4th Gen #1

Disclaimer - Firstly the title doesn't refer to any Apple products. ( iPods or nething ) Enough has been already said n written for Apple till now. Given that topic a break :-).

Old times

Bombay, oh sorry i mean ' Mumbai ' , i visited long back. Somewhere in 95 or something. I clearly don't remember, but it was when Essel world was one thing which had to be checked in your itinerary no matter from where you manage to squeeze time. But any ways, I have a faint memory about Bombay, ( ya bcuz it was called this when i went earlier ) Juhu beach, where i had this extremely spicy Bhel Puri, and i remember meeting Salman Khan and Karishma Kapoor.

New Times

But, i got a chance to go back to Mumbai last week , bcuz hey !! My sis became a Mum, my mum became a nani and i became a Mama. :-) I wasn't actually sooo excited about the whole thing before, maybe bcuz i didn't no how it feels you know. But when i saw the cute little, oh wait, way too little thing lying in the bed, it just took my breath away. I mean, this has to be biggest miracle known to mankind i suppose, when a human makes another human. N oh my god, how small it was. Ya i no am using " it " as an antecedent for the baby, but seriously, you just cannnot refer it with ' him ' or nething at present when its just a week old.

Anyways, going back, i mean the trip from Delhi to Mumbai n then to the hospital, before i actually met my sis and the new kid. I had a plan to go by train to Mumbai but the ticket canceled, so i went by Indigo Airlines. And to my surprise, the airlines weren't as shit as what they seem from their name. The plane journey had nothing exciting but the only thing which i cannot resist to write is that, credit crunch has affected companies so badly, that you don't get free water bottle in planes nemore. I waited and waited a bit longer if the air hostess wud bring water bottles or nething, but nah. It was freaking PAID... !!! Seriously I mean, i've never traveled before where i paid for water. Even GoAir i guess gives you 200 ml water bottles, those 5 rs ones for free. Not giving free water is actually is act of cheapness of such degree, that even the cheapest of the cheap end up saying, Damn,, now how cheap is that ?

Anyways, the flight time went by easily, but it was the time i spent in taxi to get from airport to the hospital which sucked big time. Firstly, before i enter into the taxi, i wud like to honestly pay my regards to Russell Petters bcuz what he said about the shit smell you sense as soon as you step out at the airport is soo soo true. As if airport hired people to shit and go as soon as there is an arrival.

Which century seriously ??

I took a taxi from the airport to the hospital where my sis was. And Taxi is actually the funny part here . I never knew that taxi's in Mumbai were still those stone age fiat.. Damn... !! N to top that, those taxi's still have those button doors, which you have to press to open the door. I never noticed that it had a button system, so i just went for the latch and pulled it, n tried till a cracking sound came, and the driver said, sir , you need to push the button. I might sound insane but seriously, its been ages when i actually pushed a button to open a car door. It was just a normal reflex action you know to open the door. Neways, the driver wasn't too mad about the door lock thing.

The First ride..

It took me 1 full hour to reach the hospital and it was one pathetic journey i must say. But even more pathetic ones are yet to be experienced in this journey, so wait a bit. Neways, the scenes were awful really on the road side and lots of slum areas around the city. Roads not at all wide, too much shit all over, and the inescapable smell is just something which your nose has to deal with. Regulate its meters inside or watever.


The Baby

Slowly edging through the traffic, with dust all over me and inside me probably, i reached hospital to witness the smallest human being i've ever seen in my life honestly. It was soo tiny that i cudnt even pick him , not obv bcuz they are small, just that bcuz they are soo delicate and have soft or less bones gives you a feel that they'll wobble out from your hands or something. Anyways, on the first day, i was scared to pick it up, so just spent few min playing with it. Babies are just so much full of expressions honestly. Not that elder people are not expressive, but what you get from babies is something more candid. Although right now, a week old child wont do much on the expression part. All they do is sleep and shit. n thats what made me call him " Shit machine ". Seriously. sleep n shit. !! That sums up the day for them really.

There's a bit more to the trip.. will continue..

Varanasi

How many of you have actually gone for 'an' aimless trip for some days without a shadow of a clue in your top shelf , how will you spend your time.

Well my misfortune threw a bucket of cold water to make this nightmare a reality. Conjuring the fact that you traveling to a place like Varanasi and that too with your Sis, its the second worst thing that could happen to you after no ESPN in hotel on a football packed weekend. Damn.. How in the world people watch EPL in varanasi ??

Anyways, thanks to my swift thinking of my bum brains to somehow arrange seasons of Lost (2 & 3). And i tell you what, it was perfect to get my engines pumping to rise above my doldrums.

Varanasi, the first thing which rings a 'ghanti' in your brains is "Banaras ka Paan". Oh ya, the famous Big B's song. Bollocks. I just can't seem to wipe off the scene in our Patiaale da seeneyma ( Tagore ) where people started to actually dance infront of the screen when this song came in the film ( SRK one ). Ok, coming back to vanarasi topic, besides Paan, usual splashes of "red" glory you get to see everywhere.

And its also famous for banarsi saarees in which God went easy on me that my mum wasn't on the reservations charts.

And ya, again another temple city it is. Where ever i go in India, i get to read the same old line on a rusty board. " City of temples". Well this one was different, was with the red gloss on it.

I just went to Vishwanath and the Sarnath temple. Vishwanath temple is all enchanted with its antiqueness and purity. What you can't miss are the monkeys who are striding like stray dogs on the path and stealing prasad of the temple. Me and my sis attended the very beautiful Ganga Puja. Seeing the ardent foreigners listening to the puja carefully made me sneer abt the fact that , what the hell even they can understand in the puja. But actually the sneer fired back at me bcuz even I cudn't get what they were saying. hehe :-). I even had this famous tea of Banaras which was worth every praise i heard about it.

Second day I just relaxed in the hotel which greatly involved dragging Lost episodes on the VLC one by one. Lost is the first series i've seen which actually held onto the ropes leaving a surge inside you for more. Very much unlike Heroes (S02) in which it seemed like people having no powers in the series should be the ones called Heroes bcuz every damn person you see have some or the other power. And same is the case with Prison Break (S03). (Though finally Mr. Scoffield managed to escape after whole cauldrons of twists ). After downloading and watching episodes week in week out, I've honestly feel the director and the script writer of the show should be sent to an actual prison. Its just a prison for god sake ! If they want to show microwaves and binoculars in a prison, they'll definitely loose my tiny share in the % of the total TRP.

Not to deny the fact that even Lost has fair share of bed breaking anomalies but they cover them off well. The biggest of all is the Desmond's time travel and his flashes of future. But at the same time, to have a dramatic stakes of the ultimate endgame rooted in relationships and redemptions gives Lost a better shot at an emotionally satisfying conclusion. There is still a BIG mystery connecting all the survivors of Flight 8-1-5.

 I still have 7 episodes to go from the season 3 which I won't be able to watch now in the train. Damn compartment doesn't have a power plug here. And people really staring out of their sockets to know what i'm typing here. I actually should sleep bcuz its 10:30 ( Damn) and Mac's batt meter aint looking pretty in red. [ Mind you, not the Banaras one :-) ].

And finally what i cud gather and deduce from my trip was, that Scottish and Banarasi Language has so much similarity. In both languages, people tend to speak in an singing flowy manner and to prove my pt. , there's another very comical similarity. In banaras, people add 'bhaiya' most of the time and scottish people add Brother in the end.

UPDATED : Obv i didn't publish the blog in train, and now am through with the season 3. The ending was somewhat dodgy, but perfect !

Taare Zameen Par, but ehh.. Not in train pls..

Had a nice weekend in delhi. Went on Friday evening to meet Skaran who left this sunday for US. We had definitely a gala time eating mud cake ( I no, again ) and other stuff ( do I need to say all fattening stuff ). Saw rush hour 3 again and enjoyed watching it like it was the first time. Mimicking Chris tucker was awesome. There is no match for the blacks comedy I tell you.

Went to this Akshadhaam mandir which was a great experience. Its the biggest Hindu temple in the world and amazingly crafted decorations on walls and fountains and everything. Saw a 40 min movie of Bhagvan Neelkanth on i-max sized screen ( probably the first in the india according my brother ).

Coming back tired as hell with lack of sleep in the evening in shatabdi went quite unannounced as I was looking forward to have a nice sleep. Obviously in shatabdi you expect decent crowd and well mannered people traveling. But it turned out be a totally new experience. First my seat was taken by an old fellow who asked me to take other seat , I didnt mind that obv. Then the seat I got was with some 10 yr old kid. I thought that was it but there was more in store for me . Damn.. !! There were exactly 5 kids all below 10 and seriously irritating to the hilt. Asked all sorts of ques. Some so small that they even didnt know their age.. Imagine. Some singing twinkle twinkle small( their version) star and one boy who was I think 8 was trying to impress girls who were elder to him. ( A new VINEET DEVGAN in the making definitely :-] ) . These swarm of kids played weird kind of games. Even playing mummy daddy ( oh god ). One cute little girl was asking me all sort of questions , from where I belong and what I do and what she could not understand was which class I'm in. I said I passed collg and she was like , which class was your last. ? And to top that, why you stopped going to school she asked. I was speechless frankly. How in the world one can answer that ! She'll probably realize it when she grows up. Then she wanted to see what was in my laptop bag. Hell no, I really had to parry her questions and involve in other things to take her mind off from the bag and save my dear Mac. Bcuz as it says on the MacBook guide, Mac and you are made for each other ;-)

But honestly despite of the bone cramming situation I was in, I had a nice time chit chatting to little elfin 's and time not exactly flied but it was a nice journey.

P.S.
Whats your take on the Decisions giving by the Umpires in Australia and the Ausie team. Specially Ricky Ponting. He's one son of a bitch !!