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

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

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