Tasveerein...

Today, I seem to be in a total blogging mood, so I thought - why not take a break from words & play with visuals? So, coming your way are some of the pics I have taken with my cell-phone camera over the past 2 years. It's a trusty old Nokia 3660 and it has really served me quite well which is the reason I don't feel like replacing it even though shinier, more feature-laden equipment is available nowadays.OK, so here we go...

1) A temple in rural Konkan on the way to my native place.


2) The pet parrot at my mom's native place (Devgad). I went there in Dec '05 after a gap of 11 years and she still recognised me as if I had never been away... :)


3) My dad's school...(Shivaji Memorial High School,Kankavli)


4) My niece Jui, she's such a darling... :)


5) Jui again...


6) Fog kissing the hills at Lonavala (15th August 2004)

7) The hills of Lonavala again. Notice the solitary waterfall that seems to be emerging from the union of the hills and the clouds.Oh, how much I wish I had more professional equipment on hand. This place is a veritable treasure trove...

That should be it for now. Expect much more in the near future. Once I manage to get a digicam for myself, I intend to run amok with it... ;)

50 things about me...

I came across this thingie while randomly blog-surfing and felt it would be an interesting thing to do.I hope you enjoy reading it. I sure enjoyed filling it up...

1. Were you named after anyone?
Nopes, I am an absolute original.

2. Do you wish on stars?
Never had the chance to do so.

3. When did you last cry?
I don't remember when, but I know why.

4. Do you like your handwriting?
Of course, I have worked really hard towards it & it shows.

5. What is your favourite meat?
Anything that can be classified under "Seafood"

6. What is your most embarrassing CD on your shelf?
Would I really mention it here if it was embarrassing?
;)

7. If you were another person, would YOU be friends with you?
Of course, no doubt about that!!!

8. Are you a daredevil?
Does sleeping in the lectures sitting on the first beanch amount to daredevilry?

9. How do you release anger?

I rarely get angry, but when I do, I prefer to cut myself off from the world, go to a garden and walk barefoot on the grass. It calms me instantly.

10. Where is your second home?
NCST. We also have a second flat,but since we don't stay there, it's just a house as yet, not a home.

11. Do you trust others easily?
Previously, I was a very trusting person. But nowadays, I balance my trusting nature with a healthy dose of caution.

12. What was your favourite toy(s) as a child?
A cricket bat and a collection of magnets of all shapes and sizes. I had enough magnets with me to start a scrapyard.

13. What class in school/college do you think is totally useless?
All of them ;)
On a more serious note though, I believe that there's a whole lot to be learnt from even the worst lecture (or lecturer, for that matter)

14. Do you use sarcasm a lot?
Only when I am sure the audience understands it. Otherwise, I resort to straightspeak.

15. Have you ever been in a mosh pit?
No.

16. What do you look for in a girl?
Just three things - Honesty, sincerity of purpose and a basic common sense.

17. Would you bungee jump?
Sure.

18. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off?
I think I do.

19. What's your favourite ice cream?
Coffee-Walnut & Chocolate share the #1 spot.

20. What are your favourite colours?
White, Black, & Sky Blue.

21. What are your least favourite things?
Mice (the biological kind), medicines & tele-marketers.

22. How many people do you have a crush on right now?
Now you are putting ideas into my head....

23. Who do you miss most right now?
My friend Sagar, who's in HK working on a project.

24. What are you listening to right now?
"Tu Bin Bataaye" from Rang De Basanti - this song is pure chocolate on silk....

25. If you were a crayon, what colour would you be?
Sky Blue or White

26. What is the weather like right now?
Hot & humid.

27. Last person you talked to on the phone?
One of my friends...

28. The "first" thing you notice about the opposite sex?
It would have to be two - Eyes & Smile.

29. Do you like the person who sent you this?
I got it for myself. So, the answer would be a "YES".

30. How are you today?
Slightly exhausted, but nevertheless, in a hapy mood.

31. Favourite non alcoholic drink?
Cold Coffee, Chocolate Milkshake & Plain Milk.

32. Favourite alcoholic drink?
I stay miles away from alcohol.

33. Natural hair colour?
Black.

34. Eye colour?
Brown.

35. Wear contacts?
Sometimes.

36. Siblings?
Unfortunately, none.

37. Favourite month?
April (birthday month after all :) )

38. Favourite food?
Seafood.

39. Favourite day of the year?
19th April (Refer answer to Q:37 above)

40. Have you ever been too shy to ask someone out?
I have always been a very shy person when it comes to asking somebody out. Lets hope that whenever I feel like asking anybody out the next time round, the cat does not get my tongue.

41. Scary movies or happy endings?
Scary movies with happy endings (everybody gets killed - long live the ghost)

42. Summer or winter?
Winter (nothing beats it)

43. Holi or Diwali?
Diwali, always

44. Do you like your name?
Yes, very much. I like both the sound and the meaning associated with it.And please don't go saying "Hawa ka jhonka" one more time....

45. What book/magazine are you reading?
"Interpreting your dreams"

46. What's on your mouse pad?
A mouse....

47. What did you watch on TV last night?
I watch too little of TV. Mostly, its just the news.

48. Favourite Smell?
It's the fragrance of flowers we call as Parijaatak, I don't know the English/Latin name for it,though.

49. Have you ever regretted breaking up with someone?
I was, am and (unfortunately, looks as if, will be) single.

50. Most tiresome thing you’ve ever experienced/done?
Filling up this questionnaire ;)
Seriously speaking, attending lectures for 7-8 hours a day in engineering college takes the cake.

Whew!! That's it. I won't tag anybody but if you feel like, go ahead and make a half-century of your own.

Happy Budday to me!!!!

Well, this post comes solely on a farmaaish from Aru. When I was chatting with her today morning, she put forth the idea & I instantly agreed to it. Why not? After all, this was the best birthday I have had in YEARS.So, why not preserve the memories for posterity by putting them into words? So here goes....
It all began from the computer lab at NCST.Thanks to Orkut, almost all the 45-50 hostelites (the only species of NCSTians found in the lab or badminton court at 3 in the night, or is it the 3 in the morning?) knew that yours truly was going to start writing the 27th chapter of book of his life. I had started receiving hints from 15th April itself that I was in for a major round of TMPs (Transfer of Momentum to Posterior, also commonly (and less interestingly) known as Birthday Bumps) Around 11 , the lab resembled a deserted cemetery, with only a few souls wandering here and there. I was almost relieved that I would be saved from those deadly TMPs.
But around 11:40, the lab started filling up more rapidly than a 5:44 Borivali fast local at Churchgate. At the stroke of midnight, I was taken outside the lab to the badminton court and what followed thereafter was mayhem. I was tossed up and down, TMPs were delivered, all to the background music of "Happy Budday to You...". After being airborne for 4-5 minutes (it seemed like eternity,though), a round of handshakes,embraces and jokes followed. After that, I returned to my flat where my roomies (Vinod & Nirav) and a hostelite friend (Mithun) had arranged for a nice cake for me. Actually, they had planned it to be a surprise but I knew what they were upto as I had known that Nirav & Mithun had gone to the marketplace and also, when I was entering the building, I noticed the candle-light flickering in my flat.But I really enjoyed it. In the meanwhile, from 12 to 12:45, Aru & I played the "Pehchaan Kaun" game ;)
After polishing off the cake and chatting with them, I caught a flight to dreamland at about 2 AM.
Next day ie: 19th was "Chocolate Distribution Day". I disributed chocolates to my classmates. It reminded me of my school days where I never got to distribute chocolates as my birthday happened during the summer vacations and students used to make me distribute chocolates during the first week of school to compensate. On my way home that day, I dropped in to the new office of the company I used to work for previously to meet some ex-colleagues. Then I came home, where my mom did aukshan (she does not believe in cake-cutting), followed by lip-smackingly good food. To finish off a good day, did some project-related work and went off to sleep.
This, in a nutshell, was what transpired in those 24 hours. In fact, a lot more happened, but thats not for public consumption.So, this should be it...

The year gone by...

Actually, this was supposed to be about a short review of "Rang De Basanti" and a look at the need/justification/possibilty for another revolution in today's social context.But even after keeping the same on the backburner for quite some time, I don't feel I have come up with something that does justice to the gravity and complexity of the issue.So, I have decided to let it simmer for some more time and for now, concentrate on something that I find more immediate & personal.
As my birthday is approaching, I find myself getting into an introspective and reflective kind of a mind-state, wherein I tend to analyse more than observe, to infer more than record.As is usual practice, every year around my birthday, I look back at the year gone by, take stock of how my lifescape changed over the past 365 days, what went right, what didn't and so on. Though every time this is strictly for my own consumption, this time, I feel compelled to do it in full public view. What prompts me to do so, I don't know. Maybe it has got something to do with my newfound spring of extroversion. Well, so here it goes...
For sake of clarity of thought and to avoid overlapping, I will be following the pattern they follow in those "Yearly Future Forecasts" in the newspapers and will be dividing it into a few broad catogories. Though I find that style of division a bit corny, I will stick to the same as it is most appropriate over here...

1) Career :
This was an area where the most radical of changes took place, or rather were effected by me. I switched tribes from those who build the real world to those who build the virtual one. It was perhaps the most difficult and in hindsight, the best decision I ever made. It was not at all an easy one to make though. After all, it can never be easy to have an established career with potential for growth and then chuck it away because that's not what you want to be doing for the rest of your life; and that too, at a stage in your life, when you are expected to be settling down into a smooth rhythm. Charting a new course at this point takes a whole lot of self-belief,courage and last but certainly not the least, excellent negotiation skills. At least I needed a bunch of them in order to convince my parents that whatever I had decided for myself, was in everybody's best interests. That if I was unhappy in my current career, now was the time to make a positive change rather than simply repenting 5-10 years down the line, when any change would be well nigh impossible. Also, at this jucture, it was not just about me, it was about them,too. With my father's retirement about a year away (this was 10 months back), financial aspects had to be kept in mind,too. Fortunately, after initial hesitation, they whole-heartedly supported me and continue to do so. Also, the fact that after 2 years of working, I had enough moolah on me to pay my course fees without burdening them too much also helped. At this stage, I am really happy with the decision I took and regardless of how things turn out in the future I will always feel proud of myself for having the courage to take life in my own hands rather than simply going along with the flow.

2) Human Connections :
I prefer the above terminology as opposed to done-to-death words like "Relationships", "Friendships","Love", "Romance" and so on. This was another area where the lifescape underwent sweeping changes. And I must say that whatever happened in this area surprised (and sometimes even shocked) me no end when it actually occured, but looking back now, I don't feel the slightest hint of surprise. In the year gone by, thanks to a career switch and also due to going back to college once again, I made a whole new set of friends. This was also the year when I had to lay the tombstone on what I had thought of as a beautiful friendship. I only hope that it proves to be that seed which dies itself, only to give rise to a thousand blossoms.Also, I managed to connect to a wide variety of individuals, people whom I have never met before, whose only connection to me is perhaps just a stream of electrons flowing back and forth; but with whom I connected in a manner I never thought was possible before. "Strangers are merely friends waiting to happen" was just a sentimental cliche according to me before, now I have sort of come to believe in it.

3) Inner Self :

The year gone by was a watershed one in terms of personal transformation. Thanks to all that I underwent and endured, I really feel that I have emerged as a much stronger individual than before, someone more in control of his own destiny (if such a thing exists). In fact, I have been observing myself change over the years and with every passing year, I seem to be getting more and more focussed, though I will be the first one to agree that I have a long way to go,still. I will not blow my own trumpet over here but just to sum it up, Sameer as on 19/04/2006 is definitely a much more grown-up individual than Sameer on 19/04/2005, though essentially he still continues to be a sentimental fool, deep down.

This is about all I have for now. I will add to this if I feel like, otherwise this should be it...