Grass is always greener on the other side

We always crave for what the other people had and never appreciate what we had. As a result, when we began to lose our prized possessions, only then we start appreciating all those.

How many times it happen we never appreciate the people/things when they are with us but started missing them when they are not. A lot.

With this, I remember the one of the common problem i.e. Benching in IT industry. Benching is doing nothing and still enjoying the salary. Those people who are not allocated in any of the current project due to requirement issue, are said to be on the bench.  People who are on the bench always think that they are wasting their time and their experience is increasing without adding value to them. I am not saying they are wrong. On the other hand, people, who are allocated in the project always crave for benching. Both the states have their own pros and cons. It is a well established truth that the person having the Santro longs for Fabia, one having Fabia craves for Octavia, one with Octavia for BMW and so on.

Scene 1: 1.40 pm. Robin was on the bench from last 4 months where as Ashish was in a project but still not contributing much. Ashish just had his lunch while Robin is coming from the home. They meet at the entrance.

Ashish: Hi Robin! How is life going on?

Robin: I am fine. What about you?

Robin tried to ignore Ashish but not able to. Robin was not feeling good as he was still unallocated.

Ashish: I am so busy these days. I am coming early in the morning and also stay late. Also, I have to come on weekends to complete it sometime. Did you get the project?

Ashish tried to show off how busy he is and not like parasite like Robin doing nothing.

Robin: Not yet. Actually I had got a call yesterday. May be I’ll get this time.

Robin pretends because he is ashamed of benching.

Ashish: You are so lucky man to be on the bench. I am not getting time for anything and you are enjoying to the fullest.

Ashish said this intentionally to hurt the Robin.

Robin: No yaar, I am fed up of benching. My experience is increasing but value is not.

Ashish: Don’t worry dude. You will directly go to onsite.

Ashish trying to be sarcastic and over smart.

Robin: I am not thinking of that. I just want the project. Is there any requirement in your project?

Ashish:  Oh shit! I am not on my desk from last 10 minutes. My boss is very strict. We will meet sometime later and talk about it.

Again show off.

Robin contemplating about the thought that everything that happened happened for a reason

Scene 2: : After 4 months, robin got the project. However, Ashish was released from his project and was now on the Bench. Robin just had his lunch with his team and going out for a fag. Ashish just enters in the building.

Robin: Hi dude! What’s up?

Ashish: Nothing much. I am just bored on Benching. I have nothing to do.

Robin: What are you saying man? There are so many movies released last week. Why don’t you go and watch them?

Ashish: Movies no longer interests me.  

Robin: Just enjoy the bench time. This is the golden period of your life. Enjoy your beautiful honeymoon before it come to an end.

Robin remember his days when he had time to chase his passions. He really started appreciating bench time after his bench is over.

Ashish: I don’t feel like so. I think I am wasting my time. Benching is one of the worst thing on this planet.

Ashish realized benching is not that beautiful against his perception about it when he was allocated.

Robin: C’mon yaar. Enjoy it. I also thought like this but after getting this project, I long for the benching time. There are hell lot of things like that I miss after allocation. Swimming, reading, blogging all comes to halt.

Ashish: BTW, you get a good project.

Robin: No, it’s not that good as much it is perceived here.

Ashish: Is there any requirement in your project?

Robin: I would suggest you to look for the better project. You deserved a better project.

Robin said sarcastically.

Ashish: I want the project very badly. I think for some time, any project will do.

Ashish said very desperately.

Robin: I will let you know about requirement. Excuse me for now. I have some pending work.

Robin said ostentatiously.

Robin contemplating on his desk about right and wrongs of life

Why Happy Birthday, not HB?

I thought of putting this as my status in Facebook but Everyday there is a birthday of one or more of my friends which resisted me from putting this post. Wishing a birthday had became a tiring job when your friends list is huge.

I thought that everything has a short form in this virtual world. So, Why not , happy birthday? Can’t we use HB in place of happy birthday or MMHRD(many many happy returns of the day). I, once tried this approach but the reply was quite sarcastic. This approach didn’t work. Sometimes, Writing 2 simple words is so monotonous that it actually became difficult. 

I also discovered something related to this.

People who wish the person early in the day are usually the one who are active in their day to day activities and believe on getting the work done as early as possible wherever those people who, despite being online all the time,  wish the person just before few moments are left for the end of the day are suffering from the procrastination trauma.

Hope, some software engineer would soon develop  a software using which the birthday message will be sent automatically. 

PS- Don't share it on Facebook. It can effect your relations negatively. 

“Friend after friend departs; who hath not lost a friend? There is no union here of hearts that hath not here its end.”

Title Courtesy: James Montgomery, British poet and Editor

This is an old post saved in my draft section. I forgot to publish it. This post was written on 3^rd June. Please read it keeping this in mind. 

Experience, not work experience but general experience does not teach everything. However, it make us mature enough to curb our desires.

I am talking about the experience of departing from your friends. It does not matter how many times you have experienced it, you always feel a pain. 

I will leave Kolkata on 5^th June. I was here from 11 April. Although, I was living alone, I really have made few good friends who also lives in the same apartment and work at the same company. They have invited me to their flat for a drink 3,4 times. It was always a wonderful experience. We all really got attached by in just 2 months. Perhaps, their mother tongue is also Hindi and not Bengali may be a reason. We had some very nice experiences in park street. I will miss them all.

But, sometimes I thought, while departing , we make promises with each other and later after  months we restrain from talking to each other. That’s because with time, our priorities changed, we became married, we will have kids but that does at all mean that we have forgot each other.

We should not take these small things in her heart but instead we should always cherished the memories that we have shared in the past.

I tried very hard from meeting one of the old friend in Kolkata from almost 2 months. He keep on delaying.  When I can be lazy sometimes, anybody can be lazy. We should accept that fact.

 And now the time had came for me to go. He recently got married in Jan 2011. I don’t have any grudges against him. May be it is not the will of the GOD that we have not meet.  After all, everything happens for a reason.

Trip to Elephanta Caves

It was a busy day. I had my presentation scheduled at 9.30 am. My presentation was not that good. One of the professors of communication skills droves me nut. But I agreed with him. He was not satisfied with formatting neither I but due to sheer laziness and procrastination, I went without making any changes in the report. When I came back, Adarsh, one of my wing friends, was sitting in my room.  

Adarsh- what is the program of tomorrow?

Me- what about today?

Shubham-why don’t we visit Ajanta and Ellora caves?

Adarsh- ok final. We will leave at 11.

Me- I think you are joking. In planning phases everybody says yes but when the final time comse to go, we change our plans.  

Adarsh-Its final from my side. I have nothing better to do. Most of the people are not in the hostel and it is very boring out here.

Me- ok. Get ready. We will leave as soon as possible.

We left the college at 11. 15am as planned and took an auto to Kanjurmarg, a local station in Mumbai.

From there, we travelled in Mumbai Local to CST. Like always, at this hour also there was no space to stand in Mumbai Locals. Mumbai Locals are really the lifeline of the city.

From CST, we hired a taxi and finally reached Gateway of India. We were waiting desperately for the rain but it seemed weather was also playing its game today. It was very hot and humid. We enquired about the details and came to know that Ajanta and Ellora are very far. People go to Elephanta caves from Gateway of India, We were shocked for a moment and decided to go to Elephanta caves. We purchased a ticket of 130 bucks for the to and fro journey. It was a 1 hour journey on the jetty from Mumbai to Elephanta caves.

Adarsh and Shubham at Gateway of India

We stood in a queue and to utilize this non value adding time, I captured some of the beautiful views of Taj Hotel and Gateway of India. It was the same hotel which was attacked by the terrorists in Nov. 2008.

Taj Hotel

We boarded the jetty . Due to Rainy season and high current, it was a very bumpy journey for complete 1 hour. As soon as the journey started, I thought as the sea is calm at the centre as compared to the shores, it will smoothen our journey in the middle but that didn’t happen. People were shouting, vomiting, some were trying to sleep. Even I became very uncomfortable and didn’t felt like to take the pictures. All 3 of us became very uncomfortable. I asked one of the vendor at jetty, how much time it will take more? He said, we have just started the journey and have a long way to go. It will take 45 minutes. I saw the time and was shocked that only 10 minutes were passed in the jetty. As there were not many people, so we tried all available seating locations at the boat to find the most comfortable one. For a moment, i was lost in contemplating about life. How the journey of life resembles with this bumpy journey of ups and downs in sea. We can always learn from nature provided we are receptive enough.

View at the upper deck of Jetty

  After half an hour, we decided to move on the upper deck of the jetty. The staff at the Boat asked us for the money. We were shocked, we had already paid for the ticket so why this extra money. But after a lot of arguments, we gave up and paid him 30 bucks and went to top. It was very beautiful at the top and also, the effect of current was not that strongly felt at the top. After capturing some beautiful shots, we took a seat. We were completely dehydrated and feeling very tired. Finally, we saw the shore and went down to board the toy train to the elephant caves. They toy train part was very nice.

L to R. Adarsh, Shubham with Toy train

We boarded a toy train and reached the elephant caves. After purchasing 3 bottles of 1ltr. water for each of us, which we emptied in just 5 minutes, we started our way to caves. The route was 10 minute walk on the steep slope. In just 5 minutes, we all felt breathless. After 1 month, another journey of  Shikharji, a holy place and the salvation place of 20 Teerthankaras and large number of saints,near Parsvanath city in Jharkhand state is planned. And Shikharji is known for its sleep slope which we need to cover by foot. We thought how we will be able to make that. I have never been to Shikharji in my life but one of my friend Shubham told me that only way to cover that arduous task is to stop smoking before 1 week. 

Finally, we reached Caves. After buying the ticket, we entered. I was amazed by the beauty of the caves.

Entering in Cave no. 1

Not only this, Location was so strategic and nice. Mountains, Island, Greenery,  Ocean, everything was there. It was really breathtaking view. 

View from Elephanta Island

At peace with myself

The scriptures were also beautiful, however, most of them were broken. It is one of the world heritage sites of India. I saw one of the foreigners observing one of the pillars from last 15 minutes. I went there and observe the pillar. He was taking the pictures of the pillar from different angles. I  did not understand this thing. I felt bad about myself and thought I did not have  the taste of it and perhaps I am not able to appreciate the real beauty of the pillar. May he, he was a civil engineer or architect or artist. There were lot of monkeys, cows, dogs, goats over there. We enjoyed the scenic beauty. It is hard to imagine such natural beauty in the outskirts of Mumbai. When we came out from the exit gate of the caves, we saw one of the arrows showing a route to Canon Hills but as we were perspiring continuously, we thought to avoid it. We asked the people coming back from there about the place. AS we didn’t find their response interesting, so we avoid that place.

On our way back to Toy train station, we spotted a South Indian Restaurant. I didn’t like the south Indian food at all but as most of peoples were eating there and not in nearby restaurants, we also thought to eat there. After all, it is very important to avoid stale food in slow selling restaurants and take care of Hygiene in this rainy season to avoid any miss happening .  We ordered 3 Masala Dosas which we consumed in just 5 minutes. After that ,we ordered 3 Uttapams which were not that good but fine to satisfy the appetite of the hungry persons. Finally, we went back, caught a toy train and boarded the jetty and retraced the whole route again. It was a good experience. The only thing was bumpy ride. But when we were coming back, I felt that I became used to these bumpy and rough rides.

Rain Sickness

This post is not at all about how nostalgic rains are or how many of us like to eat Pakoras and chai in the rainy season. Neither it is about how much we love rains in our childhood because of the hope that might be rainy day is declared at school and we get a holiday.

In fact, it is about a rain sickness. 3 days back, I landed in Mumbai and it is raining continuously. For 2, 3 hours, I like it but afterwards came a problems associated with it.

My clothes are smelling hard, laundry person is not willing to return the clothes before a week. Every time, I go out, I need to wash my sandals and legs after I come back. The sound of water dropping on the floor and everywhere around me is very harsh me on my ears.

Not only this, today I spot many of my friends at Medical shop purchasing Moov, Iodex and Volini etc. They told me how badly they were slipped due to continuous water on the stairs. One of My friend Naveen Tiwari is struggling even to go to Bathroom. I feel like laughing but restrict myself. I thought , maybe if I laugh on them, I will also fall on the stairs. Yes, I am from  the place where people are superstitious and irrational and therefore  this habit is also got inculcated in me somehow. Anil Ingle, room partner of Naveen Tiwari, who lives in room adjacent to me, updated a status on the Facebook ”Enjoy Gully Cricket in rain” and half an hour later, his another status was “Redness all over”. When I asked him, he told me, he was attacked by some earth worm and due to sweating, the effect reached all over his body. I had not played the Cricket but enjoyed watching a lot outside my room. Some are slipping continuously, some are blaming rain for their poor performance.

Pic taken at home where rainfall is rare and appreciated

The weather is so humid that there is hardly any time of the day when I am not perspiring. Even the best of Deodorants had stopped working. My room partner Shubham jain checked more than 10 deodorants at a Cosmetics shop before finalizing one. Me and my room partner  had lost 2 umbrellas in just 3 days. People who were looking for the excuse of rainfall to drink alcohol are now waiting when the rainfall will cease and they will go for Boozing.

I am sneezing from the morning continuously. What else a person suffering from sinus can do?

The only good thing is that cigarettes consumption is reduced.

Reading or Watching

Courtesy: Google Images

Vulgar T-shirt quotes                     
YESTERDAY, I visited a R city mall in Mumbai. I just went there to have Zinger meal of KFC which I like very much.

I saw a girl with her family wearing a t-shirt with a quote “Red FM 93.5 Bajate raho” right on her breasts. I kept staring and read it again and again unless her family gave me an angry look. Perhaps, they thought me wrong. I was not doing what they were thinking. Cheap mentality is a great problem on this planet. Even, I suffered from this many times.

Sometimes, I thought why girls wear such t-shirts. Is it like they have been gifted by their boyfriends or they really want to get the attention or it is completely accidental.  I have added the accidental part because I really respect girls.

With this thought, I remember few more vulgar quotes that I have read on girls t-shirts .

“o o coming soon”  on a child girl. I really thought what a nice was of marketing her assets. Perhaps, Mallika sherawat was her ideal. Her mother also seemed to be inspired from Rakhi sawant.

“Real stuff”. I read this in the Eden Garden. She was walking with hand to hand with her boyfriend. Her boyfriend was really a hunk guy with 6ft height.  I resisted from reading again.

“Got Milk.” Girl with this t-shirt was really very fat and the quote suits her much.

“Did you really look here, only for reading this?” It was long quote and I really struggled to read this. We were walking across each other. I had moved my head to peep what is the exact statement. When I crossed her, she was staring at me in a way like she wants to kill me.

PS: Please change your mentality and don’t  make the boys victim of your cheap mentality. 

Courtesy: Google images

Controversial Ads/Ambush Marketing

Case 1 : Coke Vs Pepsico

Case 2: Heinz Vs GSK(ComplanVs Horlicks)

Case 3: HUL Vs P&G(Rin Vs Tide)

Case 4: Jet Vs UB Vs GoAir

Case 5: HUL Vs P&G (Sunsilk Vs Pantene)

A journey from 2 days long party to hangover without sleep

Its 3.16 AM in my laptop. I have my train at 7 in the morning from Sealdah and therefore I have to leave at around 5 am. As we are drinking from last 2 days continuously, I decided not to sleep otherwise I will miss my train. I have missed many important things just because of little more sleep. I am very greedy in terms of sleep. We have promised to lie awake but now, at this moment, we are so drunk that all of them had fallen in sleep. I cannot as I have to leave in next 2 hours. It was a very good experience in Kolkata. I have came to Kolkata first time in my life and because of these friends, I have enjoyed the every bit of my 8 weeks stunt. There is no other option except blogging to pass these 2 hours otherwise I will fall in to sleep. 

One thing I want to make a note of is Akshay’s favorite song is  ‘Tujhe naraz nahi zindagi’ from the movie Masoom and Manoranjan’s ‘Roj Roj aankho tale, ek hi sapna ‘ from the movie Jeeva.

I played this song so many times. Some other songs that I have played today which makes the ambience very sentimental are as follows:

Song Name	Movie/Artist Name
Barsaat ke mausam mein	Najayaaz
Tere dar pe sanam	Phir teri kaahani yaad aayi
Mein teri mohabbat mein pagal ho jayunga	Tridev
Tumhe apna banana ki kasam khayi hai	Sadak
Ankh hai bhari bhari	TUmse acha kaun hai
Phir haath mein sharaab hai	Pankaj Udhaas

With these songs, there was water in everybody’s eyes. Everybody was appreciating me for playing such a nice song. One of them suggested me to be a DJ but the songs that I play generally are not of that type. Yes, I can be a dJ in any bar for heart-broken people. 

Manoranjan was trying hard to remain awake but just before half an hour, he also fall asleep.

Thanks to Jasdeep, Manoranjan, Sandeeo, Shaishank for making my stay wonderful in Kolkata.

Art of Cooking

Every day I come back from my office to my 1BHK flat in Kolkata, I saw my kitchen. It is a sort of semi furnished flat. Kitchen has everything from pulses to rice to spices but the tragedy is that I don’t know how to cook. And every day, I ended up in ordering the food from outside. After 4 days, I will reach home hopefully. This time, I am quite determined to learn the basics of cooking from my mother. At least, one should know how to cook rice. Many times, need arose to learn cooking  in my life  but every time, I shirked. But as I started making Maggi myself which tastes even better than what made by my mother, I think I can be a good cook. I added the pepper, ginger, 2 cloves of garlic, chicken masala along with the tastemaker. It is a beautiful recipe which further added the taste to delicious Maggi. When I told my mother about this, she said, self made food always tastes good even  without taste. Quite true, if we do something ourselves wholeheartedly, then it really gives us a satisfaction irrespective of the result. 

I have already made the list about the some of my favorite dishes. I want to learn the working of pressure cooker. I want to know how roti/paratha are prepared, how pulses are made, how can we make the tea without burning our hand, how can we cut the onions without crying. I have already expedite my search on various aspects of cooking. Hope this time, I will able to help my mother in her kitchen and if possible, I will make something special for her. But the problem is that whenever I try to help her, something wrong happen always  and she ended in doing more work.  It must be happened with you too.

At least , I hope she will like the food prepared by me.. 

Let me dedicate these summer holidays of 1 week to this new passion “Art of cooking.”