All That I Have Loved...

And all that I still love...

A list of all the loves that I have ever mentioned on this blog. Yea, in spite of 11 hours at work today, I am making this vella post. In fact, it is not just the 11 hours. It is an evening which goes down as one of my worst ever post which I am making this entry.

This is in reverse chronological order since the day this blog was started.
Dell
The song 'here without you' by 3 Doors Down
Macro economics
Biology
Marketing
Costa Coffee
Swetha
Ridhima
Sahil
Priyam
Robin
Gopika
Nidhi
Men with a scar on one of their eyebrows
Friends I don't mention to that I love them
Sumit
Loving 'Vague Thoughts'
Vague thoughts
Radio
Ranjan
Ruhi
Ritesh
Vrinda
Ma
Pa
Bhaiya
Leg room in Air India aircraft
Akshay Kumar
The way Nandita Das, Konkana Sen Sharma, Deepti Naval, Smita Patil look
Radio Mirchi for the character Sud that they created
John Stamos
A clean, white sheet of paper
My school
Delhi
NDTV and their anchors
NDMC
Myself
My freedom
Mansi
My 'I love bullets' posts
Chandigarh
The song 'khoya khoya chand' from the movie with the same title (the new one)
CAT maths prep books
The opportunity to give love
NDMC-maintained roads
Loud music
My gym
Abhishek Bachchan
More than one hairdos I've sported in the past
Photography
Flickr
The treadmill
Lynn
Avantika
RJ Nitin's voice
The way Nitin says 'god bless'
Nitin himself :P
My concentration level when I work under tight, pressure deadlines
Amit Paul, an Indian Idol finalist of the past
Wills Lifestyle
Dogs
Flowers
Green
Blogging
Neha
The aunty who used to have a canteen in the same building as WW for stocking Melody toffees
Being behind the camera
And being in front of the camera too
Ruhi Rai
Tarun
Parul
Yoda
Chhotu
Karan
Rohit
Sayan di
Every day spent with the above two
Ruchi
Varun
Poonam
'Puppets and Paupers' by Menwhopause
My nose piercing and the lowermost in both my ears
Silver
Rajiv Jha's micro economics classes
The musical gardens at Rashtrapati Bhavan
Lillies (at Rashtrapati Bhavan AND in general) :-)
Sarcasm-filled words
Prashant
OP Naiyyar's music
The commands that I used to give to my house's marching squad as captain in school during practice sessions for the sports day
Papaji
Meeting new people
Green Day, the band


I am surprised that I never wrote that I love my camera too. And that I love talking on the phone. My Nike perfume too. Travelling. Iced tea. Earl Gray tea too. Grey's Anatomy. Patrick Dempsey. Maggi. Meetha. Shopping for clothes and silver. And men who smell good. Oh, I know why I never mentioned that last one. ;-)

Did I forget anything else too?

Quite evidently, the list ranges from frivolous loves to 'to die for' loves. But that's me. To quote myself: I am obsessed with the things and people that I love, and that is how I love. :)

Road Trip to Chandigarh

A trip to Chandigarh with family was on the cards for a while now. On Saturday we finally decided that the Sunday must be utilised. To meet the people mentioned here. The drive up north is nothing like the one I made through the UP highways earlier this month. NH 1, 22 and then 21... smooooth it was! Here I also take a moment to thank the people who were behind the completion of the Panipat flyover. Somebody should really bless those souls. That patch used to take a minimum of one hour. Now you don't even get to know when you cross Panipat.
We had left our place at 6:00 am, had our breakfast at one of the dhabas after Karnal, and were at our destination by 11:00 am. My brother believes we lost a minimum of a half hour each way because the driver was too scared to push beyond 90 kmph. And seriously... at one point a merc overtook us from the left while we were at 90ish, and it didn't just overtake, it whooshed past. Must be at least at 140-150 kmph.
Buji and phuphaji were the happiest to see yours truly. Well, to see her whole family to be honest, but of course, I'm even more special now that I reside too far. :P
The two recently became great grandparents. They were delighted to talk about the little baby girl who is actually the first girl in their immediate family.

A nice, elaborate lunch, lots of talks, heat switching to nice rain, and it was time to move back home. The drive was obviously tiring. Dust storm was going crrazy too.

But oh, I have to mention this: I realised that the Volvo drivers' way of honking is very different from that of the Haryana Roadways guys. I mean, I always knew it, but it got registered strong this time. I can now differentiate without having to look. :) And while I am on this topic, I should also mention something that I forgot to write about in the Rishikesh travelogue. During the first traffic jam on our way back, there were a lot of trucks around. We were talking and listening to music when we suddenly heard a LOUD nagin theme music playing somewhere. It took us a moment to figure where it was originating from. It was a truck's horn. The driver did it so flawlessly that we were plain amazed. It was incredible! Talent in the truest sense of the word.

Back to NH 1. I was way too disappointed when I stopped the car to click some massive sunflower fields because all the flowers had turned the other way at that hour. And there were too many bees for me to go too far into the fields for a frame or two. :(

During the entire journey, Pa gave rest to real estate, insurance, relatives, and the works, and went on a trip to his childhood and the farmlands of yesteryears. Some stories I had heard earlier, and many were new too.

The perfectly smooth drive back home got fucked when the driver turned towards Rohini instead of ISBT from Azadpur. Annoying traffic. Lots of it. :|

Still managed to be back by 9:00 pm. Had a yumm day. Monday morning told me that it wasn't that yumm for my back. But whatever. I was happy to have met my favourite people. :-)

...

Every now and then the thought 'death' crosses my mind. It's always vague. I cannot explain it, but obviously, it's an uncomfortable feeling. But with time I figured that every time it happens, it signifies a change of sorts in life. Since Friday afternoon it hit me quite a few times. It bothered me a little, but I thought it would pass as it always does. It did. I don't know how to word this... but today I found out that Siddhartha is no more. He wasn't the closest friend, but I had known him for nine years. In fact, he is one of the first few people I called after getting to Delhi this time. We were supposed to meet.
I hope he finds some peace up there at least. And his family finds some strength.

Happy to me of sorts!

I just happened to read posts written in 2007 and realised that 'Aarbee' was born almost exactly two years ago. :-)

This is why you capture moments

The weekend's not started on a very happy note. Therefore, my usual set of happy pictures (of a recent past) compiled and uploaded here.

At the peak of boredom

Wrote this while being jobless at work today....

I do not have work. I have not had much work in more than a week now. Having asked around for work, some work, any kind of work, innumerable times without any success, today I want to cry because frustration is killing me.

I hear the word positioning. Target audience followed it. It makes me miss VVR Sastry and his 6-hour long marketing lectures. Not that I ever disliked them, but my boredom is making me miss him like I missed my first crush when he left the school (in the era when teenagers did not own mobile phones to bombard each others’ inboxes with SMSs). Never mind the exaggeration.

The deal is that in our make-believe corporate world back in college, we are all CEOs and VPs - marketing. That is the reason why I enjoyed working on all sorts of case studies and presentations. Sadly enough, this is the real world. VPs are still making the presentations with all the interesting information. I am the intern. I should do the leg work. Nah, don’t really mind it because I know this is the real world. But I am not even getting the leg work!!!

I wish this office was pretty. I would have started bringing my camera to kill time. Unfortunately, I do not see any opportunities to enjoy doing that. But for your information, I am getting my Canon 75-300 tomorrow. Exciting. Uncontrollable, impatient excitement. Do you have any idea what it means? I have lived without zoom for an entire year. Oh man! I think I will stop looking for a prospective boyfriend once I lay my hands on this lens. Ah!

CNBC in the background has Raghav Bahl talking of Forbes’ launch in India. I remember the day I was discussing with Jayant how business journalism’s scope, and the money involved in it will go through the roof in India very soon. That was when I almost became a business journalist with Businessworld. Time!

People around me are highly frustrated too. As usual, IT issues are screwing their happiness. I say as usual because I remember we (old colleagues and I) used to go insane handling our massive Excel files in Watson Wyatt because IT support was never any support in solving issues. I can’t forget the day when an IT guy there told me in a tone that was funny to him that I’m stupid to expect my system to work well if I have macros enabled on 10 Excel files in one go. Here the IT guys ask people to not expect the internet to download annual reports or attachments in excess of 3MB on their Outlook. Ouch.

So you see, I am jobless enough to go back to 2007 and pick such a random incident and write about it here.

My neighbour’s desktop has a fancy wallpaper of a car. I think it’s a Porsche. On second thought, it is not that fancy. I can click a better picture of the car in a better location and make it look better. But since nobody is asking me to do that, we shall let this be.

The one sitting next to him has some Arsenal players’ picture on his desktop. This office collectively supports Arsenal. My brother should be happy.

Fish! It is still only 3:00 p.m. I have at least three more hours to kill. My MiG is out of fuel. :-/

The Week That Was

Oh, it's been a week already since I last wrote. My MiG's somersaulting in the sky.

What happened since last Thursday?

Delhi got more humid.
I saw blood.
The creep admitted he is a chauvinist. Not in that many words, duh.
I extracted the last drop of perfume from the bottle.
I met Akash, Michelle, Deepak and Rohit.
I also left my sunglasses at Akash's place.
Visited a fancy library in South Ex.
I had a Sub.
Also met nanu, nani and Daksh.
Lived through insane voltage fluctuations.
Went through my school scrapbooks.
Had Swetha over for a night.
Had lots of ice-cream.
Somebody asked me out. :P
Saw LOADS of UPA in the papers.
Watched Delhi Daredevils lose a game. :-/
And there was lotsa laziness. :)

The Wednesday Mood

I'm in a better mood today. So I shall amend yesterday's thought to some men.

Happy things in the day so far:
Fun accessories.
Happy comments on my pictures.
The creep is not in office for a few hours. Peace.
I have found some people to talk to at work. Took almost a month.
We're half-way through the week. Weekend's close.

Shall add to this as the day progresses. Even if not, I'm registering the happy mood here. :-)

Thought of the day

Men disgust me. At work. On the streets. AND in personal life.

They're selfish bastards, assholes, chauvinists, retards. God knows why they think the world of themselves when they were not even born with basic sense. Fuckin' burdens on woman-kind! Yes, they DISGUST ME!

Don't come in your defense in my comments space. I bite.

Did I forget to mention that half of them have emotional capacity the size of a peanut? Rest of them think they're superman and the corporate world will collapse without them. Bastards!

Dell rocks!

I bought a Dell laptop last summer. It is still under its 1-year warranty. But this warranty is limited to basic issues, and not for any damage done to the hardware. You need to pay extra at the time of purchase for that cover. I never felt the need for it, and so did not buy it. But like I mentioned here before, I'd broken a key off the keypad, and I did need assistance for it.
When I first wrote to them, they told what the process is, and the best they could do is send me a quotation for replacement of the keypad. I insisted for the repair under my existing warranty. Insisting here means writing back: "I expect this repair to be made under the warranty provided to me. Because if you are telling me that Dell products are this useless, I think it puts serious questions on the quality you people deliver". They wrote back saying that I should expect a call from their logistics team soon for fixing up of a convenient time for the engineer to visit and replace my keypad. 24 hours, and I have a new keypad. Moi is happy. Very very happy. For the first time I saw customer relationship management the way Kotler and the others talk of it.
I know I was a little unreasonable in this case. But they did not even put forth an argument. They just obliged. I love them. I really do. I could marry Dell if it were a man.

Economics, 501, and US

I've been in Delhi for three weeks now. Finally met Tarun today. He is one person I can talk endlessly with. Best of conversations in the last fours years have been with this 'unemotional' nerd. Have also managed to maintain a long distance friendship going weeks without talking.
Each time we've met after completing college has left me with a happy feeling inside. (Of course, that is in retrospect, I am just registering it here.)
He is moving to Bangalore this July. Our long distance will be more difficult after that. But I am not thinking of anything negative right now.
For now, just making myself happier by writing about him here. :-)


Permanent bone of contention: His hairdos and my health.

An absolutely incredible thing happened today: This guy, who totally hates walking, ended up taking a walk for close to a kilometre with me today. :D

Youth for Equality

"Monday, May 22, 2006

We just need to come together

I watched the second half of RDB yesterday, again. The scenes of the movie were unbelievably similar to what we've been witnessing for a while now. And it pained my heart to watch it.

Today, in the afternoon, Ruhi came over after she received the following sms:

As a mark of protest against reservation proposed by the UPA government please join in and shut your lights off for 10 minutes tonight at 8pm.

It is a shame that the politicians are celebrating their two years, while students are collapsing due to hunger strike.

--YOUTH FOR EQUALITY

She had an idea in mind. She suggested we make posters and put them up in our block. I thought we can take out prints instead and distribute them in all the houses.
I had class in the afternoon so we got down to work as soon as I got back. It took an hour and we had spread the word. 87 houses to be precise. There were people who personally told us that they support us.
At 8 pm, we were just hoping that our effort doesn't go waste. And what we saw then was amazing. It was almost like a black out. People had switched off all the lights of their houses and they were all outside.
It was an overwhelming moment. I always knew that if you try you can achieve anything. But I don't think I ever did something like this before. I did not know that there could be such a spirit even in the people who do not directly have anything to do with the issue. They were all strangers who came forward and supported us.

Some people suggested us to just ask the security guards to distribute the circulars but I think both of us felt that it was our responsibility and so we can do it ourselves. Sure it was tiring climbing up and down so many stairs but we had no reason to complain. Our fellow students have been hungry for a week.

Now I'm really keen on doing something more. I know we have support. I'd like to do something on a larger scale. Let's see what!

The same story - a different narration

Sister power!

At our second pit stop

Vaishali Vaishnav dhaba

Priya, Avan, me, Samridhi, and Nidhi

It's a bad shot. I know. But I saw the glasses and was reminded of the one and only chai ki dukaan I know of.

Priya talking of Congress and BJP

The doggu throwing tantrums


Our camp site

Education for all!

The sad waterfall for which we trekked

And the breaks to catch a breath were utilised for posing

After a LOT of drama, Avan, Shagun and I entered this chilly pool of water. It was funnn! :D

There was no looking back for Avan. She did not mind the weird, ugly men around her either.

Nobody enjoyed water as much as Priya did during the entire trip

When I tried to run away with her cigarettes

Everytime I ask a group of people to stand together for my camera, invariably I get an Angels pose

The camps in the evening

The dry pits :|

The Watson Wyatt girls after dinner :P

Shagun, Avan, and the noorie in them

The hardcore journalist and the super-passionate golfer

Siblings of a kind

Avan at play

Avan's fluke with my camera :P

There was a big whirlpool right in front of our tents. The river was scary.

While we waited for our breakfast and our raft

Chhoti. And the group in the background which also had a Richa, Avan, Shagun and a Chhoti. :)

Finally!

There goes Priya leaving the raft behind. Samridhi's enjoying the cold water too!

:P Water went up my nose.

Can you spot Priya?

Ten minutes before this, Avan was threatening the guide to pull her up lest her mom will kill him

The final pose

The fresh lime soda we had here could give the best of places a run for their money

Poor owners of this house had to write that their rooms were not available for rent :)

The Ram Jhula

Our car and the driver at Cheetal on our way back

I will remember for life how sick the cheese sandwich there was


And by the end, the whole body had started hurting. Avan put on her shady glasses to give me a massage.

The U.K. closer to home

The first time I was offered a trip to Rishikesh was in 2005 by Prashant. It took close to four years for me to make it happen for myself; it took close to 23 years for me to make a leisure trip without parental guidance with base as Delhi; and the feeling.... :)... let's not try to word it.

And now that my attempts at bringing out drama in words is over, I shall register this past weekend here as nicely as I can.

The deal was that while I was still in Pune, I had decided that I would go to Rishikesh this summer when I am home. Two reasons for it: 1, I HAD to make ANY kind of trip during these two months. 2, the whole world goes to Rishikesh if they are around Delhi.. so there is no reason why I should be depriving myself of it. As far as the concept of adventure sport and my relationship with it, and the water-related phobias were concerned... we were going to deal with them when time came.
Initial plan - Subhadip would come down to Delhi and I would join him and his friends to Rishikesh. Did not work out.
Next up - 140 phone calls to the entire world keeping in mind a Labour Day off, a weekend when I do not have to work on college submissions, when I manage to not miss my parents wedding anniversary, and so on. Had to listen to a lot of reasons why people won't be able to make it. So gave up the idea. Then some people said they'd come. Started planning. More hurdles, gave up. Some ray of light... planning again. Then cancelled. And then we were on. We? Nidhi & Samridhi, my cousins. Avan & Priya from the good old Watson Wyatt. Shagun from Avan's college. And Amrit, our imaginary 2nd male in the group to maintain the balance everyone's parents would have been comfortable with. So, until 7:00 pm on the evening of 1st May, we were still dilly-dallying with our 'plan'. Avan and I literally went crazy trying to organise stuff. We drove Nidhi and Shagun crazy while they were at work the whole day too. But finally we sealed the deal and informed respective families of the next morning plan.
We were six [or seven ( as you like it)] of us on board an Innova on the morning of May 2nd, Saturday. This was after being instructed that we should not travel at night. We had also explored the option of unavailable train tickets. Road by car was our only practical option then. We had also made bookings at a camp for our stay, food, rafting and trekking/rappling during the 24 hours that we intended to spend there.

Now! Not that I can claim to have travelled much, but I think I like the idea of travelling the way Prashant and gang do it. Just the way I had made my Ajanta/Ellora trip. It's fun that way because it's not binding. Advance bookings and guides kill flexibility to quite an extent. But there were some valid reasons for having made bookings as well. A major one being that everything there was full since it is peak season. But we all agreed by the end of the trip that next time we'd stay in a hotel and do our own thing after getting there. Yes, everybody was happy with the experience and decided right there that there will certainly be a next time. Also, for people like me and Avan, dry pits are the least of exciting things no matter what you offer us to use them a second time in life.

Coming back to our Innova. Our driver was super nice - sweet and proper! Shagun, the only guy in the group ensured that we got the best driver. Shagun's presence in the group cannot be undermined because if it wasn't for him, my father (and Avan's, and Nidhi's and Samridhi's) might just have said no another time because an all girls group outing via UP is not their idea of fun.

Nidhi and Samridhi surprised me by being on time. Avan says she surprised herself by being on time too. So since everyone was being nice to me that morning by respecting time, we were able to move out of Delhi by 6:00 a.m.
First pit stop was at Bikanerwala after Meerut. Nobody ate much. Samridhi just got herself a single kaju ki barfi without which her trip to a sweet shop is incomplete. And Priya got herself a couple of more smokes. After that we managed to speed a littttle. Next pit stop was at a dhaba near Muzzafarnagar, I think. People needed chai. A doggu threw a few tantrums while Avan tried to be nice to him. Priya voiced her opinion of BJP and the Congress to surprise the other two WW girls a little. We never thought Priya cared a damn about politics. Nidhi and Samridhi crossed the road to pose and click by some chaara. Maybe they got some kick out of it. I am sure they did. :P I floated around.

It rained a little too on the way. Made things a little easier. A few more conversations, and were in Rishikesh by 1:00 p.m. Some more conversations, and were through with a not-nice lunch at the Iskcon wala restaurant. By 3:30 p.m., we were at our camp in Brahmpuri. At 3:40 p.m. we were informed that we'd go for a trek at 4:00. I went down to my camp to change and put on my shoes, and that's when the first 'adventure' happened. A scorpio-like thingi stung me. I promised Shagun that I would google that thing and put its correct name here because it wasn't a real scorpio (chhota bhai types), but I could not locate it. :| The chhota bhai was still large enough to freak me out and put me in pain too. I was told that they are not poisonous, so I can relax. I was brave. The trek was tiring and boring. It took us to a lame waterfall. But we played along, did our share of drama, and came back down by 6:30ish.

In the evening we played dumbcharades. After all sorts of calculations, we decided it was going to be the Bhardwajs vs the Others. :P And we beat 'em! I'm glad it wasn't Watson Wyatt girls vs the Others (as initially suggested) because Priya is one lame thing when it comes to enacting. She is worse than me. In fact, my acting helped score a point. So I'm better in a quantifiable way. :P

A barbeque, a dinner, and a half hour later, Avan and I reached the conclusion about dry pits mentioned earlier.
And then we got to playing in the sand. The weather was getting kinda rough. It drizzled a little too. Our camps were about 50 metres away from the river. The current was pretty strong too. The moon was behind a cloud cover, and I got stung again. This time it seemed funny to the rest of the gang because I was the target another time and this time the intensity was lower. The doc thought to himself, "phir aa gayi", and Shagun kept saying that a mosquito bit me. :|

None of us had slept more than 2-3 hours the night before, so we decided by 11:00 p.m. that it's best if we got some sleep. Samridhi and I slept like logs, and the rest of them cursed us, the mosquitoes, the little humidity, and the spooky feeling in the air. :P

Next morning, we were ready to put on the gear and go rafting by 8:45 a.m. We were informed that we'd only be the 6 of us with our guide, Teku on the raft. Avan's size, Priya's lungs, and my overall strength were quite a reason to worry about the success of our venture. But the guide encouraged us. Plus, Shagun, Samridhi and I were quite pepped up about getting on to the raft. Samridhi and I so much so that we wore our life jackets inside out. :P Nidhi's handycam recorded it too. Damn these journalists!

Body surfing. I did it too. I DID IT. For someone who's never stepped into water 3 feet deep, you need to imagine what it meant. Avan is always cold. She did it too. Nidhi's fear of water was worse than mine. But her lust for adventure got the better of her. But Priya? She was floating way longer than she was rafting. She had her hands under her head and kept floating far, far away. Had to call her back everytime we approached a rapid. Ohhh... those rapids! They were so bloody exciting!! I loved them. Totally loved the rush. I wanted more. :D

Had lunch at a famous Chotiwala restaurant on the other side of the Ram Jhula, and we were off by 2:15 p.m. But traffic killed our happiness so bad that we wanted to kill someone by the end of it. BSP rally made us admire Modi Nagar for eternity. It took us more than nine hours to get to Delhi even though we'd done the first 100 of the total 250 kms in 2 hours. And this is when we skipped at least an hour's traffic by going on the wrong side and overtaking a zillion trucks and buses.

The thought of going to work in the moring killed me. So I ran into my house, and into my room, and into slumber by midnight. The body's been hurting quite a bit since morning. And it's past midnight again. So I shall upload pictures in the next post now. That shall obviously be very soon. :)

Till then, tada!!! :D

Some take-aways :

Samridhi read Anga Darshan on a hoarding which actually read Ganga Darshan. I laughed non-stop after that because I actually believed her.

If Priya were to stand for elections, her symbol would be Navy Cut, aam aadmi ka brand.

The rapid 'initiation' was dedicated to me for having intiated this trip.

Avan became a fan of Nidhi's "hardcore" journalistic life.

Shagun kept thinking that the five girls would give him a massage of sorts.

My first adventure trip got a certification by the pseudo scorpios.

Funny, but Lavale's scenic beauty is really in the same league as all the other famous places.

I got high on lack of sleep after really long. People got entertained. They actually let me sing! :O


Achha ok.. good night! :-)

You know what's utopian?

For a woman like me, it's being single and living in a cold place. Would never have to bother about hair on arms and legs.

:|