Got something, for the New Year

Finally, I got it. After months of planning and postponing, I got myself a bicycle. OK. Now stop sneering please. I know you must have heard this plan of mine last year. But, it's finally official. I am a proud owner of a two-wheeler, which doesn't run on petrol.

And that was my first ride. The Bangalore roads are so bumpy, that I realized that it needs a seat cushion urgently. Or may be I should wait for a few more days, and see if I get adjusted to it. I haven't been on a bicycle in the last 12 years. It's quite surprising that I still remember how to ride one. The first few minutes were very awkward, but then I got used to it.

As for accessories, I just got one unusual one, an Odometer. :D

I guess, that would help me motivate everyday, to keep counting the distance and speed.

I wanted to buy a bicycle, the cheapest one, without all the hifi stuff. But when I walked into the showroom, I kept thinking. And I couldn't control my urge of upgrading to a better one. My brother-in-law, who accompanied me, didn't do anything except laughing. He tried to help, but failed at stopping me from spending away all the cash for that extra odometer.

I ended up spending almost double of what I was prepared for. Only time will tell if it was worth.

The current reading on the odometer shows 15 Kilometers, that's for 2 days. My first experience on riding a bicycle on Bangalore roads was not pretty nice. Bumpy roads, pot holes and other crazy drivers are not at all friendly to people on bicycles, but for now, I am determined to ride on.

"Happy Cycling." The bicycle shop guy greeted me when I got onto it. It was a feeling which was a little weird but nice. They don't say the same thing when you buy a car or a motor bike. I hope there's some good reason for that.

The Christmas Invite and the Plum Cake

Well, my wife didn't buy me a Lamborghini, yet, I am writing just one more post.

We were just siting and watching some boring TV program, and could here a distant noise. After a few minutes, we could tell that there were some children singing songs, beating the drums, and knocking on all doors. They are very loud, louder than we were used to, but we wondered what the children were up to. After some time, there was silence. We heard the footsteps, the hustle-bustle and the murmurs. We know they were coming towards our door. It obviously was something nice, we hoped.

The bell rang, and my wife opened the door. And that was the view. They started singing, beating the drums again, and shouting.

The little Santa offered a bag of gifts, and we took 3 chocolates. And then they invited us for the Christmas celebrations which would happen the next day. Here are some photos from the event.

It was red all around. Kids and their parents, all in red. And there were 2 Santa Claus(s). There was some dancing, singing and some more.

We got plum cakes as well, which the wife was craving for so many days now. And she was really excited when the kids invited us to the party. She was, actually, in her mind, hoping that they will distribute Plum Cakes after the party. She just randomly makes a wish, and wishes for the wish to be fulfilled that very moment, just like magic. If she doesn't get what she wants at that moment, she doesn't want it again the next moment. I really can't express how it works for her, but she is like a wishing(not washing) machine. And most of the wishes don't come out from her mouth. I am supposed to read her mind. The only thing I could try is keep playing the guessing game. Believe me, it's not as easy as a multiple choice question with 4 options. It might well be a question, which has either no options, or has millions of them.

But now, since she got her plum cake, I can take some rest, and breath normally, until she wakes up in the morning. 

The holidays are here

Somewhere in Bhutan

2014 is coming to an end in a few days. And celebrations have already started all over. Everyone is gearing up for the holidays, packing their bags, and are all eager to vanish away from the busy life.

Here I am, still "Wasting Life!!!".

This is probably going to be my last post of 2014 unless my wife gifts me a Lamborghini on the New Year. :D

Wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

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My Blog Map

My Blog Map

I have been blogging for a few years now. Close to about 6 years. And I have blogged from a lot of places. My map shows that I have mostly blogged in India. Well, there's one post from Bhutan. And the western India still doesn't have one of my posts yet.

My blogging frequency has decreased drastically. I do not specifically know the reason for that. May be because I am married now. Hahaha...

Writing short posts on my phone does help. A quick note with an image from your gallery is all you need to create a post in minutes. The formatting is not perfect, but then, I can fix it when I am back to my computer.

The good thing about mobile blogging is that I don't have to get to my computer always. And I can write a post in pieces. That really helps sometimes, when ideas are not freely flowing in, and you are easily disturbed.

You can work on it from anywhere, from your toilet to your boring office meetings. I don't do either of them though.

My phone has so many forgotten pictures. Whenever I start browsing the pictures on my phone, I often find a nice picture which captures my attention for a long long time. It brings back memories. 

Its a similar feeling when I am randomly browsing my old posts. 

Pictures are worth a thousand words? 

Memories are even more precious.

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Being Married: The first anniversary

It's been only a year that I am married. Today is our first marriage anniversary. And I wished my wife with this.

"Happy Anniversary..

365 days, and it doesn't yet feel like a year. Time really flew. And the next 60 years would fly away just as fast 

No jokes today here, but I am not sure why was I laughing so much in your cover photograph. I guess, I knew that day, these smiles would be more pronounced for the days and years to come. I wish to smile and laugh all day long till my cheeks hurt, with you. So, let's start a next year with all smiles and joy. Again, A very Happy Anniversary to you."

And this:

Surprisingly, she laughed out loud, and really hard, and for a long time. Frankly, I thought I just ruined our anniversary with that image. But I guess, the message accompanying that saved me.

The outcome? Well, no one did the cooking. We didn't starve though. We ate loads of stuff, some readymade, and some ordered from outside. We had decided that we would cook all our meals, but, that plan didn't work out somehow.

And since it was "International Men's Day", she didn't let me cook either. I am not complaining. It was a day when we just sat together, talked, watched TV, attended phone calls and gathering blessings and wishes. Just a simple day, without any worries. Now that she has gone to bed, I can find some time to write about today and the year that has gone by.

Happy Anniversary!!! This is just one year of togetherness. Thanks for everything, and I am sure you would want to thank me a lot more.

Note to others: She has already thanked me verbally for being a pretty good husband. 

The rainy days

Its been raining a lot for the last few days. And I just had a long long weekend; Diwali holidays, a five day extended weekend. Today morning, its still raining. And I am on my way to the office on a bus. As usual, everyone's now back to work. And the rains have made the traffic situation worse. Moving at a snails pace. Fortunately, I managed to get hold of a seat. It will probably take close to 1.5 hours today. The ride is very bumpy, although my phones spellcheck compensates for that.

Its been a very long time here, for various reasons outside my control. If the rains don't stop by evening, I might as well come back again then.

Bus rides are comfortable, although I have a few arguments against them. My new office is farther from the old one, and its in the heart of the city. The only viable road to the new office is heavily crowded during office hours. And I thought riding a bike to and fro would be very painful. It's been about a week bow that I have been travelling by bus. Although it has been quite comfortable, I end up spending more than 2 hours of my day in travelling.

So I have been able to get back here after such a long time. Last week I was trying to read some articles on my phone to use up the idle time on the bus. But it didn't work out. The roads were bumpy, and I had to concentrate very hard to avoid the distractions. Writing, in such a scenario seems a little better since you don't have to focus for long stretches. Think a bit, write a bit.  Wait... Thinking....

Looks like its raining inside the bus as well. The roofs are leaking a bit. I have changed two places inside the bus, but looks like its leaking from everywhere. The roads are flooded. It is advisable to take the bus instead of your bikes in such weather, if you are in Bangalore. Its better to be inside a leaking bus instead of being in the splashes of the vehicles on the roads, especially, when you are going to the office and you are not carrying a spare set of clothes.

I am just 15 mins away from my office now. Have to get prepared for de-boarding. Its going to take a bit of effort.

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Fruity Stairs

I don't love fruits, so, when I have to eat them, it's an uphill task for me. By the way, my favorite fruit is water-melon.

Some nutritional facts:
1. Contains 6% sugar and 91% water by weight.
2. Source of Vitamin C.
3. Water melon rinds (outer shell) is used to make pickles.
4. Watermelon juice can be made into wine. :)

I don't like to spend much time in eating. Not because I am lazy. So, I was looking for some techniques of removing the rinds in the shortest time. And I found this video.

That's for peeling. Here's one for cutting a watermelon into smaller pieces so that it's ready to eat. Although I don't follow this technique completely, mine is a variant of this.

Pran Kumar - The cartoonist

Chacha Chaudhary: Middle class Indian, frail but an extremely intelligent old man.

500 published editions, and 5 crore copies sold till date.

Raman: With 100 editions, Raman managed to win the hearts of several comic book lovers across the subcontinent.

Copies sold till date: 60 lakh

Billoo: The Indian Archie, likeable by girls but not so 'Casanova Friendly', who is a great fan of cricket.

No one has ever seen his eyes due to the hair cover.

200 editions of Billoo.

Copies sold till date: 2 Crore

Pinky: She is just a five-year old girl, who means no harm but ends up creating a mess. She is the Desi version of Denice the Menace.

Copies sold till date: 2 Crore

Shrimatiji: The series depicts the day-to-day life of Shiela and her husband Kishore. Despite the difficulties in coping with the spiralling prices, the couple goes on cracking jokes on each other and enjoying the life as it comes. Since its creation in 1968, the book has 60 editions.

Copies sold till date: 60 lakh

Channi Chachi: The meddlesome fat woman, who lives next door, Channi Chachi was another one of Pran's creation that received acclaim. 50 editions.

Copies sold till date: 50 lakh

Pran Kumar is no more. The celebrated, iconic cartoonist, who was the creator of so many legendary creators has left a void. I dont know if kids are still crazy about comics, but I was a die-hard fan of Chacha Chaudhary.

Note: Images and snippets are taken from "The Financial Express", dated August 10, 2014.

Things I hate about gyming

Waking up early everyday!!!

- Waking up early each and every day, while the wife's alarm clock still has an hour to ring.

- Putting on and off my shoes and socks. That's like 10 precious minutes of my morning.

- Reaching the gym. Each second before I enter the door, I think of skipping it that day.

- Even after I reach the gym so early, there are already so many people lined up near the treadmills.

- Right after I enter the gym, all the pretty girls are about to finish their workout.

- There's always a queue in front of the water cooler, especially when I am out of breath, and my throat has gone completely dry.

- I follow all the rules of the gym, while the more muscular guys do whatever they want.

- My determination for the day just drops off after the first 20 minutes of working out.

- When I am ready to leave, more pretty girls start pouring in through the doors.

- Just when my determination bounces back, my muscles give up.

Every day is a new day. I have been a bit irregular at the gym for the last few days. And I am planning to get back to my usual routine from tomorrow. That's going to be hard though after so many days of abstinence. So, need to sleep early, and set the alarm back at 5:00 AM. Good night.

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30,000 kms of riding. What next!!!

Riding away

Its been close to 4 years that I got this machine. And 30k kilometres doesn't sound that big. The longest distance that we covered in a day was about 370 kms in a day. And the other day, on my way back home. So, the longest trip was about 750 kms in 2 days, although we had a 3 day break in between. The plains, hills, the sun and the rains, made that ride, one to remember forever. I keep planning my next long trip all the time, but something or the other always comes up. Monsoon is here, and I really like riding in the rains. I have started liking the splashes of drain water from other vehicles somehow. I don't actually love them, but I don't care about them these days. Perhaps, they are a part of the package.

I am 31 and I am married. So are the friends. Everyone is busy. The bachelors of my batch have become extinct. Some of them still jump at the idea of going on a bike trip in the rainy seasons. But schedules keep clashing. And some of them have upgraded to 4 wheels. I still haven't yet. And they grin at the idea of a bike trip. For one reason, they wouldn't want to get wet or get sweat. The other understandable reason; they spent loads to be behind the wheel. Some of them wouldn't even mind sleeping in the car. A ride on 4 wheels is also equally enjoyable, its just that I am still young for that kind of comfort. To remind once again, I am 31 now.

On my 31st birthday, I wanted to buy myself a bicycle. Well, go on, laugh away on me. But I was serious. And still pondering on the idea. The only thing I am worried about is the crazy drivers of the city roads. But other than that, I think I should just go and buy one right now. Why am I not doing it then? Frankly, I have my doubts. To remind you again, I am 31, but I still feel young like a 25. OK, that was really funny. Go on, have a LOL moment. But I have a few examples to refer to. There were at least 2 of my friends who had bought bicycles in their early twenties. They were serious for about a month, but they gave up soon enough. So I am not sure if I would be using that motor less vehicle for long. But, nevertheless, I think I will take the risk. A part of the package again?

And now that I have blogged about this, Google will show me ads about buying a new bicycle and also buyers for my old bike. Are there any bicycles with odometers? I would really want to know how many kilometers I do in the first month. A speedometer is an added bonus. A phone charger looks like an indispensable add-on. And the most important of all, a good and secured locking system. At some point of time in the near future, if I still find myself into this bicycling stuff, I might be interested in buying a Go Pro for my trips, and a few safety gears for those rough terrain tracks. Looks like I need to do some research on all this.

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Cant sleep. Lets write something.

Tried reading a book.

Its almost midnight. Have a mild cold, can't sleep because there's no waking up early tomorrow. TGIF.

I hate it when I get cold. It doesn't let me sleep easily. So, I am trying to induce sleep into me by writing something stupid. We all know we are very sleepy when we do some boring task. Like watching TV. I wonder how people get glued to their TV sets for prolonged number of hours. One example would be my wife.

I hate people when they don't question, I blindly do or believe things as they are told. But I hate it more when someone asks me a stupid question. Well, not the kind of a stupid stupid question, but like one that the stupidest stupid in this whole universe would never ask.

I look at the person for a full half-minute, and ask myself, "Does he really have such a brain?". And then smile. And then say, "Should I really answer that?"

That's of course rude. But I really can't help it however hard I try. I have tried many times, to stop me from staring, smiling and changing my answers. But its like a reflex action that my body has acquired forever now.

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The Country of Happiness and the Land of Thunder Dragon

Bhutan, is better known as the Country of Happiness. I never knew this fact before, but Bhutan is the 8th Happiest country in the world, and the most happiest country in Asia. And we could see it there, everywhere. All smiles, everyone seemed happy, even the driver of our bus after he was caught speeding. He happily gave away the fine of Nu 1750 (equivalent to INR 1750).

The trip was a kind of a tiny summer vacation for us, since it had been raining fire all over India those days (Last week of May). Once we boarded the flight to Paro (the international airport of Bhutan) from Kolkata, we never saw sweat for the next 5 days. Oh, Indians and Bhutanese don't need VISA to travel across the borders. Although they check your passports since the immigration authorities would still keep track of your movement, but Bhutan has very friendly relations with India. So much so, almost everyone understand and speaks Hindi quite fluently. The Paro airport is very different from all the other airports I have seen. Although it's a small one, there was something special about it. A slight drizzle welcomed us as we stepped out of the aircraft. And this is the first photo we clicked.

Paro International Airport, Bhutan

And there was a big billboard with a couple's photo. I tried to figure out what were they advertising, until a few days later, I came to know that the picture was of the King and the Queen of Bhutan.

We then boarded our tour bus, and set off for our hotel in Thimpu, the capital city of Bhutan, which was our base station for the next 3 days.

The main cities of Bhutan are Thimpu, Punakha and Paro. Punakha was Bhutan's old capital till 1955. Bhutan is very sparsely populated, and the approximate population of the country is about 7.5 lakhs. The eastern part of the country is where most of the development has happened.

Bhutan's currency is ngultrum which is fixed to the value of Indian rupee. So, you would not need to carry any local currency. The INR notes are accepted everywhere, and they have exactly the same value.

In a span of few days, we visited dozens of places. Mostly cultural and religious sites, since the ethnic culture has remained intact and untouched by the westerners because of it's isolation from the rest of the world till 1960s. Rightly so, Bhutan has been named as the The Last Shangri-La.

Travelling to a new country, and not trying out their traditional dress!!! That's just not possible, especially when your wife is so adamant to getting clicked in the foreign attire. There you go. The dress for the men is called "gho" and for women, it's called "kira".

That's not a real bull.

We visited a lot of Dzongs (Fortresses, now converted to administrative buildings), and Monasteries, and other places of importance.

Buddha Doderma Statue, Thimpu

Paro international Airport, Bhutan

A random click from the streets

I excelled at their National Sports. My second arrow hit the bull's eye. The wife did terribly bad, and almost missed a live human. 

Archery

If you are interested in looking at more photos, we have shared an album with a few hundreds photos. Do check them out. Some of them are really beautiful.

When the 5 days were over, and we were as happy as all the people in Bhutan, we had to sadly depart from Paro. As soon as we landed in Kolkata, we were already thinking about the rising temperatures, office, traffic and such things. That was a well deserved break from our busy life, but a very short one. I hope there would be many more stories and trips soon.

Beating the heat

The temperatures are rising worldwide. And it will continue to rise. As much as I hate it, I have started to like sweating. Most of the times I can't do anything to beat the heat. But, my sweat can. Its like our own body making our personal clouds and eventually precipitating them on itself. Quite a novel idea, isn't it?

Sweat is only one part though. If you are fortunate enough to sweat, that is, you are fortunate enough to be in a humid city like Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Chennai etc, you already have your own personal body temperature controller. But then, not everyone can be lucky, can they? I have had the opportunity to experience both the extremes, and so I am qualified enough to write and preach about my experiences. As you must have already realized, that I have lived through those almost-fatal summers in all kinds of cities.

OK. Coming to my tips...

1. Sleep a lot. Sleep is the number 1 enemy of the heat. But practicing this takes a lot of willpower and determination. Its definitely not a child's play. You have to be a ninja-sleeper to  beat the heat.

2. Run and walk a lot. This doesn't really fight the heat directly, but it tricks your brain and body to produce the required nano-clouds that leave behind their cooling effect.

3. Lots of ice-creams. In places where the sun dries up your sweat too quickly for your body to be able to sweat, you need alternate manmade techniques to battle the heat. The best and the quickest way is to eat lots and lots of ice-creams. It might take a tad longer but you can now make your body sweat internally, and thus bring on the cooling effect.

4. Take bath 4 times a day. That would not only cool you down, but also remove the sweaty layer on your skin, making it ready again for the next few hours.

5. Go for long rides alone. You will not feel the extra heat from your bosses, wives and your irritating friends. Use up all your sick leaves to run away from office. Use imaginative excuses to run away from home/wife. Hit the road, turn on the AC, turn up the volume, and race right through the heat.

All of these have been tried and tested by me. And I have substantial proof of the results. If you try any of these, do come back and let me know how you did.

Chill throughout the summers, Winter is coming...

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The dialogs of Sidhu

The IPL 7 finals. Apart from the two teams, the third thing to follow on TV today is Mr. Navjot Singh Sidhu's hindi commentary.

1. Preity Zinta ki jhappi or Shahrukh Khan ki pappi.

2. Bhavnaheen aadmi thande lava ki tarah hota hai.

    Grrr.. The wife changed the channel.

3. Baal ki khaal utaar dete hain ye slow motion replays.

4. Dhaansoo chakka

5. Taabartod cricket khelni padegi

6. Taamba hara, neela, peela ho sakta hai par sona apna rang badal nahi sakta.

7. Jhujhadoopan dikhate hue (what's that!!!)

"Didn't know he is an astrologer too."

8. Guggu bolega khatre ka

9. Aur pahunch gayi gaadi ambala cantt.

10. Bhookanph aagaya hai ground me.

11. IPL re IPL, tera rang kaisa?

And now he takes a break. Thanks.

KKR is going down. :(

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Out and away

For the very first time, I would be travelling abroad in a few minutes. As happy as I am with the above fact, for this trip I have been forced to be away from my laptop and the internet world. I don't consider smartphone at par with a full-keyboard laptop. But the important reason of me getting away with that: The wife is an equally addict when it comes to our phones.

So be it... I will prove it beyond doubt to all who think I can't breathe without my laptop, once and for all, to be dead wrong.

Now, waiting at the Kolkata airport. This is my first time here, although I have been to Kolkata quite a few times before. Not very crowded, probably because its a weekday?

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I want peace

I want peace. I want inner peace. Complete silence. I shouldn't be able to hear even a pin drop. I want my ears go temporarily deaf.

I want some silence. No sounds at all. For a few minutes at least!!!

When I concentrate hard enough on something, even a mosquito flying by my ears irritate me. And that's exactly the time when someone is at the door hitting the bell frantically. And everybody else in the house is busy. And then the phone starts yelling.

This is a conspiracy. And it happens all the tune with me. Grrrrr...

Silence. I need absolute silence. Not even the sound of my own breathing, for a few hours at-least....

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A cup of Ginger Tea and some biscuits

Image Courtesy: http://icons8.com/

I am not a tea-addict. Nor a biscuit addict. But, the combination is a killer one. Of-course, not just any other tea, it's the ginger tea that makes the combination stand-out. And the biscuit? Ummm.. Ok, read till the end to discover the mystery about the biscuits.

As a school going boy, I secretly enjoyed the smell of tea when my Mom used to prepare tea for my Granny. At that time, Granny was the only person in our whole house of 8, who was an avid tea drinker. My Mom occasionally used to have a cup, perhaps once in a week or so. But I was given a tumbler of smelly and yucky milk with Bournvita, filled to the brim. I just hated that. My sister too. And we made a habit of leaving behind few mili-litres of milk, without fail. That was our small little mutiny against the whole system. Our small non-cooperation movement. And every day, Mom used to hurl a few angry words. But, they never hit us. Even if they would have, we never had the courage of getting the smelly tumbler anywhere near us for a second time in a day.

Mom had tried everything under the sun. Horlicks, Bournvita, Complan, Boost etc. Even the purest form wouldn't go down our throats. Quite often, my sister would have tears in her eyes when it was time. At times, we even tried to fake vomiting.

And any requests for a cup of tea, was immediately denied. That's weird, Mom thought and said, "How on earth can you like Tea and not Milk!!! Tea is for elders, here, take this glass of milk, finish it off in a jiffy, and get back to studying."

Whenever I had a chance, I had my cups of tea. Especially, when we were visiting our relatives, and it wasn't a sin for children to drink tea in that territory, and was out of Mom's jurisdiction. Well, flavoured tea wasn't a fad those days.

Anyway, those days are gone.

Present Day:
I don't have the same hatred. My love for tea has actually diminished. And among all kinds of flavours, I love "Ginger Tea" the most. Be it the winters, or the summers, or the rains, 1 cup of Ginger Tea and a few pieces of my favourite biscuit can lift my mood to cloud nine. Ummm.. That's a bit of exaggeration I would say, but who cares, I am high already. I just had a cup of Ginger tea and 6 biscuits.

I don't exactly remember since when I had this addiction. May be during college with friends, when we had lots of time to spare for tea sessions. What lovely, bygone days!!! But, these days, my wife makes lovely ginger tea. Although I make it a little better. And the biscuits...?

The mystery hasn't unveiled yet!!! Don't worry, it's not time yet.

Here goes the mystery about the biscuits. The people that make the biscuits, that I love the most, are from a company called "Britannia", and it's sold under the brand name of "Milk Bikis".

Anyone can memorize

Awesome video on memory. I wish I could remember like the old days. Those old WWF cards and all the wrestlers' stats. Cricket stats of all my favorite players. All the telephone numbers, my whole weeks schedule for school, or even where I kept my red coloured pencil. Who borrowed my comics, and how much money I have loaned to my friends. As the speaker rightly mentions, we have been off-loading this amazing power of our brains to our computers, mobile phones and the internet.

My contacts are always synced between my devices. I don't even remember my passwords to all the websites. The browser remembers them, and syncs across all the computers. If at all, my browser somehow forgets one of the them, I have to do a "Password Reset" or even a "Forgot Username" if I don't even remember my login name.

It's already well known that practice improves our memory. But, now a days, we don't really practice much, and at times, not at all. We rely on technology so much, that in a way, we have been using less and less of our brains. I used to remember multiplication tables, and just yesterday, it was very hard for me to remember what 7x9 equals to!!!

That's really sad. A few years from now, among all of us, there would only be a few who would have advanced brains if we keep evolving machines and become more and more dependent on them. Those few, would not be those who are or were really gifted. Instead, a majority of us would be so much dependent on machines, we would soon forget about the wonders we can actually do with their memory.

To be frank, my memory is quite good as compared to some people I know (please don't ask to name them), but this ability of mine has certainly been on the downward trend. I often grab a calculator to do simple mathematical problems. I have almost forgotten birthdays of all my close ones(baring a few such as sister, wife, etc.), since I get reminders just in time.

But, I don't want to go and win some World Memory Championship. I just want to have my old, helpful and amazing memory of mine. Actually, it's not that hard. Well, the guy in the video says so. I will give it a try.

The laziest days

I don't consider myself lazy, but I have my days when I just want to do nothing. And when something comes up that has to be attended urgently, or it's forced upon me, you should see my mood, and my tantrums.

I almost cry, but being a man, that's not an option, I bleed from within. My blood temperature rises, and I have palpitations. But then, depending on the impending task, I either drag myself up from the sofa or just ignore the calls of the moment.

Why can't I have my rest day? Without any interferences!!! Why? Why? Why?

When I am just about to crack a difficult problem, the disturbances come rolling in. Just when I am trying to concentrate, a big bang goes off somewhere. Just when I enter into deep sleep, some unknown number wants to contact me. (Now I have set up Quite Hours on my phone though, Thanks Cyanogen). Just when I want to watch my favourite show on the TV, the electricity department takes a break. And it goes on and on.

Why am I complaining? Am I the only one that goes through all this? Obviously not. But, then, some days, you really get pissed. Not that I am really that right now.

Anyway, there's still hope for me I think. The next Sunday is only 7 days away from now. And tomorrow is a holiday for me (Yay!!!! My wife is working tomorrow :D :D). I hope I have the next Sunday just as I would like it; My Laziest Day.

Errrr.... I am lagging behind

I was supposed to write every week. I think I have missed one post. Or may be two. At times when time itself is so precious, we shouldn't ponder over past things. I am not going back and checking how many actually I have missed. But not anymore :) until I take a break again.

The first rains of the year, was quite a drizzle. I cannot express how much I love the rains. And the first rains are always special. And I make sure to get drenched at the first chance I have, and I did that today too. Well, not a deliberate attempt to get wet, but it was enough to set my mood for the weekend.

The week has gone by, and there's been so much noise on the television channels, Facebook, Twitter, and the likes. Politics is in the air. This time around, it's going t be really interesting. Cricket, pre-Sachin Retirement, was the first craze of  us Indians, and now, the game of Politics has been getting the highest TRPs all across the country. The only difference is, Cricket was famous for Sachin Tendulkar for his brilliance, while Politics is, at-least for some, is famous for Rahul Gandhi, again, for his, unmatched presence of mind, public speaking and of-course his thesis on Rocket Science.

So, I had been trying all these days to clock 30 minutes for a 5 km walk + run. Took me close to an year to get here. Last week, I achieved this little feat, declared this on Facebook. Not much likes, or comments, or bravos, and I wasn't expecting any. But, one comment stood out among all of them.

He goes: "Dude, which bike!!!"

I definitely, hadn't expected this.

Go March Go. Go away, Let the new financial year begin, let the elections establish the new government, and let the story continue. Next, my target is running 6 kms within 30 minutes. Obviously, it's not rocket science. RUN BEANIE RUN...

My marriage chronicles - 3 Months

That day, was as normal as any other day, or so I thought. Of-course I have heard about mood swings, and have experienced them myself, and have tolerated others'. But wives, are a different human species all-together. And I have learnt that after 3 months into my first marriage. Although, I had been warned about them before, the first hand experience always teaches you a lesson for life.

We were just having a casual talk. And slowly, the track was shifting towards scathing personal comments. Which, most of the time, I didn't mind. This wasn't that bad, but I took offence, and thought it would be funny to reply back and make an equally scathing PERSONAL comment.

We were in the lift, going back home after a little shopping.

She: You should exercise more.
Me: I already do that. 5 days a week, and that's sufficient I think.
She: You are becoming an "Aloo (Potato)".

That was it. That was a poke at the wrong place and time. I have good reflexes, and so without even thinking I blurted out.

Me: You have become a ladies finger.
That's a nice comment with an atom bomb in disguise I thought.
She: Haha, I know. I have been losing weight all these days, and have become slim now.
Me: (With a grin and a triumpant smile) Ummm.. Have you seen them in a shop? They are always broken from everywhere. 

She: Grrrrr.... Wait...
She snatched the keys from my hand, opened the door and shut it on my face. And said:

"Go away. I am not allowing you into the house anymore."

Me: It's our house, don't you remember?
Trying all I could to pacify her.

She: I gave the rent for this month. So, I have all the rights to throw you out.

I thought, she would calm down in a few minutes, so I went out and walked a bit. I was not really sure if she was serious or just joking with me. I was in a state of confusion. So, I updated my facebook status.

"Wife threw me out of the house. Wandering on the streets."

I never thought, this post on facebook would be my most popular post of 2014 within just a few minutes.

After a few rounds of the city, I came back and knocked at my own door, with a plan to somehow find a roof over my head. The temperature outside was 30 degrees, and I had no idea what was the inside temperature. But, at-least I wouldn't get a tan inside.

Knocked 10 times. No response. The only response, I got from her, was on Facebook. And that was:
"You deserve it". 

And that comment of hers, beat the popularity of my post hands down.

Anyway, I told her, "I am thirsty".

The door finally opened, and I saw her hand pushing a water bottle through the small gap. I tried to catch her hand, but she dropped the bottle, and shut the door.

I kept knocking, and knocking. The neighbors saw me walking back and forth in-front of my own house. They seemed confused. Thank God, I don't yet have them on my friends list on Facebook.

After a few more minutes, she opened the door. I was alert, looking for a chance to run inside.

She: If you want to come in, make me feel special, praise me, and only then you get to enter the house.

Arrrghhhh!!! Not again.....

Me: You are my butter scotch, gulaab jamoon....
(All the sweet dishes that I could remember, although, the only thing I was thinking about was "Karela - Bitter Gourd")

And then, Voila..... I was given a safe passage.

Changing the world..

Changing the world.

Its already been a week since I last wrote the "blog-a-week" post. Sometimes I wonder if the speed of time is faster than the speed of light...

There was once a guy who wanted to change the world. Change the world for good. Change everything which was bad, and make the whole wide world a much much happier planet.

He was really serious about it. He thought he was clever than all the other people, and only he can do this impossible and god-like task. He was full of hope and was determined. Nothing could make him lose hope in what he believed. Not even numerous failures. He would try and try again. Most of the times, he would fail, and be a little sad about it. Others would try to persuade him to give up what he was doing. They would try to reason with him and say "You alone can't change everything. God hasn't been able to fix this world, how can a human do it!!!".

And one day, he realized it. It just occurred to him out of nowhere. He realized, although his intentions were right, he had to do things differently.

People say, with age, comes wisdom. The myth about the wisdom tooth, is, a myth of course. And finally he had found his wisdom at the age of 30.

"Changing the whole world is no single man's task. Even God cannot do it even if he wanted to. He is wiser now. He is changing himself now."

He was no better than everyone else.
In a world where everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself, how could he have succeeded.

Its a weird world these days:

People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke.  - Will Rogers

More people follow Kapil Sharma than any of our politicians. In the times of Facebook and Twitter, memes and viral videos have become the quintessence of entertainment. That includes me as well. I enjoy them, laugh out loud(LOL) I still litter the roads, and at the same time complain about the garbage. There was a guy yesterday who threw a bunch of banana peels from inside his car which landed on a pedestrians face. When I tried to peep into the car, I realized they were kids, 10 year olds I think.

I wish I had become wiser at 10.

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A blog-a-week

A phone shot

Shame on me. I have been ignoring this place for a long time. After 15 or 50 years, if I look at my blog, I would conclude that not much happened in 2014, because, my memory would be dwindling by that time.

And I would probably remember 2014 as a not-so-happening year. Which is not good.

So, to motivate myself, I will force myself to write at least a piece every week. I might just try to bore my readers(if there are any) a little more by penning(this word shouldn't be used anymore for computer typing) down more than once in a week.

So, let's start.

Ummm... I have already started... Can't you see!!! This is the first one, and I am done for the week. Have lots of pending things to finish off before the summers.

The thing is, i hate summers, I hate sweat and I hate working during these times. Summers, for me, mean a lot of sleep. So, before the summer comes, I want to get ready with everything that's cold. Think: a cooler, ice, cool drinks, beer, ice-cream etc.

I dont know exactly why I hate them, still trying to figure it out. I am a very logical person. If there wasn't a reason, I would have loved it as I love the winters. Just a matter a time before I figure it out.

OK. See ya next week. Bbye.. Have a very short friday, and a seemingly never ending week ahead.

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That was a long gap

The kids dad is real genius

I never thought that I would need a wall clock. But the wife said she needed it. We were getting late to office almost every alternate day. She said, that's because she had to always carry her mobile while doing the household chores in the mornings.

So I got one, not a very exquisite one. The old Ajanta branded watches. But even after that, I used to just be able to manage to catch the bus. So, one day, when she wasn't looking, I advanced the clock by 5 minutes. And from then onwards, she thinks that she has gotten better in time management. Pssssst....

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