Ha! I thought I'd lost the urge to blog, but I suddenly realized that it wasn't the feel for blogging I'd lost, it was the time. I'll let you into a little secret. I've always blogged from a Cafe Coffee Day outlet near my office, the reason being that I would relax there for sometime before or after work. And that gave my mind the freedom to wander and the time to pen it down. As I've already mentioned, if you do something you love, it should come effortlessly. For the past few months I've been shuffling between MBA preps and office and gym, with the result being that the minute I reached home, I'd be dead tired. Now that isn't exactly the condition that you wanna write in, is it?

Anyway, I've got loads to write, so bear with me.

Sometime back I caught a pickpocket. All in a day's work y'know :P It was pretty darn good and felt great...almost like I had underwear over my pants and a red towel cape on my back. But what I didn't realize was that these pickpockets are a persistent bunch, and I got reminded of that few days back on my way back from office. My cell phone got flicked(albeit temporarily) thanks to the overwhelming crowd of the Mumbai trains(in a good and bad sense, both =| ) Thankfully I got it back since the jack@$$ had butterfingers and dropped my phone on the train floor. No proof, no culprit. Even though I knew it was that guy who had picked my pocket, I could do nothing about it. Missed the public dhulai again :D

On a different note, I went to Delhi over the weekend for a family event. Most times, family meets are insanely boring, involving fake smiles and greeting people whom you barely even know, but they seem to know you so well. Example in question:

Relative:

1. OH MY GOD! (as if she's about to faint with joy)

2. HE'S BECOME SO BIG!! (seriously, would I stay a foot tall all my life?)

3. WE HAVEN'T SEEN HIM IN AGES!!! (note the gradually increasing number of exclamation marks correspond directly to the volume of her voice.)

4. You probably don't remember us. (See the blank look on my face? DUH!)

5. You were so small when we last met! (Pointing to some place about five centimeters off the floor)

What follows are a series of carefully practiced and expertly executed cheek squeezes and face pats that drain you of your sense of adulthood and drain the blood off your face leaving you with white cheeks and a giddy head. As you walk off wondering what happened for the past few seconds, you hear an excited squeal and your name from across the room and it all starts over again.

*shudder*

But that's just what usually happens. This one was one of those awesome-chilled out-weekend-away-from-home kinda meets. With a considerably younger population than usual, it was kickass!(yea, no censor, How's That!) Good homemade oily fried unhealthy-but-oh-so-tasty food and biryani, lotsa drinks, and dancing on the terrace made for one weekend well spent.

(yea, that's me :P )

Anyone preparing for CAT this year? I started off with T.I.M.E. classes, and it things look good. On the downside, too many things going on in life leaves me little to myself. So I've decided to finally quit(well not exactly quit...more like take a LONG break) from my designing job. That should give me enough time to sort out my day at a better pace. And MBA definitely takes a higher priority than keeing a job at this point of time. So, good decision to me! Yay!

*pats self on back*

Finally, a little something I wrote for a friend in reply to a poem she'd written(she's really good, but doesn't blog...although I've begged her to start one. For stubbornness' sake...sigh...) :P Anyway, read on and enjoy!

We walked along the road, drove on the freeway,
Hand in hand, no fear of going astray,
I thought I knew the road, of the land where we were headed,
I thought the consequences of my actions would have faded,
How wrong I was, for they never do,
They all remain, every word, every move, every step too,
Life is a freefall you say, but what happens when you have no choice,
And you realize it's not the wind that you hear, but your inner voice,
Screaming, pleading you to listen to reason,
Forcing you, pushing you to commit this treason,
To mend your heart you have to break one other,
But it listens to none, for the heart is sure,
It made me realize that our love may not be pure,
But love it is, and not some infatuation,
Of an adolescent mind running wild with passion,
So, as I sit under the stars this full moon night,
I feel you beside me as I linger at the sight,
And on this night, under the stars,
I finished writing a poem on this love of ours...


(Dedicated to Sohalia Shervani)

A little bit of excitement in my life :)

Sometime back I wrote a post about how crowded the trains in Mumbai are and how funny Train-ing can be. Well, here's something totally unexpected that happened yesterday, something which most of us think cannot happen to us...well, it was fun though... so read on!

Coming home from work is usually quite boring, standing in the overheated, overcrowded compartment of the second class local. And heaven help you if you're travelling at peak hours. After all, in those forty long minutes, you're drenched in the sweat and perspiration, most of which may not be your own!(yuck!)
So, for that and that reason alone, I'm usually at the door, hanging from the grill and enjoying the cool evening air. (yea, yea, now go all responsible mommy and scold me for being reckless. See if I care :P )
Ah, so where was I? Oh yeah, the door. Well, there I was, right at the front, with a freakishly tall half-mawali guy behind me trying all sorts of acrobatics at the door, and two more office-goers behind him. With the sun just setting, the air was cool and it was a pleasant ride; until the train pulled into GTB Nagar station. People alighted the train, more boarded, the usual routine. The train had just started pulling away from the platform when a man came rushing through all of us, almost pushing us off the slowly moving train, jumped off the train and started running. At the same instant, we heard a loud shout from within.

"STOP HIM! THIEF! HE'S STOLEN MY WALLET!"

Now, in such a crowded train, there's no time or space to pull the chain. Also, the train was slowly picking up speed. The pickpocket was getting away. With my mind racing through all these thoughts, I jumped off the running train. The same instant, I saw the other three guys at the door jump off too. And we raced. We raced after the thief who was already gaining so much distance by now. Everything happened so fast, I could barely register them. The only thing I knew was the thief was running away and we had to catch up.

Shouts rang across the platform, "STOP HIM!", " THIEF", "CATCH HIM". People looked at him. No one moved.

Suddenly, the freakishly tall guy, remember him? He picked up speed, and how! It was as if he was possessed. One second, he was running with us, the next he had caught up to the pickpocket who was at least a hundred feet away! A running tackle and both were down on the ground. We're still running.

Almost there.

The thief gets up. I catch up, punch him, he goes down.

By then the others are onto him as well. And then what ensued was nothing less than what can be called a "public dhulai" The poor pickpocket got thoroughly bashed up. After a few seconds, we really had to stop, more out of humane pity than anything else. By then, the railway cops came up, with their pot bellies and lathis. The man whose pocket was picked had also managed to hop off the train and showed up, hoping to get a few punches in. We handed him his wallet. Confirming that everything was intact, he was all smiles again, even offered us a reward which we refused.(i know i know...damn conscience) The confusion having died down and the thief handed over to the cops(who looked nothing like them, but wtf right?) we stood at the platform, arms folded and wide grins across our faces like the Avengers in all our glory, waiting for the next train, noticing the looks of curiosity, of impressed awe and of confusion. Having exchanged names and small talk, we boarded the train, again at the door, with the wind in our hair and sword at hand, awaiting the next station in case our services are needed again.

After all, for your average hero next door, it's all in a day's work.