Bungee Jumping

Stepped into Archies the other day to shop for Saurabh's bday gift n was kinda alarmed to see Archies charging a preposterous 50 bucks for a 1/2 an inch-by-1/2 an inch-by-1/2 an inch diary with exactly 6 pages.It's so ridiculous n disappointing to see the adventure sport-ers hike their fee just like the Archies trend quoted above -the trend that had me shell-shocked.A single bungee jump costs 600/- ... thankfully Times' card holders would get it for half the price n i was lucky enough to get to tag along wid a friend who was a Times' card-holder.Reached Palace Grounds by 2pm n the blazing-hot sun didn't seem too encouraging at all.Watched a few people do their Rocket Man (reverse bungee).That looked like a lot of fun - getting ejected obliquely at a great speed to a height of 140 feet n then a free fall followed by huge pendulum swings.We(8 of us) waited for the Rocket Man brave-hearts to be done n then went to the crane area to do the bungee thingy.When a few people ahead of me were gearing up, I was busy yapping on the phone wid my friend.

Friend:Done?How're u feeling?
Me:Not yet.Last time I went parasailing thinkin that a flight at 250 ft above Mother Earth would b damn thrillin n scary n all that.It finally turned out to b such a damp squib.Was hardly anything u know.....n now I've come here to do the thrilling bungee but the height's JUST 140 feet.Iam kinda disappointed ya.....I don't think it'll b even half as thrilling as I think.I can't believe some people are talking as though they are mighty scared! Moreover, u remain in the air flying around for just about half a minute.
Friend:Half a minute isn't enough?
Me:No way!I'll fold my arms n play "catch me if u can" when they try to catch me by the arm to get me back on the ground.

When it was finally my turn, I entered the cage with the guide.It was a squarish cage enclosed on three sides.The fourth side was open with a slight projection - something like a very short diving board.I tried to get myself totally into the cage n the guide asked me to step back n stand on the projection instead,while he safely perched himself well within the enclosed area.As the cage took off higher n higher, the guide tried to keep me distracted by having a "what's ur name,how old r u" kinda small-talk.I found myself giving him half-hearted crisp answers,thanks to a weird fear that was beginning to grip me as we went higher n higher.When we finally reached the 140 ft limit, he asked me to turn around n NOT to look down.As the sayin goes, the forbidden fruit's always tastier n I promptly turned around n looked down.Gooooooosh!!!The sight that I saw made me go weak in the knees n the entire world around me began to reel.Here's the counselling conversation that ensued between the guide n me.

Guide:Stretch out one hand in front of you Cma.
Me:(Closing my eyes n believing like never before in the Almighty,I stretched out one hand)Done.
Guide:Now the other.
Me:(Stretching out the other hand n withdrawing the previously stretched out hand)Done.

At this point, I vaguely remember hearing people on the far ground below,guffawing away to glory at the hilarious scene I was creating.Priyank shouted out "Wat the hell are you upto!?!U sure are practising aerobics up there" n I retorted "Nooooooo....This guy's teachin me how to swim"

Guide:Come on Cma,take a deep breath.
Me:Hang on....wat did u say ur name was?
Guide:Sachin.
Me:Great.Just in case I die, I'll atleast know the name of my murderer.Listen Sachin,Iam not sure I wana do this.Can we go back please?
Guide:Come on Cma, when a 6-yr old can do it, y can't u?Stretch both ur hands out.
Me:(Feeling offended n all with this new comparison wid a 6-yr old)Ofcourse I'll do it,how can I not....but Sachin,are u 200% sure Iam gonna b alive after all this?If Iam,I promise to chant ur name 5 times every single day.
Guide:hehehehe.U r funny.Now look straight.
Me:Yeah....beautiful landscape.That's my dear dear city for the last time.
Guide:Both hands forward.
Me:(Stretched both forward,had almost plunged.Stopped,turned back to Sachin n said)U rnt gonna push me from behind, r u?
Guide:No,absolutely not.

He finally cajoled me into taking the dreaded plunge.As my heavy self struggled to defy gravity and come to terms with the sudden blood rush into my head, I heard myself screaming at the top of my voice:"Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawd, lemme liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive. I wana liiiiive".Heard more guffaws @ this one n then the world below me went blank.

Soon after the near-death experience,I experienced one huge jolt n the rope had me making those huge pendulum swings.I was kinda relatively tranquil by now,the thrill of it all having sunk well with me.However, the "ONLY half a minute" that I mentioned to my friend seemed like a whole hour to me n the "ONLY 140 feet" that I cribbed about seemed like a drop from Mount Everest itself.I was more than willing to let them catch me by the arm n get the flying lady back on the ground.Instead of the "catch me if u can", "please catch me soon" was what i heard myself shouting out to them.The queen of paradoxes n contradictions had done it again!Felt good to stand on a podium that screamed out loud: Honoured here are those who had the courage to defy peers,parents n gravity n i couldn't agree more - especially with the parents part :)


Quote for the day:The experience of overcoming fear is extraordinarily delightful.
-- Bertrand Arthur William Russell

Road to hell - the beginning

While in college, we used to find the familiar phrase "ROAD TO HELL" furiously etched on every step that led to our classrooms.Just when I began to feel that Iam left with only these nostalgic memories from college to live with, I was pinched back into reality and made to realize that the familiar phrase still screams out at me with all its fury.....the difference being just that the HELL in that phrase has transmogrified (flicking one of my hero's terms...Calvin's terms I mean) from classroom to office.I do have lots n lotsa fun at office,enjoy being the lost-in-her-own-world joker of the training room........why is it then, that i call my journey to office, the road to hell? Here's why:

The first spot on the road is my cozy lil bed.I guess some kind of a better-than-fevicol-ka-jod glue spreads out magically on my bed while Iam asleep, refusing to let me tear myself away from my comfy bed early in the morning.For someone who's used to 12 hours of sleeping like a baby, getting up at 7:30am to catch the 7:45 bus is like getting up at midnight!As I rush myself thru the daily maintenance activities with half-closed eyes (thanks to which I had once spread dad's shaving cream on my toothbrush,mistaking it for tooth paste), my heavy self manages to gallop down the street with mom yelling the pyaara pyaara "pleeeeez eat something b4 u go" concerns out at me.Iam sure the gardener who works in the lovely glasshouse down the street definitely gets a shiver down his spine every morning when I gallop down with huge thuds,mimicking a mammoth-conquers-earth disaster, or more realistically an earthquake scenario.He lifts his busy head up to look at me rushing past n I see his frightened face curve into a warm smile.As I wave to him n rush past, I sometimes get lucky enough to reach the bus-stop in time.Everyone at the bus-stop without exception,shoots a "beware of her" or "which slum is she from" or "is that just hopelessly dishevelled hair or is it really hay on her head" or "that big company's tag that she's wearing.....does that major company really employ ragpickers n vagabonds like these" or "was her just-outa-bed kinda appearance just a faux pas or is she mistakenly headed for office instead of the psychiatrist's clinic?".By the time i shoot back the appropriate "I'll bite you if u look @ me like that" kinda glares at these people, my bus breezes into the stop.People shoot the final parting glance that shouts out loud "Iam sure she's boarding this cool-lookin luxury bus coz she's mistaking it for a 'save-the-street-children-from-turning-into-drug-addicts' van".Finally, escaping their preposterous pricky glares, I board the bus.

n at times when i don't get lucky enough 2 reach my bus-stop on time,I see the empty bus stop,miss those wicked glances n quickly embark on the huge task of maskaaofying Chubby to do a filmi ishtyle chase of my office bus.Just like how it happens in the movie stunts,Chubby's bike pulls up next 2 the bus after a 2km chase, manages 2 overtake it n go right in front of the bus,blocking its way.I look back n wave frantically at the driver,signalling to stop,with my forest-swampwaali hair flying carelessly all oer my face,adding to the sadak-chaap bacchi look.That driver guy has the nerve to shoot back a derisive smile n dismiss my request to stop sometimes.Just wait until I unleash my rowdy ways on him!Bbye 4 now bloggie.Got to go n catch my bus....I'll continue yappin tomo.

long weekend

I had to take an off from work on Friday since I was quite ill.That made it a long weekend.

Cough,cough,sneeze,sneeze,hello,hello,maaaa i still have a fever,maaaa im feelin so guiddy,maaaaaaa im feeling so nauseatic - well, that constituted 90% of my talking time this sick weekend.

Was so boring for the restless me to just lie down all day long like a sick granny n take REST like the doc asked me to.So did a lil bit of reading n made another small wall-hanging this weekend.Remember I mentioned that I had been reading 'The Road Less Travelled' in an earlier blog post?That was loooooooooong back but Iam still hooked to the same book.It's not voluminous but is so heavily loaded in terms of its thought-provoking content.Skimming oer it just for the heck of reading it might take about 3 hours but if you stop, think,try to digest n implement the ideas n views expressed, u'll probably take nearly as long as Iam taking - 3 weeks if Iam right.My second wall-hanging has some finishing touches to be added.

As they rightly say,an idle mind is the devil's workshop....The jobless me found myself in a majorly deep philosophical mood, threatening Plato's undisputed numero uno position.Spent a lot of time contemplating on a helluva lota topics that interested me endlessly,searching for answers that seem to be eluding me for too long now.

In toto, this weekend was in stark contrast to the previous one where I had so much fun loafing - first to a humour evening that was so entertainingly hilarious, then to a Kannada play called 'Bandvaalvillada Badaayi'.A weekend well spent.

Quote for the day: Life's sometimes so beautiful,sometimes so disgusting.....but it's never 'always beautiful' and never 'always disgusting'.
~~Chutki :-p

Today in history: Today, in 1861, at Fort Sumter was fired upon, returned fire, and the United States was officially at war with itself - the great Civil War began.After it had all ended, over 600,000 Americans had perished.

Depressing,I understand

This post is dedicated to one of my dearest frenz who's goin thru a terribly depressing breakup.What makes the breakup as tough as it is, is that things are quite fine n intact between her n her guy but the breakup has been forced upon them due to ridiculous reasons.I wrote this heartfelt verse for her n ended up in tears by the time I was done.Didn't mean to post it on this blog - a personal message that was intended just for her but Iam doin so outa her own request.....I really hope she gets back to the cheerful self that she once was.I feel really really bad for her n am so despondent about the whole thing.The crux of this episode will be the subject matter of my next critical blog - a subject that I've been longing to write on since a long long time, a subject that has been mentioned in my blog's description - 'Love in India - a reason to celebrate or crib'.For now, here's the verse:


I know that u were promised the moon n the stars,
And all u have now are emotional scars;
That, together, u had built castles in the air,
And all you have now is a daily-visitor nightmare.

I understand dearest,I understand every inch of what u've been thru;
Cling on to me tightly baby,I'll do my best to help u pull thru.

I've seen how u can't forget his caring acts,acts through which he showed he luvd u in his own sweet way,
I've seen how every happening reminds u of him, despite ur best efforts to keep busy steerin down life's highway;
I know u still shed a silent tear my dear,
When ur all alone n no-one's near.

I understand dearest,I understand every inch of what u've been thru;
Cling on to me tightly baby,I'll do my best to help u pull thru.

I know that control over urself meant the world to you,
n that this was the only time u listened to your inner voice coo -
"Let go of urself,he's the one for you,
The man who'll light up ur life n stick 2 u like glue."
I know this was the only time when u let ur heart rule oer ur head,
n that decision now makes u feel like ur on ur death bed!

I understand dearest,I understand every inch of what u've been thru;
Cling on to me tightly baby,I'll do my best to help u pull thru.

I know u're extremely conscientious unto ur last breath,
n now guilt rules supreme across ur mind's length n breadth;
I've witnessed ur horrifying transformation from 'warm' to 'ice-chill',
n the slow melting away of ur strong,cast-iron will.
I know none can fill the void that he has left behind,
Nevertheless I'll try helpin u regain ur lost mind.

Iam a huge fan of the warrior in u who's bravely fighting his way back to normalcy,
I pray his victory will soon be here : u in ur normal self for the world to c.

I understand dearest,I understand every inch of what u've been thru;
Cling on to me tightly baby,I'm always there for u.

Pretty pretty on the wall

Now I realize : mom's threats of throwing away my things, often do a helluva lot of good to me!These threats started way back in college when I used to get morbidly obsessed with some of my pretty/smart clothes - to the extent that I'd wash n wear the same 4 or 5 outa 35 tops to college over n over again.The same was the case with 4 outa 18-20 salwar suits.Mom finally resorted to hiding these away in a suitcase so that I'd use the other clothes too instead of presenting myself like an abjectly destitute victim stricken by some natural calamity(No offence meant.....all my due respects to those who braved n survived the wrath of the natural disasters whose numbers in recent times are on a meteoric rise).

This weekend, the threat extended to "I'll throw away the half-completed wall-hanging lying under ur cot.It has been lying there untouched for atleast a year now n has gathered more than a few inches of dust".To make a long story short,I spent most of Friday digging up this museum piece of incomplete art from the dirt pile n got working on it right away.It has a white peacock sitting on a branch covered with leaves flowers n twigs.The entire piece is set on a black background.It's made of sola wood.Painting it was greeeeeeeeeeat fun.I painted the twigs brown with the Fevicryl colours that I had n then realized that I had none of the other colours needed for the leaves n flowers.The lazy me was way too lazy to go out n buy paint.So got a lil over-creative n decided to make some paint myself.Emptied green holi powder on to my pallette,mixed it with gum n water n there I had green paint ready to be smeared on to the leaves.Did the same with red,pink n golden coloured powders n I had lovely hues for flowers n the pollen.Ditching modesty for now,the pretty lil wall hanging did receive applause from everyone who cared 2 see it.It is now perched neatly in the hall of my home - the hall of fame :)

Quote for the day:A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
-- Herm Albright

This day in history:21-year-old Tiger Woods wins the prestigious Masters Tournament by a record 12 strokes.

The R factor in a relationship

My instructor for the day has been babbling about 'relationships' between 'entities' in his desperate efforts to help us master UML.n being the lateral thinker that Iam(Iam tryin to be soft on myself....hence calling myself 'lateral thinker' instead of 'mental loafer'/'incorrigibly off-track' which wud've been more apt in this situation), I got into my 'Plato ki amma' philosophical garb n started pondering on what one D-thing I consider quintessential, to hold a relationship together.I mean the Fevibond item in a reln.After initially groping with the hackneyed n obvious

affection
frequency match
space
common interests
agree to disagree

etc list, I was forced to halt for a moment n think about 'Respect/Admiration'.I began to associate with a few past stray incidents in my life n in the lives of my closest cronies......incidents when we've mercilessly written off people that we wouldn't want as part of our lives ever again,incidents when we've consciously chosen to keep a safe distance from a few people.After a brief incident-based-post-mortem aimed at digging deep into why we did what we did,I realized one factor that was common in all these cases.To sum it up:

We frame our inital opinions about people based on either the first impression or, as is the case with the more thoughtful lot,based on our interactions with these people and their reactions to situations over an initial acquaintance period that we have with them.During this period, a subconscious concrete classification of what we like and dislike about the person begins to form in our minds.Over a period of time, we accept the person with these initial notions of not-so-bad vices/tolerable vices that we had spotted in him/her.


As the relationship grows older and moves from 'acquaintance' to 'friend' or 'more than a friend', we begin to witness some events to which he/she reacts in a way that's not quite favourable to our taste.Then comes the great fall,suddenly reducing the initial 'wow' opinion we had had of the person to zilch n giving way to thoughts such as "Oh but i thought he/she was a lot more mature than this!","Oh but i thought he/she'd handle it better","Oh I thought he/she gave our relationship the utmost importance and prioritized it over all else","I thought I was his/her very best friend","I didn't know he/she was so foolish.He didn't even know THIS!?!","He doesn't present himself/herself well".We may limit this judgement to just that incident and uphold our initial perception of the person OR in the sad case that the incident had major repercussions, we may head towards souring our relationships.Initial perceptions are washed away,we do not respect/admire the person anymore cz they just aren't as wonderful as we thought they were.Bottomline:The day when you feel your respect for a person slipping away is the day when the relationship has begun its journey on the downward slide.

Quote for the day: Cheap things are of no value, valuable things are not cheap.
Today in History:Tito was made the president for life of the newly named Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia!!!

Evil-minded

The world would be a much more peaceful n likeable place to live in if it were to be full of only cunning n crooked-minded idiots, the kinds that I know.The whole prob is that some of us r not that way (we're the so-called goodie goodie types) n some others are.Too sad to belong to the former class n get trampled over by the latter.So glory b to the cunning lot.Let there b more of u!

Smart pranks n the not-so-smart me in fools' paradise

There goes my claim 2 fame or shud I say ill-repute: cat-woman busted totally

I'll detail 2 of the 3 "How i was duped" episodes here n save the third (n undoubtedly the smartest of pranks) to be published later....

1)My employment contract papers screamed out loud:Your email id will be firstname.lastname@blahblah.com. On my new job,I gladly started sending n receiving mails.Tried very hard to configure Outlook on a new machine with this email id.It was 3 full weeks later that i realized my email id wasn't what I had thought it was.Talk of the "attention to detail" n "observant" that i boast of on my resume!!!Embarrassing scene indeed when a colleague pointed out my dhakkan act.


2)We headed enthusiastically 2 the main campus for our freshers' party.Riding pillion on JP's bike had my dapper self all soaked in slush.Managed 2 wash some of it off my neat white skirt with the DETTOL that Barbie helped me with.Picked up a funda from her.......Gals jst need 2 spend an hour in the restroom 2gether n tnx 2 their gossipping abilities,they'll come out as best friends!


Then headed 2 the ATM to show Ro how to make cheque deposits.On my way back, a guy in black extended his hand,called me by my name n said a "hi".There i went rat-a-tat-a-tat....."Haaaaai" ....hand shake-shake-shake...."But Iam so sorry i don't recognize u.Iam terrible at remembering n associating faces n names.Ur face looks familiar but i don't quite rem where i've met u" n he instantly snapped "Ora Hyd".I smelt big time fish n retorted "But I was never at Ora Hyd" n the stumped guy swept clean with a "Oh!I was at Ora Blore 4 smtm n then moved to Ora Hyd".We exchanged a few common pleasantries n then parted ways.I returned 2 my huge tapori gang tht ws giving me inquisitive glares by now.They all started clapping n pullin my leg abt the way i supposedly POUNCED on this guy.Ro revealed later that she had FIXED it all up n he was jst my current colleague....not anyone i KNEW evn by face earlier!!!


3)This was the smartest of all my fools' day pranks.....one that made me laugh so hysterically for so long n not surprisingly, it came from someone who has gifted me with a helluva lota smiles for as long as I can remember :) This one can't be published ..... atleast not right now!

Quote for the day:Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them. ---- Abraham Licoln