Night-outs

Could'nt really bring myself to write down anything in the new year really. Managing the house alone really overburdens a carefree, innocent and creative mind like mine (ahem !!!) . No doubt, there is the independence of operating alone, being the boss and having a gala time. But then its a dud doing all the house work, which is normally taken for granted by us, due to the presence of a certain demigod, called 'mom'.

Well, anyway, when I was younger (a bit younger than I am now.), being alone in the house meant a party at night, at my place. We used to call these overnight stays as 'night-outs'. No one in the house....mom dad gone for some work...it used to be a perfect setting for a night time party at my place. KC, me, laal, irfi, oneil, abhi, dinesh, makarand, chakot........jitik sometimes. Laal and KC used to pick up some cold drinks (no hard liquor in the house), irfi used to bring down a movie CD. Abhi used to tell us that he would come 'shayad'.....dinesh made one or two appearances, oneil was there most of the times and he was my laughing partner

Chakot used to come late (as usual). He used to bring nothing except a sleepy face. Jitik used to come....and it was a wonder when he did.....coz he normally did not. (God knows why?)

The night used to begin at my place after dinner, which we had outside or each had dinner at home or something. The cold drink bottles were out and Irfi's movie CDs were played. We watched them. And no matter how serious the movie was, we always managed to laugh...with one thing or another. We even watched movies like 'omen' and laughed them out !!!

If you asked me...how could you laugh at a serious movie? I would say that, leave it....you would never understand !!!

After this some people would drop off to sleep.....but sleeping wasnt allowed on a night out.....so we would hit these 'sleeperzzz' with pillows, pinch them hard, sit on them or they would receive a mass 'punch fest' !!

We also watched crazy regional movies....which had some hilariously ridiculously unreal and unimaginable scenes...which had us rolling on our sides with laughter.....

It is 'seriously funny' to see a hero on a bike jump into the back of a tempo truck and turn out from the windshield from the other side !!! Or to see a hero somersault from the first floor to the ground floor of a building and then take a back somersault and again land on the second floor !!! Or a japanese martial art expert balance on bamboos and still manage to fight the enemy!!

The hours passed by, and at around 4 am all of us used to hungry....so we used to cook some 'egg bhurji' and enjoy eating it !! Or we used to go out to have the same (Bhurji business is maximum in the early mornings!)

Occasionally, we used to have very serious chats on topics of interest. Used to be fun all the same.

All those times have passed. Its nothing great to be alone at home....its not an occasion...its just ok.

Many of my friends have gone to faraway places to work.

Ultimately, what will remain is memories of these crazy, enjoyable 'night outs'. !!

Appreciation? what's that?

The value of appreciation......

Rarely are we appreciated.....in the company we work for.....for the work we do, for the jobs we have completed, for the problems we have solved, for the positive outcomes inspite of the infavourable conditions.

Its just that we get used to living with the thanklessness.

Money is the appreciation. And every service class man realises this within the first year of his very first job. Think about it the other way. Would you have just the appreciation part of it and not the money? Nope. Nobody would like that, would they?

Plane class.

Ok. So we are busy and all that, both of us (me and dad) with office work and everything. But both of us made it a point to look out for international flight fares to my sister's place. Travelling to a faraway country requires money....a lot of it. And it requires middle class people like us to do a bit of a research on the cheapest flight fares. I always thought that 'economy' class is a great way of saying 'the lowest possible class' in an airplane. And although it isn't quite 'economical' for us poor dingos to travel by 'economy' its always a better way to call it 'economy' as opposed to a commonplace and banal sounding 'second class' or 'third class' in trains !!!

'First class' does'nt sound that great either. But as per my knowledge its the best in both trains and planes (correct me if I'm wrong). Business class sounds truly classy. I can almost picture people sitting in business suits, travelling in style. But again, my knowledge tells me that business class is below first class in an airplane. No one's heard of a business class in trains and the only guy who would be wearing blazers in the train (most of the times) is the TC. There are some other classes like premium class and other show - shine names that airline companies have given but strictly speaking, nobody travels like the President of the United states or a sheikh from Qatar. I've heard of a term called 'cattle class' in planes. Made me think whether booking a cattle class ticket gives you a license to sit amongst mooing cows or bleating sheep?

Apparently, no. Cattle class is just another name for the poor old economy class.

Talking about seats, in international flights, never take a front row seat in any section of the plane....coz you might be near a baby bassinet.............and god save you if the baby in the baby bassinet starts bawling at the top of its voice, acting like a monster. People with long legs have good leg room if they take a front seat.....compensation....they might have to stuff their ears for fear of noise pollution of the baby bawls !! And, if you think baby bawls are bad.....the extreme back seats are worst.....coz there it is the air pollution which will kill you, in a long distance flight.

I always find that the window seat behind the wing is the best. I love that place.

Darling, we're the young ones.

Live the freedom, sing in the rain,

Feel the passion, Love the pain,

Dance on a tune, act like a fool,

Spend on a whim, its so cool,

Fight the fire, play with the flame,

Take the lead ,get on with the game.

Hard as a diamond, tough as a rock,

Fit as a fiddle, round the clock.

Days pass on, you never cry,

Whatever happens, it passes by,

This is the feeling, this is the fun,

This is the life of a young one.

-By me.