Tikoo can't dance sala...

:(
just the other day, my confidence was shattered, when i realized that I am very bad at dancing..not that I was good at dancing at any point of time in my life, but my enthusiasm to dance has always pushed me to the dance floor. I had, over the period of time, managed to master some of the steps, which would give me enough option to dance for some time so that I could entertain myself (and may be others too...). and then I am very good at 'stealing' the steps from my co-dancers and thus make my dancing a successful. but at one of my frnd's marriage, I was, as usual, attracted towards the dance floor...and since I was, as usual, brimming with the confidence that I can manage to dance, I made my first step towards the dance stage... but I was soon to realize that most of my co-dancers are as immature as me.. and the regular mastered steps of lifting hands in air ( first one hand, then 2nd hand and finally both the hands, which makes it 3 different 'different' steps) were nt very useful as all the songs on the play list were 'shaadi ke songs'.. so realizing that lifting hands would have made me look like 'more' stupid, I stuck to the safest step on dance floor, to clap, while u can swing ur bod... and suddenly this no came on the play list, called, 'Pappu cant dance saala'.. and since 'pappu' rhyme with 'tikoo', my frnds starts singing 'tikoo cant dance saala' :) but watever, at least, i was centre of attraction for some time na... :P and ya, through this dancing affair, with me was my frnd named Ratheesh, who most of the time looked as if he was getting shocks for being mentally unstable.... ratheesh, hats off to u, for showing the courage to come on to the dance stage.... keep going... and so will i.. next party and we shall rock again.... ;)

RELEASE...

suddenly you start feeling that the operating system is conspiring against you. all the servers which were idle till yesterday, are suddenly working overtime and you hardly find a slot. all the scripts which were working till ystd, suddenly act in the weirdest way and play hide and seek games with you. the tools licenses will become a rarity and u will not relinquish the license which you would have WON recently. U will be asked for the status at the odd hours of the day, esp when it s the worst. the system will run anti-virus upgrade and slow it further. your last day of credit card bill payment will conincide with the release date. the clearcase elements wil be checked out by a person and u wont hv his contact details....the following wekend will be a postponed to the following weekend and your week will have 14days...your friend s marriage will be at the most critical day of the '14days long week' , i.e. Sunday... you will not be exposed to sunlight at any time of the day and you will traverse gates of ur workplace only when the sun is farthest in east or west...
Lets celeb the month of our 'project release' ;)

Google..

I am fan of GOOGLE.. these guys will just come up with a useless thing which will become our necessity... I guess after our mobile phones, this is one thing without which we cant survive... It is a faithful servant and takes care of all our needs. Be it socializing with our frnds or new ppl through Orkut, but it through Mails, Gmail, be it online catting, Gtalk, be it sharing our photos with our friends, Picasa or be it blogging... and then we hv the option of storing our documents in google docs or making our own web-pages through google pages. we can find the routes to diff places using google maps or locate a place using google earth. and if u think that u dont use any of these services u can always 'google' to find the way google can help u :)
In short google has given us so many options to express as well a manage our thoughts , memories , contacts and so much info. we can put all ur confidential info on to google docs and access them at any time and in any part of the world, trusting the google servers in some corner of the world. and let me remind u that we dont pay even s single penny for it..
but it just came as a random thought to me, what if one fine day google decides to charge for all of it s services. every time u access Orkut, u ll hv to enter the google-recharge card no, so that u can pay ur usage. ha ha ha.... just imagine how much u ll hv to shell out at the rate of 10p per min ;)

1 re...

wel, i keep on reading in newspapers, blog sites etc. about the auto drivers in Bangalore, charging extra or having faulty meters. i have myself fought with them 'n' no of times for charging extra. i always think that we shud have more stringent laws to deal with them. But recently when i hired an auto, i had to pay min charges for a distance which was less than 2kms. I gave 50 rs note to the auto guy and he gave me back 35rs . i asked for 1 re extra, and i was sure that he will be giving me regular excuse of not having 'chillar'. the auto guy (probably for the first time in b'lore) asked me if 1re was going to make any difference to me. i answered that, i would not like to waste even 1 re of my hard earned money. we were standing outside restaurant called 'Barbecue Nation'. The auto guy had a look at the restaurant building and said, "aaghar aapko aapne paise ki itni hi zaroorat hai toh aap is hotel mein 30 rupiyee ke roti kharid kaar, us par waiter ko 10 rupiyee ki tip nahi dete" (if u really cared about your hard earned money, u would never shell out 30rs for single bread and then pay 10rs as tip to waiter for it).. with this he took out 2rs coin from his pocket and gave it to me. i had no option but to take it... my frnds were behind me asking me to hurry up, as we had already booked the table and we were getting late. i was quick to join them, but what auto guy had just told me, made me think about his words for rest of the evening. We got a bill of around 1500 for 6 guys on which we paid a tip of around 150rs. probably a tip of 151 rs would have also been fine and we wouldn't have bothered about it. but an extra rupee with the auto guy, would have made a CONSIDERABLE diff to me, as ' Idont want to waste my hard earned money'.... i wasn't sure what should i conclude from the incident of that day, but some conclusion had to be made. when i narrated this incident to one of my frnds, he said, "we slog in our work place to spend money on our life style, on our pleasures and not for auto guys".. i didnt react to his stmnt but i was sure that i wasn't convinced by what he said...

'an eye for an eye'

i had taken two deep breaths before i wrote this blog. Taking a deep breath is supposed to help calm down ur tempers. But it is not helping me. My blood pressure just shots to the highest level every time i see the clips of latest bombings in India's capital city.
'an eye for an eye' was the title of the mail which was sent by 'Indian Mujahideen' tanzeem to Times of India. these locally bread touts of Pakistan sponsored terrorism are just taking a free hand in a meek Indian democracy where we have 'laws' for every thing. We are being victimized every possible day, every possible hour and every possible minute. These acts of terrorism seemed to have maimed our resolve to fight against terrorism. Our callous attitude is just acting as catalyst for these Mujahideens. and our elected representatives at the centre are just making 'statements' and 'vowing' to fight the menace of terrorism with an iron fist. But my one simple question is WHEN ? when do our politicians think the appropriate time will come when they can 'act' against terrorism. what incident does it require to wake them from the deep slumber. Sample this, we already have attacks on our Parliament, we already hv attacks in our national capital, in our financial capital(Mumbai), in our technology capital (Bangalore) , in the most prosperous state (Gujrat), in the peace loving city of Jaipur and Hyderabad, Varanasi (if u hv forgotten, let me remind u , we had attacks at Hanuman Temple there). And not to talk about J&K which has been burning for past 20 years now....Probably this list will just keep on lengthening, if we don't 'act'. If we don't 'act strong', if we don't act in 'the most ruthless manner' on culprits. If u go my premonitions, we should not expect anything to happen in near future (at least from Congress govt, which is visibly shaken every time Mamta Baneerge or Mayawati Sneezes) , and when national elections are round the corner and that Congress hasn't fared too well in the recent assembly polls recently.
It s really disheartening to see the way our seasoned politicians are making statements on the recent unfortunate incident. but i am not surprised, given the fact that we had similar statements issued when blasts has rocked Ah'bad. i was watching a discussion which was aired live on TIMES NOW channel, between Rajiv Pratap Rudy (BJP rep) and Renuka Chaudary (congress rep and a minister at centre). Rajiv Pratap Rudy asked a simple question to Renuka Chaudhary, if a crackdown (crackdown generally refers to the frisking and searching any suspected location or person and doesnt require court's permission) was possible at that juncture. to which the minister gave a reply in this fashion "this is not the time to play blame game or your dirty communal politics...blah...blah..." wel madam minister, i would like to say that a simple YES or even a indirect YES (because u dont want to annoy your minority vote bank) would hv been welcomed by every Indian.
and when we have some states like Gujrat asking center to pass its own formulated 'anti terror law', the center is not willing to pass it.. just for the sake of those extra votes in the coming elections.
y cant we have strong leaders like Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel or Bal Gangadhar Tilka who can root out this menace from India any ANY cost, who are so strong and fierce enough to nip the terrorism in the bud. But before that, do we hv leaders who have the willingness to do so !!! unfortunately NO or may be very few, which could be counted on your finger tips.

My view : i really feel that the time has come, when India needs to take the strongest possible measures to stop blatant dance of death on it chest. Time and history has been witness to the fact that it always takes a strong leader to bring about the revolution. Be it the French Revolution (lead by Mirabeau) , American Revolution ( like Samuel Adams) or more recently, our own KPS Gill who managed to put an end to terrorism in Punjab in early 1990s.. when the evil has to be rooted out from the society, it will ask for its price, and we should be ready to pay it. U can't please everyone to find a solution for a problem. Blood shed is inevitable in any revolution. Let it happen, as it s surely better than the bloodshed of innocent children who r victims of these acts of terrorism. we, as Indians hv already suffered a lot and the suffering must end now....
and to all those media channels, pl for heaven's sake, pl don't add fuel to fire.... pl stop showing the pro-Pakistani and anti-India protesters in Kashmir as 'innocent protesters' and the 'pro-India' protesters in Jammu 'communal forces'... ur TRP ratings are not as imp as ur own nation.

if the devils behind the recent attack in Delhi, happen to read this blog, i just want to reply to them that if u think 'nizam-e-mustafa' is gonna be instantiated in India, wel u can be assured that it will not happen till the time of 'kayamat'... and let them not forget that the muslims who had migrated to pakistan in 1947 are still referred as Muhajirs, hence distinguishing them from the aboriginals... that the same Pakistan which helped the formation of Taliban Govt in Afganistan and acknowledged it, provided it s own air bases to US planes for destruction of Taliban...
i ask u, what r u deprived of in India.. which right, which freedom is restricted for you in India.. the very fact that u can dare to air ur views against India on its own soil, itself proves the true democratic and secular color of India.. y do u blame India, if Muslims were not able to progress in past 60yrs.. was their freedom, their opportunities limited by anyone or any govt at any point of time... and last but not least, pl dont forget that ur deeds are not doing any good to ur own community, at least in India..
Jai Hind...



(**i am ready to receive any brickbats for it**)

ALT + TAB

oh k... this might hv happened to u. during office hours, when u don't hv much work or when u r just feeling too lazy, u gen open the timepass links or some 'goodmorning/afternoon/must watch' mails... and ur left hand's thumb and ring finger will be on 'alt' and 'tab' keys of key board. after all u hv to be quick enuf to shift between the 'technical window' and the 'entertainment window' , at the slightest sound of any human movement near ur cubicle. i guess Microsoft has done really good job in giving us this option... u can change the working window, without even moving ur hand from key board... but (and unfortunately) there s another fact that Microsoft windows can hv DNA mutation at times and act in the most weird ways and hang up, taking away ur basic right of changing the window when u require it the most. and this hang up might be fatal enough to HANG u in front of ur 'reporting manager'.
wel, same thing happened to me in previous week. i had just come back from a nice and heavy afternoon lunch. i was feeling little sleepy and thought of doing something to dodge the overpowering sleepiness. i went to yahoo home page and was looking at the pics of Deepika Padukone (wel, her fotos wil surely make up open your eyes). suddenly i could hear some human movement in the back drop and the 'emergency response' cells of my brain, were quick enough to send the control signals to my hand to hit 'alt + tab' key... but alas !!! my system s not responding... ok, try again... here i hit 'alt tab' but again, my sys is unresponsive... it was getting excessively critical and the noose was just tightening with every passing second.... brains cells got into damage alt mode and began searching for plan-b... k, dude just get up and switch off ur monitor and pretend that u hv to got to loo... u ll impress ur mngr by ur 'power saving' etiquette and save ur delicate neck from all the impending trouble... so, the control signals went to my legs, i pushed the chair, switched off the monitor and then got up to 'release my hydraulic pressure' ... ah, when i took an 'about turn' i saw my fav office mate, and he said , "abe chu****, kitna time pass karega" !!!

My childhood confession !!!

it was the summer of 1999 in jammu and we had just moved to 10th class.. the classes had just commenced... we were the senior most guys of the school and hence had the 'right' to 'manage' the annual Christmas fair (i was studying in a christian school). we were excited about the annual school trip.. and 'I' had specifically a more complex feeling... i had a crush on a girl in my class (lets name her as Kareena) and i wanted to tel her this, at least in this year... and to make the situation worse, i had a set of really 'good' frnds, who used to give me encouragement on every other day, to go and express my feelings... wel, that whole year, i tried every possible technique on this earth to impress her.. i changed my sitting place in the class , so that i could sit next to her seat... so that i could talk to her... wel, my efforts were not yielding any substantial results, but i still kept the hopes alive...
finally came the month of Jan-2000 and the school was about to be closed for study leave. i thought, if i dont tell her now, i wont be able to tell her anytime in my life...
so, one fine day after school got over, i gathered all my nerves, approached her and asked her, "can i cal u at 3pm today"... she smiled in the most 'cruel' way and said "ya, sure y not" (that was the time when thr were no mobiles) ... and i replied " oh k", with a broad smile on my face...
i caught the next bus to my tution and got down at the nearest 'PCO'. it was around 2:55pm, with 5mins to spare... i recalled all the statements which i had prepared over past 15 days... at 3 pm i dialled her no... the bell went, tring tring... she picked up the fone and i said "Kareena"... and she replied "ya, gautam ???" and i told her, "i think i like u", and she giggled, and said "hmmmm...".... and i went a step further and said, "do u also" .... and she replied,"haan" !!!
aaaha... i felt at the top of the world, but wat next... what shud i say next... i had never prepared for an all favorable reply !!!

mOBILE musik

The technology has progressed so much that we have access to all the music, all the time..A person who would died 10yrs back, if comes back to life today , would be surprised to see our acoustic advancement... the sight of people wearing headfone and listening to their favorite tune is so common. the presence of FM in every second mobile fone coupled with congested Bangalore roads, gives all of us a gud reason to plug in the headfones and isolate ourselves from the humdrum of outside world... yes, we ISOLATE ourselves.. ISOLATE to such an extent that it can cause inconvenience to others... i might be little paranoid, but i am sure the day is not far when we shall be having lessons on 'music listening manners', akin to 'dressing manners' that we hear so frequently these days...
but what prompted me to write this blog is the very irritating incident that happened today morning.. a 'pretty lady' sitting next to me, in my morning shuttle to office, had blocked her ears with headfones. probably it was a new fone for her and she was just checking out the maximum decibel output of her headfones... but she was so much engrossed in this, that at last stop, i had to speak at the top of my voice to draw her attention towards me and tel her that we have reached the office.

emotions !!!

It might sound strage to people who know me, but fact is that I am an EMOTIONAL person. in fact, i was an emotional person from the time i rem feeling sad, when someone had scolded my sister in our childhood... but an equally shocking fact should be that, i will not express my emotions, no matter what.. i am bad at expressing them and i am equally bad at reacting to them... i had somehow got this notion etched in my mind, that expressing emotions to or for someone are actually a sign of weakness and hence shud be avoided. i hv, till now, by and large, been (or may be acted like) a person who is unfazed by any body's emotions. but in past few months or may be a yr or so, i have been thru such diverse emotions, which have compelled me to think about them. and why shudnt i be thinking about them, as it s a significant 'sense/feeling/trait' which distinguishes us from other living-beings.... I have always tried to understand wat my emotions mean.. and i shud admit that i am still not very clear about them..
i feel that "emotions" is a byproduct of ur growing age, which will take various forms at different stages of life... wen u are young, u are emotionally attached to ur parents, to ur siblings, to ur closest friends.... and as we keep celebrating our birthday, year after year, these emotions will undergo a gradual change, with or without our knowledge.
the 'restrict ur emotions to yourselves' has made such an un-breachable shell around me, that i am scared that if someone will ever come to know what my true emotions are!!!