Mumbai rocks :-)

Now in Mumbai, in the city of dreams :-)
Left Bangalore long time back in last Sepetemember though I keep telling that I belong to Bangalore. When I was there I never realized thatI belonged to that place. Could not sleep the last few nights before I left the city, was not sure if I really wanted to leave it at that point of time..Was not sure if I wanted to leave everything behind..the friends, parties, everyone and probably everything. Every morning when I used to get up my pillow used to be wet. Never wanted to come here leaving everything behind but there was nobody for me in Blore then...everything was over for me.

Just kept convincing me that its a new start and new life, kept telling myself that things 're gonna be better in life. It was raining heavily when I was leaving home. I told my mami that the city's crying as I's leaving and our eyes were moist. Chintu, Babbloo, Nipoon came to send me off. My last look at Blore- the city where I have lived life in true sense, every First thing I had understood in this place, but I would not be called a Bangaloroian any more. It was one of the weirdest feelings I had ever experienced..just told others that Never say good bye and didnt look back.

Reached Mumbai. It was raining here as well. My red-blonde hair helped my friends to recognize me when I landed here. Reached my guest house and saw nothing familiar. Everything was so new and different to me. The only thing I could remember was my friends, my folks in Bangalore.

Got used to the guest house and joined office after a day. Completeed the HR formalities with Deepa and she accompanied me to the QDI practice. I met my Boss Venkatesh. His first line was Welcome to QDI and start your day with Chocolates:-) There was a party that day and Boss took the whole team out for lunch. Felt like my first day in the alst organization. Though I had the least of the expectations from Patni. Boss introduced me to the team. I met Gita, Veer, Abhijeet. Gita is The Sweetheart, Veer is another , so as Abhijeet. And KP was the icing on this cake. I met him late since he was in USA when I joined Patni. He is so systematic and disciplined that I feel its great working with him. Thank God!! what I had heard was right, Mumbai ke log bahot acche hote hain :-)

That's how life started in Mumbai. After that I met Aarti, Anup and Abhishek. Shifted to a nice flat with Shweta and Ritu. All these people have become a part of life. Gita is more like an elder sister so I love everything about her. I love the way Veer says "Tu suun meri baat..." and Abhijeet says "Let me take the exapmles- a, b, c " Boss's approach towards work has probably helped in bringing in a bit of perfectionism in life.

Its almost three months in Mumbai. Everytime I think of writing, I think what to write , about whom to write. I know some day I have to start. Since I have few good friends now, since I know good eat-outs now, since I know the city , since I know the people and most importantly since I belong to the city now, its time to start a new life now :-)

WE Two

One, two, three, four…well it’s not that I am learning counting; it’s just that how we four moved into the flat before two years. I still remember the day when I moved into the new flat; it was the house-warming ceremony. I shifted there from the company guest-house. It was a pleasant evening and I had a nice time with the flat owner and then of course a good dinner with them. I stayed alone in the three storied building alone as my land-lady had to leave for her home-town that night. I stayed there for almost fifteen days when another girl Chhotelal (Tejal) moved in. She’s a sweet girl, not very talkative and had newly joined work. I was thankful that I would have someone to talk to other than the four walls when I came back from office. We became good friends and later she became more like a younger sister to me rather than just a flat-mate. Few more days and another girl, Motu (Jyoti) came in. The first time I saw her, I found her very good-looking with beautiful hair. That day I didn’t have much time to talk to her since I had another place to go. The next day when I saw her she was looking sad with her ugly hair. She said that she had gone to some beauty parlor and the lady cut her hair very short. I felt bad for her. Then we’re three girls from east, west and north part of India and we wished no south-indian girl to come in. But finally a south-indian girl Motu (Meena) came to stay with us in the flat and we were little confused if the girl would get along well with us or not.

It took us not more than a week to become good friends and in another week we knew that we’re gonna be the best friends. And we were right. We became very good friends, in fact we became the part of each other’s life. I was so happy to move into this flat after staying alone for so long in a studio apartment. Food, music, movies and books were the things that helped in making the bond stronger and stronger between us.

Slowly night-outs became common. In the late evenings, we would have the insatiable urge to have the almond fudge, chocolate-walnut muffin, masala chai and hot chocolate and the Barista in Leela palace became our favorite adda where we used to sit till the midnight. We have had loads of fun in the first one year of our stay. After that we heard that Chhotu might get transferred to Pune. That was the first shock b’coz we were afraid that our group would break up. I started praying for Chhotu’s transfer not to happen and my prayer was granted, though for a short span of time and Chhotu stayed with us for the next six months. Then Motu applied for her H1B and we knew that she would stay with us for not more than six months, yet we were happy.

Finally Chhotu n Motu left for Pune and USA respectively. Now we are waiting for Motu’s wedding. We have decided that she’s to get married in the winter b’coz that’s the only time when Chennai’s not very hot. We are happy b’coz now Meenu’s wedding is fixed with the one,she likes. We are happy b’coz our Chhotu is going to be with her for sometime in the USA.

However with all these Jyoti and I have become tired. We are tired of seeing friends going away, we are tired of missing these two sweethearts. Life looks slow and of course different without all the night-outs, movies and never-ending conversations. I have stopped blogging, Jyoti has almost stopped watching movies; we are bored of reading and we are afraid of leaving each other and going away considering the fact that if one of us goes out then the other one will be left with nobody else but loneliness. To avoid this boredom now we have extended our interests and sometimes spend time in cooking other than shopping and eating. We are so habituated talking about We Four that we feel sad talking about We Two. With this seclusion, we both try to become each other’s world so we have decided that even anyone of us is getting married, the other one’s gonna stay with her, keeping the Godrej ad in mind- Godrej refriegerator ke saath Godrej cordless phone muuft… ab dekhna ye hai ke hum dono main se refrigeratpor kaun hai aur cordless kaun!!!.

Spices of the Midnight

Well...old days are never back...Tejal's absence can be felt everywhere every moment since then she has left our house and moved to Pune. No wonder we have never watched a movie since last December..have never gone out for ice-cream together..never have dropped into the Taj's midnight buffet or Leela's 24 hrs coffee shop. It was a normal Friday evening like any other day. I was back by nine, Jyoti came around eleven. I had some chocolates for Jyoti. As soon as Chudail came I handed the chocolates over to her else its risky to stay in the house. I was not feeling well that evening. Somehow something was missing. But as and when we sit together normally all these ideas about movies and food keep coming to our mind. Out taste-buds were normal that day (they were excited at the midnight) and Jyoti n I started searching some sweets in the. Nothing was looking very yummy on the shelves. When there is a way there is a way- this seems most appropriates when our taste-buds are exciting. immediately w called up Motu and she said that she would take care. She was half the way and immediately she turned to the airport to get something good from the airport cafeteria. Finally she got some chips, popcorns, cakes,sandwiches and of course those were enough to make us satisfied that time. All of us were happy to sit together and continue the midnight masala. The discussion was as usual diversified starting from bringing up babies in today's scenario to the natural sceneries of Karnataka. It was related to lots of matters starting from our marriages to our jobs, starting from books to the movies that we need to watch..a widely diversified discussion.

We were not surprised when it was four in the morning. The moment we saw the time on the wall-clock, suddenly were hungry. These days I was just trying to cook( at least trying to learn cooking ) few simple things. Fortunately things like aloo-jeera, bheendi n parval bhaji have come up well so I got the kick to learn cooking..I at least gained the confidence that I could something else other than Maggi in life. Then finally we entered the kitchen thinking to make Maggi..Maggi with tea have been giving us reasons to celebrate the midnight suppers..sometimes in the early mornings too.

We entered the kitchen and were disappointed not to find the Maggi. finally we thought of experimenting something new and saw the rawa dabba-onion-tomato- thats was good enough clue for us to understand that we would make upma-chutney. Immediately I started heating the pan to fry the rawa. The pan was overheated and the rawa was half-burnt while I was frying it. Then Jyoti chopped the tomato. I took the pain to chop the onion though Meenu was all set to do that. Jyoti took care to chop the ginger n green chillies and Meenu was arranging things in the kitchen. We didn't forget to capture all those sweet moments in our cameras. After the two tastiest things- upma n tomato chutney was cooked by the two greatest chefs , we saw the papad so roasted it immediately. our maid had kept the milk near the gas stove, so immediately coffee was made by the best coffee-maker Meenu. That was the icing on the cake. We served everything in one plate ..strongly believe the concept that ek plate main khana khanese pyaar badhta hai :) We have had lots of fun after a long time. Suddenly the midnight freaks were up that night after three months. Morning we selpt at three and up by nine. The fun that we had had that night didn't make us tired rather rejuvenated us well. Cheers to you all :)

Adventure or Nightmare...

Here it goes….the most unforgettable incident. It was 20th Dec evening and all of us reached home by ten- as per our plan to go to corner house, our favorite place to have ice-cream. Doston ko bichhadte waqt meetha khaake bichhadna chahiye...yaaden meethi rehti hain...that’s what all of us believe though we are not hesitant to accept the reality- khanewalon ko khaane ka bahaana chahiye.. The whole day was tiring, Meenu had to finish the work of the whole quarter in last ten days, Chhotu had to complete all her packing and I also had to do the packing to start for home the next day. The day was tiring and I had not had lunch that day so was very hungry by evening ten. All of us dressed well and started for the ice-cream parlor, after that we also had plans to go for a long-drive- probably the last night-out when all of us were together. But I suddenly wanted to go to Ice&Spice, another restaurant on the other side of the city as the Chocolate truffle there, was the best in Bangalore.

We were late when we started from home, though was not an unusual thing for us. But things took a different turn altogether when we were almost lost on St-Marks road searching the café and ended up somewhere near Commercial street. The story didn’t end there, rather that was the starting. Our Merc was not used to regular washing affairs- Meenu used to give it for servicing only once in a year, its early if I say once in every six months. Long time back we had met an accident where the car got a dent on its left and also the number plate got tilted. But we were never bothered, for anything Lenin mama hain naa…But every dog has a day and that was definitely not our day. Near Commercial Street there was a police patrolling van and it stopped us where we showed the Driver’s license and came off, thought of going to Taj to have something. We were near MG road when that van came and stopped us as the number plate was tilted both at the front and back side of the car. The dent on the left as icing on the cake for the police when they held us responsible for an accident. All of us were blank. For a moment we tried convincing them but it was of no use. The next thing to do was call of our home. Unfortunately the mobiles were switched off by 11:30 and Lenin mama’s number was missing from this new mobile I had bought. We were scarred to call up on the landline; everyone at home would get disturbed by this incident. Finally got Lenin mama’s residence number. But the problem didn’t end there; my mamaji was not there at home. After calling one number, we got another number, after three or four trials we could reach him. He was initially tensed to hear my voice at 12 midnight. Somehow we explained him the whole situation and he asked me to hand over my mobile to the police so that he could talk to him. We felt a little relieved and got back all our guts to teach a lesson to the policeman for stopping us in the middle of the night for no fault of ours. That’s when we started scolding the police man- how dare you stop us in the midnight- morons- at least should have listen to us once – and then our regular line- go to hell..dont have any etiquettes….the policeman started complaining that we didn’t respect him and my mama told us to leave the place without getting messed up with the police. We left the place and all of were trying to make the situation normal to get rid of that tension. We thought of dropping down the plan of going to Taj. We were just at the next signal when another patrolling van stopped us to ensure that we were not drunk.
Oh God…that was the end of it, Meenu was almost into tears this time , our mood was spoilt again. Finally we reached home and entered the house and Meenu started scolding all three of us. I still remember how angry she was. Tejal and me were fine or at least trying to neutralize the tension by calling this an adventure. We decided to say good-bye to night-outs. All of slept around morning three. Everything was fine when we got up in the morning; we were kinda out of the nightmare. We knew that Arians and Taurians would forget the last night’s anger by the next morning, so there was nothing to worry. Next morning we clicked lots of our pictures and went for desserts. All of us were laughing ha ha ha ha ha ha… remembering the last night’s nightmare as an adventure.

It’s Three now…

It’s Three now…it’s no more four- the gang of three girls and Not four. Definitely difficult for Jyoti, Meenu and myself to accept that Tejal is no more staying with us in Bangalore and she has shifted to Pune.

The time we spent before she went to Pune was very good. I remember when Tejal and I started from home towards Leela to have the Barista blast and Almond frappe at 10:30 in the night and caught badly by Meenu. Enough of scolding and then we had to get inside the car and all three of us had gone to the Barista there. I had Meenu’s share of chocolate-walnut muffin. Then we took some pictures and came back home after that.

The treat to Tejal was not over. We thought of buying her something nice and Meenu and I had gone to pick up a smart white winter jacket for her. Jyoti and Chhotu were terribly hungry and kept calling us to go for dinner. We had gone to Tandoor and had awesome Punjabi food. One of the best evenings we four had spent together and then we started discussing about our 1st day experience with each other in the house. Jyoti’s and my part was funny…Jyoti was surprised with the way I used to speak over phone for ours and I was thinking that girl was mad, watching me all the time in my house. Meenu thought that I was a girl with lots of attitude and emailed all her friends explaining the same. Thank God- Chhotu had thought all good about me. Now the first impression does not matter to anyone of us at all, rather it has turned into a laughter bag for all of us.

We had already started missing Tejal though she had not left Bangalore by then. I was afraid of the time when Tejal would not be around and I would have to do lots of things alone. Meenu n Jyoti work till late hours which makes the house even more depressing. When I go back from office, for the next four hours there would be nobody at home, it’s definitely upsetting coz I hate loneliness.

Two more days were there for Tejal to leave Bangalore. Two days prior to that Jyoti had to leave for Goa, and then Meenu, Chhotu and I were there at home. It was 22nd Dec when I was going home and Tejal was supposed to leave on 23rd Dec. On that Thursday night we again dragged Meenu with us to have ice-cream, but unfortunately the plan failed and Meenu sunao me so much. Next day morning everything was fine and three of us had clicked lots of pictures together in out room, with our Merc. Then we had gone together for lunch...our favorite place- Indi Joe. Meenu dedicated our favorite song, Phoolon ka taaron ka sab ka kehna hai…to Chhotu. Again clicked some pictures there and I started for the railway station.

All of us were upset but I was more worried for Meenu. After Tejal and I leaved, she would be all alone for the next couple of days, I was afraid she would be broken when Tejal left coz she had to face the same what I was going to face after a week- Loneliness. Our eyes were full with tears when I hugged Tejal for the last time but I held my tears back till I left home and boarded the train. The same had happened to Meenu, it’s not good to send people off. Meenu was sort of fine- lost a few kilos of weight though- when I was back from home. I have almost stopped staying in my house and most the time I am with my Mama- Mami after I am back from Bhubaneswar coz I hate the loneliness in the house when Tejal is not around.

Nobody is indispensable and it is a universally accepted truth. We’ll start living without Tejal in the same house yet we’ll miss her all the time. Things are still named after her even when she is not around- Tejal’s room, Chhotu’s cup-board, Chhotu’s smiley-ball and the list goes on n on n on…Chhotu just a line for you...the sky is dark when the moon is not there even if there are thousands of stars in it. We miss you…

We@Cloud Number Nine

Our best time is when four of us sit together, turn some nice music on with a mug of coffee/tea or may be some other mouth-watering snacks. Whether its day or night, evening or afternoon khoob jamta hai rang jab mil baithte hain Hum Charon Nescafe ke sang...that’s what we say. Music – nothing is as good as the soft n soothing music. Soft, romantic pop is my most favorite though would love to rock with Bryan Adam’s rock numbers as well. Meena is most fond of Savage garden and Jyoti is fond of everyone I guess…may be Backstreet Boys, Boy zone, Marc Anthony and now Bryan Adams, MLTR too. Our Chhotu is fond of Celine Deon and Bryan Adams, West life though she doesn’t mind the other bands like Venga Boys, Eagles. But I feel that special touch with Enrique’s numbers. Everytime i listen to him, I can feel the adrenaline rushing in the blood.

New day has come- is the most favorite of Chhotu whereas it doesn’t beat Meenu’s favorite Insatiable; yes I do agree. It’s one of the most romantic songs. Jyoti’s favorite, you sang to me is also a song of all times. But all of us agree with my most favorite-You say it best when you say nothing at all. The song took me six months to search it after I heard it for the first time on Radio city while buying something in Archies Gallery. But the song means a lot to me...a lot of memory with that song, in fact it means a lot to all of us now. After couple of months of the Archies Gallery shopping, one fine morning when I was watching MTV, I found out the song- the most famous of all Ronan Keating numbers- You say it best when you say nothing at all- the song from Notting Hills. That takes us to the cloud nine by making us feel so special. Let’s start humming it...

it’s amazing how you can speak right to my heart

without saying a word you can light up the dark…

the smile on your face let’s me know that you need me,

the truth in your eyes saying you’ll never leave me…

the touch on your hand says you’ll catch me wherever I fall….

You say it best, when you say nothing at all…

We enjoy living in another world with Enrique's numbers; either its wanna be with you or bilamos- we enjoy it everytime we listen to it though could never understand why he says love to see you cry in another song. I am so fond of that song that this has become my daily aerobics song. And my heart goes sha la la la is my walking song. I used to listen to it every time when I had to walk from my old office to my house. It has the most cherishing memory in it. When we are talking about songs how we can forget telling about the Bryan Adam- whether it’s summer 69 or please forgive me, coming back to you or everything I do; every song takes us into a different world when we listen to them. Tejal and I are the biggest fans of his songs- best of me and let’s make a night. Awesome songs- that’s all we can say. I should not ignore another favorite song – words, that’s more commonly known as smile in our house coz every time it brings a smile on our faces. Few months back when Meenu and then I started stringing our guitars we wanted to play hotel california but that day has not yet come. George Michel’s careless whisper and Abba’s dancing queen - are not exceptions to this list though.

All of us still agree on one thing that there is no comparison to Kishore’s romantic numbers and the duets of Lata n Kishore. Pal pal dil ke paas, Kya yehi pyaar hai, Ajeeb dastan hai yeh- are the other most favorite ones that we always listen to before going to our sweet dreams. Even songs like tere bin, jab koi baat bigad jaaye, never say goodbye, juda hoke bhi (the list goes on n on n on…) make our evenings more happening. Here the most interesting part is making Meenu understand the exact meaning of these romantic Hindi numbers. Hats off to Tejal, the way she explains the meaning of words like Izzat.

The exciting thing in all this is the way we search the song, listen to it, and watch the video after we overhear it somewhere on the radio. That again makes us sit together in the late evenings when we have desserts. Chhotu, who will listen to all the Bryan Adams numbers with me when you go to Pune…hopefully Mottu n Chudail will fall in love with Bryan’s numbers then. We reach cloud Nine easily with these songs…ae kya bolti Chudail & Motu…

The Mona Lisa Smile :-)

Life goes on as it never ends…eyes of stone observe the trend…well-said. We are all ready for Tejal’s farewell party now, though I am really feeling bad about it. I used to hang around with Chhotu most of the time. Tejal- a girl as free as me- even if she has lots n lots of p&d’s. That evening all of us were sitting together when we started talking about DaVinci Code- the ultimate fiction and most favorite book of all four of us. How we could stop discussing about Mona Lisa when we were discussing about DaVinci. All those secretes that we came to know about the most famous painting while reading the novel was shocking. The next thing we did was search about Mona Lisa on Google to know the secrete behind that smile.

Scientists analyzed the portrait of the Mona Lisa, a woman with famously mixed emotions, hoping to unlock her smile. They applied emotion recognition software that measures a person's mood by examining features such as the curve of the lips and the crinkles around the eyes. Mona Lisa was 83 percent happy, 9 percent disgusted, 6 percent fearful, and 2 percent angry, according to the British weekly "New Scientist." Still, scientists will probably never know what made her feel the way she did.

The portrait was painted in Florence, Italy, between 1503 and 1506, according to the Louvre's Web site. Historians have long debated Mona Lisa's identity, with theories ranging from being Da Vinci's mother, a self-portrait or a Florentine prostitute. Research conducted in 2004 support a claim first made almost 500 years ago -- that she really existed and that she was the wife of a rich silk merchant. But what excited us most was what Dan Brown had written in his novel.

With all these information the discussion didn’t come to an end. It was more interesting after each of us started smiling like Mona Lisa smile. It’s really funny the way Meenu was telling me to smile like Mona Lisa, the way I was telling to Jyoti n Meenu. Oh God… I have to transfer all those pictures from my mobile phone to my PC to give you a real feel of all our Mona Lisa smiles :)

Let's make our time to remember !!!

Let’s make a night to remember- one of the most famous numbers of our favorite Bryan Adams, so true especially when we say this line together. It was Thanks giving in the US.
Everyone in my office was lazy so as I. Morning when I left home, Tejal was not well which was little upsetting, bechari bacchi bimaar padgayee thi. There was a chance to leave office early and I left office in the afternoon to take care of Tejal. When I reached home I was surprised to see Meenu sleeping till afternoon 2 o’k. Then I came to know that even Meenu was not well. I woke her up and then all of us had gone out for lunch. After a nice lunch Meenu was feeling little better (as usual). We came back home and fell asleep.

It was a Friday evening and seemed so boring to sit at home just with some regular music, books or internet. Our taste-buds normally get excited during the late evenings. With no exception to it, that eve around 10pm, Meenu and I were ready with all enthu to go out. Tejal- was almost ready to have dinner at home. But how we could leave Tejal when we were going out. We dragged her with us. She was typically in her night suit and bath-room slippers, Meenu was a little better- in a suit and room-slippers and I was in an even better outfit- capre n tee-shirt but no exception to room slippers.

We had never planned that we would end up at Cafe Mosaic in Taj Residency that evening. We tried to go to Cake shop- that was closed, then to Lake View- No- not to a place where we go everyday, then what’s good about a Friday eve. Tejal suggested a place on Cunningham road where we could get the best pastries and cake but after we reached there she remembered that she had forgotten the name of the place. We could just take few unsuccessful attempts to find the place. Meenu and I were enjoying the drive, roads in Bangalore were hardly so calm in the evenings- the music was making the drive very interesting. After that we had decided to end up in my friend’s café- Ice & Spice- but again the unsuccessful attempt and we could not find the place. Finally we decided to go to Hint- but it was nearing 12 am and Hint was closed by the time we reached there. We instantaneously decided to go to Taj then.

We were not bothered about our night suits or bath room slippers either. We reached Taj and handed over the key for valet parking. They looked at our Benz for a while (the last time it was washed in the rain- some time before two months). We entered Taj at quarter to twelve. All of were veggies on Saturday and it was just 15 minutes left for Friday to get over. When the pizza reached us it was five minutes to twelve. I still could not understand how I could finish that pizza before twelve. Meena had had nice muffins there. We were little worried about Tejal- she was little hesitant to eat outside because of her throat infection. But the muffins at Sugar & Spice were able to break her rules.

After we had the pizza and cake we were more hungry- the smell of pastas coming from café Mosaic was too tempting. We were all set to go there then. We went inside and checked the menu- buffet was also looking attractive. While starting from home we had no plans of Taj, so there was not much of cash lying with us, thanks to our cards though. The swimming pool was really good. Meena started teasing us that we could only go for walking at one side of the pool where the water level was below 5 ft. Meenu thought that she was a very good swimmer though she had entered swimming pool only once till date.

The time was good and we were driving down home when Jyoti called us up. We picked her up and went to airport coffee-shop to have something hot. We liked the coffees we bought there and sat there for some time. It was almost four in the morning when we reached home. The movies we watched after reaching home, made the morning even more interesting. All of us loved Gladiator though Brave-heart was also another nice movie that we watched. The whole night was so enjoyable. At morning eight we went off to sleep and that’s how our lunch turned into an awesome dinner at Angitti. All of us enjoyed so much that we were wishing the weekend to go longer and longer.

It’s actually the people who matters and not the place. Either it is Taj or Leela, Cake-walk or Lake-view; we have enjoyed it to the core. All of us add that extra fun each time to make the time unforgettable when we are together. No wonder that we are all saying…

Let's make out - let's do something amazing
Let's do something that's all the way
Cuz we've never had the fun like the way we have the fun
Now n never want this time to go...

Let's make our time - to remember
From January - to December
Let's have fun - to excite us
A memory - to ignite us
Let's make our time- to remember - all life long!!!

Life is Beautiful

Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder-very true,things look the way we want them to look. Whether it’s just an object or a person, happiness or boredom – it’s our perception of how we take things. Sometimes we find beauty in something which looks the ugliest to someone else. How surprising but how true- our perception about things make us either happy or sad.

Life has changed in last couple of years. The time we have spent together is memorable for all of us. Movie, magic and masti – the punch line made for our gang. Food and books play a major role in our friendship as I have told earlier. Sometimes it’s worth watching movies or reading books that resemble to our life in some ways. We recently watched *Life is Beautiful*. An awesome movie that reminded us to take life easy.

It was almost 12 am when we started the movie and it got over by 2:30 am, we were sure that Tejal would sleep before the ending; but the movie didn’t let anyone walk out of the seats till it got over. It reminded us how special parent were to us all the time and how they did everything to make us happy.

I remember my parents always say that a smile on my face keeps hundred of problems away and they say that only once my tears are allowed to fall down from my eyes- that’s during the wedding- the Vidaai. When I was in my school, Mamma used to never visit people during the early evening coz the moment I reach home I used to go panic in her absence. My Pappa used to buy me a pen and a chocolate everyday before I go to school coz I’s fond of both. They strongly believe that we can either make ourselves happy or sad.

Lots of time we get confused in life while making decisions- what comes first- parents n responsibilities or own career & love. People of my age face this problem very often. But do we really succeed in meeting all the goals – in meeting the expectations of both our parents and ourselves.

This movie shows how good Roberto Benigni is as a friend, lover, husband and father. He has never let a drop of tear come from either his wife or his son’s eye till his last breath. While watching that movie, this reminded all of us about the time we had spent with our parents.

Now also we wait for our parents to visit us, not because they get all nice eatables for us but coz when someone’s parents visit here we feel that warmth of love with every move they make. Whether its Jyoti’s parents, Tejal’s, Meenu’s or mine- they are always loving.
Whether it’s a birthday bash or a break-up with our boyfriends-- parents always stand by us- may be that’s the reason we have the option of changing everything- friends, job, likes, dislikes but not our parents. They are the most special of all. They always make our lives Beautiful.

The First few Movies...

Movie, Magic, Masti is the real punchline of Zee Cinema but it’s a fact accepted by four of us- Jyoti, Tejal, Meena and myself are the major movie freaks, all having different tastes, yet watch all movies together making a cozy environment with absolute theatre effect.

In short if I say; Meena (as she is better known as Meena moron ) likes movies of different types- movies that are kuchh hattke – it could be psychological thriller, horror, absurd romance or some fundoo Tamil movies (though I do not understand those, I am sure they lie on the similar line of thought) too.

Tejal, as she is known as the soft girl, hates Meena and me when we watch any high dose movie (in her language any movie with an abnormal thought process is a high dose movie). Whenever we go to the parlor to pick up a vcd/dvd, she would say that Motui tu mujhe high dose movie matt dikha...pls yaar. It’s a tough time for me when I go to the video parlor with her to pick up some movie.

The best of these three is Jyoti. The biggest movie freak I have ever seen. There is hardly any movie left on the earth what she has not watched. So its really difficult for me to explain what exactly she likes to watch and what she does not though I assume that she likes romantic movies either comedy or thriller. If I am right, the only movies she had not watched were Notting Hills and Sleeping with the Enemy.

When I talk about my taste- well I love the romantic ones and the thrillers. But horror…oh my God, I would simply close my eye and don’t open them until I go out of the room where the movie is on. I can never watch anything that looks ugly, dirty or abnormal whether it’s in a movie or in reality. Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder- well said but it’s not true in my case. I think I find things beautiful when beauty from the object reflects and catches my eyes. It’s true that all of us have got different taste as long as movies are concerned but one thing is common- all of us are crazy about the movies they are either Oscar or Academy Award winners.

The movie that’s an all time favorite of all of us is The 50 First dates- the best ever romantic movie made. Sometimes I really think how someone can love a person who forgets everything once she falls asleep. Oh God…is that true love…. is that possible…and more importantly is someone so loving gonna be a part of each of our lives too...may be Yes.

I remember last year when I was buying some gift for one of my friends in the Archies Gallery, there was a song played on the radio city- my favorite radio station... I could not remember the song- I could remember only the tune. But probably I had made everyone’s life hell those were the music freaks like me. I wanted to listen to that song and watch that so badly even if I was completely unaware of the lyrics and the singer. After couple of months one fine morning, when I was watching MTV, I found out the song- the most famous of all Ronan Keating numbers- You say it best when you say nothing at all- the song from Notting Hills. That’s the most favorite of all four of us. That brings a smile on our face even when we are upset. Here goes the lyrics;

it’s amazing how you can speak right to my heart
without saying a word you can light up the dark…
the smile on your face let’s me know that you need me,
the truth in your eyes saying you’ll never leave me…
the touch on your hand says you’ll catch me wherever I fall….
You say it best, when you say nothing at all…

We have waited for almost a year to watch this movie and copied it in our laptops too. All of us appreciate the last dialogue when Julia Roberts says,* please understand I am just a girl, standing in front of a guy, asking him to love her.* -the best romantic dialogue I have ever heard. There were lots of other movie all of us liked viz Rebecca, Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Pretty Woman. I guess everyday we sing the song…lots of chocolate for me to eat…and also it must’ve been love…But I can't forget listing the another lovely romantic movie- Run Away Bride- Richard Gere- the favorite of Meenu, Chhotu and me- loves and marries Julia Roberts even after she runs away from their own wedding. Hats off to such a man- so loving and so respectful :)

Tejal, Jyoti and I have liked another movie which was so slow for Meenu- A Beautiful Mind-a great movie based on the life of John Nash. How can I forget to say about Vanilla Sky and Minority Report, being a fan of Tom Cruise? It was a tough time for me to convince Tejal about the thought in that movie… God!! she complains about this till date. Minority Report was a better deal, thanks God it’s a scientific fiction and Spielberg’s movie. Meenu the so called different type of movie lover didn’t even sit with me to watch Serene Dipity, another nice romantic movie.

I can never forget when we had watched Basic Instinct. Anyone would get obsessed by the looks of Sharon Stone in that movie, for the first time Meena had called some lady Sexy. I remember those days Manju had come from Chennai and she was so tired and sleepy after the heavy dinner at Indijoe but still stayed awake to watch the movie…wow what a sly smile on Sharon’s face and an unmatched intelligence…makes the movie really interesting.

Another movie is Broke-back Mountain, an Academy Award winner based on a love story of two guys. When the gay and lesbian concept is getting so common; all of my favorite singers- George Michael and Darren Hayes are turned out to be gays and even the gay/lesbian marriages are legally accepted in western countries, I want to know if these guys do have the similar feeling for the other person irrespective of their gender. I watched that movie coz I wanted to understand the feelings of a guy for another guy. But even after watching it, I could not understand their feelings other than just feeling weird about it.

The four music/movie freaks are also dance-freaks; we can dance to any tune on the earth. This makes it obvious that we have not missed few dance dramas like Shall we dance even if its in the list of the ten biggest flops based on any dance. Richard Gere and Jelo are too good in this movie. Donno why this is listed among the flop ones. Maid in Manhattan was also another nice movie, Tejal, Meena and I enjoyed watching it together. I would never take a chance to miss my favorite Tom Hanks movies- either it is Davinci Code, Forrest Gump, Saving Private Ryan, You have got mail or my most favorite of all Cast Away. When Meenu and I watched The Terminal, we thinking what we would do if we were in Tom Hank's position whose passport became invalid coz the country collapsed.

We have lined up some movies to watch over these weekends. Internet helps us in choosing the movies of our types. I am sure all of us will be able to understand all sort of feelings by watching these movies of different tastes. I would never allow Meena to miss my favorite romantic ones like Casablanca, Gone with the Wind, When Harry met Sally, If Only or Shakespearian love. Jyoti and Tejal- the sagi and Aquarian- would love to watch these movies. I am sure Meena would also make sure that we watch The Red Dragon, Silence of the Lamb, Bicycle thief, A Roman holiday, Schindler’s list, Psycho.What say Jyoti, Mottu and Chhotu….?

Few lines from my most favorite Dr. Kiran Bedi

Here are few lines what my most favorite Dr. Kiran Bedi has written to me :)

Kiran Bedi to me

Very very nice to hear from u. And to know that I made some contribution in a small way.Now continue on the right and good path. U serve any one or go in around where u live. Its the spirit which matters.
With blessings. Kiran.

Sent from my BlackBerry® on Airtel

As we read.....

Anyone asks our favorite pastime, the most common answers are books and music. This is true for all my cutie-roomies including me. Books are our friends of all time no matter if it’s the romantic Love story or ultimate laughter- Kelvin and Hobbes, the fact genre Davinci code or the psychological thriller- Silence of the Lamb or the awesome self-help book-As I see.
It’s good to live in together when our likes and dislikes are more or less the same. It’s true in our case as well. Jyoti and Tejal- these two girls maintain highest degree of cleanliness. Thank God Meena is not like that, she is as messy as me. Two things that bind all of us together are books and food. No wonder I had told that food played a major role in our friendship. But books had also played equally important role in keeping the fire on in of our discussions.
Meena says that books show the dark side of life but I don’t completely agree with her as I say life shows us the bright side of life. In reality both of us are quoting the incomplete statement, though both of us agree that life shows us the face of life- both good and bad.
Jyoti is a silent reader and does not discuss much about what she reads though I have seen her reading the books by Daniel. Tejal – oh my God! Though a book lover but reads her technical stuff most of the time…don’t remember the names of her tech books just know that something on Java and C+ +. But she is also doesn’t stay far away from interesting books, in last one year she has completed books like Five point someone, Davinci Code and now she is on the verge of completing the all time favorite of all romantic book lovers- Eric Segal’s Love Story.
In last one year whatever books I have read I love Davinci Code, Angels and Demon and
The most important of all As I see by Kiran Bedi- one book that has changed my life and helped me in transforming to real Gargee. I loved another book called The Silence of the Lamb- it was so scary that I could not read it beyond a point. Let me share another interesting thing here- when Meena was reading this book, she was so scarred that she started severing and she could not even got down of her bed because of fear.
Jyoti, the chudail has read The Deception Point and given it to someone without asking me if I wanted to read it. Tejal is soft- neither she watches high dose movies like Vanilla Sky nor does she read books like Silence of the Lamb.
Meena is not a normal reader; she is somehow obsessed by books. I appreciate her reading habit but I hate when she starts reading books like Accident and Anne Franks Diary. She gets depressed and never forgets to make others depress too- Tejal and myself the poor girls this way. Jyoti suddenly sometimes reads nice books like A Beautiful Mind and Tell me your Dreams too. But all of are equally interested to read astrology-Meena being the astrology guru for us and starts analyzing people always based on their star sign. I being an Arian- extremely adaptable to people- have also started analyzing people the similar way. These days when I meet someone, first thing comes to my mind is her/his star sign.
With this love towards books we have come so close and become practical towards situations. Nothing seems surprising to us these days. We completely agree with the fact that As we read, we grow in life.

We Four

A new life in Bangalore after passing out from the business school. Enjoyed the first couple of months at the work place before life started getting monotonous. That’s when I had decided to go back to my home-town and work there, but as it’s said- man proposes and god disposes- finally came back to Bangalore to join another company in June’05. That’s the time when I started looking for a Paying guest accommodation to avoid the loneliness of staying in a studio flat.

Initially, I was completely alone in a three storied building before Tejal came and joined me. Tejal- a tender girl from the fashion city Mumbai and stays far away from any girlish fashion- just completed BE and came here to join Thought works. I was happy to see her since she was my only companion in the big house. On a fine evening when I came back from my office, I saw two other girls- Jyoti and Shilpa.-sharing the same house with us. Jyoti was a very soft girl. The first time when I saw her, I complimented her beauty and good hair. She looked like beauty with brain to me. Finally the house was filled with four girls. Some days later Shipla’s sister came to Bangalore and she moved into her house.

Those days we were waiting for another girl to join us. In a Saturday morning when I was busy listening to one of my most favorite Bryan Adams’ numbers, I saw a new girl, Meena entering our house with her luggage. Finally the house was fully occupied. Meena and Jyoti were not very fond of Bryan Adams’ loud music which I used to play in the initial days whereas Tejal was too much into herself. But I understood their importance the day one of my very close fiends left to USA and these three girls were trying to make me strong.

I came to know that Meena was very fond of astrology, especially zodiac signs; she would forget the name of the person but not his/her zodiac sign. A Saturday morning when I was going to Cross-word I asked her if she wanted to join me and she said NO thinking how good or bad my company would be. Also she was confused with my bossy attitude. With the passing time all of us started understanding each other and bonded in a strong friendship. The most common thing that bound all of us was Food, especially Sweets. That’s why once I had told that Food played a major role in our friendship.

It was the first time when I could not go home on Diwali. Meena was there with me for a long time but finally left to her hometown Chennai. While coming back she made sure to get my favorite Bundi laddu from there. But when she reached home she could feel that I had a blast on Diwali with all delicious food looking at myself, that’s when she started calling me Motu. We both were missing Tejal and Jyoti until they came back home.It was nearing Jyoti’s birthday (29th Nov) then. Three of us thought of giving her a surprise and bought a smart tee-shirt and perfume for her. But she didn’t like either of them- gave the perfume to Meena and kept the tee-shirt in her wardrobe. This made us little disappointed though the birthday party was very good in Chandni Chowk, an authentic Punjabi restaurant.We used to wait for occasions to go out together and sometimes create occasions for us to go to Barista café or Corner House, the best places to have exotic dessert after dinner. Then it was Christmas time when Jyoti and I had gone together first time for shopping. Jyoti had bought very nice clothes for the Christmas party. Immediately after that, was the New Year. All were excited for the day. We had a nice evening and finally had had cake at home in the midnight.
Those days the work pressure was more and we were not able to spend as much time as we used to spend in the initial days together. But whenever we needed someone, we were always there for each other- that’s what friendship all about. We used to have loads of fun discusing our childhood incidents. After a point of time we had chosen names for each other according to our great deeds of childhood; Jyoti as Rinni (once she had mispronounced the word panny as rinni), Meena as Naai kutti (the Pomeranian dog whose hair needs to be brushed), Tejal as Poona kutti (not the kitten but the real the wild cat) and myself as Yanna kutti (the cool elephant).

Next occasion was Tejal’s birthday- 4th Feb- where again we planned for a surprise party and gifts but she also had not liked the books what we bought for her. The books- *Holy Blood and Holy Grail, Red Dragon, Silence of the Lamb* were high doses for her. But this time also the birthday treat was very good in Tangerine, a nice continental joint.

Finally it was Valentine’s Day when Meena and Tejal were with me till the late evening because I was upset with things. That day I had realized how important it’s to have good friends. Meena, Tejal and Jyoti- all of them were sweethearts. Then Jyoti had moved into a new role in a new company and meena had got prompted at her workplace- two big reasons for us to celebrate.

It was April by then and my birthday was nearing. I had decided not to celebrate my birthday because I was not finding any reason to celebrate; probably I had forgotten that birthday itself was the biggest reason in it to celebrate. I remember I had slept early that night while reading the book- Blink. But there was a nice birthday blast in the midnight and we were again excited for the party in the evening. There was nice kurti packed for me as my birthday gift. It was a complete surprise to me. After I completed MBA and left hostel, I never thought of having such a birthday blast. We had gone to Bombay Blues- one of my most favorite places to have dinner. We made sure to make Meena eat sizzler that evening. Finally all of us had sizzlers though the pepper sauce could not excite Meena’s taste buds beyond a limit.

In May I was completing a year in my organization and was looking for a change. That’s when I got into another company and all of us had another reason to celebrate. Meena also got hike during those days so it was double celebration for us.

Another excitement was Meena’s birthday that time. We bought her some perfume and junk ornaments, thinking that she’ll start behaving like a girl. But *old habits die hard*- we had forgotten this when we did all the shopping for Meena. She wore all those junks on the first day and lost it the same day. This time also the perfume was not of her choice and it had passed on to me.The following month Meena and I had planned a trip to Chennai. This was one of the most happening train journeys we had ever had. We could not know how the six hours went so fast in the train. I had asked Meena whether it was because of good companion or the good food that we had through out the journey.It’s almost a year since we have started staying together, away from home yet in a home. Jyoti and Tejal are much disciplined whereas Meena and I are far away from discipline. The bonding among four of us had made the paying guest another home for us in a different city.

We have tried out lots of things in this one year like joining a gym for four days, walking for two days; making resolutions to keep our wardrobe clean etc. Now with the change of season and attitude the names have also changed; Meena named as Mottu 1, Jyoti as Motu 2, Tejal as Chhotu and I as Motu 3.We have also names according to our sun signs- Intelligent Aquarian for Chhotu, Stubborn Taurian for Motu 1, Soft Sagittarian for Motu 2 and Bossy Arian for myself. We have learnt a lot from each other and yet learning whether its Tejal’s bathing skills , Chudail (that’s how Jyoti and myself address each other with lots of love)’s production skills or Meena moron’s messing up skills and my laughing skills.

Chotu is the darling to all and has got different names according to her attitude and behavior sometime Miss B.D.I, sometimes Jelo or sometimes Miss High dose (She call lots of movies like Vanilla Sky, Lake House as High Dose movies).

These days we are happy about two news-Jyoti’s new job and Tejal’s transfer. The later has actually made all of us sad. Though I am happy about Tejal going to a place near to her home-town, I still wish that somehow her transfer gets cancelled; listening this she tells* Moti terri to….*It may sound little selfish but I know that I am going to miss her so much after she leaves Bangalore. Her Visa has been stamped for the USA and I wish she directly goes to the USA rather than getting transferred to Pune. Let’s see how things work out, we are happy for her either ways.

Jyoti, Meena and Tejal , I don’t know where we’ll be next year by this time, where will be after five yrs, ten yrs; but let’s make sure that all of us share the same bond of friendship forever and ever and ever.

The Diet Conscious Ladies

Aaaaaaaaaaaaa…….someone screams in the dark...rest of the people in the house get up and rush to her n see her sleeping peacefully. Oh God! probably she dreamt of something bad and screamed out of fear or might had seen Meena who was roaming in the house keeping her hair open in that dark night, we just made the conclusion. Next day we asked Jyoti about this and she said that she didn’t remember anything.Another day unfortunately a house-lizard came to her bed from somewhere and again the same scene. Jyoti, give us a break yaa…kitna chillati hai.About Meena…jitna bolo kamm hai… She is famous for her brave attitude. Once she had helped me in taking the mouse out of my room.And Tejal- Oh God…duniya banana wale kya tere mann main samayee, kaheko insect banayee. This is what I tell Tejal whenever I see any insect in the room. Either it’s a grasshopper or it’s an ant- if Tejal sees it then we have to throw that one out of the room without killing it (that becomes too much some time). And about dogs- its better not to say how scarred she is when she sees dogs on the street.And about myself- very scarred of house-lizard…once Tejal shouted—Motti chhipkalli- that’s all…I was so scarred that could not get time to get up from the bed, just fell down while rushing and this moron wild cat kept laughing at me.Oh my God...all of us have balls in our court to laugh, laugh and laugh. We all’re fond of food. That’s the reason why I had told that food played a major role in our friendship. But probably our love for food was leading all of us except Tejal towards obesity.Suddenly we became diet conscious. Meena started going to the gym regularly, Jyoti and me started going for walking (not regularly though) and Tejal bought a skipping rope looking our conditions to avoid her upcoming fatness. All of us were eating fruits more than sweets as dessert these days.Jyoti who got really inspired to join Inspiration, is also on diet yet putting on insignificant wt of 200/300gm. Her coming back from the institute without getting her session done, adds another reason to our laughter box.One fine evening we were all chatting when we opened a packet of plum and ask Jyoti to wash it. She was so much into the discussion that she had washed the plum in a cup of milk in stead of water. I was so conscious about my weight that I ended up eating only brown bread with low calorie fruits and boiled vegetables. Tejal and Meena used to tell me that they would come to meet in the hospital when I fall sick because of my strict diet and that time they would get only boiled cabbage for me to eat. Oh God haalat insaan se kya kya nehi karwata!!!Meena, the girl who is also putting on as much wt as myself has decided not to eat pizza but in reality, she ends up eating pizza very often because of her love towards it.After a strict struggle for more than a month, now all of us are getting into shape. Hats off to all our diet formula and dedication to look good :):):):)

Shall We Dance?

Mere bare main jitna bolo, woh kamm hai…that’s what Jyoti says. After staying with her for so long I realized she doesn’t say it just like that rather she means it. Either it’s her skills of feeding the kitten with a wooden spoon or washing the plum with milk, all end up in a fifteen minutes long laughter. But her stories don’t end here. How can I not explain the way she was connecting her phone. God!! she disconnected the phone in real sense by pulling up all the wires and still tried talking to someone and kept shouting over the phone till we made her realized that the phone was disconnected. Same time she is a very soft girl, donno how she belongs to a fire sign-Saggi. The innocent girl was so innocent that someone made her read Khuswant Singh’s Company of Women when she was in 11th class. Meena- the upcoming fat lady says that we should think about some of Jyoti’s deed when we feel bored and then we cant stop laughing for the next fifteen minutes. I am sure it’s true. Recently Jyoti took part in a group dance in her office annual function. Initially she was nervous but then she started doing it really well. It was a celebration for all of us when her group won the first prize in the annual function. And about me- I can dance to any beats- be it the Abhinaya in Odissi Dance or the regular DJ numbers.

How I can forget Meena when I am saying about the dancing skills of Jyoti. I never knew that Meena’s such good dancer. She had never danced in front of us- not even while listening to her favorite dance numbers like- Bilamos or Las ketchup. I had my office party in Leela palace. I wanted to take these three cutie-pies but finally Tejal and Jyoti ditched me (as usual). I had also invited another friend Maninder from CTS, who is more like a caring brother. So finally Meena and Maninder joined me for the party. We took an hour to complete our make-up. Bechara mera bhai Maninder- had to wait in Leela’s for half an hour. Finally we reached the party hall. Maninder and I could not keep ourselves away from the dance floor for very long. We rushed to the discotheque as soon as the DJ stared playing our favorite song- Teri to yaad satawe…and Meena said that she didn’t want to come to the dance floor. Tejal and I had decided to make Meena comfortable in the party which means- make Meena dance. Finally that happened. We pulled Meena on to the theque after dancing for nearly an hour. Initially Meena was not very comfortable dancing but suddenly the DJ played a Tamil song and that was the end of Meena’s sharmo-haiya. She started dancing with more enthu than Maninder and me. Wow…hats off to the DJ…finally made Meena dance.

Tejal always dances with so much of enthu…I was surprise to see so much of energy in the kitten when both of us had gone to Zero- G. Everytime our plan of going to a disco doesn’t work out as both of us are scarred of coming home alone at night 11o’k. Both of us console each other saying that B’lore is no more a safe place and we can’t afford to come back home alone so late. Anyways it’s good for both of us. I can never forget the Diwali with her. It was too good. She really made my day. Now since all of us have proved our skills on dancing, I wanna ask you something…Shall We Dance?