Friday, August 29, 2008

Summer of 2008

Ok....this time, it has been really long since i last wrote. You can expect these delays now that my semester has begun.....too much finance....all around.

This one's just a flashback on how i spent this summer. Don't get bored....the best part is in the end.

May 6, 2008 - Spring semester ends. Internship to start from May 12. Nothing much to do....relaxing.

May 12, 2008 - Internship begins. Everyday to Roanoke, a little boring journey though, but i developed the habit of sleeping over time....so i had another extra hour of sleep everyday. There wasn't a single day when i did not sprint to catch the bus....coz i never used to get up in time...never ever :)
ok...until mid Aug, this went on like this until my internship ended. Nothing much interesting to talk about....except for the amazing eating places that i explored during lunch everyday....good ones....bad ones...terrible ones and then....the heavens. So if anyone of you visits Roanoke, call me up to know where to find what.

Aug 4, 2008 - My boring summer takes a turn on this date. International Student Orientation begins. New students start coming in and we organized 5000 different events for them....man...that was an experience....games, movies, food, trips....too much fun for three weeks. My favorite part....picking up students from the airport....why??? When i used to reach the airport, i used to see these new students sitting together with tonnes of luggage, waiting for someone to come and take them to a place where they can just go and crash.....Totally jetlagged, tired...i can bet these guys would've never looked more innocent than this in their entire lives. And then when they see me (or anyone who's come to pick them up), a ray of hope strikes through their faces and they become as bright as the sun coming out of the darkest clouds in the sky....feels so good to see them excited.

Aug 6, 2008 - All good things come to you at the same time. Sid comes back to US and my drinking desires, that died with the empty streets of downtown blacksburg during the entire summer, re-emerge from the ashes. One of my best buddies, and of course, a big piyakkad...just like me. Since the day he arrived, we have been drinking pretty much every night till now....he was vella but i had my internship and orientation time constraints....still...the drinking hokies prevail. Doesnt matter if i come back at 12 or 1 in the night, we still used to drink. In all these parties, the guests kept on changing but the two of us are always there. We cook, we drink, and then those who don't drink, they eat what we cooked....Around 3.00am in the mornings, all the atif aslams in us come out. Starting from wo lamhe....going upto bakhuda....all songs in a row... in the most authentic versions, straight from the drunk hearts. :)

Now that the fall semester has begun and as we fall to our professor's mercy, i'm pretty sure that these fun nights are not gonna last long....but the weekends would still be rockking....First friday today.....SHARKEYS!!!....our favorite pub, i'm so excited.

All right guys, this is it for this summer. I'll come back again as soon as i find time.

Keep writing,
Tarun

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Blog Update!!!

Check out Aman's comments on the "Goa Trip" post.....i like it when people praise me and i dont hesitate at all to brag...hehehe.

Great comments buddy. You surely added to the great experience. Thanks.

Animesh bhaiya....aap bhi kuch likh do.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Trying to put things together

I need to setup the furniture in my new room....i need to move the desk to that corner...but i see a lot of boxes with tonnes of stuff in that corner, i need to move them first to somewhere else, but why move it if i have to unpack them, take things out of those and put it in the closet...but some boxes have books and other stuff that need to go on my desk, how would i put it unless i put the desk in its right place first?

I need to buy some stuff like a shower curtain, need to clean up a bit, finish up leasing paperwork, i go to office, have some good amount of school work too, friends drag me into the pre-semester parties too in the nights, etc etc etc.....

ok...don't get mad at me. these are just the glimpses of how disoriented and unorganized my life has been in the last 4-5 days....

A lot of things, still inside the boxes...i'd term those as "missing" until i find them. :)
Things are surely better than what they were on the first day i moved, when it took me good time to locate some pretty important stuff e.g. my underwears. :)

Am i enjoying my life right now? I don't know. Coz i just dont even have the time to think about it. It had been long since i wrote something here. Couldnt find anything more interesting in my life than what's going on right now.

There have been some people who have been shouting at me over the phone about me not being able to find time for them. All i would say to them is i'm sor....yeah right...abhi bolta hun sorry.....in your dreams. :)

So what is it that is making things so messy....is it too much work, or am i too lazy to do it, am i not meant for all this, too many things at the same time, what is it? Are you looking for an answer here....how stupid can you be. If i knew it, to problem solve na kar deta.

The next question would be, how do i get over this and how long is it going to take? Simple.....karm kiye jao baalak, fal ki chinta mat karo.

This by far is looking to me as the weirdest post on this blog...and i'm pretty sure that you'll agree to me too. See....i get you all kinds of things....fun, mysteries, tragedies, relationships...list is just endless.

Believe me...i'll surely come up with something better next time. :)

Keep writing,
Tarun

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Moving Day !!!!

Bad day....seriously...a real bad one....The reason why it was bad was coz i had to move my stuff to a new aprtment. It's only this day that really makes you realize how much stupid stuff u have that you actually do not need. You so much feel like getting rid of such things at that very moment but you dont....you know why....it's difficult to accept the fact that you bought something totally useless for urself....right??

I tell u all the apartments in the world should be furnished. Koi chakkar hi nai moving ka. You leave your old furniture, and you get new at the new place. Once a person decides to move, he should donate his clothes and all other personal belongings too and buy new ones at the new place. To ye sab dhone ka bhi syapa khatam.

Another pain in the wrong area....Packing!!! Oh God....why do things have to be so delicate and fragile...no matter how hard you try, you'll still manage to break at least some of those. Trivia for you...One thing that my Dad always says whenever we move to a new place....when you pack stuff, you actually find a lot of things that you lost long ago and couldn't find anywhere. However, once you unpack and get settled, you lose many other things than what you actually found when you were packing. So true.

By the way, Unpacking...another big pain. initially i used to have trouble in figuring out which item is in which box. So i started labelling the boxes. Now, i find trouble in figuring out where the required box is. And you know what. The box that you are actually looking for will always somehow manage to be the one hidden right beneath the rest 99 boxes....i tell u these boxes just know how to play with us. They are living things...believe me....they just have pure fun at our misery. You'll find every other damn thing but the one you are actually looking for. And the worst part is, you'll see through all this other stuff on your way to find what you are looking for, and when you actually look for any of these other things sometime later, you won't find it....try the hell u can and you won't. i can bet whatever u want me to on that.

Or leased apartments k syape alag, you've got to make sure that the apartment is in good condition, or else be prepared to shell out some good amount of money from your pocket.

So all in all, the entire moving process tortures you, plays with you, teases you, makes fun of you, makes you realize that you are good for nothing, tells you that you need to go to gym, the list is just endless.

Hope you too have had this experience at some point in your life. Moving is fun...isn't it???

Cheers,
Tarun

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Do bhaiyon ka pyar

I guess the title would very likely catch the eyes of the concerned people here. But for the sake of others, it's for two of my greatest friends - Harjee and Sid (Siddharth).


I met Harjee in January this year at Virginia Tech and we got along pretty well from the very first day. A guy with buckets overflowing with energy, always ready to party (he wanna party...it's is budday....hahaha), great sense of humor, exceptional quality of lambi lambi chhodna (never worked on me though...neither did mine work on him. :) ), a big patron of "Apple" and its products...bas huh bas...zyada upar nai udna.

Sid, the other heavy-weight bhai, has pretty much all the same qualities as Harjee. In addition, he can drink forever. That's why i think we get along well. :) Mai zyada kuch nai kahunga iske baare me...nai to bhai naraaz ho jata hai or Terrace View ki sadko pe gaaliyan deta hai.

Ok...to in do bhaiyon ki kahani kuch yun hai...Apart from the classes, there were hardly any moments that i didn't see these two guys together. Great buds. Used to shout on each other on pretty much everything under the sun. It used to go like this....

Harjee shouts, sid shouts back, harjee shouts at a 20000Hz frequency, Sid gets clueless what to do next......surrenders.

They always used to shout, never used to talk, and were truly the best buddies. 99% of the time, Harjee used to win as explained above except for that great day in May this year, just a day before Harjee went back to India, when it was just Sid who was speaking....shouting.... and everyone else was just listening. Good fun that was. I wont disclose the details of the conversation here. :)

These guys are just way too much for each other to take. You guys should get married dudes....you'll look pretty awesome as a couple....hahahaha.

Jokes apart, this duo is a great company to be with. You can never get bored when these two are around. Real party animals and good flash gamblers too....although, not as good as me....but i'm sure you guys are practicing well these days. I hope we do sit together for another round some day with our "simultaneous pack" feather weight champs....i'm sure we all will miss those days.

Cheers,
Tarun



Tuesday, July 29, 2008

The mystery trip to Goa - Unleashed



Another one of my karnaama.....well i shouldnt take the whole credit here....it equally goes to my dearest friends - Aman and Animesh.

How it started:
I was getting bored at office with no work....yeah...there were such times too in the office. :)
So i just checked the flight fares to Goa and was pretty happy to see a couple of good deals. It wasnt difficult for me to spread the word to the two champs since one used to sit to my left and the other...where else..but to my right. Immediate reaction from all three of us.... "Let's go!!"

The Planning phase:
It was practically impossible that our Manager (Anant) would grant leave to all three of us on the same day. But we had to get at least one day so that we can combine it with a weekend to have at least three days.
1. Aman - The peace loving creature: Aman applied for a leave for that friday a month before the trip with an excuse of "ghar pe imp kaam hai". Pretty smooth transaction. No issues at all.






2. Myself - The adveture loving creature: asked my manager for leave for Thursday as well as Friday for my VISA interview. Here's the excerpt from our conversation.

Me: Sir i wont be able to come on this Thursday and Friday. I need to go for my VISA interview.
Anant (with a highly suspicious right eye-brow): VISA interview to ek din me ho jayega. What do you need two days for.
Me (with utmost innocence and detemination to convince him): are Sir dekho...ek din me mai apne saare documents ikkathe karunga...college transcripts, bank statements, sponsorships, etc. etc. etc. or second day interview hai. to 2 din to chahiye na sir.
Anant (right brow becomes normal, tones goes low with a sigh): Achha...chalo thik hai.

3. Animesh - The bomb blasting creature
(On Friday morning 8.30am, the day of take off. Animesh calls up Anant)
Anant: Hello
Animesh: Sir meri tabiyat bohot kharab hai. I wont be able to come to office today.
Anant (about to faint): WHATTT? Kya ho gaya tumhe?
Animesh: Sir fever hai. Pet me bhi dard hai.
Anant: Yaar Aman or Tarun bhi nai hain aaj to.
Animesh: Sir batao mai kya karu. Aa sakta to pakka aa jata.
Anant: Achha....dekho at least phone par to available rehna.
Animesh: ok sir. (hangs up)

(In HCL sector-57 office, ODC-6)
Big crowd outside Anant's cubicle as Anant lies down on the floor with Akhilesh (the PL) asking everyone to get ready for a morning meeting to discuss this problem.

Hotel Reservations:
None of us had any clues about what hotels are there. Aman and I set up a time about 2 weeks before the trip to sit and find a hotel to stay at. Secret Meeting fixed at 4.00pm at the base camp (HCL, Sec-57, meeting room – ODC-5).

Big task on hand. No clues where to start from. Tarun tries his best googling skills and comes up with a good list of hotels to work upon. We start making calls. One great thing discovered about Aman that day….he’s an awesome bargainer…Manisha (Aman’s wife) is a lucky girl I tell you. Some good proposals come on the table. Three of those shortlisted when Aman and Tarun discuss and finalize one (I forgot the name of the hotel guy we spoke to but I remember that he said “Let me know when u come and I’ll ALERT my guys”). Meanwhile, Animesh handling the PM Smart front shooting all the issues on his own…great work dude. Aman and Tarun come out of the meeting room with a victorious smile on their faces. What great feeling of achievement that was….way too good.

We were all set to go and no one else in the office had the slightest clue about what’s going on.

Execution:
Friday, 2.30pm - I reach airport. Flight at 3.40pm. Wait for others.

2.45pm - Aman reaches airport. Aman and I go to get a snack as Animesh gets late as usual.

3.20pm - Animesh still not there. Stuck in a traffic jam (dilli ki pehchaan). I suggest to sell off his
ticket to pay for our expenses in Goa. Aman agrees and we laugh it off.

3.25pm - Animesh runs into the check in counter.

3.35pm - We finally board the Indigo (the cheapest airline) flight to Goa.

On reaching Dublin Airport, Aman strikes once again in bargaining a cab deal for our hotel (in Arbora). On our way, as we stop for a snack, the cabbie tells Tarun about some great deals at a couple of hotels at a different place(Baga beach)….Of course he was looking for his commission in those hotels but somehow….i had a gut feeling that this is a good deal. I somehow convinced Aman and Animesh for it and I’m so glad that we went for it. I’m sure Aman and Animesh would be thankful to me and that cab driver. The place was like inches away from the beach. It was amazing to see that. Very dim light at the beach (it was night by that time), a big queue of restaurants on the beach that served food, drinks and yes….hukkah.

Without even wasting a second in the hotel, we went out to have our first set of drinks….not a very good experience. Bad drink, bad beach restaurant, bad service. All three of us were a little taken aback. The excitement was going down.

Same reaction from all of us, lets change the restaurant. And then we found what we were looking for. A place secluded from the crowd, good food, great drinks. We enjoyed to the fullest until the waiter (that bengali guy…I forgot his name too…I’m really bad with names I’m sorry) came at midnight and said sir we need to close. We felt like thrashing him.
Never mind…the drunkards prevail….change of restaurant one more time. Another good find…..this time…hukkah too. We all kept drinking till the time we could, somewhere close to 4.00am in the morning. We walked towards the hotel….actually Animesh walked and Aman and I actually dangled towards the hotel. Nobody had any clues where they were. I’m happy that we at least went into our room only.


Saturday, 10.00am
Everyone woke up. Ordered tea. Went and jumped into the pool. Having a good time until that as*h*** pool watchman came and pulled us out since we were not wearing proper swimming trunks……hahahahaha.


Oops...I just realized this blog’s actually gone too long. Just can't help writing...i'm just so gifted....hahaha.....Ok...for your sake, let me just cut this short here. This is how we spent our days there.

Wake up at 10…get ready…run around the city on scooters, experimenting different types of lunches, and then….our favourite part….getting drunk until 4.00am and talking all kinds of crap….find our way back to hotel somehow and crash.


All right….this is it. A great trip with great people…there were a lot more interesting things although, the great deal on the steamer, the chappal chor in hotel, absolute censored photography, those pics are still not disclosed to the public. :) …and much much more.
I’d never ever forget that trip in my life. Thanks to you two guys….you rockkk.

Cheers,
Tarun

Why do people get married??

Why do people get married,
do they try to find a new way to get buried?
Some are murdered, some die with pride,
and then there are some who commit this unintentional suicide,

The world of Biology cleary states,
Human DNA can provide a trillion traits,
so why is it so difficult to catch?
two different people are impossible to match.

I think this is the reason they are working on cloning,
So there are less reasons for moaning,
Create two people who completely match,
It's only possible if you do it from scratch.

She says he doesn't understand her,
and he doesn't understand why she says that,
he keeps thinking she's her soulmate,
totally unaware of what's written in his fate.

She keeps thinking he loves her a lot
While he tries his level best to never get caught.
He would surely love her untill,
his love gets turned into a desire to kill,
he'd keep his intentions covered still
and would be helped by a "sleeping pill".

To praise a girl or a guy
these are the phrases that people buy
'She's so hot', 'he's really cool',
it discretes them so clearly, then why we act fool.

They are so different in weather
still they dare to start a life together
Each others joys and each others sorrow
they'll always share and borrow.

So whatever i wrote above, it's all crap
Dont get fallen into my trap
Do get married, it's a wonderful thing
Well...that's actually a reason for your being.

(don't get technical on the last line :) )


Cheers
Tarun

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Long Island Iced tea

This one's to my ex-team members at HCL, India.

From the day Samir(my ex-boss, and now a great friend) asked me to taste it, the drink remains my favorite till date.

It was not just the rum or vodka or tequilla that made it a great drink, but it was the amazing atmosphere that used to build up after everyone has had one full drink at PBN (the best LIT mixer in Noida). Those wonderful conversations....straight from everyone's heart, showing the true colors....an absolute pure spirit of LIT. :)
Although it was pretty hard to find time for everyone at the same time, but i'm sure everyone always looked forward to those friday nights.

I left for USA but the trend continued...arrey not at PBN or in Noida...but with me....in US. New friends, new pubs, new music...but LIT still rocked. I've no idea how many people must have been thanking me at this moment that i introduced the drink to them. But i proudly accept the name "long islander" given to me. Logon ka pyaar dekh kar bas...aansu aa jaate hain.

Studying is fun....and so is partying while you are studying. Finding excuses to go out and drink on pretty much every friday night, come whatever. Getting drunk until 2.00am to your limits and then trying to walk as straight as possible to reach the bus stop so that the cops dont thrash you. It becomes a little difficult when u get this uncontrollable sensation to pee at times and you do not find a place. Could have been much easier in India but in US, you dont want to design a wall. Although every other person you see in downtown at that time is drunk, but still you pretend to be the most sober of them all....huh...quite interesting...isn't it? Well that's not true about everywhere, but university towns....u know how it works.

Coming back to LIT, there have been some useless people who never enjoyed it, but never said it in front of me after seeing my immense passion for the drink....I truly appreciate that guys....hahaha.

This summer....LIT has been one of my greatest friends since no one else is around. But as i said initially, the experience is great only when the right atmosphere is developed around this fabulous work of Robert Butt (the bartender from Long Island who first served this drink somewnere in 70s).

This drink truly rocks...or i should say....at least my life truly rocks with LIT....thanks to every one who's been saying "cheers" with me.

Keep Writing...

Images....when penned down on paper....create structures...
Questions....when penned down on paper....lead to inventions...
Rules....when penned down on paper....make treaties...
Signatures....when penned down on paper....define borders
Thoughts....when penned down on paper...lead to thinking....
Thinking....when penned down on paper....leads to big Ideas
Ideas....when penned down on paper....can do anything...

Keep writing...

This blog is not limited to any specific area.... I'll write all kinds of crap in here all the time. There would be some fun, some gyaan, some friends, some work stuff, some public affairs, some "private" affairs....if u ask me....i still have no clue what this blog's gonna be about. I'm just starting it...hoping that it might go somewhere, someday....So stay tuned till then.

Cheers,
Tarun