As you would know reading from my earlier blogs, I met Parul at IIFM (the best two years of my life) not to forget I met the Love of My life here and now he is my Hubby!!!!!!!!!! Let me not get diverted here and make this about TSM……more about him in following blogs

I thought of dedicating this blog to Parul because she visited me recently in Chandigarh and for all those IIFMites of 2008 batch who are not in Delhi…you would be very glad to know that Parul is no more the same gal we knew at IIFM (appearance wise)…she has gone extremely thin…..I mean she actually gave me a complex…beat that….and I believe that she is strictly following a skin regime too….for she was glowing…..Now the question for her to answer is “Is it Dove or is it Love”

So after she left, I have been thinking about all the days that we spent together at IIFM, how we were two different individuals with different likings of music. My days started with Sad, Soft hindi songs and she on the other hand woke up listening to Bon Jovi. I can also remember her enact jamming while listening to “Ranjha Jogi Ho gaya”……. she wore glares while reading out slides from the laptop so that eyes dont get strained (dont kill me for writing this )

I keep thinking of you always Parul and more so after you visited me. Waiting eagerly for the Big  D Day in your life …..I dont know what customs you follow and what music you play, but me for sure would sing your Favourite Bon Jovi Song:

Shot through the heart and you’re to blame, Darling you give love a bad name!!!!

I can already imagine you enacting playing guitar decked up in bridal attire to that like you did borrowing Arjun’s at IIFM

Time and again I have said that I am in love with the city…..i love the vibrance and feel of the city as much i love Mumbai…..

I have been planning my delhi trips since the day i arrived in Jaipur for the fact that it would only be a 4 hrs drive and i can spend ak  my long weekends with friends and revive the memories at IIFM, but alas, this doesnt happen that often and my life drags in Jaipur

So in a whim of taking a break and being with my ex-roomie for a few hours i planned a real short trip and did the funniest of things!!

Took a bus that made me reach close to 10 pm in Delhi, Doc said itni late kyun aa rahi hai??? That sent a cold wave down my spine…though i love the city safety of gals is a concern where i rest my defence. Was in touch with TSM and Parul enroute the journey and after some time my cell phone gave up. DAMN!! I panicked again…..now how do i coordinate with doc and parul when i actually get down???

I decided dhaula kuan would be better cos thebus would take its own time to reach BKH in city traffic…..but nature had other thinfs in mind. For when the bus entered Gurgaon it was raining cats and dogs…all my prayers for the rains to stop temporarily were in vain

Over friendly co passengers gave their advice (unwanted one) that i should rather get down at BKH for dhaula Kuan will not have autos in this weather and also wont be safe (another one for the safety)

But when Dhuala Kuan actually arrived, i saw many autos lined up and so got down in the heavy rains to save on time. The auto agrred to take me to Kalkaji for 150 bucks and i couldnt negotiate

When i reached Kalkaji i didnt have the right address and the auto guy simply refused to go any further searching for the same….my tantrums also didnt work and there I was on my feet treading through ankle length water searching for Parul’s abode….and before i could realise there was an African guy following me (nailbiting, praying, all together)……..VERY VERY FILMY

Thankfully for my stars and some good karma (??) i found a dispensary and ran into it looking for help…..very sweet doctor aunty lend me her phone and i had Parul to pick me up from the dispensary………..and i was only a block away from Parul’s house!!!

And then i had fury on me from everywhere, Parul, Sunil, Doc, Varna…all yelling at me for travelling this late and not having cell phone charged and getting off at Dhaula Kuan

But then…….i guess it pays to meet up with a friend after a gap of two years, doesnt it!!!

I am now eagerly looking forward to my next Delhi trip and hoping that it would be more eventful, this time pleasant ones so that i can sing again……

Masti hai Mastano ki Delhi Delhi…..gali hai deewano ki Delhi 6

But then today after a lot of hoaxing and pestering and buttering to write, i am back to my job (Thanks APPY)

So after the not so pleasant tail bone injury (this must be the 100th time i am repeating this line but this is the most crisp way to explain my absence ) and job hunt for a month…i landed with a job at the Center for microFinance (CmF) and all confused it with Center fir Microfinance at IFMR, and i explained saying mine is the one with small “m” . To explain further as i learn and am hearing from two months, we follow a community based approach of providing microfinance which is essentially delivery of financial services along with building social capital (Dnt even ask me what that means, I am still trying to figure it out and i hope should know before i am out of the place )

I was pretty happy with the profile offered but the rosy picture changed soon and now i am piled with all the possible work under the sky.

Colleagues are strictly OK……an eccentric ED who i think is suffering from short term memory loss, two Programme Officers, one of them being a bong (that explains all, no offence ppl) and the other who is obsessed with “kind of things” . He makes me believe strongly that not matter how muchever one tries, a Bihari will always stay a Bihari (no offence again). Then theres a guy who is the only one “mehnati” amongst us and then the girls, me, APPY (my sweet junior who makes life bearable at CmF), Lata and Vijiya , sweet marriage material and weirdness respectively.

Then comes the admin (the less said the better) and the accountant who makes life miserable with all the possible deductions in the salary with logics that probably only he understands.

To sum it all………life is utterly boring, except for the very rare occasions when i go out with my juniz (appy and rewasa) and we have fun the whole evening!!

Need Relief……….Urgently!!!!

I have many stories to support this but i rather prefer not writing any because after defending the above allegation to day I am convinced that I AM DUMB!!!

I wont be very critical in writing my views out neither would I sound like an expert commenting over something……so i would just wanna post all the possible small things that we can voluntarily do atleast sometime which will help…..even if not in a major way…….but A start to something good is always GOOD

• Donate in food banks
• Voluntarily organise meals in temples on festive occasions
• Find a gripping picture or video having to do with poverty and publish it on the Web.
• A few harmless clicks on websites which say your one click can donate 10 grains of rice (www.freerice.com)
• Visit an orphanage
• Adopt a girl child
• Donate to an Old Age home
• Check ur wardrobe….all those out of fashion and not so trendy clothes can cover up someone (also dont forget all those clothes which dont fit you anymore, you will not reduce TRUST ME)
• Do not overeat…….even if that dum biriyani is way too yum
• Do not waste food
• Do not waste water
• Give free tuitions to your maid’s kids
• Donate your not in use books and blank pages to those is need
• Visit The Hunger Site every day and click the link to feed the hungry. It’s fast and it’s free and there’s absolutely NO excuse not to do it every day you’re online!
• Get a few friends, gather all your unused items, sell it and buy something a meal for the poor in your neighbourhood
• Fund educational programs for women
• Announce a annual prize for the student who stand first in the class in that small school in your neighbourhood which is run by a NGO
• Call up that admaker friend of yours…he won a Cannes recently for some Cricket Ad, ask him to particpate for a good cause making an ad depicting the plight of the poor
• Walk back home one day when you are frustrated, donate that money saved in travelling
• On all those eat out days……buy something for the street kids around…..I know you’ll be stared at strangely by onlookers….but give a damn…… go ahead…….buy an icecream stick for that kid who’s staring at you while you are licking your icecream
• Buy the silly stuff from kids who sell pins, hair bubbles, ribbons in the train and on the roads
• Start a community on public sites….link it to NGOs…….Make people more aware……… (If u can waste time creating Aishwarya Rai community….which is personally feel is useless……you can also waste time on creating something for a noble cause….I know you have that TIME)
• Sponsor a child, his education

This and much more……….I know I have done very few of these things myself….but what the Heck I am doing it………….Always remember its never too late…………..Isi bahane Paap dhul jayenge

I like to call myself an independent girl who is free of all the prejudices, hates patronizing attitudes (even if its my own parents) and wants to lead a life that rightly defines freedom…. (to which one of my friend reacts saying “PSEUDO ATTITUDE”) and on a whim to achieve this I have set out on a journey away from Mumbai….which started with two years spent in Bhopal……….that made me feel “Alright, Mumbai is not the only place where people can be….there are other places to be explored and experienced” and that landed me taking up a job in Chennai….I am not complaining at all about the job I am into….for am happy where I am or more correctly…….I do have achieved what I always wanted………its just the city.

I miss……..

1. My parents
2. My friends
3. My car
4. My balcony
5. The view from my house
6. The rains (Mumbai rains rock!!)
7. Flooding after rains (that happens atleast once every year during rains)
8. All the potholes on the roads
9. The train journey
10. From CST to Kalyan
11. & from CST to Virar (at peak hours ofcourse)
12. That leaning out of the train
13. Hanging out of the train and yet reaching safe at destination during peak hours
14. Train fights (you ought to see this)
15. All accessory shopping in the train (you cannot find the variety and price newhere else)
16. Nariman point
17. BKC
18. Linking road shopping
19. Khau galli
20. Dadar station
21. Book shopping on CST streets
22. Vada Pav (authentic, hygienic, cheap and having the best taste in the world)
23. Udipi hotels
24. Crowd
25. The Language
26. Sandwich stalls at every nook and corner of the street
27. The Autos (very important)
28. Juhu Beach
29. Ramada (its cocktails J)
30. Somaiya canteen
31. That long drive along Mumbai-Pune expressway
32. Subway eating stalls at CST
33. R-mall
34. Nirmal Lifestyle
35. Pheonix
36. Mulund-Ghatkopar 90 Ft road
37. My evening walks
38. Hiranandani Powai
39. Hooka lounges at Mocha
40. Fire n Ice (heard now its closed down )
41. Mahalakshmi temple
42. Haji ali (that pristine walk in the middle of the sea)
43. Colaba (just hanging out the entire day without getting bored)
44. Gateway of India
45. Jazz by the bay
46. Kailash lassiwala
47. Pancham Puriwala
48. Mangaldas market
49. Crawford market
50. Kala ghoda
51. National Library
52. Shivaji Park
53. Dadar chowpatty (which has unexplainably shrunk now )
54. Bhel at Chowpatty
55. Followed by Barf ka gola (kalakhatta flavour – one should never miss this)
56. Ranade Road shopping
57. Shiv Sena
58. Political rallies
59. Riots over every small thing
60. That stalling of public transport
61. The footwear shopping
62. The handbag shopping
63. The big time bargaining (buying things at a price 75% less that the quoted J)
64. Vella time
65. The lukkhagiri
66. CST railway station (just being there makes you feel “Yes, I belong here)
67. Over friendly co-passengers….everywhere in trains, buses……..
68. Kobe’s sizzlers
69. Seafood (crabs, prawns, shrimps and more….am salivating while writing)
70. Bhaucha Dhakka (ferry wharf)
71. The fish women…hehehehh
72. Their fish market
73. Weekend getaways
74. Madh island
75. Gorai Beach
76. Sanjay Gandhi National park
77. Best Buses
78. Double decker BEST buses (I remember how as a child I always thought it had two drivers, one who drives the lower bus and second one the upper )
79. Eating stalls after sunset
80. Bade miyan behind The Taj
81. Electronics shopping: best buys at Lamington road
82. Late lunches at MacD in CST after a tiring shopping J
83. The heat
84. The sweat
85. The pollution
86. The festivals
87. Watching cricket series finals at a pub
88. Roaring at India making scores
89. The firecrackers after India’s win (this happens all the time)
90. British Council Library
91. Elephanta caves
92. Gomantak……. (salivating again)
93. Madhura sweets (best Sabudana Wada)
94. Movies…..unplanned
95. Night outs
96. The hustle bustle
97. The train shuttling to and fro
98. The late night drives
99. The true Cosmopolitan feel
100. The true metro feel and above all
101. THE UNDYING SPIRIT OF MUMBAI J

Landing in Chennai and living by my “Pseudo Attitude” and initially justifying how Chennai is a better place….I now realize I miss my city……..my place……..Mumbai….let alone the crowds, the traffic and the crime rates in Mumbai, but Mumbai can be this and much more…….for I can bet over the fact whichever place, land or world any Mumbaite is……….his/her heart will always be in Mumbai……..

Ae dil Mushkil hai jeena yahan, Zara Hatke Zara Bachke, ye hai Mumbai Meri Jaan…..

MISS U MUMBAI!!!!

• ARTH:

Shabana Azmi at her best….living life on her own terms and defying her so called “husband”

• 1947-Earth:

Brutal reflection of India Partition

• Swades

No more brain drain…..wish there was “mohan” in some little way in all of us

• Hazaaron Khwahishein Aisi

Bavra Mann……..by far the best song ever composed and sung…courtesy Swanand Kirkire……..3 friends trying to define lives on their ideologies and only Chitrangada WINS It ALL ……….highly recommended watch

• Parzania

A reflection of the aftermaths of GODHRA which set the entire state of Gujarat onto flames……

• Amu

How otherwise sane and byfar the most intelligent living creature human being lost sanity……..that lead to the most disgusting riots in the history of mankind……..

• Taare Zameen Par

Out of the box…….actually made me think……….was it the same way that my folks expected things to turn out for me and my sis as well??? the answer was YES……

• Aamir

Makes an outsider realise that Mumbai aint just about the money place……but has its dark and bad face too

• Jab we met

A usual romance…but a difference made by watching it with TSM……..will be very very close to my heart always

Planning to own DVDs for all these and then circulate them amongst all i know………..make them feel the difference as well
Cheers

What amazed me most was….the fan following Salman still holds for himself…….the crowd for him was hooting, shouting, cheering for every act that he played on the show, the ardent fans who have been with him throughtout all the bad phases of his life the blackbuck killing, being hated for physically abusing his “then” lady love, green eyed beauty (Well, I personally abscond him of this crime as i hate the female and honestly fell she is a B*()&^, no offence ppl….but i jst dnt like her), the series of flop movies,  everything….

The man still holds a charm and great place amongst his fans for himself……this also reminds me of a friend of mine who has been a diehard fan of salman since his first movie……has been following his fashion and styles religiously, to the extent that he was willing to spend 100K Grands to have the turquoise stone Salman wears…..so crazy is he…….happened to meet him online once and asked him if he saw the show….surprisingly he did …………..he said how cant I “Sallu, Bhai hai apna” hehehehehehe

The point i am trying to make here is that…no matter how cruel the green eyed lady finds salman, no matter if he is on spree to exterminate the black bucks, he’s still loved everywhere………Girls, Ladies and everyone still drool for him……..and he is still good looking (i must mention even when he was getting bald )………

I dont want to comment on how well the show would do……but SALMAN truly rocks!!!!!!!! If the show does well, then its not the concept or the price money….its just SALMAN KA DUM!!!!

PS: For my dear reader’s information, the show is screened on fri-sat 9 pm on SONY entertainment….no harm checking it out once…… mite be a nice break from regular family shitty sagas

This is all about my days spent at IIFM, how i miss them every day, about how it all started and how it all ended with everyone being a very special friend for life……….

GDPI: Saw my dear roomie for the first time from a distance……..she looked pretty (dnt miss “from a distance” here, sorry babes)…..learnt later she had qualified as well…..use bina mile complex ho gaya….kept blabbering to all ki ye ladki bahut sundar hai……reached iifm……….wahan pata chala we are roommates….was a little relieved tht i knew her beforehand……..parul came in late…after a week of orientation…..and i was AGHAST…..thought………..ek mahine me itna difference ???

After selection: Met these 2 guys on orkut……socha pehle se baat karungi to acha hoga…….Sudeep and Stray;) Saw both on orkut….ek to shuru se hi junglee lag raha tha……..uska snap kisi jungle wala tha…….ekdum monkey pose wala……he’s placed in africa now the other guy looked like a perfect dude…..ye prove karte hue usne ek scrap me flaunt bhi kiya………..”some frnds wait and so does barista” ….lekin usko dekha suna and then realised “Light travels faster than sound”

The day i reached: A cute chubby gal reached campus in car looking at the rest like deprived and downtrodden ones….later became my partner for late night talks and all the secrets…..rite shreshtha??

1st day of orientation: Had this quite naive girl sitting besides…….was wearing a nice salwar………lag raha tha jaise abhi innocence ke bowl se dip karke nikli hai……learnt she is NEHA……………and then i rerun my thoughts ……the ultimate gossip queen and my confidante no.2

days of orientation: Met Kalps…..the angry young Bihari Woman…..a grt frnd ….itni patli hai ki mujhe bhi complex hota tha……

Kanika: The COMPLEX silent killer

Sonal: Bachi……even if she matures….the people around will never let her….she;s too good being a kid.

Then these interesting guys…..one wearing newsprint and Hawaiian TEES……..a great sportsperson who beat TSM ;( and the other mastering the art of sleeping on the chair with specs on…………that went on till the end of 5th term………..all envied him……………the great birdwatcher sunil

Literary club days: Was on my toes all the time due to this guy………..An atheist who lives his life by the line GOD WILLS IT……….

Shweta kaku: my dear marathi frnd who never let me miss home…..pata nah wat went into her…….srey is her better half…….imagine………bechari meri saheli

Basu: Brand freak……uska kapdon ka sense itna acha hai….tht we later started taking him along for all the branded clothes shopping

Kshitiz And Varun: Jab dono aaye the…tab kafi clear tha that kshitiz is docile…..but by the end of 5 yrs…it was difficult to say who spoilt whom…….agree doc??

Soumik and gitesh: kshitiz called them bacche……must be right…….iifm ne inhe do saal eksath rehne diya…taki badon me aake their childhood isnt lost

SHail : One who kills with his PJ’s but i loved all of them especially this one:

shail: are prans…….

me: chup karo shail warna main TSM ko complaint kar dungi

Shail: are tum complaint karti ho? hum sab bournvita karte hai……

i was almost rolling on the floor laughing….sudeep and srey who were around invited the entire hostel to see me laugh at Shail’s joke, it was an event according to Sudeep…how could i LAUGH at shail’s joke?

Tarjun: Kalyug ka tarzan…..a confused stylo…….khane ke liye bhi kahega….” soch raha hun ki mujhe bhuk lagi hai ki nahi”…hahahahahah

All the moments…..the good the bad and the most fascinating ones were celebrated with all the above witnesses, from disagreements to quarrels…..its now a friendship….a great understanding of a lifetime…….

All the sunsets, sunrises, trips, bdays were made more special with them along……..the canteen gang……..the tilli gang…….the IAS………all will be in memories forever………all the stories are the ones i wanna keep narrating alwaz……….to my grandchildren as well

Miss u all guys…….

My dad always says “Ghar baghave gheun, lagna pahave karun” in marathi which means that life me sabne ek baar ek baar ghar lene ka and shadi karne ka experience zaroor lena chahiye……..which would make us realise how difficult things are…….

Well then i always thought ki mujhpe toh is sabki naubat kabhi nah aayegi……but alas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Its so bloody difficult finding a place….especially when you want everything organised and not willing to compromise…be it the space, the location, the furnishing……..
Its been two weeks that i am in Chennai now and i am having a hardtime finding a place……..kahin jagah bahut door hai……aur jo pass hai woh bahut shady hai

And to add to it……the flats which i like, the landlords are not willing to rent it out to bachelorettes…..can u beat that…….and me being from mumbai……qualifies for the rejection all the time as if i am gonna start a daru and sutta factory in the house that i rent……..

It really gets amazing at times to listen to the terms and conditions that some of the landlords have for instance, u cant cook non veg (main kurbani dene ko tayar hun )……….we wont provide the gas connection (excuse me…….so being a veggie here means eating raw food is it??)…………we wont provide the lights and fan fittings(and they expect me to pay 10K for it!!!)………..oh boy…………nothing was so difficult than this…….
I am still on the expedition and hope to succeed soon………