The drudgeries of life

Labels: Happiness, Masti, Running, Shopping, Weekends

Labels: Friends, Photography, Rajmachi, Traveling, Trek, Weekends

Labels: Friends, Happiness, Life, Party, To do, Weekends

Labels: Life, Office, Weekends, Work

Labels: Badminton, Beginnings, CWG, Friends, IMT, Nostalgia, Table Tennis, Weekends

Labels: Delhi, Friends, Masti, Rains, Saturday, Weekends

Labels: Good mood, Happiness, Saturday, Weekends

Labels: Friends, Gurgaon, Party, reunion, Sexy weather, Weekends

Labels: Budget, Finance, Football, Good mood, Numbers, Weekends, World Cup

Labels: Family, Friends, Good mood, Good news, Gurgaon, Happiness, Home, Miss you, Sexy weather, Shopping, Weekends

Labels: Changes, Delhi, Friends, Gurgaon, Life, Sexy weather, Vacillations, Void, Weekends

It was past 1 AM. The noisy six-seater, crowded with 10 very tired people, made its way to one corner of Pune. Cramped up in the back seat, I muttered to myself (or so I thought), "Adventure unlimited". Aditi, who was sitting in front of me, laughed a bit on overhearing this. She surely shared my views, as did everyone else who was with us on the weekend trek to Ratangad.

If I weren't as enervated as I am now, I would've definitely posted about the whole adventure, from the starting till the very end. But that'll have to wait for a couple of days! But just to give you a gist of how my weekend was spent, we travelled for over 16 hours by bus; trekked, mountain-climbed, scaled treacherous and steep paths without any safety harness whatsoever; walked in the clouds, literally; enjoyed the tasty food provided by the organisers of the trek, and surviving on biscuits and polos in between meals; guzzling down the hill water (yep there were ancient water tanks there with crystal clear water) which was purer than the water we get at our place :O; spent the night in a cave on the ledge of the hill (awesome!!); etc. etc. etc.

The trip was an out-of-this-world sort of an experience. Tiring as hell, but you tend to forget everything when you come face to face with mother nature's exquisite beauty! The organisers, a group of guys and gals, who go by the name of Trek'di, did a wonderful job! They'll be on the next post but still if you want to know more about them, visit them at www.trekdi.com

This was a totally different way of spending the weekends which we are so used to spending at the malls or at the multiplexes or even on our beds! Getting awy from the hustle-bustle of the city felt good as did doing away with the cell for a while and not being bugged by the perennial telephone calls!

Pics? Yes, we snapped lots of them but they seriously can't capture what we've been through. Anyway, here are some of the snaps:

Labels: Trek, Weekends

Monday!!!
This might've sounded like Garfield's take on the first working day of the week, but it isn't! I hold an entirely different opinion about Mondays. In the words of the Frenchmen, "J'aime le jour de Lundi"!!
I'm tired and I have good reason for it! Of late, weekends seem to be the stress inducers instead of being the stress busters!
Not long ago, we used to look forward to Saturdays and Sundays, the countdown for the weekend being the sole purpose of surviving the gruelling weekdays! The scenario has changed drastically these days! Weekends now seem to be more hectic than the normal weekdays! Take the last couple of days for instance...
Anurag's birthday party on Saturday, hosted at a posh hotel, was the perfect way to enjoy the evening. Lots of fun and frolic, leg-pulling, good food, a couple of shots of Vodka, and a very happy ending in the form of the bill amounting to 4K! LoL! Yes, it was worth every moment! Felt good to know that I had the same control over my senses which I used to have back at college, and felt as sober as a teetotaler by the time I reached home after a long drive!
Sunday was very hectic! Caught the matinee show of Spiderman 3 and though everyone has been criticising the movie, I liked it! Okay so it was lengthier (it is almost 2.5 hours long) than its prequels and had it's share of melodrama, but then the story has been dealt with fine enough! Girls can't stop gushing over James Franco, so our super-hero has to find solace in all the attention the kids have to offer! Kirsten Dunst... pretty in a typical way but I somehow don't like her much! Bryce Howard... yeah! Now she's a babe! Ahem! Anyway, all I want to say is that if you're keeping great expectations after watching the promos and trailers, please don't! I'm no sadist to spoil the fun by narrating the story here... and there's a lot to describe anyway:p So do let me know how you guys felt about the flick!
Went shopping in the blazing heat and planned to alter the decor of our room in the evening! But that was not to be! Ever heard of those doors with self-locking mechanism which when locked cannot be opened from the outside unless you have the key? Well, Anand and my room has exactly that kind of a door... and just when we were ready to call it a day and turn in, we found that the door was locked and we had no key! Me and my roomie found ourselves roomless! Greattt! Inspired by all those novels I've read, I tried to pick the lock but it seemed to have too many levers and I gave up after an hour! My elderly landlord had gone to bed and he lived 10 miles away, so save for the option of breaking down the door, the task I was in the mood to undertake, we had no other choice!
Anyway, frustrated though we were, the locked room saw all 6 of us flatmates having a wonderful bakar session in Arjun and Ankur's room! This was something which we hadn't done for ages... always some of the guys used to be missing! We talked about and laughed over incidents from college, discussed crushes, and this went on till past 1 AM! Wow! And we all are early sleepers!

Come Monday, we got the room keys from our landlord, unlocked the door, cleant up and beautified the room, and left for office after 1 in the afternoon! Not much work except for a status call at about 10 PM :( So spent the whole day going through a compensation review document and working out how much extra moolah we're in for:D!

Anyway, a lot has been happening recently and not all of it is sexy, but even though I curse and fret in the heat of the moment, in the end I tend to accept my Mom's standard line, "Everything happens for the best" :)

Labels: Laughs, Luck, Mess, Weekends

Two months ago, the seven of them got a rude shock when their landlord told them they had one month to "clear orf" (Goon's style in the Five Find-outers and Dog) and find a new place to stay. They had spent only 5 months there but still it's a place they had learnt to call home...
Gosh! I was amazed when I stepped into the B-601 of Prakrtii Apartments on New Year's eve! The place was spic and span, girls generally see to that, but still they had done a neat job of making the place somewhere you'd want to return to after a tiring day! A shocking contrast was A-701 of the same society one of the inhabitants of which is yours truly! But still, no matter what the state of our apartments, the girls and us guys cherish our respective apartments, not to forget the awesome society in which we've been living since October last year! So, it was a bolt from the blue, the news for the girls to move out.
Their landlord was off to Tanzania and he was shifting all his luggage into this house, and so he gave the girls a one month notice! Those were trying times! In addition to the sorrow of vacating this flat, they had to undergo the torture of searching for another one! And they had office work to take care of to! People might imagine house-hunting to be a delightful activity, but take my word for it, it isn't. Period.
That month of march was hectic! The onset of summer saw the girls running from pillar to post trying to ensure that they stayed at the same society only! It's outrageous the way people rub their hands in glee when they see that you're in trouble and realize that they take advantage of your helplessness! That's exactly what these girls faced. Either the rent quoted was too high or the deposit, or sometimes both! Some people plain and simple refused to have a group of 7 girls as their tenants :O! Something I discovered which is quite common in Pune... boys are preferred as tenants rather than the fairer sex! Hmmm
A boon in the form of a one-month extension on the notice saw to it that the girls took it a little easy for some time. By the mid of April they had landed a flat in the same society! All was well until the penultimate day of the expiry of the notice when it was realized that the to-be landlady had goofed up big time and had failed to give the present tenants a notice! So, the girls were literally one step away from being homeless! It's just not possible to procure an agreement in one day and move into an apartment right away.... or so I thought!
Saturday, the 28th of April, the girls found out about the landlady's goof-up! On Monday, the 30th of April, their landlord was supposed to make an appearnace to deprive them of the house! Optimism seemed like foolishness at this point... they couldn;t find a house in 2 months, forget about finding one in a single day!! Oh well! Luck was on their side and they managed to find a place, that too in the same society! Miracles keep happening!

So yesterday was a perfect end to a rather tiring weekend. Me and Anand were there to help the ladies in shifting their luggage and what not! We heaved, we huffed and puffed, we took breaks, we chatted, we laughed, took snaps, we heaved again, we sweated (profusely at that), and when it all got over at 8 PM, we just flopped down exhausted! Happy they were, yes, but then who likes these kind of changes? Charu's taking me to the window in her ex-bedroom showing me the beautiful view from there and talking about how she used to stare out of it at night and admitting the fact that she'll miss it left an impression! The others weren't so forthcoming but not everyone is... everyone had her own way of expressing what B-601 meant to them!

Anyway, Sunday was one helluva long day! Going for a swim in the pool was soooo relaxing! Dinner at their new residence was a silent affair... It does take time to settle in, to feel at home! One thing I learned from this experience is that once you get used to a place, letting go of it is tough... and if that place is home, even a second home for that matter, boy o boy! Just the thought of that made me vow never to delay the rent due to our landlord! Anyway, another thing I will keep in mind is to not go down without a fight:p

Anyways, to all the folks having exams, concerts, tests, et cetera, wish you all loads of luck!

Labels: Moving out, Sigh, Weekends

A perfect weekend.
No computers. No watering eyes.
No status calls. No deadlines.
No headaches. No ambiguities.
Spending the day at Crossword.
Shopping escapade. Nice crowd.
Birthday treat. Great company. Tasty food.
12 hours of unadultrated sleep.
Sexy movie. Good news. Ti Amo Gelato *Yummy*
Long drives. Sweet talk.
Old friends. Renewing bonds.
Darkening skies. Gusty winds.
First showers. The scent of wet earth! Ahhhh
Ready-to-eat soup, scrambled eggs and bread... neat dinner!
Catching a smoke, for old times' sake, on the balcony.
Getting assaulted by the chill breeze.
Catching an occasional glimpse of pedestrians,
and of the lights emanating from the erratic traffic.
Recollecting, reminiscing, sighing, planning.
Random calls. Crazy smses. Long walks.
"Air condtioned" room. Cozy matress. Catchy book.
Not a bother in the world...

Yes, this is the life!
Now back to work... out of the blue, I've landed loads of it :(

Labels: Bliss, Rain, Reminiscence, Weekends

For once, after what seemed like ages, a weekend which lived up to its name!
Three movies, two yummy Ti-Amo icecreams, lots and lots of sleep, one very depressing cricket match, more sleep, long walks, sms chats wih depressing jokes, bakar with friends, good food... now that's what weekends are all about!
Anyway, watched The Holiday, Blood Diamond and Parzania! I didn't expect much from the first movie but it was high on chick content, and Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet did a great job! The Holiday is quite a light-hearted romance movie and leaves you in a feel good frame of mind! The same doesn't apply to the other 2 movies... Blood Diamond and Parzania deal with grave issues and I must say that the scenes from both are gruesome and touching, but splendid movies the two! The former is a story of 2 men, one a mercenary cum smuggler, and the other an ordinary fisherman, who come together in Sierra Leone to get their hands on a rare pink diamond on which their fates depend... they are helped along the way by a beautiful journalist, and all this is set against the backdrop of mayhem and civil war! A really good movie Blood Diamond is! Am I sounding cliched?!
Parzania is a story focusing on the plight of a Parsi family in riot-stricken Gujarat who lose their son when a mob of hudlums attacks their society! The movie is well made and has dealt with the horrors faced by the classified "non-Hindus" in post-Godhra Gujarat splendidly... The acting is superb and the plight of the people shown is heart-wrenching... no wonder I found my eyes welling up with tears... a first after eons! Man!! After all I've read about these happenings, it seemed so realistic that had someone told me I was witnessing the actual events, I'd have fallen for it! This movie is a must watch for everyone... let the world know how low can some people stoop! No wonder it has been banned in Gujarat... it's sure to dig up buried feelings and might lead to a backlash too!
Well depressions apart, I seem to have consumed 7-8 packs of Polo in the last 5 days:o! Gosh! Somebody stop me...

Labels: Bliss, Movies, Weekends