...AND I AM ENGAGED !!!

There is really no other way to sum up what happened and a severe lack of creativity on my part means I can't really think of any other title to put for this post. I could call it the Blogger's block but then if anyone is really reading this blog,(Read: close friends who are forced by me to do so)they would know that I am not much of a blogger. 5 or so posts over 4 years could be a world record of sorts for lack of activity on any blogging site but of late, I have revived this much neglected activity of mine due to being egged on by a special someone who surprisingly enough thinks that I have some talent when it comes to writing nonsense.

Anyway, back to the title and as clear as I hope it is, let me still clarify that I am engaged to a girl(Who shall remain anonymous till she gives me a go ahead to use her name in these posts) and not engaged in work or engaged on the phone or any other statement which could use the word "engaged" as most of my wise friends would point out !

I think I have gone off topic again so I shall try to stick to it from this point onwards.

So ,I am engaged and it was basically "arranged" by my folks. In the age old debate regarding Arranged Marriage vs Love Marriage, I have almost always supported the latter with a fervor that would indicate that I have a lot happening on that front. That has, unfortunately for me, been largely a misconception. Barring the one-off cases, I have been about as active amorously with the fairer sex as Baba Ramdev is and even he, I have heard, has Rakhi Sawant pining for him due to his flat abs ! My argument has often been that only someone socially incapable of finding a girl on his own would resort to an arranged marriage. So, has that opinion changed now?

Umm...No

I still think it is the last resort. But....in the past few months in which I have now come up close and personal with this archaic practice, I feel getting someone you can click with in the entire horoscope hullabaloo is possible. Over the years, the process itself has matured enough to keep up with the times though I still know people who have met the girl/guy once and then have gone on to get married to that person a couple of weeks later .Now ,that is a scary proposition at many levels. The possibility that either of the two has an alter ego that howls during a full moon night and claims that chilled blood is their favourite beverage is minimal but is still enough to give me nightmares for one! Blame it on watching crappy horror movies !! In my case there is a good 8 month gap between having seen the girl and when I finally get married to her and that is comforting because I have known relationships that have lasted less than that!! This period should help both of us to get to know each other well enough to not have a situation on the wedding day where she tries to introduce me to her friend and goes 'Err..whats your name again?'.

Back to my whole process though. The initial pleasantries through phone calls between the parents had been exchanged, the horoscopes had been matched and the moment of truth of the girl and guy finally meeting had arrived. The thirty minutes or so it took me to figure out whether I should go formal as if it were a job interview or casual with my limited choice of tees or jeans seemed like an eternity and by the time the platoon from my place(My mom,dad and me) had finally reached her place,we were unsurprisingly though fashionably late. I had held my breath throughout the journey to keep my tummy in and had tried practicing my best smile(not that it had ever helped me before) in front of the rear view mirror of my car while adjusting it. The latter of course got a strong reaction from my paranoid dad who told me to look at the road and concentrate on driving !

We rang the bell. The door opened,I gasped, my tummy sagged and my smile vanished at the sight in front of us.

Job interviews with a panel of 2-3 interviewers are normally pretty scary but here I was greeted by her mom,dad,uncle,aunt,cousin, cousin's wife,her nephew, nephew's mom, her sister and 2 cats who had got in somehow. I did assume that the cats would not subject me to a round of questioning so it was safe to be least worried about them. I waited for a barrage of questions but surprisingly, I got none. The standard questions regarding the route I took to reach their place followed with some general suggestions on what would be a better route being provided by all and sundry. However, the overwhelming feeling of being a fish in an aquarium stayed and I felt that every movement or statement on my part would be dissected,studied and analyzed later in the day. In the midst of this uncomfortable situation, I tried looking around to locate the one person this visit was for and finally managed to locate her.And...

I was floored ! Suddenly, the entire visit seemed worthwhile and the necessity to pull in the tummy dawned on me again. I tried to stop myself from gawking at her by trying to look elsewhere but it seemed a pretty difficult thing to do .Thankfully,her folks, having been thoroughly bored by my responses probably decided it was best to banish me to another room to talk with her and I was more than happy to oblige.

Not having much to say, I became Captain Obvious for a moment and began the conversation with "Well...This is awkward" to which she nodded . This was the cue to bring in random topics of interest and that continued for the remainder of the meeting.The conversation itself was as awkward as would be expected in such cases with long pauses during which we looked at her nephew trying to play NFS on the desktop in the room while keeping a ear open to hear what was being said between us. However, it established a few things
1. She was pretty and smart
2. She did not show any psychotic tendencies
3. I was bowled over by her
4. She was pretty...oh, I said that already !

With the above points in place, it was quite easy for me to say "Yeah..she is nice" when dad asked me the one word question "So?". For some unfathomable reason, she found my buffoonery endearing and apparently gave a similar response at her place. This final frontier having been conquered, it was only a matter of time before we got engaged !

The weekends became and continue to be times I look forward to as the only time I get to meet her on "dates". From coming to know that it takes her ages to shop for anything to figuring out that she has a superstitious side to her when it comes to keeping her close ones happy, every date seems to open up facets of her personality that help me know her better.It feels nice to think that we could do this for 6 months or so and then somehow term ours a love marriage if she isn't bugged by my antics then ! I guess this could be a strong case for an arranged love marriage if we can survive this 8 month itch !!

Raja Sen - You Sir, are a moron !

Its been a while since I have posted anything on this completely dormant blog of mine and after a couple of years of having forgotten about its existence...I am back !!

I must admit though that the reason for this triumphant return has been this sudden urge to spew venom somewhere about a particular movie reviewer(Name mentioned in the title) who has really got my goat ! If you are a regular reader of Rediff.com, you probably would be familiar with his articles. They are really not that hard to miss and in that sense, credit must be given to him for grabbing your eyeballs with his sensational statements followed by an almost deliberately biased review that has to be different from the rest of the world's opinion about anything.

In what is an addition to his unenviable list of trashy reviews, he has now proceeded to give Zindagi na milegi Dobara a 1 and half star rating. I have never understood the parameters he judges a movie by but that kind of rating is what I would traditionally reserve for movies that are absolute drivel and having watched the movie myself yesterday, it is far from that. Admittedly, it is not the greatest there is and the movie is a tad too long but it is much, much better than the regular Bollywood fare. This is not the first time though that he has come up with reviews that have been downright ridiculous for movies that deserved better. Given below is a list of reviews that he has given for some movies that I(and many others based on their collections) liked.

3 Idiots - 2 stars - "Three Idiots, Two Stars, One Missed Opportunity"

Rajneeti - 1 and a half stars - " The screenplay is weak, manipulative and every possible kind of lazy"

Rock on(Music Review) - 1 and a half stars - "Rock Yawn !!"

Other than these, he has proceeded with statements such as X-Men: First Class is better than The Dark Knight and that Om Shanti Om is among the best movies made by women directors in India ! The irritating bit other than having to read these atrocious statements is that it almost looks like he is one of the majority shareholders at Rediff because we are subjected to another article where he gives his views on the Formula one race of the weekend ! All of these articles have headlines with 'Raja Sen reviews so-and-so' or 'Ask Raja Sen about Formula One' or 'Raja Sen predicts the Oscars' as if the guy is a celebrity whose opinions on anything should be taken as the final word !! It is laughable that anyone would even want to know about the race of the weekend from an idiot who probably sits at home with his DVD collection and plays with his remote control cars due to the severe lack of friends that he no doubt must suffer from for being so opinionated !

Back to the movie though that really got me fired up. I did read the reviews before going for it with a certain special someone( The 1 and a half one almost ruined it but then I figured it is Raja Sen so the opposite must hold true). ZNMD is a good movie that deserves 3 stars at least. It could have been great had it been trimmed a bit. It is all about the kind of expectations you go in with. I went in expecting to see 3 guys on a road trip in a beautiful country with lots of conversational jokes here and there and thats exactly what I got. It is no DCH and in many ways, it doesn't even aspire to be one. The road trip itself is shot beautifully and though the characters in this story are filthy rich , I identified with the essence of such a journey since I have been on a few with my buddies. Their luck with girls is unreal but then that is where you realize it is basically a commercial movie and not a regular video of 3 guys on a road trip. The latter would be a great idea but would also need guys you can identify with as I am sure not many people can really identify with looking like Hrithik at any level unless they are in the movies themselves !

The performances are good all around. Hrithik is excellent as the stuck-up corporate guy who learns to enjoy life through the journey. He does overdo the busy,rich guy bit initially but gradually does better in the role. Farhan is very good as the prankster of the group and Abhay Deol is great as the balancing factor amongst the three. The camaraderie they share is believable especially considering that in the context of the story,they are supposed to have met after a long time. Both Katrina and Kalki are believable in their roles as well and this is probably the first time that I have felt that the former actually got a role that fits her perfectly. The movie looks great and the songs are perfectly placed. I am assuming that Spain is now going to be on the Places-to-visit for most people now !

On the negative side, the movie is long as mentioned before. Farhan Akhtar's poems that keep making their appearance in the movie are unnecessary and made no sense to me. The movie also lacks a certain something that would hold it together as it depends solely on the performances to get across the line.

Well, there goes my first ever review. I would say that considering everything it is still a one time watch and since I haven't really seen a movie where the characters have a pact like this, I would say it is an original script and that really should be reason enough to watch movies like this especially if you have lost faith in most of the copycat Bollywood movies these days like I have.

Raja Sen mentions in his review that the movie is trying too hard to be cool. I frankly think the same about him. He needs to stop his pretense and almost child-like quality of wanting to be the center of attraction by being different with his comments. Stop being a party pooper, Raja Sen because at the end of the day you are basically pooping in a party and that sure can't be a good thing even if it is to get everyones attention?

KALSUBAI CONQUERED....WELL ALMOST !

After the trek to Siddhagad had been done in the sweltering heat of March, it was unanimously decided that the next trek that we would undertake would have to be in the rains. So, as soon as the monsoons hit mumbai, everyone started discussing the next location that we should go to but...... the rains had other plans. As is the case with the monsoons here....when it rains it pours ! The rain went on and on and made the whole thought of getting out of home itself an ordeal ! Finally, after having waited for over a month wondering if a trek was ever gonna be possible in this weather, the rain Gods decided to show some mercy and bring normalcy to the proceedings ! Google became our best friend again as we searched for locations and spots. The general idea was clear about having a night stay this time and making it more of a picnic than a punishing trek. Accordingly, Bhandardara became the spot to go to. With Kalsubai (Maharashtras highest peak), Ratangad and a few lakes and waterfalls nearby, this location seemed like the one stop place for trekkers and nature lovers. Further searching revealed a few budget hotels in the vicinity of Igatpuri as the ones in Bhandardara were already booked. We zeroed in on Hotel Ashwin which seemed like an inexpensive option with reasonable facilities and a proximity to all the above mentioned locations. After Pranays successful haggling over the price, we managed to book 4 double occupancy rooms which seemed a fair bet to accommodate the 9 of us who had shown interest for the trip.
So, yet again, the 9 of us(Pankaj,Oscar,Goldie,Shantanu,Pranay,Prashant,Alind,Shalendra and me) converged at Thane(the starting point) from our respective locations.

A breakfast of hot vada pav and cutting chai later, we were on our way to Igatpuri.

The Journey...and the hotel

A lot of brainstorming(we are IT folks after all...that term had to be used) had gone into deciding the mode of transport.The budget conscious ones felt going by train would be the best option while the comfort conscious ones were adamant that hiring a 10 seater was the way to go. No prizes for guessing which group won as we all sat cramped inside a Qualis and took in the beautiful scenery outside.

Having conversed for quite a bit, we all got into the mood for a picnic atmosphere and asked Alind(sitting in the front) to play some songs on the car stereo. Alas, big mistake !! We were subjected to about an hour of lavni music and Nadeem Shravan songs(apparently the only kind of musical stuff available to us in the qualis).

The trip was punctuated by the mandatory loo breaks. Taking a leak out in the open countryside is ofcourse one of the most liberating things to do but not when others are hellbent on taking snaps of you and that unfortunately was the case with Shantanu and Pranay who got hounded by the groups cameramen while in the act.

Needless to say, by the time we had reached the hotel, our ears could bear no more. Even Himesh Reshammiyas songs would seem like masterpieces !

The hotel turned out to be a pleasant surprise with neat rooms and plenty of indoor game arrangements. The TT professionals(read Shalendra and Alind) started their matches almost as soon as we had finished with changing into our trekking attire while the rest of us targetted the football that Pankaj brought along very thoughtfully.

The hotel staff told us that trekking to Ratangadh was out of the question unless we intended to stay in the caves there. Kalsubai, however, was pretty close and apparently had a moderate level of difficulty. A quick lunch consisting of idli-sambhar(took the restaurant at the hotel almost an hour to prepare) and pohe done, we were all set for Kalsubai !

Highest point of Maharashtra...here we come !

We reached the base village to go to Kalsubai and left our Qualis there. Again, getting a guide here wasn't too difficult as we offered a villager 50 bucks to take us to the top and back.

As we began walking, we kept tallying the difficulties we were facing in this one to the Siddhagad trek that we had done a couple of months back . We did the Siddhagad trek in the most trying of conditions as it was extremely hot(not the most ideal conditions to trek really !) and the lack of drinking water hurt us later. Here, we were faced with a more pleasant weather but trying conditions for walking because of the rain. The mud was slippery and the climb was comparatively steeper.

As was the case then, Shantanu charged ahead with the guide and surprisingly Goldie(probably stung by us teasing him for almost collapsing on the Siddhagad trek !) kept up with him. I fell back with cramps in both feet and the idli vada that had just been consumed before the trek wasn't helping ! The groups leader cum physio Shantanu came in to help me on my way.

The walking continued with the guide pointing to some temple at the very top as our destination. The distance between the temple and us did not seem to change even after an hour of huffing and puffing through the vegetation on the way. The guide ofcourse embarassed us by running along barefoot and making us look rather foolish !

Having walked a fair distance, we finally came to the first of the three ladders to reach the top. To be honest, calling it a ladder would be an overstatement as the thing was basically rusted steel held together by strings while hanging precariously on one side of the cliff. The rain made it very slippery thus making our situation very similar to someone skating on thin ice. The regular photo sessions with everyone smiling in front of the ladder was followed by a session of gingerly climbing the ladder while holding on to whatever we could !

The trek after this got even tougher and Pankaj continued his wisecracks along the way to keep everyone in good spirits.

The second ladder was worse than the first and by this time it was getting dark and chilly . Half the group had enough and decided this was as far as they would go. The remaining went along a few more meters and came across a plateau and thats when the place seemed heavenly. We had absolutely no idea of where we had reached as we were surrounded by clouds on all sides. Slight glimpses of the valley below actually showed us the height at which we had reached. To our surprise, we found a few monkeys jumping around at the place. We had our snacks here and having rested for a bit, we started on our downward trail.

Going down was easy but slippery so people losing their balance was a c0mmon though hilarious sight. Having reached back, the fact that we never actually made it the peak hurt us. Accordingly, it was decided that a few more trips be made while we had the time. So, off we went to Bhandardara where we had been told that we could see a beautiful lake and Wilson Dam.

Siddhagad Trek

The start..

This ones taken a long, long while....after weeks of indecision regarding the idea to trek, the spot to go to, the people who would come and finally the date when we would go, the Siddhagad trek came about literally due to Pankaj(in typical TL manner) forcing me to drop a mail to those interested to come on Saturday the 24th of february ! The place itself was decided after a lot of googling and assumptions based on the photos of the fort posted on various blogs and sites.
So finally, early in the morning( very very early in my case :-( ) 9 of us i.e Shailendra, Pankaj, Goldie, Pranay, Shantanu,Satish, Oscar, Sachin AKA the Unix guy and me set off to meet at Kalyan station at the decided time of 7.30. Surprisingly, the group reached on time mainly due to the threat that had been issued the previous day warning latecomers that they would have to sponsor the breakfast for the rest of the group !
Light breakfast done and after a futile search for bananas near Kalyan station, we boarded an ST bus to Murbad. ST buses suck...they simply do coz theres absolutely no way you can sleep in them unless you want to develop a bump on your head due to constantly slamming it onto the rod, the windows, the seat in front...just about anything while you are asleep (which is only if you have been given anaesthesia!!). Moving back to the journey...the ordeal lasted just over an hour and we reached Murbad bus depot. Much to the delight of Pankaj, we found bananas here and absolutely hideous looking caps which Goldie and i purchased. From here, we took another ST to Narivali village.

Damn the kids !

We reached Narivali and were surprised to see a reasonably large village with cemented bylanes ! After having alighted from the bus we saw the imposing view of both Siddhagad on the right side and Gorakhgad on the left...both blurred due to the mist but imposing nonetheless. A welcome party of kids of all shapes and sizes awaited us at the village. The cheekiest of the lot in a grey sweater asked us why we didn't come with much fanfare and followed this up with more wisecracks asking us whether we intended to take a helicopter and so on! Kids..lovely, innocent kids....a good spanking is all that was needed to set them straight which for obvious reasons we could not try !!! After a bit of confusion, we finally managed to hire a guide who said he would take us till the base point for the trek and thus...finally...the trek started !

Such a long walk !!!!!

We began walking towards Siddhagad by first crossing a few fields. At this point the trek seemed ridiculously simple especially with a guide leading our way and the route looking easy. Punctuated with loo breaks, Osci and Goldies photo taking sessions, Pankajs jokes and a supercharged Shantanu keeping pace with the guide...this part of the trek went along at a leisurely pace. The biggest problem was the nonstop guzzling of water which would prove costly later. The route got trickier as the rocks made its appearance and the one thing that kept worrying us was that Siddhagad still seemed very, very far despite having walked a considerable bit. The breaks became a bit more frequent and the water guzzling even more so. The guide suddenly informed us that he would have to leave us and that the rest of the trek was a straight route. It wasn't a very comforting thought when all we could see around us were rocks and sparse vegetation. Cursing the guide, we made our way upwards but the fort still seemed impossibly far.

Aur Kitna mere bhai ??!

The number of bottles of water we still had now assumed a lot of importance as we started getting very desperate at not having reached anywhere. Just when we were getting mighty pissed, we saw two village ladies go past us at a brisk pace ! They told us the route to the fort and we continued along that path. By this time, Goldie looked like he could go no further. Every break saw him lie down flat on any piece of rock he could find ! The guy swore that this was the last time he would go on a trek! In the meantime, the UNIX guy who gave the rest of us the impression of having been here before kept clambering up the rocks with remarkable ease ! The rest of us puffed and panted and followed behind him. Finally, we came across the gate that marked the beginning of the fort territory. This felt like a major achievement for us and we celebrated this with a lot of snaps. Continuing from here, we reached the next landmark of the trek...Siddhagadwadi, a small village which according to many blogs was very close to the fort. We refilled our bottles over here but to our shock..found out that the fort was supposedly an hour away according to the villagers. However, a cave belonging to a Baba was 15 minutes away. The group was divided over here about continuing further or returning back. Accordingly, 5 of us went ahead to go to the cave and the remaining went back the gate of the fort where they would wait for us.

How the heck did he make a house here !!

The 5 of us i.e Shailendra, Oscar, Shantanu, Sachin and me who went ahead to search for the Babas cave were absolutely unprepared for what followed. We had no idea of the route and couldn't even see the cave anywhere. We tried one route and reached a dead-end and just when we were thinking about going back, we heard someone yelling at us. At first, none of us could make out what was being said and whether it was being told to us but soon, we figured that someone was giving us directions. We heard 'right...by the mango tree' and we went in that direction and found a rocky path leading upwards. We followed this route which was easily the toughest we had encountered yet. Legs protesting, lungs exploding and every step seeming impossible...we moved forward guided only by the voice. Finally, we reached the cave and the sight was jaw-dropping ! Lying on a swing hung from a tree right on the edge of the cliff was the Baba. The view from here was awesome...gorakhgad could be seen clearly and the ranges were now completely visible and near us. As we all sat in the courtyard, the trek finally seemed worth it. We clicked a lot of pics here and refreshed ourselves and then decided to go on our way back.

Reunite with the group and back home

Considerably reenergized by our stop at the cave, the journey back, though dangerous as it was slippery due to loose sand, went along fast. We reached Siddhagadwadi and again refilled our bottles and moved downwards faster(Shailendra frantically shouting and running along must have surely scared whatever animals there were in the forest!). Very soon, we reached the gate to find the rest of the group enjoying a picnic of sorts having lit a bonfire. Satish obviously getting his much needed cigarette break here. Having munched on whatever stuff we had, we moved down even faster, reaching a small house where the guide was waiting for us. The guide then took us on the long and boring way back to Narivali. We were trying to target the 6 PM bus back to Murbad but couldn't make it. Finally we managed to reach Narivali at around 6.15 and waited for the 7 PM bus back after our attempts at trying to hire a jeep proved futile. The bus dropped us off at Murbad in an hour and the next bus from there made us reach Kalyan at around 8.30. From here, the group disbanded to go home.
As a footnote, i must add that this was definitely the most difficult trek i have been on(not that i have been on many). The thought that we didn't really make it to the fort does keep coming back so maybe...just maybe...another trek to the same spot could be on the cards in the near future.Till then..Adios !

Trip to Rajmachi-Part 1


After being stuck at home for a dozen weekends , i jumped at the opportunity of visiting Rajmachi at my friend's suggestion. A nice comfortable trek while i clicked award winning nature photos like a Pro was what i thought. Boy, was i wrong !Now, from what i had seen of Rajmachi( Courtesy forwards that are always sent when you are working!) , it looked beautiful. A 19 KM trek from Lonavala, almost fluoroscent green grass. Yeah, the grass in the photos did look unbelievably green and when you are from Mumbai....such things which may seem normal to most people are almost alien to us ! Accustomed to a brownish,grayish tinge to everything ranging from the skies to the grass and even to the supposedly white shirt i was wearing , we Mumbaikars are excited at even looking at something as mundane as green grass !!So, getting back to the story, i landed at Thane station at 7.00 after nearly 2 hours of journeying from my residence in Vasai ! Having cursed everyone and everything during this journey, i was hoping that unlike most of my journeys, this one would be peaceful and uneventful. Well, the first of the disappointments struck as the railway announcer apologized to all the passengers by stating that Mumbai-Pune Deccan Express had been cancelled in his most monotonous, incomprehensible voice possible. To show his weak command over other languages as well, he continued to state this in 3 languages !! Shortly after having heard this extremely encouraging statement, my friends arrived. All office colleagues of mine and with much smaller bags than mine ! Having heard my friend's advice of carrying every bit of precautionary measure possible, i was left carrying a bag which was much larger and heavier than the rest !! The helpful announcer then came back to mention that a special train had been started. The special unreserved train meant that every Tom, Dick and Harry boarded the train. Most without tickets ! Assuming gymnastic positions in the train while trying to hold a bag that seemed to be getting heavier by the minute was tough initially but soon it became OK and all of us friends were talking about office, movies, stocks(!!), the girl sitting in the corner and so on !

So, this is it...I have finally started a blog ! Thats some achievement for an absolutely lazy moron like me so well...i applaud myself !!! So, what would you see in my posts? Well, movie reviews, my cribbing ,music reviews, my cribbing , general thoughts, my cribbing...did i miss something...oh yes..my regular cribbing !!! By now you must have guessed what i generally end up doing if i am not annoying my office colleagues with my himesh reshammiya impersonation....yes, i crib and so you are gonna find my 2 paisa take on everything that happens around me or rather everything that collapases due to me. Thats it...done with my inaugral post and as i have taken an oath to do something worthwhile with this net connection...more posts shall come ! As Yoda says 'May the Force be with you'....you are gonna need it when i begin cribbing !