Sad Demise

Today has started with a sad news...
We lost one of our colleagues. He died of heart attack. He was hardly in his mid 20s,soft spoken guy.
This is shocking and alarming for all of us working in IT industry. Do take care of you health and work-life balance. The stress virus is creeping slowly and claiming many lives.

May god bless his soul.

New iPod is coming !

I have always been fascinated by Apple products.
I was awestruck by the iPod when I first saw it and so by the iMac. Man that is my dream machine :-)
here's sneak peek into their new 6th gen video iPod.
http://www.previewgadgets.com/gadget/ipod_6th_generation_touch_screen


I want it! I want it!! I want it !!!

PS: Any takers for my iPod-mini :D :D ??

Quotes

Ayn Rand is one of my most favorite authors. I worship “The Fountainhead” and now “Atlas Shrugged” added to my list of favorite books. Before reading these books I was advised against reading them because they are meant for “psycho” people. No wonder many of so called book lover friends haven’t even heard of her. And I am glad that I didn’t go by the advise :-). I identify myself very much with her view of world (May be I am also one of those “psyco”s :-) ). I wish to write my views on both the books and so about many other books I love to read (depending on how many laziness permits me to do so :-D).
I just finished first iteration of reading “Atlas Shrugged” (marathon reading I should say :-) ). There is one quote in the book that goes with title of my blog and I can’t resist publishing here

“Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.”

And some other quotes from her books

Pride is the recognition of the fact that you are your own highest value and, like all of man’s values, it has to be earned.
Atlas Shrugged

The worst guilt is to accept an unearned guilt.
Atlas Shrugged

Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps, down new roads, armed with nothing but their own vision.
Atlas Shrugged

Independence is the recognition of the fact that yours is the responsibility of judgment and nothing can help you escape it.
Atlas Shrugged

Love is our response to our highest values. Love is self-enjoyment. The noblest love is born out of admiration of another’s values.
Atlas Shrugged

To say "I love you" one must first be able to say the "I."
The Fountainhead

Happiness is possible only to a rational man, the man who desires nothing but rational goals, seeks nothing but rational values and finds his joy in nothing buy rational actions.
Atlas Shrugged

Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplacable spark. In the hopeless swamps of the not quite, the not yet, and the not at all, do not let the hero in your soul perish and leave only frustration for the life you deserved, but never have been able to reach. The world you desire can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.
Atlas Shrugged

The secrets of this earth are not for all men to see, but only for those who seek them.
Anthem

Thinking men cannot be ruled.


Most important, theme of “Atlas Shrugged”

I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.

And theme of “The Fountainhead”

Men have been taught that it is a virtue to agree with others. But the creator is the man who disagrees. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to swim with the current. But the creator is the man who goes against the current. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to stand together. But the creator is the man who stands alone.

Blogging from home

Yahooooo !!!! After my timeless efforts to get internet connection at home and then to get it working on my laptop... the day is here when I am able to blog from home!!!

I mean its real trouble to get an internet connection in Bangalore ... to many techies I say. I tried hard for 2 months only to know that AirTel does not give connection only on the lane I live in and BSNL has 6 months waiting list... other ISPs don't even exist in this area (and who says I live in prime area of Bangalore). Finally I have decide to share connection with my roomie. But how do I get the cable to my room? Someone suggested me to get a wireless router so I can setup wireless LAN at home. Waah ! what a dream. Naa jaane kaunsi woh manhoos ghadi thi jab maine yeh man liya... I had to wait for a month for the router to arrive and another 2 weeks to get it working. (Well it still is not working... donno whats the problem :-( .... I am gonna kill the guy for giving me that suggestion and making my walllet lloooot emptier). Today, at least I was able to connect my lappy directly to the modem and get it working. So here I am blogging from home and I just realised that I can't surf as efficiently as I do in office ... :D.

Well ... in all, Its been a good weekend. Did nothing ... Spent most of the time talking to my bro. It was nice long chat :-). Dropped movie plans out of sheer laziness :-)(I think I can give galrfield a beating in laziness quotient :D)
...Mmmmm I am loving it !

Happy Diwali !!!

I have been told that the things-girls-should-not-do manual says that girls are not supposed to be gadget freaks. But I don’t read manuals anyways :D :D. So continuing with my obsession I have new addition in my list … Sony Ericsson w700i cell phone… Yaay!!!! All I can say is … its toooo good with walkman music player with amaaazing sound quality, 2 mega pixel camera(yeah yeah), biiig screen (just as I wanted), expandable memory upto 1GB, sexy interface just the Sony way :-). Its very easy to use and most of cell phone exploration is already done. I miss my nokia phone keys though. I have been told that I am brand savvy and I go for costly brands like Sony phones and Apple iPods. But why care, they are the best anyways :-). I wanted to buy the w810i but the cost was too much, so settled for this one. And I love it. Best thing I liked was … I can set any song as my ring tone !!! So I am searching for a niiiice song and any suggestions are welcome. My last phone had Rang De Basanti tone. But now I want some English tune but most of the songs I like are soft ones and I am not able to decide for faster/rock song.
Isn’t it the best Diwali gift I can give to myself :-)?
And…

Wish you all a very very very Happy Diwali !!!
May this Diwali bring you lot of light to your life !!!

I am off for looong vacation.

Does it happen to you? You are forced to do something you don’t want to do and you do it for the sake of it and then you screw up badly. And then people start barking at you left and right and you wish you were invisible.

It happens with me many times and happened again today … I just wish I were invisible… *sob*

Bad start of day … reaaaaaaal bad start…. *Sob*

I HATE this IT world.

Arranged Marriage

X is some lady/man related to me by some relation. Apparently they always seems to be very concerned about me .. or should I say my marriage.

Me : Hey aunty, Good news. I got salary raise.
X : Wow. Very good. How much you will get now?
Me : I will get xxxxx per month now, Isn’t it cool?
X (with sad expression on her face): Errr… that’s good.
Me : Why? What happened? You are not happy?
X : Ohh… no nothing like that. I am happy for u. But just concerned, already we are having hard time finding a guy to match ur current salary and again raise means more problem.
Me : What?? Mine is just normal one. Not even “Good” as per industry standard.
X : I don’t know all that. See all we want for you is to get you a good boy from good family, get married and settle down.
Me : What about my job and all the study I have done?
X : Girl has to always sacrifice ,dear.
Me : So you want me to scarify my career for some junk guy u are searching. You shouldn’t have sent me out at first place then.

… I can bear comments on my short nose, even shorter height, weight, tummy, teeth … everything else but not this, definitely not this. I know what my father had gone through to get me where I am. And I am not gonna leave it for such reasons.

I don’t know what is with all these people my so-called relative and well-wishers. They can’t just think about anything else than my marriage. And they will find the “junk”est guy. These guys and particularly their parents (GP) think that their son has come from some heavenly place. See some examples (they are real incidents)

Case 1:
GP(with loot of pride) : Oh all that is fine. But our son is very brilliant do you think you daughter will be able to match up his intelligence. He has got blah blah blah. (sidey degree from some sidey college)
My Mom: Great!!! My daughter has SSC rank, GATE score and won state level quizzes. I think they will make good pair
GP(scared voice): Errr…
Not to mention they never contacted back.

Case 2:
GP: We are very open minded people. We will give all the freedom to our daughter-in-law.
My Mom: Oh very well. So I think our children should meet once since they are working in same city. If they like each other, we can talk further.
GP: Uh oh… that will happen only after we have finalized the girl. See, We are respected family and our relatives would not appreciate this. We would like to see the girls first here with all the family. (mind you my place is at least 1000 km away from here and it takes at least 5 days and 2000 bucks to and fro journey)

I didn’t go.

Case 3:
GP: Oh your girl has spectacles. I hope she wears contact lenses all the time. Specs don’t look good on saree you see.
(What the hell? You want a new family member or show-piece)


And the list goes on.

Current mood: Reeeeeaaaaaaallly frustrated

I got fed up with my last template. I thought the orage was too bright and too boring. (Taurus gal always needs a change you see :D)
I have been advised to move to wordpress. It seems they give more flexibility to organize my posts and all. But given my enooooooormous love for goole things I have decided to stick to blogger for a while :-). And the blogger beta seems interesting too !!!
So for the time being I am just happy with new template... yay !!!
I think it looks cooooool :-)

Taurus woman (and girl too :D)

This what you post when you don't have anything to say but still want to post somehting :-)
Characteristics of a Taurus women ... :D

=====

A slim moderately tall woman. Taurus woman is funny and a jolly person. Square facial bone structure, high cheek bone. Her round big eyes sparkle with wit and curiosity. You will not see many round faces Taurus women, and mainly she will have a strong jaw line. She is a constantly change person. If she up sets, she will not show it and will keep it to herself for a long time, and will remember them so well. If she gets really mad at you, you will suddenly become a totally and completely stranger to her.

She is a patient person, but always needs new excitement. She hates long talk meeting, long and endless conversation. She can be in love with you today, and one day she could act as if she has never loved you before. She has patience with what she wants to do and will never give up until she gets there. She will be very persistent in what she is doing till she has reasons for stopping her project, then she will quit.

Money for Taurus woman is not the most important factor in life. She thinks of money as an instrument for assuring of a good living. She has more satisfaction in achieving her goals more than satisfaction in fine cloths and luxuries. If you like a woman who always thinks of love and romance ,then you are dating the wrong girl. You can not tell her to stay at home, she likes to work and preferred not work at home. She loves animals and likes to surround by animals.

Love is in her head, but Freedom is in her soul. She has her own idea about love and afraid to show her true feeling for fear of rejection. She is not the type to talk about love, but she sure has a strange way to show it. She is not good in showing when she is in love, but if she loves you she will be honest to you than any other women. She will be honest to her love one, but at the same time seems distant. You will have a good relationship with her, if you allow her freedom.

Do not force her to be with you in a poker game which she hates, but let she goes out swinging with her friends if she wants to. She will be different than other girls, and she thinks different is one of her unique quality. She is a public figure but belongs to no one. She will not stay with you, if she thinks you are not sincere. She likes you to have personality, but better not to compete with her. Love her, but not too much for she afraid it will limiting her freedom.

She always stands out of the crowd for something she dares to do. You could see her dress like a poor farmer dinning in the fancy restaurant, or dress like a nun in an a cocktail dress party. If you are a politician who are looking for a wife, she will make a good one because she is cleverly smart and she could get along socially with any type of crowds.

She is not a jealous type because she has to know you thoroughly before accepting you in her life. She has more curiosity in life than wondering if right now you are flirting with someone else. If you keep a distant from her, or go away for a few days, she will miss you more. Even when she is dating you, she also able to fond of someone else, if you do not have something she is looking for. She will never disappoint you or hide behind your back to make you loose face, but she is the type who just going to tell you to your face that " We're better off breaking up". She always remember her first love. Taurus woman holds the best record for divorce for she does not care about how people think of her, but every things should be done for "Happiness".

She has lots of friends and sure of herself, so you will hardly see she delays any of her thoughts before her action. If she think of something, she will go ahead and does it. She has many men wanting her for her constant changes is the challenge. She can be cute and funny, but suddenly cool and tough. She has her own style of dressing up, so you could see her dress like an old mate today, and tomorrow she may dress like she comes from Mars. She will have that interesting hair, dress and a look unique from anyone else.

She likes to learn about your dreams and your thought. She has fun teasing you and making jokes. If she did something wrong, she won't hide it from you, but do not ask when she is not in the mood to talk about it. She hates to owe people money and take promise seriously. If you promise to pay her back, you'd better paid up.

If you want to make it with Taurus woman, then do not be jealous or possessive, do not be narrow minded, do not criticize about nonsense or small and insignificant matters. Try to likes her friends and let she has her privacy, then she can be very sweet to you.

Coffee sir?

It was Saturday evening, I was returning from school with three of my friends. We had no special plans for the Saturday night, we decided to have dinner at this coffee shop cum restaurant on 100 ft road. It's a nice cozy place with lot of sofas and bean bag and even swings for sitting. There you can relax, sip cup of coffee and have nice talk with friends without being bothered by other people's high pitch boastings or the when-the-hell-will-you-leave-others-are-waiting look on waiters face (that we generally get in any Bangalore restaurant on Saturday or Sunday evenings). "Coffee, Culture, Cuisine" is their punch line. In short I love the ambiance very much.

As were chatting or should I say gossiping as usual, S suggested why we don't play "truth or dare" for a change. It was instantaneously agreed upon. She found a small pen for rotating. Everybody chose to play safe and chose go for truth. There were usual boring questions like memorable moment, embarrassing moment and first crush stuff. S chose dare. There was a topiwala guy sitting stylishly in bean bag outside. I asked her to go and ask his name ( I thought he might be hunk). She hesitated a bit but went on and asked his name. It was fun watching her go and look of surprise on the guys face. Now everyone was supposed to chose dare. The topiwala being our target. We were sitting exactly diagonally to him. H suggested she will give him a flying kiss. And guess what she actually went till the door blew some kisses in air... in our direction, the guy being behind outside the glass wall :-). (Not to mention the guy turned out to be just another stylo dumbo) The restaurant people were watching us curiously. R's dare was to dance to the tune of music played. She actually stood up in front of us and danced to Michael J's "Dangerous" tunes. We were object of attention around. Now it was my turn. I am asked to act as one of the guys there and wait on one table.
Ummm ... I hesitated a lot. Kya karu, kaise karu... mera change karo naa ... But S was very particular on me doing that. So I marched upto the guy behind counter and asked if I can serve once. He instantaneously agreed and said he will call me. He asked me to collect bill from a couple sitting outside. The guy was surprised to see a gal restaurantl, the restaurent has guys that too wearing black Ts and caps. Me was wearing some colorful top... my heart beat racing unnecessarily. Me acted very decent, standing polietly, supressing laughter. I got the money from him and came in. Guess what, the rest people gave a big round of applause and I was specially asked to come again. It was real freaking fun.

You never know you might find me serving coffee in some Bangalore coffee shop.
Coffee anyone???

Wanted

Today morning I found a poster stuck in my cubical ...

Wanted written in big letters under my company photo id photocopy
:)))))))))

Another team member added "Reward: 10 cases solved by her"

I am gonna leave it around like that ....

Beware people... I m wanted personality !!!

Requirement Spec - 1

Like any Indian family having girl of my age, my family is searching for a “suitable” (haaaah!!!) groom for me...ekdam jor shor se(cause I haven’t found anyone of my choice yet). Obviously my opinion is asked (akhir shaadi to meri hi honi hai … :D ). Hmmm... that is pretty important haa. I had written long time back about my dreams for soulmate. But that’s on very emotional terms. So I have decided to be more practical and make list of things about what kinda guy I want (read as ‘I would be able to live with’ :P ).
Well, I will be ok if he smokes, drinks, watches news and sport channel all the time and never lets me watch any movie or soap channel (I don’t watch them very much anyways :)) or even has flirted with 100 girls before meeting me (Yeah... seriously!!!) but there are few things I am very serious about

• I don’t want extravagant wedding. If possible we should have register marriage with family and close friends
• He MUST love his country. I don’t like guys who dream of US of A all the time. I would hate to settle down anywhere else than India
• Should be open to adopt at least one child.
• Should be ok to take a walk and not insist on taking vehicle or auto everywhere. Isn’t it romantic to walk in moonlight !!!
• Should love sea and take me to beach at least once in year. (Also, I would love I settle down in Goa or Konkan. A pond side/riverside house is also OK :D)
• Switch off electric appliances when not required. Leaving fans and tube lights switched on and wandering off the room is serious no no. ( Don’t you know we are suffering from too much shortage of electricity )
• TURN OFF vehicle at signals. (Global warming people !!!)
• My house MUST have huge windows and lots of fresh air and natural light. I don’t like to switch on lights or fans during daytime.
• No wasting food. Must finish whatever is served in the plate
• Help me in the Kitchen.
• Not crib about my love for cloths :D
• Must read books. If he writes and that too poems … wow… I just looove it
• Don’t preach me religion. I will do whatever is required as per family customs but no imposing of beliefs.
• It’s ok if I cry while watching a senti movie or reading book or listening to senti song.
• Rainwalk!!! (even riding bike in rain :))
• Leaving tap water open all the time when you are shaving or brushing, not closing tap properly is serious turn off :)
• Don’t expect me to sit around in house every weekend.
• Must be good listener
• I tend to loose my temper very quickly. But then I calm down faster… All I need is li'le bit of patience (M equally patient :) )
• I do fight and argue a lot … but they should end right there, no hard feelings
• Would love if he can shake a leg with music tunes :)
• Goood sense of humor !!!
• Most important … LOVE me as I am !!! :) :)


Ummm… there might be more things I would like to see here but can’t recall them right now. Will write requirement spec part2 some other time :) :)

****
Came across one interesting quote

A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle. Irina Dunn, 1970 *wink wink*

I donno how they make it
But this is very very true for me :-)
Reeeeaaaaal Ashlesha cocktail for u...

How to make a ashlesha

Ingredients: 1 part anger 3 parts brilliance 3 parts energy

Method: Add to a cocktail shaker and mix vigorously. Serve with a slice of sadness and a pinch of salt. Yum!

So I am thinking about alternate profession...

And as I have mentioned in my previous blog, I am very serious about considering the Hindi serial wala profession. After being forced to watch soaps daily, I have concluded that I too can become a story writer (for Hindi soap ofcourse :D)
So here it is... An attmpt to do it.
Kahani Ek Serial Ki

I wish to wirte a melodramatic, family, business, friendship, love ... etc etc soap drama which will be "different" from all ongoing ones (:D :D :D). I will try to write one episode each post. All you Hindi soap lovers (... and non-lovers too :-) ) are invited to join this attempt. As per the Hindi soap traditon, the story writer can change as many times actor playing the lead role changes. So let your creative juices flow freely and contribute an episode or more... add twists and turns to our serial.

Chalo ek Kahani banaye apani ...

Life is getting weirder day by day. I am tired of dealing with never ending and unnecessary complications. Sometimes I feel like I am running in a desert trying to touch the horizon. The more I try to get closer the more it runs away. It’s really hot out there. My feet are burning on the red hot sand. There is not a single tree around. Not even oasis mirage to look for.

I want a shadow somewhere to rest for while. I want water for my dry throat.
I want some rest.
I want peace of mind
I just want a simple life !!!

The "nose" factor

My olfactory system (a.k.a. my nose) is unnecessarily active. My mom says I might have been dog in one of my previous “janams”. I need my food to have good aroma and not just the taste. My memory store is unnecessarily tied up with the olfactory system. There are some scents which remind me of some people.

Like the “Dabur Amala Kesh Tel” reminds me of my ajoba (mom’s father). He was great lover of perfumes. He would try different types of talcum powders and soaps for the sake of their perfumes. But hair oil was always “Dabur Amala”. His rack had lot of amazing stuff which we kids were not allowed to touch at all. I still remember the exact place where he would keep the oil bottle. It was the old glass bottle permanent resident there which would be filled in regularly with new small bottles. Years of spilled oil had peculiar aroma which would fill his whole room. We were occasionally given the duty to apply the oil on his head or his feet. And as reward we would get the small square salt biscuits or sweet supari powder (I donno the angrezi name for that?) or toffees from his cupboard. He used keep the cupboard keys under his pillow. Whenever he would reach the keys we would gather around the cupboard wide eyed in anticipation to get our share of biscuits. The cupboard had peculiar smell of naphthalene balls protecting my grandma’s saris from so many years mixed with different “attar”s (perfume) applied on them.

Sweet mango scent reminds me of my aajji (dad’s mother). We used to have large number of mango trees (at least a dozen of different varieties) in our farm. So the summer vacations were absolutely mango eating seasons. All the mangoes had different ripe time so there would be new mango variety coming home every fortnight. We had one room specially reserved for the mangos called “Ambyachi Kholi”. They would spread layer of dried straws on the floor and then layer of mangos and then another layer of straws on top of it. Every morning aajji would pick out ready to eat mangos in a bucket for us to eat another bucket for making “aamras”. Our days would start with mangoes and end with mangoes. We were allowed only peep inside the room. It had sweet mango scent mixed with the grass smell. I can still vividly remember my aajji sitting in that dark room and picking up sweetest mangoes for us.

The cabbage sabji smell reminds me of my hostel mess. For some reason our mess cook was in love with cabbage. So we were tortured with the sabji in every other meal. It used be only boiled vegetable with bare minimum masalas and a weird smell. It was utterly unbearable for me. We have skipped amny meals due to that sabji. And I still can’t eat cabbage.

… And the smell of detol, lifebuoy soap, hospital, cigarettes … all of them remind me of my dad. My dad was one totally dedicated (freak) doctor. His shirt would smell of hundred different things… lifebuoy soap he would wash hands with every time he examines a patient (hands would include the shirt sleeves too :-) ), detol used in operation theatre (though my mom claims that doctors are the most unhygienic people on earth), some blood spots here and there while delivering a cute baby (should I say babies) … and smoke of cigarettes, he would always find time for in his busy schedule. My sister and I would always tease him for wearing such smelly cloths I absolutely hated the hospital smell for some reason. I would never go inside unless I had some urgent to talk to him.
Now whenever I go to any hospital … all I can think of is seeing dad scolding some for something at the top of his voice, frown on his face for seeing me there (yeah, he seldom liked disturbance in his work), hurrying towards the operation theatre or delivery room, comforting the lady in labor or taking round in the ward and talking to patients like they have decades of friendship …

Hmmm… "smelly" memories isn’t it ? :-) :-) :-)

Its Mumbai again

Serial blasts, ripped train compartments, deaths, cries, chaos, flesh, blood, bodies ...
It happened again...

City is scarred but not stopped. We will never stop.

But ... how long? How many more lives do we have to sacrifice?

Why us GOD... why us !!!

Current mood: Speechless

Why should I reduce?

I have been getting lots and lots of advise about why should I be getting in shape

My friend (Guy): "You know Ashley, wavelength matching and all are bookish and imaginary things. These days guys go for looks first and then see anything else. You have everything but shape. You should do something if you really want to get married to a "good" guy"

My Friend(Gal): "Yaar Ashley, If you reduce a little bit, you will look very good"

Mom:"Dear, if you don't start taking care of yourself right now, you will have problems at later stage of life. I don't want you to get affected by diseases like hypertension or diabetes"

Salesgirl:[Loudly]"I am sorry M'am, we don't have this dress in you size"([To herself]Get life girl !!! what do you think of yourself, Aishwarya Rai ???)

Conclusion: I am getting too much obsessed with cloths so I must get in shape :D :D :D

My career options

All these days I have been cribbing about my job and all the stuff. I am fed up with working on stupid stuff and most importantly working with so-called super performers who think they know everything in the world and take great pleasure in showing off how-great-I-am even when they don't have mere talking manners.
Anyways ...

So finally I have decided to stop cribbing and start looking for other options.
... And Bingo !!! I found various options right in my drawing room.

I see a loot of options for me in the daily Hindi soaps (Yeah I HAVE to watch them with my roomies :((( )

* Actor
- I think this is the best options. I don't need to act well or even look good. I should just be able speak up my dialogues in some tone. It’s ok if my face looks same in happy and sad times. I will get to wear most costly costumes no matter what my age, monetary status or social status is. If I am the main character, everyone will think I look good. I will always win contracts (nature of business doesn't matter), competitions, and people’s heart etc. No matter if I get married 3-4 times, kill people or do frauds and I will still be considered sati-savitri. If I wish to take a break from the series or check how popular my character is or I am fed up with my character, I can safely let the character die. I can come back as myself or some other “humshakal” of myself (depending on my interest :D ). I can safely romance a 70 yr old(he won’t look any older than his son) and have children of my age with out any pains.

* Story/Script writer
- I don't need to torture my brain cells much in this profession. All I would have to do is mix and match certain set of events like never letting the hero and heroine marry each other in first attempt; always create confusions and misunderstanding between main characters(doesn't matter if the situations look stupid and obvious), they should marry at least 4-5 times, to different people; all my characters should do some business, win/loose contracts, should get salary on first day of their job, there should be atleast 2-3 deaths and comebacks, couple of humshakals, 20 years jumps, grand shaadis, few festivals here and there (no matter what festival they are celebrating … everything looks the same). Oh yeah how can I forget khandaan ki izzat, paramparan, saans-bahu, maan-samnmaan etc etc.
I can create as many relations as I want. Every house should have at least 15-20 people. I should always disclose suspense on Fridays (or whichever is last episode of the week). To help viewers who have missed few of the episodes, my characters should have attacks of recalling previous events. Oh yeah my characters should always promote other soaps of my producer and his (her) movies.

* Music composer
- I can get away with only few pieces of music for whole 5-6 year series for more than one soap… like dhan-tan-dhan ot dhish..dhish..dhish for some sensational scene, some sad music, couple scores for vamp characters, chanting of any Sanskrit shloka (I can use same recording for any occasion from birth to death). If needed I can use songs from my producers movies, directly or adding some custom lyrics to them to add some personal touch

* Cameraman/ editor
- I need to aware of few things. Flashing camera at least 3 times in some serious scene (should match with the music speed though), running around a character in slow and fast speed, always take close up shots of face. If I want to be more creative I can swing the camera once in while in 2-3 directions to get more dramatic effect. I should always keep handy my previous episode recording to insert the recall scenes (which are very often)

* Make up Artist/ Dress designer
- “Put as much make up material on every face as I can”. This is the basic thing I need to learn. Bright is always better. Costume color and Jewelry color need not match. Guys can wear whatever they want( Any shirt-pant normally, kurta-pajama for functions and festivals). All the ladies should be given expensive designer saris. Vamps must wear designer bindis (designer = any art you can make on their forehead) and have ugly hairdo. We can make a person look old by adding a stroke or two of white color to his/her hair.

* Set designer
- All the houses look same in All the soaps. They have to have lot of frames on the wall (even in a zopri). Again monetary status of the owner does not matter. Just need to add some floweres and duppattas here and there for any festival.

* Director
- I don’t have to do anything :D

* Last but not the least Glycerin supplier
- None cries more than the soap actors so they must be needing constant supply of glycerin :D.

Bottomline:- I need another TV for myself or TV tuner card for laptop (yeah I have bought a 17" screen mammoth baby) or at least internet connection so that I can watch some “human” programs :D. (cause I think all the folks in Hindi Soaps are "Super humans" )

It’s been long since I have written anything. Thanks to my laziness off course and yeah I had the US trip as excuse :-). Well well well... now I am back and jumping again ;-).

Life is getting hectic...traveling in BMTC buses in rush hours is worse that traveling by Mumbai locals (on central line in peak hours). Though it is definitely better than traveling on Hosur road in comfortable company bus (yeah my office is shifted to a city location now :) )
I am half dead till I reach home... Don't feel like cooking or even eating something. I need to change my eating habits and start working out otherwise it won't take long before I fall sick. And most important... I NEED a two wheeler.

I want to write about so many things but these days I just don't have the energy to do anything. I need rest... I desperately need it. I had hoped this 2 months break will help me sorting out the complications I have created for myself but it seems they are just as it is. I donno why do I have affinity towards stupid things. As they say "To err is human and to repeat it is stupid". It applies to me perfectly :-). I want to be like Miranda Hobbs in "Sex and the City", strong and confident. I have been watching that series regularly and I think none can captures mentality of single and independent women better than that.

After coming back, I had been to home for a week. I was sleeping all the time as usual. Only good thing I did was going to school. I have been planning it since long but finally did it this time. My school has special place in my heart. Once upon a time it was supposed to be the best school in area and not just for education but for the extra-curricular activities. It was due to different activities taken up there that I could develop my debating skills, interests in general knowledge and sketching. To be honest, it is really difficult to pursue these things in the area where I come from because people think sole aim of sending their children to school is to enable them to score good marks and send them to engineering and medical colleges. It’s the best example of sorry state of today’s education system. There is no concept of acquiring knowledge or overall development of a child. And even many teachers encourage such behavior because all they want good statistics for their school or classes.
I wish to change that situation. I know it is not going to happen overnight but at least it has to start somewhere. Students as well as parents need to be educated about various career options available. And that these are as good as engineering and medical professions. I want to tell them that there are many books in the world other just the text books which give us more knowledge. These are one of the brightest students of their generation and I am sure they will excel in not only studies but different parts of life if given chance and proper guidance.
I awe a lot to my school and I want to try to return at least small part of it.