, the country got no good markets but only shambles after recent wars in Iraq and surrounding countries!

Once argued upon the cost of cloth, this person would get terribly angry as he is really a professional who would keep tab of cost of different materials and labour costs on his finger tips.

Meanwhile I act phone attendant as phone calls pour in every 10-15 minutes. His phone rings once again and I pray in my heart for the call to end soon. This time it is a nagging customer, whom he bats away quite efficiently, still taking his time and passing about 10 minutes before putting down the call.

Its past 12 and still I have not taken my brunch and to my dismay the sweet-corn in refrigerator is not in edible condition. Anyhow am not feeling that urge to run for food, but what matters is to find some time in peace in the backroom of my house as I switch off all the lights, put the fan on full on this early winter noon and take a passive nap…