More Saiyan To Hai Pardes - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcD4epRdamc

He : Hi Sweety!!
She : Hiii Teddy .. !!!
He : I missed you all day today.I couldn’t concentrate in office. All the time your face,your words kept on lingering…
She : Me too… All day , I kept thinking of you.
He : This stupid *** ( His firm’s name ) .why did it have to send me onsite NOW.. away from my fiancée !! They say “courtship period is the best period of one’s life “ ..Why..Why..Why..and here I’m miles away from my sweetheart on a lonely sojourn. If only you could be here with me…
She : Don’t worry dear , we’ll soon be together and we have a lifetime to be together…and I’m sooo excited.. Oh!! This winter we’ll be together!!! (As they are getting married in the fall this year)


The above conversation is between a young IT employee and his fiancée who are planning to get married this winter. While he is away on a foreign land for work assignment , his fiancée is here in India. They say that the sweetest moments of their lives have been ruined by this Co. that required one of them to travel abroad. But… I think the other way round. Of course it would definitely have been better had they been together… but isn’t the other way also good. The way they are missing each other , the way they are yearning for each other is only slowly blossoming their love.. love that will carry them a long way through the institution of marriage.. love that will fill their hearts and souls with a bonding to last forever..emotional bonding..which is the base of any relationship. Yes, they are apart..but isn’t this also true that
“ Distance makes the heart grow fonder " … This makes me ponder ..what will I do if caught in a similar situation . Hmmm…While it will be really sad to be so far apart but how can one be far apart if he/she is right there in your heart. So , I think I’ll make the best use of telecom and technology to stay connected and simply wait for the day he would be back to India. I’ll wear my Best dress , get a bunch of beautiful flowers and drive to the International Airport a good 5 hours in advance  to greet him !(As I would be so excited that instead of waiting at home for the correct time , I would rather wait at the airport!!  

Commonwealth Games 2010 - A National Shame ?

Only a few weeks left for the much awaited Commonwealth games, which was supposed to be a matter of National pride, but sadly it has been reduced to nothing but a matter of National shame and International ridicule in full media glare.
Crores of money being siphoned off to some UK firm , shows that how the Indian bureaucracy is also hand in glove with all the corrupt people out there looking for their share of pie. It’s all a big chain where everybody in the league – from top to bottom is somehow gaining from the CWG 2010 .
60 days left , and I don’t think Delhi is ready to welcome it’s guests . The traffic is pathetic all over Delhi and the expected footfall of thousands of guests is only going to add to the worse situation. Although , it feels good when I go out in the city and see the new Metro tracks being laid and work being carried out in full speed , I felt particularly sad when yesterday in a news channel , I saw the plight of the workers and labourers involved in beautifying our city and making our city ready for the Commonwealth games.
With the D-day arriving and pressure building in , the workers are made to toil more and work in inhuman conditions. I doubt if right in the heart of our city and in the capital of our country , proper Labour Laws are being followed , if they are being paid the correct wages and what precautions are being taken as the sites where construction work is being carried out are often very dangerous and risk prone. Already 40 workers have been reportedly killed in mishap . Will India host the Commonwealth games out of hard work and toil including blood and life of it’s poor ? Most of the labourers toiling day and night have been employed by private contractors and are not even registered. As a citizen of India , I feel there should be a proper account of each and every person who is contributing on his/her part to make the Games possible .Proper and correct registration of all the workers involved and correct wages paid to them , so that next time when I travel on the newly laid Metro line or any new flyover in Delhi , my heart would know the labourer who made it possible and that he/she was given correct remuneration for his/her work rendered.

Traffic blues !!!

I had a really harrowing experience Wednesday evening while going to Gurgaon from Noida in the evening. Used to a comfortable life and minimal travelling to and fro office , yesterday , I came to know and understand the agony and discomfort of people who travel a distance to reach their office especially people who travel from Gurgaon to Noida or vice versa. I believe myself and suggest everybody who cares / does not care to listen to me – Please stay in a locality that is NEAR to your workplace. It will not only save time , but will also keep your mind and body relaxed.
And so it happened that I was supposed to attend a day long training in my Noida office and in the evening I had to return back to Gurgaon. We started well in time at 6 PM by our office bus , but as we reached the Expressway , we could see that something was wrong . The entire view of the expressway was worth seeing , with cars all lined up till your eye could see. And from then and there , the agony began , our bus only inching forward.They say that when bad time comes , it comes with all fury . So, after sometime we reached the Moolchand flyover and as we were watching the traffic all gone Hayward and a long queue of vehicles all around , our bus suddenly stopped right there in the middle of the flyover!!! We were informed that the bus has broken down and there is no way it can move ahead. Soon , I found myself WALKING !! on the Moolchand flyover in the middle of inching and honking cars during Peak traffic hours. In weirdest of my dreams , I had never dreamt that…I don’t even know how much I walked with a heavy laptop bag. After sometime , we managed to get a cab in which I unfortunately got a seat in the back. It was hot , it was humid , the back seat’s windows could not be opened , probably there was no AC/ or was not switched on . I felt like I would die with suffocation or anoxia. I was getting dizzy as I was sitting at right angles to the direction in which the car was moving.( Not used to that either!! ) From here we had to goto Dhaula Kuan but we came to know that the traffic at Dhaula Kuan was on a standstill since the last 2 hours. Plan was changed..there was no way out .So, it was decided to reach the nearest Metro station .At least we would not find a traffic jam at Metro. So, we had to reach the newly opened Mehrauli metro which we reached after 1.5 hours of which every minute that I spent was an agony with a Capital ‘A’ , add to it the nonsense playing on FM . The moment , we reached the metro station , I jumped out of the car , and breathed a good volume of oxygen into my lungs. Finally , when I found myself alive and okay , we started from there . It was midnight by the time that I managed to reach home. I had never experienced such a thing in the 2 years that I have been staying in Delhi , leave 2 years, I had never experienced such a thing in my entire lifetime .
One thing that I learnt – stay as close as possible to your workplace , so that you don’t have to travel on roads where you can get stuck and secondly , I’ll think twice now ,before confirming to attend some training which requires me to travel 40-50 kms !!!
And … as I write this …water is again dripping from my AC!!! The stupid person who came to install the AC last year did not drill the wall for the outlet pipe. Now, the water drips from the AC inside the room right near me !!! And nobody should laugh , when I tell you that I have kept utencils of various shapes and sizes to collect the water that drips like a bucket , a mug , a tumbler , and a serving dish !!!! I have made so many phone calls to the AC wala bhaiya, to the Society’s Sharma bhaiya but nobody has come until now. Sometime back , I went to the society’s office and wrote a compalint in the register. But , of course ..everything will happen the Indian way…till then I’ll continue collecting water in buckets and utencils!!!!

A new Era

I woke up today morning to find an extremely pleasant weather outside my window.Though not an early riser especially on Sunday’s , still I could not put myself back to sleep again. This weather is such a rarity in this latitude and longitude that I crave for it all the time , myself having spent most of my time in a latitude and longitude that witnesses a good 2 months of monsoon and incessant rains. I just love the greenery all around , the trees , grass and houses all bathed in fresh rain !!!
Anyway , let me not get carried away with this beautiful weather , the post is about something else that I wanted to share.It’s about my maid . Our earlier maid – Mumtaz or we fondly call her ‘Momo’ is on leave for 2 months .Sadly, she has had a mild paralytic attack , so she is on bed rest. There began a search for a new maid as one day without Momo was enough to realize and appreciate her worth and importance. We , got a new one… a shy , coy ,barely 21-22 years old. Her name is ‘Meher’ and she has a 6 months old daughter.I came to know something very surprising yesterday. My maid has a “Maid” !!!!! Yes !!!! Meher has kept a help who comes to look after her little daughter while she is away for work !!! and how ignorant I was…I used to think only the Urban working class keep nannies / help for their babies .Wowww.. I’m really amazed and happy to see this progression in society. Meher pays Rs.1000 to the maid who looks after her baby out of a total Rs 7000 that she earns per month !!!

The first Monsoon showers..

My collegue in office called me to say that she is taking the day off today. I was just getting ready in the morning to go to my office but call it a chain reaction or whatever , I suddenly felt like not going myself. So , I took the ‘Work from home ‘ option today.There was no work today , I actually enjoyed the whole day talking on phone , watching TV and having lunch.Sometime , in the evening , I got a call from my office that there was some issue and so I needed to be there for sometime .I walked to my office , my office being a stone’s throw away from my apartment.The weather was surprisingly cool and nice. It was actually starting to get windy and I could feel that it was going to rain.I reached office and turned on my laptop to begin my work .I have a window facing seat which gives a clear view of the outside if the curtains are not drawn. I drew the curtains apart , so that I could see the dark clouds outside.And…then… it rained  . It rained heavily . Wow… I went downstairs with one of my friends in the open lobby .There were many people like us trying to get absorbed in the beauty of the first monsoon showers.Almost everybody was looking happy and busy in their chit-chats. We went to the office cafeteria.Today they were serving hot samosas !!! We also ordered samosas and enjoyed our evening.

दादीमा

छोटी सी प्यारी सी अच्छी सी
दादीमा
सबका जो ध्यान रखे ऐसी है वो
दादीमा
छप्पन भोग बनाये ऐसी है वो
दादीमा
बच्चों के सिर में तेल लगाये
ऐसी है वो दादीमा
मेरे बालों में चोटी बनाये
ऐसी है वो दादीमा
क्यूँ चुप हो गयी हो अब
बोलो न कुछ दादीमा
मैं आई हूँ तुम्हारे पास
मुझे टोफ्फी क्यूँ नहीं देती दादीमा
आँखें तो खोली थी तुमने
तब मुझे क्या देखी थी तुम दादीमा
भगवान के घर चली गयी
और इस घर में हमें छोड़ गयी
क्या अब भी इस घर में
हमको तुम देखने आती हो दादीमा
हर पल तुम्हारा एहसास है
लगता है तू यहीं कहीं पास है
उसी बिस्तर पे खिड़की के पास
जैसे मुझे पुकार रही हो
मेरे बालों में चोटी बनाने के लिए...दादीमा

पूनम का चाँद

आँखें जो देख रही थीं
दूर कहीं वीराने में
अचानक ही पलकें मिलते ही
अश्रुओं से सराबोर हो उठीं

ठिठक के बैठ गयी तब गोरी
दामन जब भीग नमकीन हो गया
वफ़ा के तराजू पर जब प्रेम को तौली
साजन का पलड़ा हल्का पड़ गया

कह के गया था साजन उसका
वो लौट के वापस आयेगा
वो आँखें बिछाये बैठी थी
किसी दिन तो चाँद आएगा

आये तो बस गर्म लू के थपेड़े
आयीं तो बस आंधी वर्षा
और फिर आयीं बर्फीली हवाएं
वो आँखें बिछाये बैठी थी
पूनम का चाँद तो आयेगा