The wedding, the sea and the sand!

The next trip, started on the very next day, Even before I could afford a glance at my earlier adventures in the week, with Pjo and me still stuck together, and two new faces T and AK. Started from Noida showing the friends our faces for a jiffy, the four started towards the Airport. The late flight, the bad flight, the noisy flight, the plane with a bee in it…was the spice jet flight!! When it landed the Goa airport, the skid of is tyre made some heartbeats skip :P… Anyways, all reached Madgaon railway station in the uneasy humid atmosphere, an then very late night caught a train to Bhatkal, 236 kms from goa.

Reached Bhatkal at 4.30 am, and then all the thakeli junta crashed on the bed of the hotel.

In the morning, the monster arrived very early, FA in his traditional mundu (the pic was quite liked on FB by the way). Then we all got out. Bhatkal, is a small town, with sahyadri mountain ranges very close on one side, and sea on the other side. The place is really calm and the atmosphere is so clean that one can have a sight range of many kilometers (unlike this Delhi, where the haze makes everything impossible to look at). There we were welcomed at FA’s newly constructed beautiful home with some special local cuisines. Then headed off to the beach. The beauty of the beach was in its undiscovered whereabouts, red grains of sand and the aggressive blows of waves on the shore. The waves lifted us off to the edge and bruised us all with the grainy sand!

At night, was the wedding. To our bewilderment, the dulha was dressed in a white sherwani. All of us sat on the white stage setup for FA, with the quazi there completing the nikaah ceremony and FA and us receiving the greetings of all. Then went to the bride’s home for a quick snack ;) and came back. Late night, all of us (with FA) were welcomed to the bride’s place once again. There the white shiny stage was setup, and the couple sat there for some time. I was wondering how could a nerdy crow like him get this beautiful girl ;) ;). Guess this is what always happens .. lol! Then we left FA to his aunty’s home, and went back to our places.

The day after the wedding started very late, FA sent some rice and coconut made snack for breakfast that wasn’t so easy to take in ;). Then after that we left for Murudeshwar temple, around 15 kms away from Bhatkal. The Finest beauty of architecture could be seen at this place. The temple is an 18 storey building, with an about 12 storey tall lord shiva’s statue (with the lord sitting with eyes closed) in front of it. This is not it.. the temple is surrounded by the sea from 3 sides. The beauty of the sun rays reflecting from the water looked fabulous from 18^th floor, and the view of coconut trees on the ground and blue sky was heavenly to look at. Then all of enjoyed water-scooter ride there at the beach, and it was the best water-sport that i enjoyed J. At night we went again to R’s home with FA’s barat (yes it is done the next day!). There was the mega dinner, which was not at all a pleasure for vegetarians, but a feast for a beast (like me ;)). After that, we bid our final goodbyes to FA as we were to leave to Goa the next morning.

GOA!!! I would cut the journey and directly jump to Madgaon. On Mr. T’s insistence, we hired two disgusting Red and Black things .I would not like to mention the name for those two wheelers, so rather, I would call them DTs (Disgusting TwoWheelers). The ride to Bagha was so pleasant, with me and Pjo running our normal superb bakar session on our DT. The scene near Bagha was so much like a bright colored movie, with the hottest of the girls and the shortest of the skirts. After crashing the stuff at a nice place that we hired, all ran for the beach on the DTs. The beach was a beautiful place to hang out, and all ran into the water at first, but soon realized that Pjo has lost the keys of our DTs and his specs (damn both of us!). Then the next 3-4 hrs were spent to sort out the mess (kudos to T). The evening after that was the pleasant most evening that i would have had spent in many many months. The beach, the lights, pool, (and haan “vo” bhi ;)). Hours were spent in that beautiful night. the life guards had to pull us out of the water that we had generated a special affection towards.

The final and the 9^th day of glory: All set out on the DTs towards another beauty, Arambhol beach. In the way visited a white serene church, and the ups and down of the plateau were so much fun that even the DTs gave a hell of a ride! Clicked some pics of the nearly blind monkey that I was carryingon my back (lolz!) and the tin Islands, sea etc. The beach was a black-sand beach. And it was so ideal to play games, there all four played with some ball-like thingie for an hour and so, swam butterfly-stroke (lolz) in a fresh water pond near the beach, and headed back to our places.

In the evening, the studdds rode again on our Superb DTs all across the Goa to return those Superb DTs. Then reached the tiny ill-maintained Goa Airport. Headed back to Delhi again in having the adventurous flight in the spice jet. :D … The night was so full of the feeling of accomplishment, even after the heavy sunburns it was worth it!!

A Wedding-cum-trip!

Back after long time, back with some new fresh memories in the pocket! ;) .. Our very dearly MS got married to S this 24^th of may. Finally the eyes of his mom were twinkling as to her surprise (or say to the surprise of the whole friend community of MS) he got married! And to to blow the trumpet, a band of four started the journey to Dehradun, Dhanolti on 22^nd of may.

Started around 8 am from dilshad garden metro station where me (the driver) picked up K2, Pjo, Adi in my car, with Pjo bringing up his disgusting water tank for the trip to fill all the space. Started well, with our usual bakwaas of all the time, and a new out of the world song (courtesy K2) [ye gaana maine apne dil se likha hai… lolz!], with Pjo being stuck to his camera on the front seat and recording the cars that were being followed by us for several minutes per car, hoardings, road, dogs, policemen…. In short all the futile crap and not us!

The junta gave the frowns on his face a rest and gave him fundas to say ‘sahi!’ for everything that came across (which he learnt really well! Lolz!). The other three shared their love stories (with me giving it a pass and driving quietly ;) ). And finally we reached Dehradun at MS’s beautiful home at around 3. The gang was welcomed gracefully, with aunty’s delicious food. After some time, we left for Dhanolti in the evening, and the much awaited drive in the hills started.

With the twists and the turns, the evening sun in the horizon, rolled down window glasses and the fresh chilled out breeze, and yeah! My mild fokiyaps while driving giving Pjo TTs. ;)…that was the story of the way. By the time we reached Dhanolti, it was night. Dhanolti, by the way, is a really small town that you can walk across on foot in 15 minutes. And the beauty of this place is being a quite, cool place which is exact opposite to Mussourie, an extremely commercialized crowded place with the whole Delhi there on weekends. All of us got our spirits high on reaching there.

Then the most interesting part of the trip happened in the night. Our dear Pjo got really scared while he and Adi shared there stories of paranormal powers, ghosts etc while taking sips of tea on the terrace of a local dhaba. He refused to even move a single step in the direction opposite to the hotel, and made us all get back to the room in no time. He slept probably after 3 at night, with being extremely scared till then.

Came the morning, all of us started the morning by playing cards! :D.. and then went to the ecological park there. A place so quiet that was perfect for yoga and all. There the mad dogs jumped on the hills several times to get some superb funny shots of us! Then took off for kempty falls at around 1230… Kempty falls, is a place that I wont want to visit again, with extremely pathetic traffic jams around it, and the rotting smell of commercialization, it was not worth a drive. There Pjo bought a cliché gift for his girl, otherwise however, the drive back from there to Dehradun was pleasant, with heavy rain and hails for almost and hour or so.

At night, we reached Dun and entered directly into Makozzi (a hookah bar). There in the UV lights, did our chillad stunts, then reched MS’s place, then to the guest house, and ended the night with a car ride very late (3-4 am) and cards, with me and Adi losing all the games as a team (“I don’t like 29..Gurrr…!!”)

The next day started really late, my tired legs not wanting to hit clutch, and the other devils sleeping through the morning. Went to President’s for lunch, a highly recommended place to eat at while visiting dun (courtesy DA, MS). Then went to yet another amazing place Guchchu Pani, where water is flowing through in between two very close hills that gives an impression of walking into a crack with knee-deep water. There the chillad deeds included K2 and Pjo taking a shower, me beating Pjo with hunter (What a pleasure!!), Adi bhaiya’s poses and the owl-and-owl photograph! :D.. Then at night visited MS’s wedding.

Wedding was great. MS’s sherwani (that he just didnt want to wear) his haircut (that again, he never wanted to get), and the ghodi (that could never think of riding), everything looked perfect together. MS’s childhood friend S lifted him on his shoulders just before the ‘jaimala’, a beautiful girl that caught the eye (and many pictures) ;), and the dance with an uncle in pink shirt was fun! In the night, my battery went completely down and we all missed the pheras.

In the morning (again very late), all went to MS’s home, and left after bidding goodbyes… Left for haridwar, enjoyed the dip in the holy water of ganga, has the famous poori bhaji-lassi, and after a small glitch in my dear car, left for Delhi. All in all, when I left the three idiots in Delhi, the next minute was heavy, as I was driving alone, after those happening and tightly scheduled 4 days.. but had to get ready for yet another trip down south.. that started the next day…!

well-in-ti(n)me.....

Happy valentine's to all the friends! And the thing that has been realized by your majesty is, that every time i am writing something over here, is because of getting perturbed OR overjoyed. Hmm.. so this one is the 6th valentine's since when...umm.... i started understanding the meaning of something like this. And actually, the meaning of this complicated four letter word 'love' has changed so much.

'Love' - each individual has a different story, a different definition. My tiny mind wonders...What exactly is the essence, reason of this feeling? what makes a fellow human become so important in a short/long time? And when that "cupid" strikes, does the sweet-bitter venom of that sting remain forever in the blood? or if at some point of time, one gets out of the hunky-dory world when 'that' person is no more the ideal one, or the 'spark' goes away (as once mentioned by a dear friend of mine) then does it mean that the love has vanished?

I am astonished by the way this 'love' makes humans do things that they could never even think of doing otherwise (yes casing its for you!).... my two dearly 'lovebirds' ready to face all the agonizing hindrances just for one cause, is amazing! I can see the faith, the empowerment..its like a powerhouse somewhere down that makes them fight against every obstacle. Bravo to you! Other that this one incidence, there is this pair (Kaks and M) who got their 'love' forever last month by getting into the married community. This is so amazing, relieving and sweet.

Now when there is this hope, that keeps me keep my faith intact in this complicated word, there are such a huge amount of failures that make that faith go straight down. Every now and then lads forgetting everything and 'moving on' make this four letter word so tiny and meaningless. And there is this big question -'does it happen again?' Does only the face of that princess/price change without altering anything at all? I somehow feel that next time its more of a careful step, than that rush... an adjustment, rather than willing acceptance...with a fear of failure once again... that idiom 'once bitten, twice shy' holds very true somehow.

What i want to convey.. is not very clear, because this mind is thinking too much and is not able to portray upon this canvas... This feeling survives forever in only a few hearts, and empowers them, perpetually.... ehhh..whatever.. Love is in the Air.... ;)

Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road.....

Whoa! Quite a week it has been...after so long, i have so much to say! The last post this night was about the feelings of joy i had on mishi's wedding, the next thing to share is in total contrast to those feelings of joy. As my friend, our very own FA bhaiya left the dukan on 22nd , it was a day full of overflowing sentiments...

Its just like losing something that is very regular, embedded inside the daily life. For everything here at the dukan in last one year and a half, he has been the person to look up to for everything... And everything means.... not only the work, not only to get some of the huge huge amount of 'gyan' inside this genius, not only the skills to handle problems in a totally 'neat'[faskiri style ;)] way, but also for our little 'chillad harkatein' [the best is the kung-fu panda-style way of pronounciation ;) ], for teasing him every now and then with all our weird ways of teasing. And these things were so regular, that even for one day it used to feel weird for not doing the weird things ;). Our discussions in the car on way back home included everything that can be possibly there, be it professional life, job, layoffs, work, relationship, girl, guys[;)], TL bhaiya! There are so many nights to remember at the dukan where we were working our ass off late, and not getting tired because of the inspiration by this one guy, the hard work that he himself used to put, reponsibly being a leader in a true sense, and the inspiration for not only the freshers like us, but even the most experienced gurus in the team.

Overall, i was fortunately lucky to get an opportunity to work with this person, get his precious reviews (positive as well as negative) that have so far made me not straying away from the path, as well as the precious advices about my personal life that have made so many things easy to maintain and manure. And as we rightly said in the farewell video...
"jahanpana tussi great ho..Tohfa kabool karo..." ;)




I hope the chords of that fine guitar always play the sweet notes....

Here's to a new beginning...

Here’s one dedicated to my sweet friend, who got married on 20th of this month. And she definitely deserves an “utter” from me. The feeling in the air says that the time has come when we are going to be counted amongst the grown ups (of course because people that we used to hang around with in the school have started getting married!).

Mishi and Kaks got married on the very auspicious evening of ‘vasant panchmi’ and became one forever. A simple sober place near delhi airport, with fog and mist all around. Me and Sau entered late, hovered around only to recognize that nothing had actually started till then. Then we went to see the cutie in the room only to see her clad into jewels and her “heera moti wala lehenga”. By the way its really surprising to see someone “jhalli”, so perfectly dressed from head till toe. I tried to break my shocking state of mind with some light loser jokes, and some “photuus”.

After sometime all of us went to the place where the procession had to take place. Kaks came to the stage, mishi followed, and when they were there, I think I went to some other place in my mind when everything was focused on the two of them and I didn’t want to look at anything else. Those 5-7 minutes when they exchanged the “var-mala” were magical enough, as the giggles and the true pure happiness of accomplishment on the faces of the two, was quite evident all the time. Those were the best moments of the evening when I was glad that my dearly friend was so full of joy!

Then late at night happened the “feras” in the most chilling hours of the morning, with Kaks holding her hand and circling around the holy fire. I could clearly see the overflowing sentiments in the eyes of her father, seeing his little girl taking those huge seven steps to her new life. I left the place around 5 o’clock, after seeing the couple off to their new destination and wishing them best of their lives, coming back on that foggy gurgaon highway, and the deserted misty streets of delhi.

Some glimpses of the wedding:




Its actually not about just another marriage, but about a zone ‘X’ getting opened for us. Not only to think about the well beings of the ones brave enough to step into that area, but also about making me think for a moment about what future beholds for a loser like me [:D]. Yesterday only when we used to wander around uselessly, this makes me think that there is something that is closely watching me and crawling towards me that I am scared of.

On the Asphalt, in the Snow.....

Here is to another himalayan journey, to a trip turned an ordeal of life for some moments ;) . This time, once again, from the holy mind of our one only official trip planner PT, an extra adventurous trip plan popped out. Religiously, we followed and got ready for yet another journey. After some yes-no, yes-no from our Heera and Moti, the plan was carved as a 4-day trip to manali-batal-chandrataal. The 7 guys who volunteered for the journey were PT, me, K2, CB, Moin, Heera and Moti.

Day1: 25^th Sept’09: Delhi-Manali (585 kms)

4 guys:me, K2, CB and Moin started from CB’s home at 4:50 am on Friday on 2 bullets (Electra). The mind-boggling resonance of the heavy metal bullets thump on the empty streets was just enough to make us all excited for this outing. The bikes reached Delhi by-pass by 5:50 am. There, PT, Heera and Moti were already waiting-n-cursing us for last 1 hour for being late J .They were on PT’s santro. Finally we started, with me getting a chance to ride K2’s bullet. This was the first time that I was actually going to ride the bullet for a long distance. At first, it was a bit uncomfortable to settle upon it, but thereafter it was cool. By the way, the nice thing to notice is that this bike really gives the rider a massage as it is always vibrating (The Thump!) throughout, and at high speed its really stable, but a bit wobbly at very low speeds. However, I enjoyed riding it from delhi to ambala where we reached around 9:20 am. After that, K2 took over and after crossing chandigarh and Ropad, I settled in the car with Heera driving it, and PT on the bike with K2. We had our lunch @ bilaspur and after that I started to drive the car. Again, it was a cool experience to drive the car for the first time in the mountains. Moreover, the highway is really good and the natural beauty is amazing. We enjoyed the river vyas flowing all the way along the highway, Pandoh dam, The super amazing 2.68 km long tunnel, the twists and the turns, and Moti’s “Bhai Aram se! Koi jaldi nahi hai!” :D. We wasted around half and hour as we missed the Kullu By-pass and entered the city. The traffic was thick due to upcoming dussera celebrations. Another stunt performed on the higway was the ‘turning-the-light-off’ in the dark suggested by Heera, which was pretty much praised by all of us J. By the time we reached manali, it was 8 pm. We roamed a bit on the mall road, had dinner, settled into the hotel, did some usual bakar, and slept.

Day 2: 26^th Sept’09: Manali-Batal (125 km)

Moin, me, K2, Heera, PT and Moti

Day 2 started a bit late than expected, PT had a plan to move out by 6:00am, but actually we left for Batal in the Hired Tata Sumo by 10:00 am J. There was a traffic jam before Rohtang Pass due to some road construction work that took aroung hald n hour to clear. But finally we crossed Rotang by 1.10 pm and had our Daal-Bhaat and egg lunch at Gramphoo at 2:00 pm, which is around 12-13 km from Rohtang.

The road to Batal was really in bad shape and it took us around 3.5 hours to reach Batal from gramphoo(60 kms from gramphoo). The things to enjoy, in the way were the river flowing really deep in the valley, the sight of the snow laden mountains, the occasional streams sometimes crossing the road, and sometimes flowing on the road with the car, the patches of snow on the road.

After reaching Batal there was only one Dhaba that served us with food and tea, we set up two tents (that we had with us) there near the river bank At night, the view was amazing at the river bank.

"On my left is an iron bridge on the river, a bit right to it is a barren mountain, face-to-face is white untouched snow kissing the river, a bit right to that are the snow laden peaks shining like silver and the river flowing through the valley till eternity. To my rightmost is the moon shining at its brightest and on top is the sky crowded with stars!!"

Day 3: 27^th Sept, 09: Batal-Chandrataal (Claimed to be 14 kms, ACTUALLY 16-17 kms), Batal-Manali (125 long kms)

Well, this day, was the toughest! Batal to chandrataal is said to be 14 kms (which actually is NOT! Trust me!). Actually the way is like, so that vehicle can go up to a point from where there is only half n hour hiking to chandrataal. But because the road was all closed for vehicle due to snowfall and landslides at place on it, so the only way was to go there on foot from batal. We started at around 07:30 am. The way was really really beautiful. A human will feel so small of himself in front of the nature there. The valley, the river, snow, all made such a scenic view that I felt like capturing a 3D image of it forever (I wish if I could!). By the way, the sub zero temperature of previous night was evident from the water on the way that had turned into ice. At 09:30, Heera and Moti decide to turn back to Batal as it was turning out to be really difficult to go on foot. Around 10:30 am, we were around 12 kms away (its just an approximation). By that time, my and K2’s body gave up and we decided not to go any further (so that we could remain alive!!). CB, PT and Moin moved further up to chandrataal and reached.

Journey back to Batal was probably the most life threatening and horrific experience of my life! Me and K2 only had just more that half the bottle of water left. The harsh sun was making it so difficult to walk, and any steep elevation just took off all our hope to reach everytime. We had to cross the snow that had gone soft due to sun unlike the morning, were out of water, had the stream water to drink.

“Its like a really wrong step taken, With no living being in a large proximity, so far from civilization - a total cut off!”

However , we finally reached Batal at 04:00pm. As me and K2 saw the finishing point from far far away, we, to rekindle our wretched hope, did a “Cheers!” with half of a 5 Star chocolate that was left. PT, CB and Moin returned to base at around 5 pm. We left for Manali then, with many of us with a severe headache and extremely tired body! Reached Manali at 11:00 pm, fought for hotel, food, everything! Because it was late. Finally settled, and crashed on beds like dead elephants :D.

Day 4: 28^th Sept’09 + early morning of 29^th Sept’09:Manali-Delhi (585 kms)

Day 4, was rather, a pleasant morning, with no hurry to run, no plan to execute. All were chilled out, came late out of our hotels, had nice breakfast, me Heera and PT played video games as others were busy with some chores. Left Manali by 1:00 pm.

Reached Kiratpur (which was the end of the hills) at 07:30 pm. I drove K2’s bike from there to Chandigarh. We had the best food of the trip at Chandigarh (were really done with that daal-bhaat stuff!). Took off from chandigarh at 11:30 and knocked Delhi border at 03:30 am. J. Back home with sun-burnt face and limping tired legs .Such a relief to be back after a long long trip! But someone is still not quite, PT is planning another trip....On the asphalt, in the Snow…. ;)

One year of tech nirvana...

So here i am again. This time the occasion is really special! I complete one year today of my professional life in this awesomely superb organization DN. So what's so special about this one year..Tonight i really feel like sharing the glimpses of the memories, the changes in life...

The journey began at this place one year back , and the first impression of the place proved that this is the result of that one year of struggle in college, with just each time getting the count of rejections incremented by one :D. Being in the company where every other person is just such a "Bond 007" in his/her domain, its like a dream come true. It just has been like me standing and trying to grasp the "Gyan" that the people are sharing every now and then.


Well its not just about the technical bakar, but the fun-filled atmosphere that made every moment here so happening. The hippie-style dilithium anniversary party where some real hippie talent stole the show :D.
And yes, the new habit to pack our bags every now and then and launch ourselves to different locations, on bikes or cars whatever available at that randomly selected point of time, that's the beauty of spontaneousness.

Ohh, what have we not done! Going out on a trekking just-off-the-track, or the night-long biking on to jaipur (The RDB style biking to the fort ;)), a quick rafting trip with lots of fun, a long salute to the himalayas on the roaring bikes (in the rocks where no human beings were seen for miles :D), It all happened just here within this one year.


Its not just about the good times, but the bad times too. There was a time when my life was a total mess, almost in a state of nervous breakdown. My gratitude to the real friends that i made here, who were and are always by my side at all those moments of distress and blackout when everything was lost, Learnt some lessons never to forget.This is something i am gonna remember for my life.


Looking forward to have some real fun time and lots of knowledge-gain. Cheers for every new thing that made life beautiful in this one year!!