Right-Sized

Of.. Mice and men.. In this rat race they ran..
The winner stood wondering.. What now??

Of luck and such.. She warned them
It's not what can you do.. But can't?

The running is consistent.. The force is full..
The direction keeps changing.. It's a zero sum game..

I used to have dreams once.. Of glory and greatness..
Now I wonder :)

Madam Manic

You're pretty pretty on most of the days
Very pretty on rest of the days..
I wonder how good you look today.

You're a girl every man wud need
You're a girl.. No man can afford to keep
At 3 am.. Can I watch you sleep??

Words loose meaning.. just your lips part
Worlds collide.. As your limbs part
Melted hot chocolate & a sizzling heart!

Shimmer & shine of your painted lips
The self assured touch of your finger tips..

You're an intoxication best enjoyed.. In small.. little sips

Atlast.... Shrugged!

it was sometime.... in 05-06... when i had picked up atlas shrugged for the second time.... to read... after-all... how could i have left behind sucha important book on my way anyway...

and then... well... i quit... after 4oo pgs... but like... most hindi movies... this one has a happy ending...

this... starts with... sometime in 08... when i re-visited.. .the paperback i had purchased on the streets of kolkata.. in 07... cos it had the OLD art-work on the cover... 

me n my love for the old art-work on books... :)

after going through abt 25 pgs.. .the book started to fall apart... we can hardly blame the thing... it held it together for 25 odd yrs :)

so... we went to the corner-store and got a shiny new atlas shrugged... with the white color cover n all that...

for the next few months... we read 20 pgs a day... abt twice a week.. on the ride to work... when we weren't on the phone... and other such...

we took it with us... to abt half a dozen states... and alll such!

ppl mocked us all around... for nvr ever finishing it.. and it being the book of my life and what not!!

then there was the holiday to singapore.. .when i carried the thing with me.. . in hope that .. .thru the various flights and other such.. i'll read the damn thing...

as luck would have it..forgot it in the hotel in singapore....

thus ended the second copy of atlas shrugged... in my trivial pursuit!

then... on one of my trips to mumbai.... i pulled out another copy of atlas shrugged.. .that we had borrowed from her... in 05... that's after-all how we'd decided to start reading it... though i am not very sure.. if it was him or her... 

and over the next few weeks and a couple of months... finally finished the book....

after having managed to run thru the 1100 something pages... she tells me... vbv... over the lst yr... u must've... even forgotten... wht dagny's charachter had started as.....

she maybe right.... but i had... atlast shrugged :)

Breeze...

The conversations that happened.. 

Between the sheets on a Sunday morning .

The things that were left unsaid 

on a late Saturday night..

She called to say she wasn't ready for this.. 

He had been planing to pull the plug on her instead..

Cream color dreams in black & white
Seem vaguely familiar the morning after..

When the blue curtains of the morning sun parted..
The black sky and his hopes had vanished

Curling on empty air plane seats
He wishes his life away

finest way to start a day!

so... i woke up this morning... to read this story in the news!

and i must say... there are all sorts of things... life prepares one for... but not some brilliant surprises of this kind :)

after reading this... someone told me... how kids have the absolut clarity and over the yrs and our complications... we end up losing sight of things we really want.. and would cherish!

not sure... if we were better decision makers then or now... but this surely... is a good read!

State of mind...

so... tmrw... i will visit... the 20th state of India... in my 26 yrs... so fascinating! sucha mile-stonE!

it'll be the first new state i will visit in 2009.... 

we happend to visit.... 6 new states in 2007 & 5 new ones in 2008.... its clearly been a good-couple of yrs! ;)

i've always been fascinated about travelling within India... exploring the various states and other such... which is why... i decided to keep a tab on how many of them are there... and how many v've covered... turns out... 28 states & 7 ut's.... so out of this list of 35... we're on 20 already :)

maybe... it surprises you.. to find this... so fascinating... but for a boy... brought up in mumbai.. .with a bi-annual vacation to north-india... suddenly going out... and seeing the rest of india suddenly is just.... sucha RUSH!

it is just... something which gives me sucha high... to be a person... who's atleast visited these places... for a short-while even... maybe just one city... maybe just one night? but... still i have seen.. more than half of our states... :)

i feel great pride about the whole deal! 

in the 15 odd which are still left... 6 of them are very important... which will be planned for .... in the coming yr.... after-all... how else can we discover ourselves... but thru travel :)

cheers to another train ride!

Jharkhand calling!

all's well... that ends well!

so... the year that was .. 2008...



one too many count-downs and recollections have already obviously been done... since we're already in 2009...



but i think.. we can start with.. diwali of 2007... when we crashed our car and survived...

that.. was quite the turning point... cos i got out scratch-less... and it meant i never bought that car in kolkata which i was supposed to... then came the new yr in delhi...

the impulsive surprise @ roxy!

the long, dreary baroda....

another change of guard... the launch of chad valley... and the possibilities.. which still remain un-utilized! so... actually.. with chad valley... this was one of my biggest years in sometime!

then... the first formula 1... and the lap of luxury holiday that followed!

the diwali surprise... that was SO un-expected...

and then... well... not to forget... the first time we lived on our own... the maid... the house...

the first time in life.. i entertained my folks at *my home*

the first time i entertained my brother and lotsa friends also!

god i love my friends... what would i ever do without them?

and then... half-drunk knight! my most precious addition of 08! how much i shall miss him next yr... sigh!

and well... like the theme says.. all's well that end's well.. thru the most dramatic... most travelled... and i think most "lived" year of my life... the last 15 days were some bloody good parties... in amar sonar bangla!

the last 2 days ofcourse... were the best imaginable!

the 30th night... with those stupid boys.. after 5 bloody long yrs... 3... if u r from fukudus domain!

and then... the chilled out 31st at home... let us see... what tomorrow brings!