Jaipur Trip

I was feeling a bit disturbed and decided to go to some place to rejuvenate myself. Friday passed in all kind of arrangements. Cab, hotel, must see places and above all a group which can maintain harmony throughout the trip. Now next 2 days were going to be fun.

Trip started from 11:30 PM. I am sure that we had at least 3 dissatisfied souls out of four who were badly in need of changing their mood. How can I forget the first struggle to get a digicam from one of our colleague. I drove almost 15 kms and asked around 10 guys before that to get one camera. So you can see how tough was this trip to start with. 4 technocrats earning a decent sum of money every month did not have one single camera amongst them. A big relief came after we got that camera and came to know that our cab had a TFT screen with a stereo which supports USB. Thankfully this was something which brought a smile to our face. We started and took a record time of 8 hours to reach Jaipur. Not to mention that we slept very little and next morning our backbones were struggling to keep them normal. After this we started searching our hotel. On the way we came across those funny red lights of Jaipur where you can see the next few lights standing at one light and one of us passed a comment that these guys used to put a red light every time some big topnotch guys was annoyed with the system. One uncleji introduced us with a word called "puliya se takkar marna" while explaining the way to our hotel. Finally we reached our hotel and slept for next 4 hours to recharge our batteries.

Then we moved to Hawa Mahel and Jal Mahal and clicked some snaps. Both girls had an umbrella of purple color to protect them from sunlight and one of it was a branded one. The brand was "Jhakas Umbrella". So we all had started enjoying the trip by now. After these two mahels we moved to chokhi dhani. It seemed that whole NCR was there to enjoy the weekend. We had also a nostalgic creature amongst us who gets insane after looking at a vehicle with PB(stands for Punjab) or CH(for Chandigarh) number. We have seen that few hundred times and managed to get some more glimpses of that. So now we were inside the premises. We were welcomed by a sweet little girl who had put tilak on our foreheads. We were inside a virtual village of Rajasthan. Child inside all of us had woken up by now. We did all those things we used to do or always wanted to do. Some of it includes watching a magic show, puppet show,folk dance, riding on camel and elephants and playing those small games which includes shooting, putting rings on some articles and what not. Thing which we enjoyed the most was riding on elephant. Credit goes to the huge crowd. We waited for almost an hour before riding on his back and then we saw turning of an elephant into an horse. Mahavat managed to do that. We felt like we will fall off any moment. After this ride I felt as if I am wearing off a shirt which I have taken outside from a ghada(earthen pot). Thanks to our nostalgic punjabi female's hands on my shirt to protect herself. My shirt was crying to keep itself free from those wrinkles but could not do so.

Oh I forgot to mention that before this we had a maalish session. Those rajasthani were doing an awesome job. Second female from our group also went ahead for that experience with me. A cute foreigner was also there for the same. All guys around that area were feeling envious of those rajasthani guys. I am sure that some of them may have decided to pursue a career in massage after that show.

After this we proceeded towards other area of chokhi dhani complex which was called by them as village, jungle and gufa(cave). That cave had an statue of a ascetic who faced severe difficulty in maintaining his austerity. These girls started playing Menaka and Urvashi with his statue. I wonder what they may have done had Vishwamitra himself be present there.

After this came the scary surprise for these girls. We were into tribal area and those guys were awesome in doing their job. These two ladies felt like they will be attacked and beaten to death when he scared them.

After all this fun we proceeded towards dinner. At that table we were missing Kumbhkaran. They had hell lot of items and magnanimous gesture of serving food. These guys for sure knew how to do homicide. Finally first day end with a wonderful experience and pleasant memories. We came back to our hotel. How can I forget our driver. He had all the qualities which doesn't fit onto a driver and most prominent of that was forgetting the roads. He did a wonderful job on our whole trip and made sure that we enjoy his stereo system to the fullest.

Second day started now. We went to Aamer fort first. That place was wonderful. What I can't forget is that they had a signboard which said that fort had 99 toilets. The peculiarity of those toilets was that 2 or 3 of them were together. I started imagining the early morning gossips of queens while relieving them(just as we see in old villages where people go to farm and talk about everything while doing this. A strange idea just struck me. Generally we ask someone for coffee when we want to discuss something. Imagine how would you feel if someone asks you to go to toilet to discuss something. Looks weird..eh!!;)). So this quila was also a great experience. We had lots of foreigners over there and we managed to get ourselves clicked from one of them always. For once we managed to get ourselves clicked from a potential momentary lover of one of the girl in group. That guy was chasing us from a long time and I took advantage of that.:D

Somewhere in between we visited city palace has all the arms and ammunition of that time. It was a great experience. We clicked at those places where we were not supposed to do so. Finally from Aamer we moved towards Jaigarh where they have put the biggest canon of the world. That canon was of 50 tonnes and have been used only once and that too for testing purpose only. We were done with these places.

How can I forget out beautiful journey to discover ghosts. One lady from our group had a talk to her younger brother who is quite fond of haunted places. We came across Bhangarh. This place was discovered by Discovery Channel and considered to be one of 10 most haunted places of the world. This place is protected from Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)but those guys also didn't dare to open an office in its campus. It is said that this place is cursed and whoever goes there after dark will not come back. A story goes which says that this place has spirits of a king, queen, a female servant and one black monkey. That place was scary for sure but the journey to that place is unforgettable. This lady has watched Ramsay brother a lot for sure in her childhood. She told us too many stories about that place and we also started believing in ghosts in that short span of 2 hours(journey time to that place). Funniest part of this was reading Hanuman Chalisa loudly before entering that place. The other female member had some internal problem by this time. She started to leak more than what she had taken in the whole day. Ghost did have some effect for sure. This place had all the building without a roof and temples without any statue of god/goddess. I managed to scare our Ramsay Lover by putting her behind a bar at the temple. I think I listened to one of the most thrilling voice in my life at that time. That place had banyan trees of strange shapes and hell lot of black monkeys. We were able to hear strange voices of a number of animals. This Ramsay lady started making some more stories. There was a place with good amount of ashes. This lady assumed that the place was by some Tantrik for his tantrasadhna. On top of this she managed to see some worn out clothes and she made a story that tantrik must be killing some men nights. Well she finally managed to scare all of us a bit and we did not have enough courage left to be there till sunset. We left that place back to see Jaipur and it's magnificent Rajmandir theatre. These new multiplexes in metros should learn from that place. I think you may not have noticed one thing. this trip had 4 persons and I have written only about me and two females. There was one more guy who manages to enjoy in what others do. Actually he was missing one bakra on our trip. Rest of the story be better kept with all those who had gone to that trip. After this one beautiful journey had probably come to an end. We had dinner and then a long way back to Delhi for everyday worries and politics which we face. One more incident was there which is worth mentioning. Our benchmark driver had a bottle by his side which was actually shampoo dissolved in water for cleaning purpose. Yours truly was so lost in talks that he had a big gulp of that water. We surely know one more use of shampoo now. For next half an hour I felt like something is stirring in my neck and cleaning all things. After that I saw bodies lying on the back seat without any movement. No, they were not ghosts, they were these guys lost in their sleep. I had to keep my eyes open and talk to that folk all silly things like Xylo is better, 4 wheel drive and what not to keep him alive. Actually we all had our office next day and we couldn't afford to miss that. Now we were back to square one. We were back to all those problems which we left 2 days back But as someone has rightly said,"Everything is ok in the end. If it's not ok. it's not the end". All of us are waiting for that Happys Endings.

Science without a religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.

This famous line by Albert Einstein has been a point of discussion since long. The primary reason for the debate between science and religion is that people see them as incompatible. However I personally feel that science and religion can operate in different realms. "Science is very good at answering the 'how' questions e.g. “How did the universe evolve to the form that we see?” But it is inadequate in addressing the 'why' questions e.g. “Why is there a universe at all?” These are the meaning questions, which many people think religion is particularly good at dealing with.

According to surveys some of history's greatest scientific minds, including Albert Einstein, were convinced there is intelligent life behind the universe. Today many scientists say there is no conflict between their faith and their work.

Moreover, only one out of four Americans believes life on earth today has evolved through natural selection as explained by Charles Darwin. Just under half of all Americans believe the natural world was created in its present form by God in six days as described in Genesis. They believe, incredibly, that the earth is only a few thousand years old. According to the creationist view, God produced humans fully formed, with no previous related species.

Even if we believe in Darwin’s theory we don’t have any proof that evolution is not God's tool? Darwin never said anything about God. The belief in god further strengthens when we face calamities like Tsunami. We are afraid of nature’s forces because we have faced dire consequences in the past and we attribute this to God because we don’t have any explanation. .

Apart from this we have many other questions which can only be answered by the belief in existence of god. Some of these questions can be: Who set the Sun in its location? Who set our planet earth at an appropriate distance from the Sun? Who tuned our body systems to the temperature, pressure and oxygen concentration on planet earth? Who adjusted our body systems to function in tune with the sun and the moon?

Somewhere along the process of the so called civilization, we have ceased to contemplate on the awe and splendor of creation with a sense of wonder. We have no time to stand and stare at the stars. We have no time to reflect on the amazing planning and anticipation in creation. Consider the unique inimitable pump, the human heart. All the ingredients necessary for the human heart were anticipated and provided in the design of the heart of the fish which appeared about 500 million years before man appeared. Is this a coincidence? Isn't it proof of anticipation and planning by a supreme intellect? We are thrilled by fireworks at festivals. But did the Big Bang explode without any planning? What were the ingredients for the Bang? Who lit the Big Bang? Who grouped the billions of stars into millions of galaxies?

There is, of course, no way to prove religious faith scientifically but neither can we deny the existence of god. This statement is true in its sense and we should put our energy in other constructive things which can prove fruitful to the society and human beings as a whole. Together we can make this planet a better place to live for all of us.

Kasauli Trip: A weekend in the lap of nature

We are youth of India who belong to biggest fraternity of working professionals. It's called technocrats. Guys and gals in branded denims and t-shirts, coming in cars and facing hell lot of cacophony each day. Sometimes they are culprit of causing this and sometimes victim. Then there is another face of coin. A place which is largely untouched by civilization, pleasant weather, greenery everywhere. No, I am not talking of heaven...this place is called Kasauli. It's just 60-70 kms far from Shimla. One can feel the clouds coming down like apsara(nymph) from heaven. You just want to grab it. I have never performed yoga but I am sure that sitting around those mountains gave me a lot of calmness as compared to yoga. I was just away from everyday tension. It was just that moment which I was living. A perfect weekend on which you just live each and every moment of your life. I remember an incidence when I was very tense and one of my friend suggested me that dont't think much about future and just live in present and focus on short term goals instead of long term. I would suggest: " Go to Kasauli dude!". Nothing better can happen if you are accompanied by friends. I was lucky for this. Laughing at every nonsense which we could do. I posed as statue, devta(as they call me) and what not. Only one word can describe it...AWESOME.

New face of English: Adjective getting changed to verb

"Hi Darling! How are you? What were you doing so late in the night?", a guy asked her girlfriend.

"I was thinking of you.", she replied.

Did anything sound awkward? No...

Lets have another one...I am sure we must have seen the advertisement of McDonalds. We see a statement finally when the ad is about to end. " I am loving it."

Something must have started strking your minds.Yes, I was trying to show you how english has changed in everyday usage. Thinking is still acceptable(at least dictionary.com says it) but what about loving. Is this a verb or adjective? Or are we grown so much that we forgot the difference of adjective and verb...I remember one more example of missed call...people very frequently say that give me a miss call and I will come outside...even I do it sometime....but is that a correct usage?? Think for a while.

I think this all must be sounding pedagogical but this is english...I remember one famous dialogue from an old movie...I am not sure how to write pronunciation but the crux of that thing was Dharmendra asking why is pronunciation of put not same as cut and but.

Procrastinators vs Those who do in time.

Well, I was thinking since long time to write something which is opposed to thoughts of crowd. I always wanted to justify something which seems to be wrong. It's a skill which is needed so that you can market yourself in this competitive world and here goes my attempt for the same.

Coming back to the topic. Obvious question which comes in our mind after reading this-which is better? If we look back to suggestions by elders and teachers we may argue that one should finish the task as soon as possible. But there is always an other side of the coin. We come across several instances in our life when we say, "Gosh! If I could know this earlier I wouldn't have done that.

So in a way procrastinating till last minute of the deadline is advantageous provided your task is not hindering others' task.

Some points which are in favor of procrastination are:

1. You don't end up doing last minute changes as you will be doing the task at eleventh hour and thus leave any such possibilities.
2. There might be chances that the task gets scrapped off after some time or just before deadline. In that case you will end up doing nothing and hence enjoy on your own for that particular time period. At the same time others will feel that you did something but reverted back because of these last minute changes.

So friends the decision is up to you. FORGET ADVICE OF ELDERS. BE A PROCRASTINATOR.

Note: This art is performed by experts. I will not be responsible for any harm due to failure in achieving this.

Human tendency to get money from the shortest path-Email Hoaxes

I think this is a human tendency to earn money by the shortest possible path. I remember my childhood days when I used to bet for 5 10 bucks with a dumb guy who almost lost every time when he had a bet with me. Later on with the emerge of Information technology and quick access to internet this thing took a global shape. Now you can find plenty of site which are claiming probably from the time of their inception for their visitor to be 999999th(or something like that). I also got fooled with this trick when I was in 10th standard but I feel really sad when a grown up person from a reputed institute or professionals from a reputed company do so. Almost after every few days probably each one of us, who are in a field which requires a lot of email sending and receiving, get email claiming to be from Bill Gates or to receive some lucky lottery or deletion of orkut account or something like that.

So friends this is a complete hoax. Don't waste your precious time forwarding these junks to your peers and friends. You are killing a lot of man hours. Let these man hours be spent on increasing the revenue of their respective company so that they can grow personally or personally. The impact on one person may be for few minutes but if you look for a big picture it is disastrous.

Even if you feel little puzzled there are plenty of sites available at net to show you the clear picture. One site which I know of is www.hoax-slayer.com. You can search as easily as we do google and get to know the truth.

Trust your own capabilities not luck. Losers depend on luck.

Aloha

Aim of life

This is the question which all of us encounter almost every now and then. Sometimes everyday sometimes even multiple times a day. So what's the ideal answer to this question? I am writing this blog on the basis of my conversation with few old friends when we gathered together at my place few weeks back. One of them said fame, one said money, one said I want to do something which I honestly wanted to achieve at one point of my life. There were others too who were aiming towards opening a company of their own and never wanted to regret when they look back in life. My answer was altogether a different one which must have brought a shock on their face. It was peace.

In the race of life sometimes we churn around ourselves so much that we forget what are we aiming towards. I will tell you a story. There was a man who was earning a lot and was settled in US. He was VP of a multinational and had around 1000 employees working under him. In short he had name, fame , money and power. Oh I forgot to mention that one person was aiming for power too. One day he slapped his 8 yr old son. In reply what he got was, " I will sue you. I will take you to the court." Not to mention that this man being an Indian was broken from deep within after hearing this from his child. He took his bag and baggage and returned to India very soon. So the question still remains the same? Does the necessity of life is really money or should it be peace. Think about it. Does leaving your parents for earning million of rupees really qualify
for that? Do you want the same from your children? I am not from an NGO who is fighting against Brain drain but truly speaking I still have some respect for my country not because it's the country where my parents and I were born. It's because the culture is mine and all my relatives are here. I don't want to die at a place where my next door neighbor just shrug his shoulder and say, "Oh! Poor old man." It's still a debatable topic and nobody is perfect and so do I, but guys give it a second thought and see if you are really aiming for a good thing or are you just lost in crowd.

Rest in Peace.