Winter or Me? Winter and Me.

I can't believe that I am the same guy who shuddered at even the slightest winter chill. I was asked today, 'aur bhai thand nahi lagti kya?' (don't you feel cold?) as I have still not started not putting on warm clothes. I am delighted.

Googly woogly woosH

Advertisements are very effective harbinger of the forthcoming season. I always wonder if the sales and marketing teams of the companies have a meeting where they begin with announcing, "Guys, as you know winter is soon going to arrive, lets search and take out that commercial that we made last time...". Just like this ad of Ponds cold cream which, as every year, reminds us that the winter is soon going to knock our doors. You are most welcome Ms. Thandi!

Comfort Innovated

Its been months since Delhi government imposed ban on polythene bags. The day this statute was ratified, there was a mixed feeling in me. On one hand I was very happy that the ruling of Delhi is in the hands of pols that are environment sensitive and most important bold enough to take such stringent action. And on the other hand, I was bit dissident because following the law needed me to carry a bag from home whenever I was out for shopping. The thought - "what if I forgot to carry one?" - always bothered me. I for some reason had the faith on the shopowners that on that worst day when I actually would forget to take a bag along with me for the amount of items cleary too much for my hands to carry, they would show mercy on me and provide bags that either got left after the law came into existence or were meant to help wretched creature like me. I always believed in what I thought about 'the kind shop owner' until the day I actually forgot to bring a carry bag from home. I had gone to purchase potatoes, to be precise a kg of them. And to my dismay, when I declared that I was bag-less, shopkeeper was completely indifferent of my state and instead of providing me with any help, pointed his finger to a newspaper cutting that was stuck on the wall beside the cash-counter and which mentioned the Delhi government's ban on plastic bags. I was in no mood to go back home empty-handed and by the virtue of the huge palms that God has endowed me with, I took the decision to carry all those potatoes home using my adroit hands. I still remember that 10 minutes walk to home, which in normal condition would have required hardly two minutes. I can proudly say that I carried all the potatoes without any casualty and with none fallen. But this experience taught me a lesson and after that day, every time I embarked for shopping, I always made it a point to carry some kind of bag with me.

Carrying a bag is indeed an inconvenience for me, because being a guy, I am used to travel light. But this, I believe, is a very small cost to pay for the protection of our dear nature! Not every city has the pols like we have, who are so concerned of our atmosphere and of our posterity. Being a responsible citizen I should respect their decision. Since that fateful day (if I may say), I have kept sacrificing my comfort for the city that I live in. But now no more! Especially after yesterday's encounter with an intelligent shop owner and his innovative way of complying with both nature's health and customer's ease. He provides carry bags made up of cloth at his shop at the cost of Rs 5 only. Please wait before you start blaming him of taking advantage of customer's obligation, to sell his goods. These bags are completely refundable. Just give it back to the shop keeper and you are refunded back your money. Now tell me! Howzzat? The moment he advertised this to me, I had a smile on my face and I couldn't resist praising him, and I actually did that. And why not? If others follow his suit then the day is not far when I would again start enjoying shopping that I completely dread now because of all the hassle of carrying that stupid plastic bag stuffed in my trouser's pocket...

The Surprise

Our Bureau
New Delhi, Oct. 13

The latest and most ambitious oil and gas auction round evoked poor response with only 36 of the 70 blocks offered....

WHO THE HELL CARES!!! Dad's photo has come right on the front page of The Hindu Business Line, one of India's leading business daily. What a way to start the day!

Life is not a race. Do take it slower.

Four years. Yes, that must be the period after which I opened this carton that contained all my 'relics' of M.Tech. Only few days back I had brought it down from the store to my room so that I could filter important things from it and give the rest to Anokhilal, the guy who buys scrap from us. I had completely forgotten what I had put in it and was doubtful to find anything interesting either. But I was wrong. I can say that because after I had finally separated required from unwanted - barring few envelopes, printed lecture slides, thesis draft of the girl who I used to date at that time (and who I don't want to remember anymore), medical files of all the doctors I had visited during those two years of post graduation and certain bills - everything else had some or the other tidbit tagged to it and couldn't be thrown away. Question papers of exams that I appeared for, marked answer sheets (we were given back those after evaluation), print outs of numerous published papers from IEEE and ACM with colours of my highlighters (that I still have in my drawer) and side notes that had occassional presence of sketches that I must have made to kill the boredom created by certain really convoluted and dry papers. A beautiful alarm watch that I had used in the first year to wake up and prepare for early morning exams. A cute devil it was. The box that contained my first digital camera when mom gifted it to me on my birthday. Along with box, there was this photo which was taken using the same camera right at the shop by its owner and was gifted to us. Packing of my first CD player responsible for those countless hours that I had spent listening to FM and MP3s while working and before dozing off on my hostel bed. There was this case that contained my Nokia 2100 when I had purchased it. My first one that I got immediately after arriving at college, to be in touch with my parents. Unlike today's students, I didn't have the privilege of having cell during graduation. Then there were pencils - sharpened, blunt, unused, short, thick, plastic, wooden - that I used to carry with me everytime along with some or the other paper that we had to finish before next day's lecture. There were surprise test papers, which were called 'pop quiz' there. Quite an apt name because these quizzes used to literally pop out from nowhere. I was amazed when I saw that these papers had my answers inline displaying the total marks I scored, in that ominous circle divided by a line in the center that separates ideal from real. If some of these made me smile with pride, other prompted me to bury them deep, sheepishly. I found my thesis proposal that I had submitted at the end of third semester. All the rough papers that I had used to develop the prototype and the final version of the executable to prove what I had proposed.

Time stood still, when my eyes fell upon the printed slides of the final presentation that I made in DA-IICT, lying amidst all others papers. My final presentation was in front of the panel who had to judge my work and decide whether I was eligible to be awarded with degree or should be retained for some more time to finish things to their satisfaction. Suddenly, I was there in my college. In my guide's cabin. The moment when I was told that my thesis had been approved and that I was Master of Technology officially. I still remember how I breathed everything around me after that day, as if I wanted to capture everything that the institute had provided me in those two years. The days had passed real fast, and I distinctly remember my last day in hostel, packing all my belongings and stowing them in a carton...the same carton that I opened today after more than thousand days. Life passed away very quickly. And in that rush, I completely forgot about these things that built my days few years back. Among the few quotes that I had written in a pad found in the same carton, I came across one which prompted me to write something about these small, ordinary and inexpensive things for others but precious to me because they remind me of the two beautiful years of my life in Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology...

"Time is short. The music won't last.
You'd better slow down. Don't dance so fast.

When you speed so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.

When you worry and hurry through your day
It is like an unopened gift...thrown away.

Life is not a race. Do take it slower.
Hear the music before the song is over."