X<----->Y

We all must have seen a couple in which one of the persons has looks to beat any popular star while the other person is of no match what so ever in terms of what-meets-the-eye.

And then quite normally we question ourselves as to what the hell did the former see in the later. I have come to a conclusion in this matter.

You see the person, let’s call X, with decent enough looks, would hardly ever go out-right in wooing somebody. There is this one personal thing called ego which gets fired up every morning when he/she looks into the mirror and quite often compliments himself/herself. So, an innate desire sprouts up that somebody should heed to his/her personality.

Now, there is the other person, let’s call Y, who is quite aware of the fact that he/she doesn’t stand near X and would have no answer to it but being goody-goody to him/her. So, Y would then take a shot at X, thinking that he/she has nothing to lose, and go about being friends with X and then flattering him/her with his/her nice behavior.

What happens now is purely on how the chemistry builds up. If Y, by shredding his/her ego, satiates the ego of X, then, bingo, the shot is on target. This is an ideal symbiotic relationship.

X has the satisfaction that he/she got recognized by such a wonderful person as in Y and on the other hand Y has the satisfaction that he/she was worthy enough to win over someone as good as X.

P.S:

I may be wrong. Do correct me, if you feel like.

No offenses to anybody.

Dhappa!!

All of us are aware of this word. Chupan-Chupai (Hide & Seek) is one game which all of us would have played in our childhood. Now as we have grown up, almost none of us play it anymore, so the two words DHAPPA & ISPIES have got erased from our dictionary.

But during my college days, I realized that DHAPPA could still be very much used to describe some freaking situations.

Let me give you certain instances.

Scene 1:

I was in physics lab of my college and waiting for the teacher to arrive. As usual everyone was busy talking and there was considerable amount of noise in the lab.

I was ambling around and then I noticed that our teacher was walking towards the lab so to calm everyone down I shouted "A Gaya Oye A Gaya". Moments later the teacher entered and shouted looking at me " Haan A gaya Main".

Now this is called DHAPPA.

As the cliché goes, the rest is all History, so lets not discuss my grades in physics :P.

Scene 2:

I was standing with 5-6 friends near canteen and we all were enjoying verbal volleys between two of our friends.

As usual the flow of abusive language was on full blow. Suddenly, a hand taps my shoulder and......"All of you give me your ID Cards"….. DHAPPA.

A professor well known for his atrocities against students caught us red handed. We could have said that we were not involved but we were warned by our seniors "Never Ever Argue with HIM".

More than anything else, we all were feeling ashamed of the fact that we were just 2 months old into our college life and to sit at home after getting rusticated would bring much amount of scolding from our families.

However, professor succumbed to 6 pair of folded hands and 12 pleading eyes.

Scene 3:

This one is from my school days. Its a nasty one :P.

I was in 3rd class and I was getting my Math Copy checked. My teacher saw a couple of mistakes and after checking banged the copy on my head......Well it doesn't end here. Rather it gets started now.

As I picked up my copy and started to walk towards my bench I mumbled "Moti kahi ki"...... I still find it hard to swallow the fact that she actually heard me and I still remember the itchy feeling on my cheeks after getting a couple of shots.

This is called BAD Timings or DHAPPA per say.

Scene 4:

One fine evening, I went out with my family to have dinner. After the dinner we came out but my brother was no where around us. We all kept waiting for him for about 10-15 minutes. And then I saw him standing at a nearby Ice Cream shop just across the road. I quickly crossed the road in anger and pulled his shirt from behind saying "Yaha kyu khada....(DHAPPA)... Sorry, I thought ki mera bhai hai".

Well..well..well, he was just another boy with just the same shirt as my brother was wearing that night.

Scene 5:

Yesterday one of my friends called me over to his college’s fresher party. He is into second year of MBA and being senior he assured that he will carve out everything for me. I readily agreed as who would not like to have good food, good booze, good DJ free-of-cost.

It all started very fine till I went over to get a refill in my glass just when my school-time classmate bumped into me. At first I pretended as if we were complete strangers and hurriedly looked to make my way through the crowd but then she caught the better of me. She shouted at full pitch of her voice “ Arre tu yaha kasie. Main toh aaj pehli baar dekh rahi hu tujhe. Konse batch mein hai tu.”..…DHAPPA….. I actually used some other words instead which won’t be proper to write here.

There went down all the winged-feeling. I somehow stammered my way out of her intimidating questionnaire and the ill-fated party.

Finally, here I am, writing some of my DHAPPA moments so far, thereby completing my post which was pending since a long time for the want of one more such instance.

I hope that through this post I’ll be able to add another word to your current vocabulary :P.

एक ख्याल ||

मुझे एक ख्याल आया
कि जो न मेरे पास दिल होता
तो क्या मैं ज़्यादा सुखी होता ||

जब न कुछ मुझको अच्छा लगता
और न कुछ मुझको बुरा लगता,
तब न कोई मुझको डर होता
कुछ खोने का या पाने का ||

जब न कोई मुझको आस होती
और न कोई मुझको तलाश होती
एक ऐसा पल ढूंडने की
जिस मे दिल को खुशी होती ||

और फिर न कोई जुस्तजू होती
किसी दूसरे से आगे निकलने की
ना कोई ईर्षा न कोई दवे्श
ना कोई बैर न कोई भेद ||

जब न कोई मुझको अच्छा लगता
और न कोई मुझको बुरा लगता
तब कोई कुछ कहता कोई कुछ सुनता
मुझको ना कुछ फरक पङता |

ना मुझे कोई शिकवा होती
ना कोई मुझको गिला होती
बस मैं खुद ही मे खुद होता
और अपने मे मैं खुश होता ||

Fleeting….

“Why do I fall in love

with every woman I see...

who shows me

the least bit of attention?”

Well, this is a dialogue from a movie, and it struck me so hard literally that I went into awe with myself.

I don’t know whether it is applicable to any other person or not but one thing is for

Sure, I stand accused by that statement as I think this is not what LOVE is all about.

Thus, I find myself incapable of LOVE.

There is one more peculiar thing about myself. So far, at any point of time in my life, I have never been able to choose a particular Girl as to which I want to get hitched with. It has always been a confused state between two-three girls.

I spend days and nights, figuring out as to who would be better as a life partner for me (though I know that I over estimate my capabilities of winning over somebody during such times) and try really hard to make up my mind so that I don't wander anymore.

And then, after a fair amount of juggling, I give it up, thinking that LOVE ain't cup of my tea.

You see, at such times I really fret over the fact of being an agnostic person. One doesn't have anything to rely on, like to get some kind of hope only, that this one aspect of my life would be taken care by some super being. I would wish to seek some divine intervention to send a cupid for hitting me and the chosen one for me with some arrow so that it all happens by itself.

At a personnel front it seems to be one hell of a task as to first you get into friendship with a girl and then you start going around with her and then one fine day when you decide to tie a knot, you open your heart in front of her, Oh god!! This would take months if not years to get to the destination.... I hate this slow pace of life, but can't help it folks.

All that then remains is a fleeting feeling of getting bonded with my love.

534.

It is the bus number, which I choose to be a driver for.

Although I feel a bit embarrassed but this is something which I had often thought about given the fact that I have been traveling by DTC buses since my school days. They are the prized catch for any one possessing a bus pass.

I would often dwell into the finer aspects of being a bus driver, as to which route would I love to drive on.

I kept 3-4 options like 542 (Seemapuri to Hauz Khaz), 534 (Anand Vihar to Mehrauli), 543 (Anand Vihar to Safdarjung), Outer Mudrika....After a considerable amount of brain storming I chose 534 because it was the bus I traveled through the most since it goes to my college. More so I loved its route as it passes through Patparganj, Yamuna Bridge, New Friends Colony, Saket etc.

As a child I developed a liking for some of these places and even dreamt about living somewhere in one of these places (barring the bridge).

I love driving but driving a bus, I thought was a much more exciting task. I thought that it was the most enjoyable job as one can listen to FM while driving through the city all day long. You don't have any targets to achieve or dead lines to meet and it was just all about sweeping through the roads taking pit stops at one bus adda or another.

Over the course of time I have picked up the slang of drivers who in the majority of cases are JAATs. With their peculiar tone they are witty to scold any one on the roads - "tanne laal batti na dikkhe hai ke?” -no matter even if they themselves were at fault.

With new buses on the roll, the job has got all the more attractive :P.

It is one of the craziest desires that I have since my college days.

TIRED OF ARISTOCRACY

For the last 8 years India has been under the rule of aristocracy. In fact out of the last 63 years of independence, India has been ruled by One Family for over 50 years. It sounds more of a family business rather than a political party at work. The brief period of ruling shared by other parties marks a non-progressive phase for the country as they were busy in either rejoicing their unexpected win (whose celebrations couldn’t even last the number of days in ruling) or carrying out power sharing deal with other parties and doing little valuable work.

I think we have developed a habit of respecting the family businesses and laying our trust with such people and their organizations in the same fashion as to Tata’s or Birla’s or Ambani’s. Now the Congress is one similar organization whose leader’s family has never thought of anything but their party, not even as late as the 4^th generation. I sometimes feel that it is not the love for the country but the love for their business that they wish to keep the chairperson’s chair in their name and keep on presiding over the much talked about, the famous, HIGH COMMAND, of the party. It’s just that for the sake of change and moreover for protecting the remaining clan, is that they have chosen someone else as in-charge of the position of Prime Minister of the Country.

One rule that seems to emerge from the cabinet is that if you pay adequate homage to the party owner then no-matter-what the allegations be, you would certainly enjoy a piece-of-melon. Be it Vilasroa Deshmukh, who was thrashed by High Court for protecting marauding money lenders despite of the fact that farmers were committing suicide in his state, or be it P.J Thomas, who was under a trial for corruption in Palmolein oil case at the time of his appointment as CVC of country, the party would not let their sincerity go waste. Vilasrao, after giving resignation because of Mumbai attacks, managed to grab a post of Minister of Rural Development. Quite ironically the party missed out his efforts in curbing the farmer suicide in his own state (according to official report, nearly 29,000 farmers committed suicide in Maharashtra between 1997 and 2005).

Leave aside a whole building, who wouldn’t even want to name a stone after him? When it comes to congress….the length and breadth of the entire country may fall short of their expectations. After naming several schemes, universities and places after Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru and Indira Gandhi, it was the turn of Rajiv Gandhi. A new IIM which was not just an IIM but RG-IIM, was inaugurated (I think that the initials make it more difficult to enter this particular IIM). All the efforts of IIM Administrators went in vain, who wanted to retain the original name. A new bridge-Bandra Worli Sea link, was inaugurated with the name-Rajiv Gandhi Sea Link. So, currently Rajiv Gandhi’s name continues to rule the naming convention across the country. It’s just a trademark of a family business. I fail to understand that if the Gandhi and Nehru are removed from the name, would people fail to recognize that thing or do they want to specify that it was built by which govt. And if some bahenji gets inspired by this trend and decides to immortalize her in some berserk way, then the government is very quick to point out the wastage of public money for the sake of fame.

I remember one clipping from NDTV’s ad, where Anand Sharma (during the BJP rule) proclaimed that- development has stopped in India ever since the Congress has gone out of power. Well now it seems to me that if a party rules for over 50 years then some progress has got to take place on account of the given time period itself.

HO RAHA BHARAT NIRMAN

We all have seen this advertisement (I am generalizing that everybody watches DD News) released by Ministry of I & B on the occasion of 62^nd Republic Day celebrations.

I wonder from where the government got those smiling faces of villagers ploughing field and fetching water from well. The director of the ad must have been completely out of senses and I fail to understand if he was making a comedy movie or what in the whole world did he had in his mind while asking all the villagers (fake certainly) to keep smiling during the entire length of that hypothetical AD.

I think that there must have been an AD-Mad competition organized by I&B ministry and the winner would have been chosen for telecast. The government thinks that it can showcase anything no matter what the public would see it would certainly acknowledge it well.

H-R-B-N reminded me of the INDIA SHINING campaign kicked by BJP which finally got kicked over by the voters from the second term.

Congress got 2^nd term purely because its stars were good. BJP didn’t have a core issue to speak about in its campaign (this is because of poor homework done by the party) and the party quite overtly lacked a strong stance in front of public. Moreover, people were already pissed off by Godhra Riots and were not willing to vote a party just because of its Hindutva campaign. The riots have already assured all muslim votes to congress and other local parties for a large numbers of elections to come. Apart from a weak opposition, Congress was able to woo the people at large because of the 6^th Pay Commission. The pay commission fell in the last year of congress’ first term and people were in a high mood and it just rubbed off all the shortcomings of the ruling party (majorly price rise). In the rural areas NREGA was able to influence people to continue voting for the same party. NAREGA was definitely a shot-in-the-arm for the congress. It helped the party to dispel the burden of CPI(M) from its shoulders as a coalition.

Four years down the line, the price rise continues but the paychecks don’t swell anymore, NREGA has been renamed as MGNREGA and the minimum 100 Rupees wage rule is being curbed by the govt citing budget problems. To add to the colors, 2G scam, Balck money, Adarsh society scam, Wakf board land scam, Radia Tapes (barkhagate),CWG scam…...etc( I don’t remember the rest right now). According to Mulayam Singh-‘Each new born baby comes in this world (INDIA precisely) with a debt of Rs.2200 because of all these shoddy dealings’.

Apart from these scams above, govt. fails to provide justice and resolve issues like- Maoist, China Border issue, Dr. Binayak Sen, Aarushi murder, Telangana, Gorkhaland, Prasar Bharti (Mr.B.S Lalli), talks with Pakistan…..etc.

Our honorable P.M for whom I HAD immense respect, has been so moulded by politics that firstly he doesn’t dare to answer all such cases and secondly he calls for a press conference through video conferencing and that to with his favorite editors who must have been given a list of questions to be followed strictly and may have been directed aswell regarding who will ask what. That is why nobody raised an eerie over why govt is not ready to declare the names of all the people accused of hoarding money in foreign banks and why govt. is planning for an amnesty for such people. Dr. Singh certainly deserves a role in Hindi films for playing his scripted role well. That was certainly a role-well-played as a new comer in the industry.

And still the govt. wants us to hum H-R-B-N.

DILLI BAS......

Directors make movies based on their native places likewise I am writing this blog especially to pay a tribute to my birthplace………DELHI.

Delhi, better known as dilli, is a place where everybody can’t survive yet everybody throng this place from each part of India. Sometimes called cold-hearted….sometimes called cunning, this place leaves an indelible mark (not pleasing most of the times) on the memory of people visiting it.

I decided upon writing this when I was having a short stay at Trivandrum. Of all the things I missed Delhi the most.The title of my blog was the answer to my facebook status question('what's on your mind') in those days. This city has got something in its air or rather in its roads and may be its just that other places are too different from it.

To start with C.P is one place where I can go everyday. It is like the heart of the city from where arteries emerge and pump blood into the rest of the city. One can find top brand showrooms with higher than highest price tags and similar brand merchandise available at shocking price in the shops running just BENEATH the former. They work together in same place as if one is not aware of the other. This is the place where you can find the richest of the rich and at the same time poorest of the poor. This is the place to be where you can find prettiest of the girls, living in Delhi, any time any day. From pizzas to samosas everything is available here. It is one long circular place where people love to go round and round and round and so on and so forth. Surely, I have left my heart somewhere in this part of the city only.

Another most prolific part is Old Delhi. Its just one place in delhi where you would love the intensity of crowd. People here seem to be so much engrossed in themselves that they don’t even react if they get shouldered by someone while walking. From aunties who come in groups to shop around to uncles who are busy strategizing about their business to kids who come in search of books or projects, there is no one here without a purpose. You can see foreigners mounted on rickshaw and busy making a video of the organized mess around. On 15 August the place is abode to political top brass. During Dusshera the Ramlila ground is the mecca for whole city. If you want to taste from the best of chicken to the best of chole-bhature, you need to fix a date with this place.

Although CWG was surely a mess for most of the people but one has to appreciate the improvements in infrastructure done throughout the city. You can actually drive through the city in night with headlights turned off(I have experienced this thing). Roads not just only gleam but beam at night. Moreover, with around 20 flyovers constructed over the last two years makes up for a smooth ride in most parts of the city. Gradually, like Mumbai, Delhi has also developed a night life. You can have dinner as late as 1:00 am in the restaurants. There are many shops which now open for 24 hrs.

From posh areas to slums, Delhi has it all. But it does have an attitude which no other city can match. Its just that we don’t realize its capacity. It is the place where people gathered to bring justice to cases like Jessica Lal’s murder. It is this place which houses the best colleges in country. It is this place which boasts about some of the most religious places in the country. It is this place which has the highest judicial and administrative centers in the country. It is this place which is the capital of the largest democracy in the world. It is this place for which political parties are ready to kill each other.It is this place which gives 137,000,000 results in google search. It is this place which is the Heart and Soul of India. I feel elated for it is this place where I was born.