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.
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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 :'("
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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"

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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!!!