2010 New year resolutions.

This year wasnt great. I mean....yes, I did have a gala time home alone for four months (My sister was due in april) and then seeing my cute little niece.

Apart from that nothing great....no appraisals in our company. Working under a bad boss. Lots of problems towards the end of the project which brought me and my boss under a very bad light....me getting all the blame, trapped in the net of bad higher management. On top of everything.....a new educational course application being rejected (However, I was super confident that it would be !!!) All in all, a bad year in terms of profession, good in terms of personal.

A new year resolution....

Find objectives. At this point, I am suffering from a 'lack of objective' scenario. Its objective which keeps a man going. Lack of it, demotivates him. Apart from this, the other resolutions remain.....enjoy, travel and see more places (for holidays, of course !!)

No other personal resolutions.

Kabootar jaa jaa jaa.

This is something which happened a few years ago. It was a saturday and I was chilling out in the living room of my house reading a book. Suddenly, I heard a scream and heard urgent thumping footsteps. I looked up, startled by the scream. I was starting to get up when I saw mom running towards me screaming at the top of her voice...."Ravi, Ravi, gallereet kabootar aale aahe !!" (Ravi, a pigeon has entered the balcony.). Well, I hadnt seen mom running the way she did in those few moments. The same time in which I was rudely shocked by the scream, I had a desire to laugh seeing mom run the way she did !!!

So anyway, there was a dumb 'kabootar' (pigeon) in the balcony....and it wasnt an earthquake or something.....nothing life-threatening, as mom's voice had suggested.

My earlier post 'Strange ways of animals' (written in January 2009) makes it perfectly clear what I feel pigeons are like.

I took a bamboo stick and entered the balcony. I didnt see the pigeon initially. And for a moment, I thought, it had made its way out. Then I saw it, sitting behind a wooden cabinet. It did not realise that there was a window above it. I prodded it with the stick and saw it drop. In short....it was 'shit-scared'. It didnt go, so I opened a few more balcony sliding windows and prodded it once again, this time a bit more firmly. It took off.....flapped around to and fro......but finally found its way out. Mom had entered the room and she had her fingers in her ears (Lot of people do that when they are scared.....I dunno how it helps ???!!!)

Her problem was solved.

Wallets and purses.

Probably, one of the most handy things that man invented was the wallet. I dont know whether at all 'man' invented it. It could have been a 'woman' after all !! I mean, it seems to be silly...but I hate to compare it with the money keeping pouches that ladies carry.....which are called as purses. Now I also do hate it when the same term....'purse' is referred to a 'wallet'. I mean 'wallet' sounds so neat. Macho and suitable for men. When anyone refers to my 'wallet' as 'purse' I almost feel embarrassed.......feel like a sissy, although 'technically speaking' its quite proper.

Now, coming to wallets....My wallet is always a bit haphazard.....lot of small bills, four fold papers with some calculations on it. Papers which contain some numbers written on the spur of a moment.....probably because I didnt have the patience to write it in my mobile contacts list, or simply coz, I wasnt carrying my mobile at that time or something like that. I have my driving license, some visiting cards, some paper money and some plastic money at times. People do have a habit of carrying a photo of their sweethearts or loved ones in their wallets. I too have that habit. I carry a photo of myself.....thats coz I love myself. I also carry a childhood photo....no particular reason....whatever you might infer from it. All in all contents are very much like so many others. Although I have seen people arranging stuff very systematically in their wallets......currency of higher denomination in a single compartment.....lower denomination in others......identity card in the transparent windowed compartment. Credit cards in the half compartments. Coins in the coin comp etc. How much discipline can you have??? Give me a break.

Talking about ladies 'purses' ..........not much to talk about......they say you should'nt open ladies purses....reasons of privacy.

An opinion

I was watching Lakshya the other day. The movie comes to the part where Hrithik (Karan in the movie) runs away from the Indian Military Academy following the fiasco at the training camp. A place where he pays for his somehow callous and easy going nature......He is punished for taking things lightly and playing the fool. After flying high.....getting through the tough CDS exams with flying colours, getting full support of his girl, he finds the training tough and there is no place for happy-go-lucky people. His superiors and instructors show him his place. He decides to run away and comes back home. Here he overhears his parents saying how they never thought he would get through the training. He meets his girl hoping that she would offer him some support and sympathy. But he finds that she, too, is not very happy that he could'nt get through something which he chose himself. In fact she breaks off with him for this very reason. Dejected, depressed and down.....he makes a decision to get back to the academy.....and finish his training. He does it and becomes an officer...a changed man.

The thing is, its just that, there comes a time, when you are dropped from all sides. All the pillars which support your cause, collapse. You are left alone, with no one to trust and no one to help you. In fact the blame game is on you. You feel that its all going bad.....the next thing you know it gets worse and then worst. You get jolted from all sides and feel the pinch and the pain. For a fact, its a downtime, all right. But if you just think about it again, its a time when things cant get any worse, can they? It can only be an upside from then on, isnt it? Plus, the pressure to perform is off (if there was earlier !!). People dont expect anything from you anyway. So you are on your own and would perform much better.

Its just an opinion......

Absurd conversation.

A female colleague and male one and me ....having a conversation. Lets call female colleague as FC and male colleague as MC and me as Me (obviously.....who'd call me as you?)

FC: My uncle bought some model of pulsar.

Me: Well, pulsar is a model name.

FC: No. There are four types of pulsar.

MC: Well ya, thats true. There are four types of pulsar bikes

FC to me: See, I told you.

MC: But still pulsar is the name of a bike model. Bajaj is the name of the manufacturer.

Me: Ya. So its bajaj pulsar.

FC to me and MC: Ya. Whatever.....

MC shaking his head in utter exasperation. His heart is mortally wounded, when someone talks so carelessly about bikes and cars.

FC to both of us: It has electric start.

MC: So?

FC: So what? Other bikes have only kick starts. Only my activa has an electric start.

MC: Which world do you live in, huh? Most bikes have kick starts these days.

FC: Ya, ok....Mr. Know-it-all.

MC: What? You didnt know?

FC: No I didnt. Anyway, you should know. You own a pulsar. I know that.

MC: I knew these things before I had one.

FC: Anyway, I will find out which bike my uncle has really bought (????!!!!).

MC: Ok.

FC after some days: My uncle bought a bajaj passion plus.

Me: Bajaj passion plus.....This some kind of new bike you invented?

FC: See, now I have told you the manufacturer as well as the model name. I am certainly right this time.

MC and Me: God save this stupid creature.

FC: What did you guys say?

MC and Me: Forget it.

Absurd conversation?