The new beginning

There was a time when I wrote regularly but later I don't know how it happened but i sort of went into a cocoon and after so many days I am back, Let's if I still have it or I lost it let's find out.

During all these times, I thought of writing a book, creating a site and starting many ventures but somehow all those thoughts could not materialize

But now I am back with a bang and starting some new ventures like a blog for innovators, http://letsinnovate.co.in/, please do visit this blog

So wish me luck and watch out for more - Sid.....

A Villain's Story

(Wrote it long back.... Just didn't wish to publish it... Now after so many days just came across it again...This time I thought otherwise....)

"My heroine wants to be a side character,
Villain apne aap ko hero samajhata hai,
producer apnehi dhun me rehta hai,
direcionka kuch ata pata nahi hai,
Aur muze apne hi story me comedy karni pad rahi hai..." (Slightly changed...)

And guess what... I didn't write this one.... Let me introduce myself in the above poem... I am the villain of my own story....

Though here in Pune... Gooda is the Hero,oops Superhero of our story.... We have several parallel stories running along with it... Gooda plays Rajnikanth in every story.... He is always the hero even if story is not about him whereas rest all revolve around him to get a part in the story... So that way I am the villain of one such parallel story.....

So here are some insights i am going to give about my villain community and our villainous affairs... don't go on the Hindi movies... It has created so many myths about the villain community and today i am thinking of fighting against the wrong ones amongst them...

When watching a movie we don't take sides... cause we know it's all fake... in real life we villains have more chances of winning....

Even we can write poetry or sing songs.... no movie ever acknowledges this fact....

We live a very very normal life.... and are no richer than the hero himself... though I would love my roles even more if i can do them along with a Harley or a Merc...

We maintain a healthy friendship with the vamps.. they think themselves as heroines... we generally talk on garbage topics... we see them as an access to the heroine and are usually disappointed in the end....

We take it as our duty to be interested in the heroine... though we know we are supposed to lose in the end... it feels good to be amongst the few characters who actually get to be closer to the heroine ....

The doggysm with any girl in the story is due to the role assigned to us therefore I can say "I am a dog by profession and not by choice...."

Have you ever wondered what a villain does when the story is over ?? these days hindi directors simply kill villains to save audience from this very thought.... Even I am unable to answer this... maybe he simply goes back to his routine life.... or leaves hero and his routine life just to search a story where he can play a hero....

So when do we end this story???

Producer is now busy with his own story,
Director has left direction these days,
Heroine is too confused to decide on anything,
Hero still indulges himself in the comedy,
the only reason the story is going on is that
The villain is too reluctant to lose at this moment.......

गणपती बाप्पा मोरया....

Ganpati Festival is always special in Mumbai and Maharashtra... There are thousands of "Sarvajanik" Ganpatis and millions of private Ganpatis and still this festival is never short of the enthusiasm.... but there are some which are more than special.... Lalbaugcha Raja is one such Ganpati.... As per popular belief this Ganpati answers your prayers... Last year I visited this Ganpati for the first time and had no reason to believe otherwise.... So even this year i decided to visit it....

Like me there are millions of devotees who just could not contradict the popular belief and they end up crowding the place for whole 11 days of the Raja's tenure so we have to find a time when there is not much rush and it'll take our visit the shortest time....So on Monday morning me, my sis, jeeju and couple of friends took the first local in the morning to go to this place.... and after that I even had to come to pune so had all my normal things like camera were with me.. At Lalbaugcha raja there are 2 lines, Mannat and the Mukhdarshan lines ... and the Mukhdarshan line offers a really nice view of raja.... From the line itself you can pray, admire or capture Raja...The desperate me asked for the obvious to the god... I had my SLR so i started taking photos of Ganpati and the surroundings... just then I saw my sis trying to convey something to me.... I had no clue what that was... So just to stop looking confused and stupid, I started looking around and just then I found what my sis was pointing at.... I spotted "Her"... She was just standing next to me....

She was in my school.. and was and still definitely is a babe.... she was into singing so she participated in one of the reality shows and became a celebrity ... I was shocked to see her in the ordinary line and alone, on her own.... Not much of a celebrity now, Is she?? ... My sarcastic myself thought.... But suddenly don't know what came over me ... I did something which even surprised myself as I am never proactive when it comes to girls.... I said "Excuse me, Hi, Are you Monica??"... "Yeah".... "I was in your school" "Ohh, I cant recall you" Cant blame her for that , I was a true nerd in school and we nerds are blessed with the ability to be invisible to most of the babes.... All those thoughts I kept to myself as that's kinda my way of flirting with a hint of sarcasm and I wasn't here to flirt.... So i introduced her to my friends and she recognized one of them.... So what next?? the girls started the usual chatter and I went back to my Camera....

The line was progressing and we went and finally we had Darshan and we came out of the heavy fortification around the Raja... People now were bit relaxed and started recognizing her.... So suddenly she felt an urge to return back to her home now ... She was going to Mahim... so she asked us if she could drop us anywhere... That was useful to noone except me cause i was going to Dadar which was on her way... but till that moment the usual me was back again.... may be now that i wasn't in front of the Raja.... So as usual I was reluctant to go with her... She then bid us good bye and caught a cab and left for her home...

Now everyone looked shocked.... I turned down a lift by a babe... My friends who had nothing to do with dadar wanted to go with her.. But I was firm .... I had my reasons.. Am still trying to figure them out but even if you take wrong decisions you have to justify them... So I did just that... but the persistence shown by my friends, sis and jeeju eventually made me regret my refusal very deeply..... They had just one thing to say.... "We know what you asked for to Raja and when god offered you with his such good opportunity you turned your back on it.....".... Frankly if god presented me with such an expensive gift.... then I am allergic to such expensive gifts.... may be that's way it should have been... Or May be they were right.... God can give me a gift but it's all left to me to open that gift .... I hate this confusion... what else it did .... I could not sleep for even once in the Volvo in my journey from Mumbai to Pune....

Finally after a sleepless night.... and a sleepless journey.... here's the conclusion.....There are no good or bad experiences.... just the lessons to be learnt from them....I believe I learned my lessons.... So for the next opportunity... I leave it to the Raja... May be opportunities never knock the door twice or may be another opportunity is just on the way....Till then....

गणपती बाप्पा मोरया
पुढच्या वर्षी लवकर या .....

500/-

500/-

It was monday and and my mom looked eager to wake me up, Frustrated, somehow i located the watch.. it was around noon, time to wake up all right but there was still some reluctance... not due to the sleepiness but just because of an envelope in my mom's hand..... Not another girl ... I thought but to my surprise and dismay (Cant help it even after all that reluctance in the first place) It had no details about any girl.....

I was just amazed to see a letter from VJTI about the returning the security deposit of rs. 500/-... After 3 years past my graduation, they found me worthy enough to give me back my deposit but do i really have to waste my precious sleep for 500 bucks.... I grabbed the pillow again but my mom wasn't taking any no for an answer.... So I had no choice but to present my argument.... "It's just 500 buck mom..." Me still trying to hide under the pillow.... but there was no escape from my mom... "Well then you can give it to your poor mom".... "By no means you are poor mom".... "I still understand the importance of 500 bucks.. and do you know what my poor students have to go through to earn those 500 bucks...".... teachers can never forget their students, can they?... even after retirement....and I just hate it when she leaves me speechless... And I am most effective against my mom when am half asleep but that argument snatched even the half sleep I was relying on.....

So here i was just on the way to VJTI just to collect the cheque of 500/- and my moms argument reminded me of a video i "Liked" on facebook but completely forgot about... here's the video....



When I reached college, I was damn sure that my half hearted enthusiasm to retrieve that deposit from college was no match to the bureaucracy of the clerks sitting in the accounts dep.... and when i reached college, clerks started giving vague directions from where to collect the cheque ... Change is only thing missing here, i thought.... people here have the clear role sand responsibilities defined and some responsibilities are not at all defined.. Helping is one of such responsibility.... Anyways somehow I found my way to the correct window.... after ignoring me for a while, he finally gave up.... but after a couple of lines of conversation he actually looked curious about my job and looked happy when I said I am paid enough.... We always think ourselves as the Underpaid and others as outrageously overpaid for their work... but somehow I end up replying enough....

Enough was not enough for that day, i guess cause when i got my cheque only to find a spelling mistake in my name the double D in my name was gone missing...I wasn't ready to accept a single D.... I thought all the efforts from home to office are in vain.... but that clerk really decided to surprise me.... clerk left all his work and started explaining me the workarounds to clear the cheque.... he even left his personal mobile no just in case the cheque is not cleared and promised to post me a corrected cheque if i am too busy to come back to college.... accounts dep. has finally changed.... Is it the water, air, renovation or the fear of director caused all this.... I had no clue... still change somehow felt good...

Finally I got the cheque and returned home... while returning I could hear all those conversations which had 500 in them.... really do i still understand the value of those 500 bucks?? so i decided to donate those 500 bucks to my mom's students...to those who understand it... But my mom had other plans in her mind.... "Now add some of your money to it and you can get a nice gift for your sister for this Rakshabandhan" .... I tried to mutter my plans for those 500 bucks but I know my mom she would again leave me speechless with some other argument like may be "I am rich enough to take care of my on students..."

So I simply kept my plans to myself and found myself on the way to a mall.....

Local Conversation......

After so many days I went to VJTI and met some old friends.... while coming back I had the privilege to travel in a local @ the peak time... This is one privilege I am very much scared of these days but That's how Mumbai works..... You have to bury all your fears to survive in this city only to find in the end that it's one of the safest cities in the world

Anyways from Bandra station somehow I made it in the second class compartment at around 7 PM..... Just when i entered, I found a delhite in the compartment boasting about city Delhi.... Everyone in the compartment was listening and noone dared to object.... May be the whole day @ work drained out all the energy or They just did not want to be Against North on any subject.... Even that can be a breaking news in Indian Media these days.... Neways So here we were on the mercy of a delhite trying to teach us "How to live our Life..." and on other hand we thinking How to make him leave our common lives...


Just then on the next station a Sardarji entered the train ... Now the delhite suddenly got a boost.... He got an ally to a battle he was fighting alone till now..... So here what happened next....

Delhite : "Mumbai me sab bheed bhad hai.... asli sheher to dilli hai"
Sardarji : "Maaf karna bhaisahab, par aisa hota itne log yahan kya zhak marne aaye hain..."
D : "App kuch bhi bolo Indiaka pet yahan hai par Dil to Dilli me hi hai"
S : "Dil ki to tab yaad aayegi na jab Pet bhara ho...."

And then there was a huge roar.... Even i couldn't help to smile.... Delhite suddenly got the urge to get off at Vile Parle.... may be he'll be on the next flight to delhi....

Sometimes I feel it has become a fashion to curse mumbai..... when there is nothing to show on a news channel, they show mumbai ... They must be disappointed about the lack of spice in the news from mumbai these days.... and of course delhi is proving worthy contender with Commonwealth games looming large....

Sometimes i feel that the media in India is the most negetive media.... when i watched US media one year back I suddenly felt the difference.... No crap "Breaking News" No "Super Villians" trying to destroy the whole society....They actually discussed a common meagre issue in american life most of the times..... and that made them boring of course... But for Indian media the definition of the Breaking is the negative news....

For a person living outside mumbai, it's the worst place to live.... and News channels, Bollywood or even Hollywood does not help much either... It's only the difference of perspective... that's what's wrong in most of the cases....

after all, If you stand in the middle of India facing delhi then Mumbai can never be on the right side .... Right?? you just have to face it only to find it near your heart......

Friends...

I really like the movie Dil Chahta hai cause it reminds me one of the most important thing in my life... That's Friendship.... when the movie was released I along with the Awala supari were just back from Goa.. and when we saw this movie about friendship and Goa we made it a resolution to go to Goa at least once in an year with friends...

The resolution was followed religiously for first 4 years but then everyone was so busy in their work that no one could really follow the resolution... so after 5 years Aawala supari got together with some new members for the Goa trip and we finally restarted the Goa fever... we hope to continue it every year and only time can be the best judge...

Back here in Pune i got naturally into a group... the group of 7... Over the last 3 years i always wanted to leave amdocs but i never thought of the group without any of it's members... When chheda left it was one of the biggest shock for me but the farewell to chheda again dragged me into same old debate in my very own head...

Someone cried @ chheda's farewell..... for a moment i felt jealous but at the next moment remembered the moment when i left Mumbai to come to pune... someone cried for me too.... and then I knew i was so lucky to be blessed with such friends.. people say boys don't cry.... but i'll say boys only cry for their friends... Someone once said 2 Girls are never friends for life no matter how close they are but 2 average boys can be friends forever... maybe it's natural for us.. may be not....

Last week I wrote a blog about the group of 7... that was about friendship but when I see my group in mumbai and pune I find myself very wealthy... staying in amdocs can never make you wealthy enough but when I count the friends I made here, it was worth it.... With some of the friends started packing the bags here, I wonder how long can i stay back??.... and is it worth to stay without friends?? Only time will be the best judge....

Desi??

Saturday I went for the mumbike... I feel i should ride more just to free my mind... but this ride was different.. it made me think...

As usual i stopped to visit the ganapati temple in Mahad... and there i saw a board urging people to buy swadesi products... it was enough to stir the thought process...

I am proud to be an indian... but what about the desi products?? am i indian enough?? i had no doubt about that... but the doubt seeks proof and i looked at myself for confirmation... i was appalled to see that none seemed pure indian...

My shoes... socks.. cap... backpack.. watch... jeans... t shirt... jacket... even underwear ... not to forget my beloved bike... with honda covering half of the name, it cant be....

One thing i know when the mind starts guilt parades on you... create a dilemma... i started searching for something Indian.. i found something... a Karma T shirt... it's indian... and why not non Indian brands when they are made in India... infact i am the person who bought "Made in India" shirt from US...

The dilemma did the trick... my mind left me alone with the meagre issue of my life...like marriage..


today some bay decoration theme in office which showed India as a superpower made me think again...

I googled "Karma T shirt company"

What i found in the results ... none of them was Indian...

Only this time my mind had only one emotion to spare... smile...:D