Udte chale hawa mein…

Have you ever sat on top of an open van?
Felt the strong gust of air in your face??
Let your hair flying lose as the vehicle roared ahead?!

Having experienced this feeling quite a few times, I must tell you there is a unique fun in doing it. Its simple pure fun! 🙂 Whilst on our way to the beach in Mandvi, we spotted these girls sitting carefree and chit chatting, eventually I told my wife to grab the camera and click them. Whilst most were kind to smile and laugh at us to take the picture there is this one shy girl who has covered her face by her handkerchief! 🙂 There is this older lady there who has an elephant sized nose ring as my wife noticed! and the kids… as you can see them… busy feeling the wind! 😀

the first week at home…

Before I start rambling off let me first solve the quiz …

The only guy to guess it correct at the first go was Karate Kid errr Brat and I have been rewarding him enough already !!! 😉

Monu guessed it correctly too but in her third try ! The last pic was actually clicked by leaving the shutter open for a while and then in the balcony we were using the mosquito killing racket for about 2-3 minutes and all the lights are the number of mosquitos that were killed during that time… !!!! 😛 😛 

So finally I have a sunday today after two weeks, last sunday was in training and so didnt get a weekend off… but finally its a day to relax and chill and we have a plan to go to Valia (40kms from bharuch) to have some lovely home made chicken masala served to us… !!!!!! 😛 😛 😛 😛 😛 So looking forward to tonight’s dinner ! 😀

The last week has been eventful and have been rushing by… having to travel, train, settle, meet new colleagues and so many hours spent observing, understanding things and getting ready to put thoughts into action… ! Largely life has been rustling and bustling and thankfully everything has been good and no mishaps… well none but one…  when in over slept in the volvo while returning from Bharuch and travelled another 60 kms… ! 😐

It so happened my bus was late, instead of 9.30 it came at 10. My travel agent had told me it would reach Bharuch at 7 so the half hour delay meant 7.30. The bus conductor said 7 too ! At about 6 I woke up to see the highway and no hotels were visible… and I thought in my mind that I had to stop the bus as I had this huge urge… as I prepared to get down, luck, which has changed it seems for the better (touchwood), the bus turned into a hotel, we stopped !!

It was Galaxy Hotel, the name sounded familiar, the dining area etc too.. and I thought I had eaten Bhajiya’s here once.. I asked one fellow,

“Bharuch ketlu ?” (meaning how far is Bharuch)

“60kms” pat came the reply

I relaxed and did my stuff and took out a cigarette and was just enjoying the cold morning mist and breeze on the highway puffing & thinking of the training days gone by and the implementation to be done… when I noticed that if I were going from Surat to Bharuch I should be on the other side of the highway… I turned around and tried to figure this side or that side and it seemed I was on the side which would be right if I were going from Bharuch to Baroda… so I went to ask a guy at the counter of the hotel,

Where is this hotel situated ?

“Por” came the reply to my horror !!!!!!! I had crossed Bharuch by a good 60 kms and phew… I suddenly rushed and asked the conductor why he didnt wake me up and he said I screamed so hard… 5 people got down at Bharuch… Sigh… I still cant believe he drove from Pune to Por in 8 hours !!!!!!!

thankfully there were many buses going towards Bharuch on the same hotel and I did my changing but in that I forgot my Biwi’s shaawl in the bus sigh !!!!

The first week has been busy and hectic, the colleagues in the new office are quite nice, most are young and very energetic and quite co-operative I must say, the environment seems positive and it should help, now for me to work really hard… !

Also have started playing cricket in the mornings and the first day involved a finger injury and one ball decided to just jump as I bent to field it and decided it liked my Ear more than my hands… it was painful to say the least and the ear was ringing… Remember the doordarshan “teeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee” before it starteed….. yes, I could hear that same sound… thankfully no bleeding ! 😐

Feels good to sweat it out in the morning and the body is now quite well, after the first day’s play I was locked, I walked almost like a ROBOT !!!!!! but now its getting used to bowling 4-5 overs daily and that should help get the belly in…. ! 😀 😀

Another blasphemy happened when one of my bro’s colleagues (I play with my bro and his colleagues) pointed at me and asked my bro,

‘Pela kaka kaun che ?’ (who is that uncle, kaka is gujarati for uncle ! ) 😐

SIGH ! 😐

Talk of giving fodder to my readers … but what the heck… I have been away and I want my legs pulled… Lol…

I will now be rambling for sure… hang on guys and I am now starting to read blogs and make my reader lighter… !!!!!!

Life is happening … ! 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 😀

cherished memories of my life

 

I was first tagged by Rashmi for this but somehow I never read that post and when Smitha did this tag and she didn’t tag me I cried foul. Now having taken up the tag smartly and read a lot of our bloggers do this I am realising this is infact a very difficult tag….

 

I would end up writing an epic….  good or bad all the memories are cherished all for some different reasons… So lets do it in parts I will  just recall my days as a kid and in school….. that would be enough nostalgia for me for a week…. 🙂

 

1.) My memories with my two younger brothers —-

I miss being a kid, we three brothers would always gang up and be Dada’s in our society. We would play cricket, thappo (hide n seek), aais pais, king, fish from tanks and collect them in our tanks, but them in bottles and put them on TV (gharib logo ka acquarium), bring puppies home only for Mom to not let it enter the house, catching squirrels, plucking & stealing mangoes &  flowers from other people’s house, doing WWF on the beds and breaking them…. I want those days back really…. 🙂

In the afternoons Mom would force 3 of us to sleep and we would keep talking and making noise or fighting and not let her sleep and she would get angry and we three would keep giggling and eventually Mom would burst out laughing… She loved her siesta (used to get up very early) and we never let her have one… Those were the days as they say… 🙂

Once all three of us decided to have our heads shaved… but as my younger brother sat on the barber’s seat and got his head shaved… I and the youngest one stood up… he looked horrible… we didnt get ours shaved and the middle one didnt speak to both of us for a few days… !!! but seriously Haath firaving on the taklu was fun….. 😀 😀 😀

Wish I and my bro’s could be young again in our old Bharuch house which had a huge huge compound… !!! Even in the nights we would play cricket in the hall, break tube lights, watches and what not…  It was fun… seriously fun… We were a gang in ourselves and didnt even need anyone for fun… !!!! 😀

 

2.) My school days Primary –

Up until 5th I was a very good boy having always studied in a boys school (Mumbai n Jamnagar), playing soccer and studying as a ranker… but as I shifted to Bharuch, my rank from 2nd went to 22nd…. In Bharuch there was no boys school and I entered a co-ed… what with our teacher making us sit 1 girl 1 boy combination… !! the girls ruined me… !!! my studies went for a toss …. 😦

Every action done in school then was always conscious, always in the mind the same thought, the girls are watching…. !!!

Showing bravado by breaking the fans in the school or putting sutli bomb’s in the teachers drawers tied with an incense stick (TIME BOMB we used to call it)… never having books completed and when the teacher would give an option either 50 situps or get out of the class to actually take pride in getting out !!!! …. ( silly really but it didnt seem then, it seemed very smart and brave ! ) 😳

Strangely enough English books would always be complete… as I was good in it and all girls would want it to copy my answers… !!! Every action like I said was being done thinking about the girls… !!

Removing Valve tubes from the cycles of the beautiful girls and then helping her to a puncture shop and sitting and chatting to her alone after schoool…. ohhhhh…. I want the girls back… I want the carefree days back… I want my silly days back…. 😀 😀

 

3.) School Secondary days –

This was the time when the girls magic kind of became a little less…. (na it can never wear off).

Playing serious sport… Cricket… I became a hero when I scored 65 against our dushman school GNFC in our local cricket tournament and thanks to it was made captain of the cricket team the next year…. bunking periods everyday to go to the ground to practice… I was the pride of my Physical Education sir and he was my license to get the players out of the classes and practice… !!!!! 😀 😀

Sometimes when I think, we could play for 3 days at a stretch for 80 overs everyday in the sun !! Even in scorching May !!!! Today when I go out of my A/c office to catch a smoke in the sun…. I feel its so so hot… !!!! 😦

Wish I could be like that again… dark… skinny…. and playing a sport… eating golas on the cricket ground or getting our limbu soda… puri bhaji in lunch from various associations where the potatoes in the subji would not even be peeled…. 🙂 🙂

My cricket love affair started here… my life’s first love…. I couldn’t sleep the nights before I was to play matches… !!! and after the match was over and played I would sleep totally exhausted and scream in my sleep…. “easy easy” “throw throw” “comon boys” “shot ‘sir” and what not to keep my parent awake… !!!! 😀 😀

 

4.) Higher Secondary school –

A newly admitted girl caught my fancy here… whole day like a completely ashamed mawali… I would stare at her… the class would go on but I would only keep looking at her… no matter what… everyone would know apart from the students…. but I would keep staring… !! (eventually as August came the girl came and tied a rakhi to me and broke my heart ) 😳

Then a tiff with our class teacher (he would trouble students who didnt join his tutions) ensured that I decided that I will not attend school if he comes to school… 😦 . Imagine… how brave I was !!!!!!  So for almost 6-7 months I and a bunch of other friends would bunk school daily… We would go to our school timings were 12.00 to 6.00, as soon as our prayer bell would ring…. we the brave we would pick our bags and go out of school…. (so what if the teachers saw us) &  when we had a larger number we would all play cricket… if the number would be smaller… we would go to movies 12-3 and 3-6 !!!!

Yours truly didn’t like Hum Aapke hain Kaun but has seen the movie in theatre 27 times !!!!   Bloody two theatres out of 4 in Bharuch ran this movie for almost 3 months… !! I have also seen Rangeela 5 days consecutive 12-3 & 3-6 (2 shows every day, Monday to Friday) !!!!  😀 😀  I have seen Rangeela &  Bombay more than 10 times in the theatre !!!!  😀 Barsaat, Humse hai muqabla more than 5 times… 😀 Even pakau sadiyal movies like Teesra Kaun 2-3 times !!!  😀 😀 For almost 2 years in 11th and 12th I have seen umpteen movies first day first show !!!! (yes I was the pucca mawali in those days) 😀 😀

I was going to fail in 11th as my attendance was not enough however the smart me went to our class teacher and made up and joined his tution for 12th standard before our 11th results came.

In 12th I had a tution from 7am-9am for accounts and statistics, 9am-11am for Commerce and Economics (class teacher). However I cannot recall attending it ever…. we would sit downstairs or roam here and there or play cricket or sit in our restaurant (mayur – lovely dosa’s) we would only go to drop the girls in the tution and welcome them out of the tutions… !!! and then 12pm to 6 pm you already know !!! aaah… that was some fun… wasn’t it ??

Hang on… no I didnt copy in the 12th board exams… I passed in Second class… !!! Dont ask how… !!!

I was a smart asss but an ass !!

 

————-

The worst experience of my life also happened in 12th in the vacations in Gir, we 2 class mates and 2 seniors along with 1 other guy and a rabari were tracking 2 lioness on foot for more than an hour eventually we probably pissed the lioness’ off and one of them charged to threaten us……. She didnt want to kill us, only wanted us off her tail… If she wanted to she in all likelihood would have…. She charged us…. and all of us ran for our lives…. one of our friend fell but none of the 5 guys running had the bravado or sense to stop and pick him up…. she pawed him… but missed and he got up and ran away !!!! You know him as Third Eye (a contributor in our photography blog) !!!!  That is when we realised that we must keep distance and never go beyond a certain limit… The though of answering his Mom if something had happened still sends shivers down my spine…. It was the worst experience of our lives…. Never do anything like that…  That friend of mine is still alive and driving somewhere in Leh at the moment… he is a very very dear friend and we are always in touch !!!

 

 

Will post some other memories some other time… this post is quite long enough already… !!!

 

Do read … huh !!

Introducing Itchy n Scratchy !!

 

After ditching me, my awesome friend  has given me & another child  new nick names probably trying to tease us ….   😛 😛 😛

 

while i thought this was something original… my partner in crime just introduced me to these fellows :

 

 

The theme song is nice naa… ?? I never knew these characters actually existed… (sigh… my G.K.) but Scratchy !!! my friend !! my saviour !!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

I was actually thinking my awesome friend created them… but no… she aint getting any credit where its not due… !!! 😛 😛

 

 

This is seriously fun !!!! 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀

 

 

I am loving every every bit of it !!! 😛 😛 😛 😛

 

Trust the crazy to actually fall in love with something really meant to be making fun of them … !!   

Moi is back !

 

Ladies & Gentlemen, Girls and Boys, Heroes and Heroines, Devils and Angels ….. I ‘m back…. !!

 

How perceptions change after a break is quite extraordinary…. Things just start to look so much better and work starts looking so much more appealing… new thoughts suddenly start flowing from everywhere….  

 

I have come back atleast 1.5 inches fatter…. atleast 4kgs heavier and 100% fresh as a flower (a daisy at that) ! whew…. !!!

 

Visiting the home town is quite different, here in Indore I never have any one call me on the roads or anyone waving at me… but back in Bharuch, I got off the train at 1.45 in the night and I had 4 friends waiting to receive me. We head home and meet my anxious Mom who can never sleep when some one is coming…. especially her own son…. After a few bear hugs and taking her blessings, off we went to a restaurant on the highway and had dinner at 2.15  am !! Those are my friends and that is Bharuch and that is a life for you !!  Aha… ! Eventually after a lot of cigarettes and dinner finally I reach home at 4 am… !!!

 

Where ever I go, which ever street I take, I have friends, aquantainces and people who just wave at me, call me, stunned to see that I am so much still in shape… (modest, that I am, you know by now… ) The old girl friends were going booom bastic…. seeing me in my cool short t-shirts, jeans and smart goggles, plus my 4 pack abs !!!! 😎 …. that had me looking so so so so george clooney like from the face and Hritik like from the body perspective…. !!!! ahem ahem…. 😉

 

Ok ok … enough of my popularity in my hometown… !

 

The next few days were spent in Dwarka at BIL’s wedding, I know very few people at my In-laws and the way they all pestered me calling me “KUMAR”  was really embarassing, eventually even my son called me Kumar once…. it was so god damn embarassing and irritating the word…. I would keep repeating call me Dhiren… !! Even the lovely saali’s that I met for the first time would call me Kumar… so so useless this Kumar word !! bah…

 

Also being at the BIL’s wedding is problamatic coz the Ladkiwala’s take too much care of you, feed you too much and worst dont leave you alone so that you can wander out and smoke a cigarette in peace… ! phew… ! 😦

 

Back at home after the wedding was Bro’s engagement, who seems to have completely gone beserk. It seems his whole world is now revolving around a girl whom he didnt even know was existing about 2 months back… !! Well well …. Gone are those days when me and my Mom used to discuss, the girl that marries him will have her life ruined…. This guy has completely changed for the better…. thankfully…. but that invites its own bit of sarcasm from the family members….

 

Imagine a guy who would take his cupboard keys in the bathroom when he would bath, fearing that his brothers or Mom would take something out of his cupboard or whatever…. suddenly leaves the door open, even cleans out  a couple of shelves in order to put some stuff of the girl that is still not marrying him till November !!!!!!

 

How the girls  make the guys go round is there for all to see…. ( girls meaning girl friends, no.. Moms and Bhabhi’s are not in that girls category )

 

However everyone in the house is having fun at his expense…. or rather at the expense of the change that is suddenly visible in him…. Now the poor guy can’t do any good deed for us…. Sarcasm rules here…. 😉

 

With friends it was a good time, going to their offices, while they are working and pestering them, disturbing them in work, making them stay out long at night, even though they have to go at work the next morning…. (you have the luxury of waking up at 11 am he he he… 😉 )

 

The useless chatter and banter kept us going at nights…. leg pulling was the theme at all times and always fighting that Bharuch is a small village and Indore a Mega city… !! although I love Bharuch much more… !

 

Yes, did visit Baroda once just to eat…. after each eating session we would enter a shopping mall, not to buy anything but to pass time, so that we could stuff ourselves again…. amazingly we spent the whole day in Baroda, eating and then waiting to get hungry again and eating again…. !!!! It was seriously fun…. !!!! and felt so good, at all times when ever any one would ask… how come your in Baroda?? and I would proudly tell them, I have come here to eat…. and they would again ask… but no seriously how come..?? and I would say… seriously … silly… I came here to just eat…. Yes we drove 80 kms at 10 am and stayed till 9 pm in Baroda with no agenda, no work, nothing to do but just EAT ! 😀

 

I wont tell you all the things I ate…. some people get too jealous and the NRI Blogggers cast a Buri Nazar…. so I wont …. its better to play safe …. or else who knows… my Stomach might ache… ! 😛

 

There are so many blogs that I have to read, my reader shows some 590 plus items to read… whew…. I guess I did rather post this piece and get down to reading… some interesting tags are also in the offing…. suddenly things are so so so bright and exciting…. yipppeee…. !!!!! 😎