To Whomsoever It May Concern

"You could have a change of heart, if you would only change your mind ..."

You know, you may take your own sweet time to get over things but you may not really succeed because unlike popular belief, time is not such a great healer as its made out to be - its the people who come into your life, sometimes in the strangest fashion, who help you see things beyond the pain and misery and the whys and why nots and take you out of that dreadful place called loneliness.

And yes, mostly love just blossoms on its own but sometimes its a conscious decision on one's part to be happy again, to start afresh, to allow someone else to share one's life with.

Peace!

My Two Cents

During my last trip to India a few months back, I happened to visit Bombay. It was the day I was flying back to US and the sole purpose of being in 'Aamchi Mumbai' was to shop, shop & shop as if there'll be no 'clothes' tomorrow.

Have I ever mentioned that I love this city? I absolutely love it. I love its pace - always moving, never stopping, come what may. I love to see the people running everywhere and anywhere, always seeming to know the direction they need to take, always in a hurry to get to some place and the way they ignore each other as if no one else exists but them. Even New York doesn't seem to fascinate me as much as Bombay does but now I am digressing.

So coming back to my shopping saga - sis & I landed in B'bay late morning & headed straight to Colaba, from there to Dadar, VT & finally, Vashi. We shopped for 10 hrs straight (yes, only girls can do that), taking breaks in between to have some delectable snacks like vada paav, chaat, sundaes & a sumptuous dinner. After a heavy stomach and a much much lighter wallet later we reached Vashi railway station to catch a local to VT. We were running late for my flight, the train was due in two minutes, we grabbed our tickets and as we turned to rush to the platform, a kiddo, barely 10 yrs old, tugged at my sis's T-shirt begging for money. Before I had a chance to react, my sis asked, "Kya Khayoge?". Both, me and the kid looked at her with a quizzical expression when she took hold of his hand & almost dragged him to the nearest eatery and asked again, "Kya Khayoge?". A bit taken aback at what my sister meant, the kid found it hard to utter anything. My sis looked over the counter, ordered a few things, paid & gave the rest of the change to him. Then she looked at me, grabbed my hand & we broke into an instant run, hoping against hope that we will make it in time to catch the train & as I turned to have a last glimpse of the kid, I saw him cheerfully waving at us with one hand and holding his dinner with the other. And that's when I realized that was the BEST thing we did in the whole day.

I do agree with the saying, 'Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for life' but when you don't know how to fish yourself, giving a fish is not such a bad idea. And that's my two cents.

What a Coincidence ...

A few weeks back, while I was in the library, a guy approached me with the usual 'Hi, who are u & how are you' thing. Well, when you are so engrossed in reading something like the conflict between Israel and Palestine, a date is certainly the last thing on your mind. Plus, a library is one of the best place to spend some quality time with yourself so I viewed this as an intrusion to my privacy. But above all, since this was the first time in US that a stranger showed any interest in me :), I didn't know how to put the message 'You are bugging me, mister' across in a milder tone so I just glared at him and mumbled an unintelligible 'Sorry, I am not interested'.

Well, I would have conveniently forgotten this whole episode if not for my St.Louis trip yesterday. So there I am standing in the queue at the car rental's and I chance to see none other than our library guy. It'd have been fine if he were just another customer like me but no, he had to be the guy behind the counter. Finally my turn comes and I walk upto him, praying silently that he shouldn't recognize me, but his grin tells me otherwise. And as I stand there, he painfully repeats the whole library incident, leaving no room for doubt, while I desperately try to hide the flush thats creeping up my face and then he asks me my name, phone no, address and ofcourse, my credit card info, which I provide without any reluctance this time. Then with a satisfied look of a lion that has just devoured his prey and a smirk on his face, he coolly tells me, "Thank you Ma'm, you have a nice trip".

!@#$% Coincidence or What!!!

(Not-So) Random Drug Test

Ok, so we do get RANDOMLY picked and tested for drug intake under the substance abuse prevention policy in the office. But did you know that you can fail this even if you had pain killers like aspirin or carbonated drinks just before the test?

But that doesn't bother me much, what really bothers me is it being called a 'RANDOM' Drug Test. No, really, will they randomly pick the CEO for a drug test? And what if he fails - will they hand him a pink slip? hmmm ... I would like to see that.

T-Shirt Graffiti

Saw this printed on a T-Shirt yesterday - "So you want my number, call 1-800-GET LOST".

The World That I Live In - I

Had read a book long long time back, I have forgotten most of it now except for these two characters - There's this hot shot guy, working for some hi fi firm, who happens to call up someone from another firm and in the process talks to their receptionist. The receptionist is this husky voiced, sexy sounding lady. Our hero goes absolutely bonkers over her seductive voice. It drives him so nuts that he just can't think of anything else but her and finally after many more such calls and lot of persistence, they meet and he finds out that the receptionist is the most ugly looking lass that he has ever met.

So, does our hero do a vanishing act? Oh no, not him - he goes right ahead and sleeps with this woman coz its the voice that does it for him.

What I want to know is does this kind of thing really happen? Can you get so enamoured by just one quality/characteristic of a person so much so that you can ignore the rest? Forget voice, not even looks or physique does it for me. I must be meeting all wrong kinds of people. Where are all the brawny, Greek God looks, TDH hunks? WHICH WORLD AM I LIVING IN???

To Friendship!!!

This is my first entry in the world of blogging. I don't have any misconceptions about my writing abilities and knowing that well, I don't know how regularly I'm going to post. Anywayz, I wanted to make this first entry very special one - special for me, so here it goes ...

Hey teddy,
3 more weeks & u will be starting a new innings in your life. On one hand I'm happy that u've found that special someone, happy that u've decided to settle down, happier that its Nike but on the other, I just have this nagging feeling that u & me are going to drift away (not intentionally though) just like most other of my married friends & so just wanted to walk down the memory lane, when u are still single, when u are still JUST MY FRIEND & take u alongwith me ...

Sep '98 - Pooja Holidays - Scheduled Current Cut - Our first proper 1-on-1 - U & me sitting on the front steps of LH & wondering if it'd have helped if I'd accepted the chem guy's proposal. My answer's still the same - it wouldn't have mattered.

Feb '99 - Moving into the same room with U, buddy & neddy - the greatest roomies I have ever had. Hail DPeeRS!

All those weekends when I've used your left leg as my acoustic guitar & we sang ourselves hoarse - competing for who could sing the loudest and not the sweetest.

Our first puff together & feeling like we are the coolest.

Our first drink that strange sat'day nite - wine mixed with fanta (Yuck! Can't believe we mixed those two).

Our bet on the average male size.

The dance on the Ricky Martin song on final year's day, when we forgot the steps and came to a complete standstill on the stage and the booing after that.

Last day at LH - The LH Corridor - me kneeling in front of u, trying to fix up a safety pin on your jeans ka zip coz your darn zip won't work & the warden's steel grey (black, actually) eyes, piercing on us, with the wierdest expression on her face coz she can't see the damn pin from so far.

Man, we rocked & we still do. So, here's wishing u all the success that u so deserve & all the happiness in the world.

Here's to u & Nike.
Here's to us & our 6 long years of friendship (& still counting).
Cheers!!!

-Huddy