रब दिलके इरादे आजमाता है
ख्वाबोके परदे हटाता है
होसला मत हारना जिन्दगीमे कभी
क्योंकि थोडा दर्द ही इन्सानको जीना सिखाता है

(Forwarded)

I was waiting at the counter of a stationery shop when the guy standing next to me started speaking on his mobile. Apparently he was giving directions to someone.

"Yes, yes, you get down at Dadar station and come upto the temple."

I guess that at this point the fellow at the other end did not understand which temple was being referred to.

"अरे वो गोल टेम्पल, bomb-blast वाला" said this guy referring to the Hanuman Temple near Dadar Kabutarkhana.

I did a double take. What have we Mumbaikars come to? We are now using the blast sites as landmarks :-(

Why is the Pakistani foreign minister pitching for Indo-Pak cricket matches? Anyone who has watched even one of these matches can attest to the fact that there is nothing 'gentlemanly' about them. They are played as if both countries are at war again. If anything, they add fuel to the fire that has been burning since 1947.

In the wake of the recent blasts in Mumbai, this suggestion is not only absurd but totally insensitive and should be turned down decisively. Or else Pakistan's next suggestion will be to employ Ajmal Kasab as the 3rd umpire!

I am not sure why but the Imagine TV site refers to Yashoda as Lord Krishna's step-mother. Is this lack of mythological knowledge or simply not knowing the word "Foster-mother"?

अर्ज है.....

यू तो खरीदार थे बहोत मेरे दिलके ऐ दोस्त
बेच देता अगर इसमे तेरी याद न होती

(Forwarded)

I was feeling very listless over the weekend because of the cold. On top of it, there is some vague feeling of uneasiness, nothing frightening, just some stupid inexplicable haunting feeling. It could be of course a by-product of the season. Monsoon always makes me long for something, though I don't know what.

So I decided to do a little spring-cleaning. For months, I have been thinking about getting out that stack of CDs which I had put together during my last days at the B School, stashed away on coming back to Mumbai and then forgotten. I decided to make good use of the time I had.

Many things tumbled out of those disks - articles, pdf files of finance books, photos. And 3 things that I was looking out for. One, a collection of cartoons - Asterix, Calving & Hobbes and Tintin - that a friend had put together for me. Two, a collection of Tom & Jerry that the same friend had been generous enough to copy. Karthik, pal, thanks a zillion times for this! :-)

The third item was the diary which I had managed to pen almost every day of my stay there. I could not resist the temptation of opening up a few pages to check out their contents and cringed at the abbreviations and the short clipped sentences that I had used. I saw references to classmates who had been part of my universe during that year. I wondered what I had meant by DMO and MDM. In one of the pages I had mentioned going to the Mining class. For a moment, I wondered what this was all about. Then it struck me that it meant Data Mining class. :-)

There were countless references to going for walks, breakfast, lunch and dinner menus, grief over assignments and fretting over results. It seemed as if I was reading someone else's diary. I could not recognize this me that was peeking out of the pages. Amazing, this thing that we call Life. :-)

I have read some of Nora Roberts's books and liked them too. But I have decided to let go of her "Tribute' before I finished even half of it. I am just not interested in knowing whether Janet Hardy committed suicide or someone killed her.