7 First Dates : Part 5: The call center girl

It took some time for Kangna to get normal with Aman all over again, not because she was too mad with him over what he had said over coffee, but that she herself had some issues to sort out. Of course Aman was thinking otherwise. And so went all over to make her his happiest ever friend. So after a week of the "Third first date", they got together for a movie at PVR.



"You know what, I think I need to finish through last four now", Aman said while catching a popcorn by his mouth.

"You lost the bet, buddy. It was 7 days. So could you remind me again, what payoffs we bet for", Kagna said while sipping from the Regular Pepsi cup.

"Lost?? Excuse me! You got mad at me for no reason. So last week should count as a halt"

"You are a very bad loser! Okay go on! Take your time. Finish the bet. Seems that one slap wasn't enough for you"

"That was an anomaly. I am sure I would cruise through it. So who was next on the list? Some call center girl?"

"It was credit card caller, as far as I recall. But have your fun anyways. I am fine with the call center girl"

_____________________________________________________________________________

"Good Morning! Thank you for calling Airtel. This is Manisha. How may I help you?"

"Hi, this is Aman and my number is 9873961643. I forwarded a request of getting GPRS activated on my account"

"Thank you for the confirmation of your name and number. Sir, may I please put your call on hold while I check the information regarding your query?"

"Sure"

After 1 minute

"Sir, our records say that your GPRS is activated from our end"

"But, this is rubbish. I can't access my GPRS."

"Sir, have you checked with the phone settings?"

"Yes! all is fine with that. I needed GPRS access urgently. India is playing South Africa today. I needed to know the score. And if I can't get the basic services, what's the point in sticking to Airtel?"

"Sir I understand your frustration. But I am helpless in this regard."

"No! It’s me who is helpless. I need to know the score. where can I access that from? Would you tell me? Exactly! You should tell me. I am holding the line. Let me know the live score."



"But, how can I sir?"

"espnstar.com. Check latest scores"

"I am extremely sorry sir", she was her apologetic best, "but we don't have internet access here"

"I don't care anything about that. It's Airtel's responsibility to let me know the score"

She was almost breaking down, "Sir, I will have a break in 30 minutes from now. I will call my home and then give you a call back about the score"

"Are you kidding? In thirty minutes the tables would be turned. I shouldn't have taken Airtel's connection in the first place. Let me talk to your supervisor."

"Sir! I am extremely sorry. Wait. I will try to sneak out for a bathroom break and then would call my home to get you the latest scores. Please bear with us for that duration"

"Manisha! No need for this. This is Nitin calling from Radio City and you are our "Popat of the day"!

"Whaaaaat?? Oh my god!"

"Congrats! And apologies for pissing you off. You must be feeling like killing me", he chuckled.

"Nitin! I was so frustrated. But this is awesome. By the way can I know who set me up?"

"No one Manisha! We called the customer care. And we found you!"

"Of course!! By the way! my real name is Manvi. And very innovative way of making Popat out of me!"

"You are welcome!"

"And when can I listen to this broadcast?"

"9pm on Thursday. Can you give us your contact number?"

"Ummm. ok 9873569145"

"It was nice speaking with you Manisha...oops.. Manvi. Can just say for us once- City bajao?

"City Bajaao", and she started giggling

_________________________________________________________________________________

"Wow that was impressive", Kangna told Aman after he came back after dating Manvi.

"That's me", he pulled up his right collar twice.

"Ha Ha Ha! Very funny! So who's up next?"



"Oh! I found that tissue paper. Let's look", he pulled out something resembling a tissue paper and had some symbols scribbled on it.

"That's almost ruined"

"No i can make some sense out of this. It says Air hostess, a friend's ex girlfriend and a friend's something. Can’t see what this something is? Okies let the last one be just a friend"

"I am fine with it. As I know you are getting nowhere near of getting an Air hostess"

"Well lady! Prepared to be awed again by the charismatic...."

"Babaji keep you gyan to yourself..."

To be continued......

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 6...coming soon!!

When Nolan got inspired from Disney!

About a week ago, when I was busy trying to secure the passing marks in one of my end term exams, someone on IP pinged everybody a link about a disney comic. You can go through it here.

Uncle scrooge's dream starts with something that really happened years ago. Then arrive Beagle boys (dream intruders, just like Cobb). One of them explains to other how they got that machine in his hands which would enable them to intrude into Scrooge's dream. They succeed in doing that and make a number of attempts to steal the vault number combination to steal all of Scrooge's money. Donald, uncle Scrooge's nephew along with Gyro, the trio of kids however have different plans.

The comic-book is strikingly similar to Nolan's Inception for obvious reasons. The concept of dream intrusion, totem and limbo have been discussed in the 26 page comic-book.

Apart from these, the comic-book also attempts at explaining two more interesting concepts:

1) Dream Boundaries: It states if an intruder hits the dream boundary (limited by dreamer's range and conceptualization), he is thrown out of the dream and wakes up in real life.

2) Inability to Lie in dreams upon being asked a question: When somebody asks you a question in your dream, you are bound to think about the real answer. But, as dream is nothing but your thoughts brought to picture and sound, if you think about the real answer to the question, it will be spoken in form of words in your dream. Thus intruder can get the desired information by just asking the dreamer about it.



A lot of articles/bloggers have been talking about the "coincidence" since August'2010. There hasn't been any official comment from Nolan or his representatives till now.

Nevertheless Inception is a great movie and beautifully directed. But, the knowledge about the similarities did make me take a tiny bit of appreciation off from Nolan. May be the idea got incepted in his mind courtesy the comic-book and he never knew it.

The Prologue

It was still 3 hours to go before the next flight from Delhi would arrive. And another before flights from Mumbai and Hyderabad could have arrived.
Adhyan (Adi) was still shivering with thoughts of meeting Abhinav (Abby), 3 years after they last met. He had to face him alone for at least an hour before Pragya (PT), Vishesh (chiggy) and Simi would arrive. Last time their meet ended with Abby slapping Adi, hard on his face, for what he termed as “Backstabbing”. He could have done further serious damage to Adi’s face, if others along with Anu wouldn’t have stopped him. After who hopes their Goa trip should end at that note.

Last visual memory that Adi had about Abby went like:

“You bastard! Son of a bitch, I was crazy that I believed you to be my best friend. Let me go Chiggy, I will smash his head”, screamed Abhi.

“Abby! Please stop.”, Vishesh was utilising his 6 ft 2 in well built frame to reign in Abby’s advances towrads Adi, who didn’t move an eyelash. It was too late to be in any hangover mode. Yet, by the look on his face it looked very apparent that he was clueless about what happened the night earlier.

Anu was in one corner of the room sobbing heplessly, with PT and Simi still undecided whether to stand beside her or not.




The clock wasn’t simply moving. He didn’t know whether it was good or bad. He didn’t want to face him early yet he couldn’t bear the agony of streched anticipation about their first meet in three years.

“A café Latte please”, he signalled to the guy in red cap behind the CCD counter. It was his third latte in last 30 minutes. Memory lanes opened up once again:

“Sucker! Why did you arrive 2 days late into the hostel? Did you have this misconception, that you won’t be ragged”, a medium built boy thundered.

“Sorry sir”, a slightly overweight boy said aongside his roommate, as he was surrounded by 3 continuosly abusing bullies.

Before it could go bad and one of them ended up crying for the fear, the “bullies” revealed themselves, “Welcome dude! We are not seniors, man. Just thought about having a light moment”

They all burst in laughter. The slightly overweight guy joined them too, though still in contained manner.

“This is Prakhar, he is Rajeev and I am Abhishek. We are your neighbors. Flat 20G”, said the medium built boy.

“Hehe! Nice to meet you all. I am Adhyan”, he shook hands with the other two before Abhinav almost hugged him and said “Man! You are still freaked out. Chill”

“Not for long though. We have a dictum sent by seniors to get assembled in the hostel grounds at 11”


One more hour to kill and then they woud have shaked hands again, at least, was what Adi was thinking.

a PEEP into the LEEway enjoyed by LIVEs of farmers!

I waited very long to watch this movie. The reason: They didn't screen it in Kozhikode and I didn't want to watch the pirated edition available on DC++.

Also I wanted to watch it with my parents. And I can say with confidence, people like me would have enjoyed it the more than others who are nothing but concrete born and brought up gas-mongers. For simple reason that I have been into villages long enough to identify and comprehend what's going on where (despite it not being in the focus of the frame)

Ooops! I am talking about Peepli Live! Aamir no doubt is a brilliant businessman and that is reflected in the way the film was promoted, or the way the cast/crew was selected. I reckon film might not have been that successful, if Aamir hadn't been associated with the film, not because of any fallacies within the film, but for the fact, films need to be marketed well in addition of being well made.

And a well made film it is. One of my professors said "You know if a film is a good one, if it drains (and not tortures) you emotionally (in sad or happy way)". Even with an issue as serious as Farmers' suicide (which can be dismissed by urban youth and middle-aged alike as HEY! NOT MY PROBLEM), writer-director Anusha Rizvi manages to touch chords with the audiences, not because of any sympathy but by the simple and true way of story telling. Another satire on Media and Politics (earlier failed attempts like Phir bhi dil hai Hindustani and Rann) but yet most of the puns are very fresh.





Dialogues are amazingly impactful. I was into the splits, when one of the leading journalist says "Aap dekh sakte hain ki Nathha ki maa ne hamein ye (V ka) ishara kiya. Iske do matlab ho sakte hain. Ya toe ye hamse beedi maang rahin hain, ya aman aur shanti ki appeal kar rahi hain". In another scene a reporter is examining Nattha's droppings to get cues about his mental state (before a declared future suicide)

Most importantly none of the characters enters into any "speech" mode to enlighted us about their plight and stay very natural. Raghuvir yadav (the only known face), owing to his rural background gels very well in the frames. Another enjoyable stuff is altercation of Saas-Bahu. Anusha has been careful enough no to used any abuses for the Saas by the Bahu (despite former laddering the latter with a pile of strong ones).

I could very easily identify with the way men sat around in circles and sang "Sakhi sayyan toe khoob hai kamaat re..Mehngaayi daayan khaaye jaat re". The indifference over the death of a family member in anticipation of compensation package is also beautifully shot. There is a very small reference of corporal punishment the two central characters received in their early days. My grand-parents had some similar stories to tell.

The rare troughs (not pitfalls) are the puns on politicians, which are stale as ever. We have seen them all, courtesy zillion movies being made upon the subject in last two decades. Rizvi knows her movie's strength and has focused on them ably.



There is no suspense element in the film and I don't think Rizvi even wanted any. The climax (preceding the end and the message that millions of farmers have either committed suicide or shifted professions in last decade and a half), is beautifully shot. It's not a happy ending because it doesn't happen that way in real life.

A worth watch in every sense. I would even recommend second viewing, to appreciate the art direction, setting and sub-plots.

Rating: ****

(PS: Thanks cheater chinu :) for spotting the error in the name. Corrected! )

7 First Dates : Part 4: The college goer

Aman somehow knew this (THE THIRD FIRST DATE) was going to be tough. It was hard to find a college student in a bar alone. And visiting college to do so wasn't feasible.

It struck him. It was just two weeks ago that he happened to meet someone accidently in Delhi Metro (Ek chhoti si X story). Why can't that happen again to him, although this time it would be planned from his side? "Yes Terrific. Thanks...whatever your name was (Akshita, he couldn't recall it at that time)

But plans are never supposed to be executed as they are planned for. At least not in Aman's case. Travel from Noida to CP had been too plain. He was wondering where did all college goers happen to vanish.

Before returning he decided to sip a cup of coffee at CCD, Rajeev Chowk Metro station.

"Aman! Is that you", an unfamiliar voice called for him from back.

"Aakash! Where have you been these entire years buddy?"

Aman and Aakash were bench buddies from school days at DPS Noida. After 15 minutes of catching up they began the conversation which could be of some use to Aman.

"So where are you headed?” asked Aman.

"Ummm! I can tell you I guess. I have enrolled in Salsa classes at Radisson Noida"

Had he had that sip of coffee he was about to, he could have easily sprayed it all over the coffee shop.

"What???", Aman said tried hard to stop his giggle.



"Yeah! I know what you are giggling about. But this place is awesome. Of the 40 people in batch only 12 are guys and girls range from early teens to tweens"

"You mean to say, there are college girls too?"

"Of course! Most colleges are on one-month holidays for now. But why are you so particular about college girls. Aren't you too old to romance one?"

"Leave that part", he winked "Let's make a move. I am registering for these classes too. What is the name of the Instructor and his troupe?"

"Ballrumours by Aamir Ahmed"

As they registered a beautiful (read Super Hot) girl crossed them and reached for the reception.

"Dude, thanks for bringing me here", Aman whispered in Aakash's ears.

"Anytime...Anytime. Waise I don't think she is a college student"

"No worries. Still a good bet to hit upon"

And then against their expectations she turned to them.

"So you are the new admits?". Before they could say anything she continued "Hi! I am Neel, your co-instructor for these sessions. Let's make a mast move. Aamir wouldn't like us to be late"



A silent sound of splashing glasses could be heard by both of them. Anyways they followed her and were not at all disappointed, when they reached for the ball room.

"People, these are new admits. Let's help them catch-up with what we did last time"

Couple of dozens of sexy smiles on sexy faces on sexy bodies turned towards them.

Following couple of hours were filled with "uh...1...2...3.........5...6....7" of the steps. But by the end of it Aman managed to get contact numbers of five girls, three of whom were in Graduation College.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Knaaiceee, so three 'college girl' dates in two days. Impressive. But it would still meet only one of the check points in the bet list", Kangna said.

"You are mean. I thought you would at least count it as two", Aman exclaimed

"So who's next?"

"I don't know. Maybe credit card caller. And going by the television these days, they might be a good opportunity to get laid", he winked.

"Eeeewwwwwwwwwwww", she moved away from the coffee table.

"Oye! Listen! I was kidding"

"You are one serious wala MCP. All you guys think about is ..."

"Arre! Just a joke. On the other account why are you using ...?", he followed her


Their voices faded to the waiter who collected the bill amount and his tip.



Part 1

Part 3

Part 5: Coming soon!!

7 First Dates : Part 3: The co-intern

"Hmmm that went good", Kangna was smiling wide "And I hope it made you learn that Guys are dogs especially in High school and early college years"

"Oh! Please nothing like it. Just that I feel I played it cool and managed myself a date", Aman said steaming over his aviator sunglasses.

"Ha..Ha...Ha... Very funny. Only one 7th of your challenge is over and that was the easiest on the list"

"It wasn't. I made it easy"

"Okay so how about I making the next item choice on the list"



"Ahan! Go on. Time to prove myself I guess"

"Hmmm...college goer"

"Ummm I need some time to strategize about it. Can you give next best?"

"Somebody was very confident about his potential. Haha. Okies then give a shot for your co-intern. You have any?"

"Umm there is one I particularly like: Bhavya Saran from FMS"

"Okay then. All the best! :)"

*********************************************************************************

"Hey! Nice surprise to see you here", Bhavya exclaimed as she saw Aman in corporate office.

"Ya! I had some additional work in Gurgaon. So, I thought about dropping in for a visit. So how's internship going on?"

"Okayish",she replied and turned her head back to the computer screen.

"Hey are you willing to go downstairs to "BurrrGrrr" for a bite?"

"Thanks, but I have got loads of work. Give me 15 minutes and then probably we could go", she said without turning her head this time

Interns didn't get internet connections for their laptops, so they had to come to "Trainees' Room" to access internet and mails. Though they complained a lot about it, Aman was thankful that it saved him the embarrassment of asking Bhavya out with other people eavesdropping.

"Nice template", he tried to break the awkward silence.

"Hmmmm"

"A PPT Trivia: It was 3M who invented the over head projectors, which served as presentation devices before Microsoft came with MS-Office"



"Who cares?"

He heard a glass crash within him, an indication that it was better to wait for next 10 minutes.

"Hmm! I am done", taking a look at her watch "But I don't think we have enough time; So why don't we have a conversation here?"

Aman's phone rang. He telepathically said "Excuse me, just a friend", by tilting his head to a side and lifting his shoulders while pressing his lips.

She conveyed a "Go on" by a smile and moving her hand to make a gentle slice of air in front of her.

"I will come in the evening bro and then move back probably tomorrow morning......Haan I will drop a visit to the kids...Bbye"

"Kids?!", she exclaimed.

"Arre, these are some underprivileged children, my friends...", he could see she was getting interested "...Annnnnnd I teach and look after"

"Wow, that's impressive Mr. Sharma. You're a nice guy"

Now what was that supposed to mean, his head rung. Was it an apt time to ask her out and if yes then how?

"Hmm I never want to brag about it, but I like spending my Saturday mornings with these kids, teaching them alphabets, numbers etc. I have been doing that throughout the internship period. They miss me till I see them after a week's gap. I kind of miss them too"



"Hey that's super nice. Would you take me along with you tomorrow morning? I wish to see how much those cuties miss you after you meet them after whole one week"

Now according to old panchtantra stories, there are some people who invite the bull to hit them. The reason for the self called trouble was apparent. Aman hadn't visited those kids ever in his life. His friend was flying to Mumbai in the night and had requested him to drop off some stuff to the kid's school on his way back to home.

There were some talks about how she just got involved in social service group in her college and was happy that she had something in common with Aman to talk with. Aman on other hand could hardly disagree.

"Hey, you wish to catch a movie tonight?", she asked

Now he had no ideas that his fake-association with some poor kids would actually result in Bhavya asking him out for a movie.

"Sure! Why not?", he was lovin' it but with an extra stress line over his forehead which had scribbled "Morning After?????" all around in the air space surrounding them.

Everything was running great, till he had to get off his seat to get some popcorns and Pepsi for Bhavya. Though he didn't like popcorns but he liked Bhavya who liked popcorns that liked a Pepsi to be gulped with.

He had left his phone on his seat and it had to buzz that very moment, "One message received from Kangna" and it flashed a beautiful face.

Now despite trying hard not to throw a peek at the message, the curly haired girl's pic had done the trick and Bhavya picked up the cell to read the message.

"Hey how's your date number 2 gng along? ;) Though I am a bit pissed off that you used poor kids and lies as a pretext for it. x-( Koi na. Have fun. So 2 off the list. Wich one's next.. 'The college goer?' :P"

Aman came along happily with popcorns in his right hand and a jumbo Pepsi with two straws on his left. He was thinking he could get lucky tonight.

********************************************************************************

"Koi na! On the positive side, you learned an important lesson"

"What? That even girls can punch me in eyes making them go blue...Aaaahh...Easy", he groaned as Kangna was applying hot water soaked kerchief over his left eye socket.



"No! The lesson that you shouldn't lie to get a date"

"In my defense, she interpreted it herself and she was too sexy"

"Hmm so should we count it as 2nd one or not? This looks like a failure to me."

"Shut up! I got myself beaten by a girl and you are disqualifying my attempt. And it would have been perfectly fine if you could have restrained yourself from texting me in that specific time window of 5 minutes", he thundered.

"Ohkay! I give it to you, in return of all the fun we are having right now. OOh look at the poor baby. Somebody spanked you sweetie??", she pulled his cheeks

The phone rang. Kangna picked it up. Then turned back to Aman and asked "Hey had you ordered four dozens each of notebooks, pencil, chocolates and water bottle? Some guy wants all that to be delivered here."

"Oh! Yes..call him in. They wanted a landline number. So I gave them yours"

"Oh nice! you really gonna meet the kids?"

"Ummm... Yes but I NEVER WANNA BRAG ABOUT IT" and he winked.

"Oooohh you are a sweetie pie."

"Eeeeeh...Please stop pulling my cheeks" he said as they sat for the dinner.


to be continued......

Part 1

Part 2

Part 4

7 First Dates : Part 2 : The school friend

Search words: DPS Noida, batch 2000

He tried to look up on facebook for communities where he could get old school friends in touch from.

"Hmmm the list is long. Lemme check these", he said to himself

But he forgot that all of these would be 27 just like him.

Archana.. Pennsylvania
Ayesha... Engaged
Divya.... In relationship
Ekta ... is Married to...
Hrishita ... commented on her album "Honeymoon"
Isha added pictures in the album "My lovely kids"
.......................
.......................

A heavy lot went away from consideration just like that.

Then he pondered upon the name "Soumya". He clicked her profile. She was working in Noida, no relationship status and no pictures meant she was alone. He hesitated for some time as he knew the girl had a crush on him in class XI.

11 years ago




"Hey Aman, could you please help me with the organic chemistry nomenclature during the PT period break", a girl with sheepish smile and 5 ft height tapped on his back while asking the question.

"Ummm....sure" a couple of lusty eyes were set on her without she even noticing.

"So for hydrocarbons, basically we need to observe the number of carbon atoms and types of bonds between them. Hydrogens may not need to bother", he started.

He could see she was hardly noticing what was in the book, rather just looking at his eyes and moving lips. He knew nobody was in the vicinity.

"So the bonds between two carbon atoms" he slipped his hands onto hers "can be of three types" he came close to her. She could hardly resist. "Single" he planted a kiss on her lips, "Double", and she kissed this time and said "or..."

"or...triple" and before they knew they were making out.

For a couple of days he avoided her. Next day she met him and asked "Why are you ignoring me? I thought you liked me."

"Well it was an accident" and he moved away. They never spoke again.

****************************************************************************

In summer of 2010, two friends had a bet about whether one could date seven girls, attributes specified by the other.

He couldn't think much before the cursor moved to the link "Add as Friend" and his middle finger's tip which was still a bit Numb, tapped on the touch pad of his Vaio.

And now he was wondering if she would accept the request or not? What would be her reaction? Was she going to bad-mouth him? and a zillion other phrasable non-phrasable questions.

But everything was put to rest, when before even he could see a confirmation mail in his gmail, she pinged him via facebook chat "Hey! wassup? Whr had u bin dese dez?"

After few contrived portions of usual "What about your job", "parents", "blah blah", he popped in "Let's catch up tomorrow evening, if that's fine with you"

She took a pause and then said "Okay"

They met next evening at Geoffrey's. He was still uneasy about talking normally with her. She could see that and helped him "Hey, are you still thinking about Organic Chemistry?" and winked.





All he could manage was a smile.

"Arre it was a long time ago and we were kids. It's fine. It indeed was an accident"

"You are saying that sarcastically?"

"No yaar! Both you and I have moved on miles after that and now all I can do when I watch at past is to laugh about it."

He was a bit comforted now. He made a gesture to the waiter and wine was served shortly. She pressed her lips and raised her brows signifying "I am impressed" and then they laughed after the glasses clinked.

They had loads of catch up and tales to be told. When he dropped her at her place, he said "Hey sorry from the past of me to the past of yours. I know you are cool with it but maybe the past of yours wasn't."

"You have surely come of age" and gave him a peck on cheek and "This has been simple yet one of the most beautiful dates I have had in a very long time"

"Thanks Soumya! It was a wonderful time spent with you."

"And thanks for the nomenclature class. I am a Bio-pharmacist now."

Smiles were exchanged one more time before he drove away. She waved at him.




To be continued....

Part 1

Part 3

7 First Dates : Part 1

It'd been just a week since Aman met Akshita (he couldn't recall her name at that time) for barely 11 minutes (conversation time) in that metro ride from Dwarka to Botanical Garden. She was great, he thought but it was too vague for being crazy for a girl one'd met barely for barely few minutes and had almost zero probability unless intervened by "hand of god"

"Interesting account", Kangna said and smiled and continued "It could make a good pretext for a story"



"Hahaha", Aman spoke his laugh "By the way I though you agreed to be my wing woman"

"Yeah! Sure I am. There is this friend of mine from......."

Kangna and Aman had been great friends since their respective break-offs about a year ago.

"Oi, better stop going for flings now and go for the serious thing", she advised.

"Why?"

"Because at 27, you are too old for this. It's the age people start thinking of settling in", she professed.

"What logic is that? I still feel too young for that"

"Haven't you been tired of meeting new people and those meetings not resulting hardly in anything concrete?"

"Absolutely not"

"Oh! Is that the case? Somebody seems up for a dare."

"Sure! The dare sounds fun. I can date 7 different girls in as many days"



Kangna started scribbling something on a tissue. Aman started to look for beauties around. There was one brown haired girl in denim shorts and long legs. And then his eyes moved to a short skirt girl with a spiked haired weirdo.

"Would to stop staring those girls like that?", she said without lifting her eyes and still scribbling.

"Wow she is definitely a nine pointer and ...", he was interrupted.

"Read this. You have got to date 7 girls in 15 days time and they should be"

"What?” he started reading...

1. A credit card caller
2. An air-hostess
3. A co-intern at the firm you are doing internship from
4. A college goer
5. An old school mate
6. A friend's friend
7. A friend's ex-girlfriend



"So, what do you say? You already look so pale to me. I can increase the days limit if you wish, teddy boy", Kangna smirked.

"No way!” he rose up and said "Challenge accepted", as he looked like staring at the horizon

"Stop being a Barney and sit down. If you lose, you would stop fooling around and look for someone you can settle with."

"And if I win you continue to be my wing woman and get me a prey every week. Hahahaha..", he laughed demoniacally.

"Shut the fuck up! I won’t introduce you a single girl more if you don't start respecting girls", she thundered

"Oi..Sorry. I was just kidding", he said sheepishly.

"Hmmm... so tell me who of these would you try the first?” Kangna asked after calming down.

"I guess the school friend one"

"All the best"




Part 2

Rajneeti: Mahabharat, Sarkar and Irresponsible sex leading to pregnancies!!

I saw the much hyped movie today. To summarize it in few words it was an engaging well-scripted movie that rarely has a dull moment.

The movie started strongly with Naseeruddin Shah, playing a left comrade, delivers small but strong speech in an Election rally. I wish I could have seen more of him. But thanks to first instance of irresponsible sex, he mingled with his most obedient companion, the daughter of then chief minister. The girl considered him to be his God but ended up being pregnant with his son, Ajay Devgan (who is raised by a Dalit family)

Just like Kunti gave birth to Karn after being involved with Sun God, she is forced to abandon her child and goes on to marry another powerful politician Chandramohan, giving birth to two handsome hunks Arjun Rampal and Ranbir Kapoor (Pandavas)

Chandramohan's elder brother is reduced to helpless state by a paralysis attack (Dhritrashtra was rendered useless because of being blind). His son, Manoj Vajpayee in simile with Duryodhan, asserts his right over the party president's chair but the it goes to his uncle. In exact similar situation as Duryodhan and Karn, he embraces Ajay, from Dalit family into the party.

Nana patekar who starts as playing Bhishm pitamaah in begining trying to strike harmony with the two parties slowly shifts his role towards being Krishna; Ranbir becomes Arjuna seeking revenge for his Father's and other dear ones' murder (Abhimanyu in Mahabharat's context)



A literary PHd from US of A, he miraculously plays the politics, often portraying his grey side but is successful in leading their family out of the crisis. In other words he manages an "Abhishek Bacchan" from Sarkar fame.

Second series of irresponsible sex for election ticket lands Rampal in judicial trouble.

Just when Ranbir is deep in the mud muddle, his visiting girlfriend from US of A gets pregnant and he vows return back to Uncle Sam.

If that was not enough, Katrina gets an unplanned pregnancy from her husband too.

The Devgan and his mother shot just avoids from being too reminiscent of Kunti-Karn's "You are the eldest. You will get the throne" scene. So does Nana-Ranbir scene portrayal from Geeta.

Amidst all this is a well scripted, amazingly directed flick that could prevent people from going out and ordering popcorn and pepsi in between.

Prakash Jha has utilized Nana in his calmest ever avatar, which is at the opposite end of what we saw of him in Krantiveer.

Ranbir is the next big thing in bollywood. He continues to please people by is ever evolving character portrayals.

Katrina is good but is there just to give the promos a look alike Sonia Gandhi (the attire she takes on only for about last 15 minutes of the movie)


Ajay Devgan comes out good but is a bit over shadowed by others.

Manoj Vajpayee is impressive as ever. He totally gets in the skin of character portrayed by him.

Arjun Rampal's learning curve has been really sharp post Om-Shanti-Om.

The movie is predictable but that doesn't hinder its likability in any manner. Thankfully we are saved from unnecessary song and dance sequences, which could have hampered the swift flow of the film.

A definite worth watch more so because of lame releases in past couple of months. Script writers are back. The movie reiterates the importance of story rather than simply "Shoshebaazi"


Rating : ****

A day without my middle finger!

When my day started I had absolutely no idea about how differently I was going to spend it. (In short it was like any other day)

So it all happened when I went to shop for groceries at Big Bazaar. (Yeah! there are some side effects of living at home). When I checked out, I thought why bother to take the trolley along with me. I had two heavy poly bags (10Kgs each). I was doing fine when I passed by the Mc Donald's. I was tempted to take a Mc Veggie, which I thought, I can gobble up on my way to parking.

I got through the wrong exit, which was far from parking. With Mc Veggie in my left hand and 20 Kgs in my right hand, somehow all the weight pressed onto my middle finger of right hand.



When I reached my car, i discovered I had lost complete sensation in my middle finger. Damn what would I do without my middle finger. Gradually I realized I was missing my dear middle finger in almost every work.

1. While driving, I could no longer control steering with the right hand's middle finger as I usually did.

2. I couldn't hold spoon properly while having lunch. Had to use my left hand instead.

3. While typing this post, I took one and half times more time than usual as all typing from my right hand had to be done with index finger.

4. I couldn't scroll through my phone's touch screen. when I tried it felt like using a stylus.
.
.
.
.
.
99. My laptop's touch-pad felt so different when I couldn't use my regular finger on it. Poor pad! :(

and finally.....

100. I couldn't flick on my neighbor's kid forehead in the lift. (I felt completely helpless)

Today I realized importance of middle finger in a person'r life. There is a lot to it apart just a tool to express anger, distress, moral victory and zillion other emotions.

Indian Mythology vs Troy!

The thought came to my mind about 3 years ago when I watched Troy, a beautifully shot and directed movie starring Brad Pitt, Eric Bana and Orlando Bloom.

I couldn't help noticing some striking similarities between Troy and the Indian Mythology.



It starts with Trojan Prince Paris taking with him Helen, Menelaus's wife. The spartan king vows to take revenge by destroying the Trojan Empire. The incident is similar to kidnapping of Sita by Ravana and attack on Lanka by Rama.

The location of Trojan Island, surrounded by sea is similar to the land of Lanka.



Achilles, the great spartan warrior was believed to have been dipped in waters of immortality by his mother. She held her son with his ankle in her hand. And later on Achilles died when an arrow hit him in the vulnerable spot. Striking similarity lies between Achilles and Krishna, who was also killed (mistakingly by a hunter) in similar manner.

Some voices were raised to let Helen return to Sparta for the fear of impending doom. But it becomes the matter of pride and honor to the Trojan King, a behavior shown by Ravana, even when all of his warriors were being killed one by one.



Greek mythology suggests that Helen had been taken by Mt. Olympus away from the mortal world. Sita on the other hand was encapsulated by Prithvi.



The opponents of the theory would disagree by saying they differ on lot of accounts. But all I am trying to suggest here that there are certain similarities and with concept of Aryans coming from norther part of the globe, both the epics might have been inspired by same incident and may have changed their forms, locations and antics over the years according to the culture they were fed with.

While in the process of composing this post I googled a few things about Greek Mythology and I am loving this whole new world of spartan myths. :)

Flirting ke side effects!- Part 2: The Beginning

"To start with you should start flirting with your good friend's girl friend, whom you are acquainted with", Neelz (Neelaksh) said. "They seem to make not a big fuss about it. And they enjoy the attention ;-)
Second you can target a good female friend who is married, again a safe territory. While there are boundaries here but I am sure you wouldn't reach those.” the expert advised.



"And third priority come friends who are seeing other guys. At fourth level is option of flirting with single friends of yours. And my friend the territory which shouldn't be explored is the friend of yours, who recently broke up.", Neelz said as he concluded his statement.

"Wow that was enlightening. Thanks", Uday said as he hung up. "What the crap. As if there was something new to it. I will manage on my own. I have had colorful past.” he smirked as he thought.

He checked his online friend list on gtalk. Soumya was online.

"Hey! aaabbbbbbbbbddddddddaaaaabbbbbbbbdddddaaabbbbbddddd", he pinged her.

After 10 seconds the reply came. "Yeah it’s been really long 'time' and we finally 'c' each other now :D"

"Hmmm! I am telling you must have been very smart to decipher that. I tried that on a dozen of my friends. None of them could understand. You are one intelligent lass"

"LOLz! Stop flattering! So how come you ping suddenly? You are in Australia na?"

"Hmm! Aise hi, thought about catching up with old sweethearts ;)"

"Hehe! Me? Your sweetheart? Nice joke"

"Arre it's true. It just happened that Anjali proposed me when I was just about starting to think about you!"

"Ahaan! Liar. Are you trying to flirt? Am no more single you see :P"

"Damn! I should be given another chance. It's not fair :'("
------------------------------------------------------------------
He Gmail read

....Chat with Swati Sharma (546 lines)
....Chat with Arundhati Dua (466 lines)
....Chat with Divya Taneja (587 lines)




"I saw a flower and I thought it was the most beautiful thing I ever saw until I gazed at the FB pic of yours ;)"

"Very Funny! Plagiarism! Joey Season 1 episode 18", Sanskriti replied

"Ooops! Hey he didn't say the FB part you see. I am original"

"No! -200 for copy paste"

"Noooo :( Accha... If I supposed to travel with you in Tube (or Delhi Metro is it), I would intentionally chose to let go off the support pillar, so that every time the train stops or starts, I may have an excuse to hold you from your waist to pretend you saved me from falling"

"Wow! that's a new one! ummmmm +10"

"What!! That was great and I need to make 20 such just to recover what I lost due to Joey! :( "

"Hehe don't be sad!"

"No I am. In fact a bit angry. I am coming over to Delhi for couple of months at least. I was planning that probably we could meet up. But I think things aren't meant this way"

"Wow! you are coming over... Okay sorry! Will you meet up now?"

"Hmmm Don't know. I can't say for sure but I would think about it :-|"

"Awww so cute! :-* A flying kiss!"

"Huh! Whatever :")"

"Hehe! You have a blush for that!! :)"

Nikita pinged by the time "Hi Sugar! ;)"



"Chalo Babes you sleep! I have got some work to do. Take care. Miss me ;)"

"Yeah! Sure bbye"

---------------------------------------------------

"Hey Niki babes! Every time I move my cursor to the Gtalk friend list over to your name, you ping me first! This is not done"

" :) "

"Accha I am coming over to Delhi for a couple of months."

"Cool! That is great"

"Just that! I thought you would like to ask me out! ;)"

"I think you should have asked that to me. "

"Oh! Don't give me that Sh** that only guys should ask out..blaah blaah"

":P
But have you done anything special for me to do so?"

"Hmmm How about sneaking in, when your husband is out for a couple of days?"

"Ewwww! You cheapster! :P"

---------------------------------------------------------------------

A month later

Indira Gandhi International Airport


"Hey Neelz! Nice to see you man!"

"Yeah! You look great buddy! Didn't you bring some Aussie lass with you", Neelz said winking.

"Naah! I should have mentioned Neelz is here. Damn!"

"Hehe koi na! Remember for next time. Anyways now you are here we can Tango! ;)"



"Yeah! Hey check out that cute chick at '1 'o clock'!", he said without pointing.

"Yeah you bastard! She's your sister-in-law. Respect her"

And they had a small laugh about it.

Flirting ke side effects!- Part 1: The Setup

Uday was leading a successful life as a Consultant at one of top notch Business Analytics firms in Gurgaon. He had a beautiful relationship going on until he decided to move to Sydney for a better opportunity. The new job paid him handsomely. But he didn't realize what it was taking away from him.



A couple of months into new job and he could see his relationship of four years falling apart. This was his longest relationship since he started dating in Senior secondary. None of them lasted more than an year. The distance was doing them apart.

He tried the best to revive it, but wasn't really ready to make any sacrifice to restore it. Of course at this age, mind speaks much over the heart. He thought the break up won't affect him to much extent. And he wasn't unreasonable in that expectation considering the history of over half a dozen affairs that he had in past. But the contingency that he was going to miss was "Four long years".

He initially fail to notice the initial inroads of heart spasms into the left side of the chest, dismissing it as some Gastrogenic ailment. But doctor said he was healthy as a horse. All he would like to do was to get drunk every other day in some country bar. Gradually he began to relate the change in him with the ripple of the broken relationship. He decided to make amends.

"Hi, Uday here, I'm Sonam's friend"
"Hi I am Meghna, Sonam's sister. Actually she is busy in the Mehndi before the ring ceremony. I would convey your wishes anyways."
After a pause he said "Thank You" and hung up.

He always thought he could make up for lost time. But here he knew he was too late. A suggestion of picking some random girl up from a bar to get over it was given by Peter, his colleague. But he detested the idea.



He called up his best friend back home in India, Neelaksh. Neelaksh was the one person he always looked upon when he needed advice and vice versa. He explained the scenario to him and asked him a way to get over Sonam.

"Buddy! Flirting to the extent you can is the only solution. Get into your orkut and facebook accounts, Ruffle up all the contacts you have. Gather the potential targets singles or otherwise. And get started. And beware of doing flirting too much just with a single girl, else you will spell your doom"

Now that was something he hadn't done in past four years. Though he thought he was good on that earlier.

The flirting cure was about to begin!

Flirting ke side effects!- A prologue!

When almighty (for atheist people, chemical reactions!) created the two characters called man and woman, she (A 'he' can't be so creative) must have realized what excellent job it was.



The two characters are miles apart in thinking, decision making process, planning and execution. Yet some funny hormones (chemistry people' delight second time in this prose) attract them to each other (though sometimes among themselves)

Women (a tricky word), become more complex to understand as the chronological watch progresses. When they are girls of sub-10, they want ice creams, Barbies and gossip, when they are 15 they are into chocolates and gossip, at 20 stuff toys, cards, new Boyfriend and gossip, at 25 steady job with steady boyfriend along with gossip and at 30 ways to have peace with Mother-in-law and Gossip. (I am still on learning curve to understand women past 30, a topic way too complex at this time)




So basically their needs change drastically over the course of time. (As a learned man, you need to avoid the gossip part if you want peace in your life)

Another way to see things: Lollypop (damn you wretched mind, it’s a baby girl) - Ice-creams - Chocolates - BF's lips - Pizza - Lose fat pills
(I carefully chose to avoid second kind of pills)

For guys: Sub-10: Sports and Video games, 15: Sports and Video Games, 20: Sports (The 'ball' from "running behind the ball" and "hitting a ball" may sometimes change to 'girls') and VIDEO games (video type changes a bit!), 25: Sports and Video games (unchanged from previous), 30+: Sports (small change might be catching flying saucers instead of balls to avoid being hit by them. The previous years practice comes handy) and Video games (regular as well as the evolved one, when wife has a series of repeated headaches at night and he has a DVD player with wireless headphones)




Summarizing, reaching consistency and conciliation with time.

Although this has nothing much to do directly with the story that follows, this might set an interesting pretext. :)

"Living in" thy dream B-school!

An year ago, I came across this articles about how prevalent is live-in relationships in premier B-schools of India. The article talked about high occurrence rates especially in IIMs. Wow! I had one more reason to give my best shot in the final selection procedure for the B-schools I got call from.

Now for those who are oblivious to the fact that most B-schools don't have a separate girls' hostel building. Even if they have, there is no restriction about guys entering in there. Now 90% of IIM Students comprise of Engineers, who have never seen the 'greenery' of DU, the 'spice' of Wilsons, Mithibais etc, this does sound an exciting proposition.

Of course girls reading this may disregard this by calling it their desperateness but spare a thought about this extremely 'Unrare' species called 'ENGINEER'

In the class of 60, there are 6-9 girls in a typical Engg college. Now you can imagine what intra-gender competition guys face. And there living style: A beard that can accommodate a couple of cuckoos, a pair of jeans that hasn't been washed for a month or so, a wallet that is empty after the 10th of the month. These rarely make them attractive preposition to get a date from outside their colleges. Moreover the girls' hostel entry is barred after 8:30; Guys can't enter into their hostel premises.

Now would you blame if the poor guy's eyes sparkle after seeing a report about living-in in one of their dream B-School (Engg graduate anyways don't have any other dream other than this).



But there are clauses that people miss most of the time. As the proportion of Engg is as high as 90% in B-Schools, the fairer sex proportion is also almost the same. Although the farfetched light in the tunnel is, that contrary to engineering colleges, the girls are bit more attractive and that is primarily because the chunk of Non-Engineering graduates are girls.

When I came to IIM-Kozhikode, I believed the place is too unfavorably sex-ratio’ed to prove the point of the article I read. The concept of open hostels and timings was something new and took some time to digest. But course and curriculum ensure that your mind is packed with enough assignments that you have to make special efforts even to think about thinking to develop any romantic notions even in such environment.

But there are some born winners who do live up-to the media reports. :)

In an essence I don't counter their claims. To some extent the media reports are surely exaggerated. Many such 'branded' live-ins as merely platonic and friendly. I know some of people in my batch who leave over their set of toothbrush kit in another room apart from books and notes. But they are really cute. A couple of people in my senior batch looked inseparably good together as 'great friends'. Somewhere down the line people don't tend to exploit the benefits or freedom given to them as much as they planned before. It's same as providing a complete replacement warranty without much ado and yet customers don't purposefully mess with their machines just before the warranty period expires. :)




P.S. The instances may be more in IIM-A because, people don't have anything else to get 'high' on! ;)..... hic!!!