Finally a company

Dedicated to my mother

India is really great

Be happy with what you have

What more can I say, when pictures speaks in million pixels and I have just a few words to put!!!!

Jai Shree Lakshmi

One tribute to my favorite god

Well, over the years I have never let my feelings about god out in the open and people around me question me whether I believe in god or not

Yes there is a certain some one whom I believe strongly
and she is Lakshmi

the daughter of Bhrigu ( that is why she is also called Bhargavi ) and Khyati.

Alakshmi is her elder sister (chandra being her brother).
Both the sisters like me and that explains some and most of the things in my life. Through this post, after writing about 480 posts, I pay my tribute to her

Only if Laila could talk

Laila and Majnu ,
well, only if this guys could talk

whether theirs would have been a successful marriage is never debated,
with so little time that they did have, even courtship might had been an herculean task,
let alone give Laila the chance to whine

:"Why":
:"Where":
:"What":

But this picture could have got them both furious for sometime, not at the fact that they died, but they were killed years later day in day out.

Fetish for the west

WE have come a long way since the old 1950s and 1970s and so has the world,
we are now looking inwards, going deeep

or is it,

Diya Mirza a bollywood actress comes from a German father and Bengali mother,
Lisa Ray , Bengali father, Canadian mother
John Abraham , Iranian blood,

And Akshaya dancing with Hollywood babes is not new anymore, neither is Salman doing the same with some British actress, Aishwarya with Matin Henderson.

And the list is continuing, in the serials that we watch from Riddhima in Dill Mill Gaye to talent hunt shows, everywhere we have this fetish sort of a thing

Remember the homely girl, Sanjana from Merey Yaar Ki Shaadi

Tulip Joshi,
Gujju Dad and Armenian mother,

I was waiting for a bold pic like this from her and finally got hold of one,

Emanuelle Chrique is one other lady whom I would pay to see her bare and dare it all.
Audrey Tatou has done it ( thank you Audrey )

There is a certain someone

There is a certain someone, who did write some posts on me, this humble me

thanks to her !!!


Well, this me, which never gets mentioned anywhere, which never gets to be in the limelight was the main protagonist in her two blogs,

And I liked it, this picture is a compliment to her. I took here for a bike ride, and then after some days I got hold of this certain picture .

And a frightened pillion rider could be treat to watch for the spectators :)

Can you imagine

Sachin was turned away from fast bowlers camp, well, we all know that we still need a world class fast bowler ( I mean Zak is there, but most of his credit is mainly due to the dominating batting side that we have made in the last few yeras, that the bowlers have little to do with their ball at times )


Well,
here here is ,standing tall, Can you imagine, Sachin the taller of the others,
well, he is the tallest by all standards, but here he is in person, as god made him

good post

Ideagutter

 

 

This sounds like a good name. Anyways, since I don’t have much time now to write some posts, I will still paste some good links as and when I come across

 

http://comic.ideagutter.com/search?updated-max=2010-02-26T19%3A21%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=1

 

 

Check this one out, here the Sachin who plays one days is betting against the Sachin that plays in  tests

 

 

Both are phenomenal , but the One day thing is really great, with 29 centuries being the second number, Ricky Ponting enjoys his position as the second most prolific century maker rather well.

What is the most beautiful thing in the world

The more you have free time, the more you spend thinking about stuff that you never thought existed

 

For me, right now I am reading some of the old stories in Bengali.  One I got from the Agartala Book Fair, Golpo Guccha by Rabindranath,

All these stories, once atleast, found, read, heard , seen , either through movies, theatre, school life, magazines, books but still hold a lot

Of questions in my mind about the sharp genius of the man who did not go to school himself,

 

In one of his stories,”Konkal” , I wonder, at how strong the author was in dealing with the emotions of a ghost narration of the life left behind,

 

The bones rattle but the sound inside still is that of a young woman who lived a life of her own. For us it is difficult to imagine that about 100 years back

there were  people who dared to think that life exists not for society but it is the other way around,

 

 

There will be people , in bone and blood ,just like us, there will be mortals who though look like us, somehow are not able to think the right or wrong,

constant nagging, whining, back stabbing, pulling each others legs for mere fun, and at the price of hurting a plant which will never grow into the tree

that was destined to

 

 

Rabindrnath Tagores writing has been, carefully, dissected, researched upon and taken to the heart by many of the Bengali aristocracy and slum dwellers over the years, I am a mere spectator to the wonder of a brain that was like clock work, producing footprints in time that will glow in the sublime surrounding of what we can look back as the renaissance of Bengal

 

How could one man, with so little education ? produce such gems, year  after year , throughout his life. Did he eat the same rice that we all eat, what sits inside that brain that we all wonder.

 

I had written about Sachin a few days back , no such comparison is possible ,but yes, the genius in humans is what keeps this rest of the world, other rest the of the billions alive,

 

we run the wheels of the world, go to office, come back , sleep , wake up eat breakfast ( skip it like me ) and then run back to work. But behind the scenes there are geniuses at work, who will create the next wonder, who will create the next beauty, these are the brains, that can create  what is good to the eyes, ears and the brain

 

these are the people who are making what is life to us, a gift , a thing of joy

 

the most beautiful thing in the world is nothing but the genius inside the brain of all these immortal human beings

 

 

I will keep writing about Rabindranath Tagore in the coming days, this new found interest ofmine is good for me, and will take me further in my understanding of what I thought was the Bengals upliftment. What was it about the times then that makes me think that the rest of the world was just robots and here in Bengal, there walked a few human beings who produced battery for these robots,

 

 

Blogging in March

Today is March 12

2010

 

The year 2010, started some time back( a few hours may be ) .In the meantime, I went to so many places all around India. All in all , it was a good start. I could visit  Agartala, ( an added bonus of travelling )

 

I think , that mole thinngy does work out. This year I saw two new moles on my feet. So I must be travelling left, right and center.

 

Today the IPL3 starts. Hope some good blogs will come out. All the players are no fit and fine. No back ache, shoulder ache, groin injury , all are hale and hearty. All are focused and strong. I will be blogging about it in and out.

 

 It has been 22 months since I started blogging this one. I have quite a big archive now and am proud about it. I was reading one of the good blogs that I had written a long time back.

http://concentratedlemonjuice.blogspot.com/2008/07/travails-of-indian-software-engineer.html

 

I could not stop laughing after reading it. Right now I am in a meeting, where I am on mute.

 

Sachin the God

I really was missing a collection like this

 

Read it , here if you want to know how the world reacts to Sachin

The ones especially from Sharjah and Yassir Hamid a Pakistani reporter

 

http://vsvishwanand.blogspot.com/2010/02/sachin-name-speaks.html

 

By the way , the author is a great friend of mine and a Sachin fan

Guess which movie?

Kabhi muskarakar ,

Kabhi dabey paaoo aakar

 

Dukh mujhey choo le

 

Naa kar mujhsey gham merey

 

Dillagi yeh Dillagi

 

Badi sooni sooni hai

 

Zindagi yeh Zindagi….

One last thought for the day Feb 24 2010

It is the end of the day for me

I wanted to write about the way smartly Mamta Bannerjee presented the rail budget today

 

She says “Whoever is shouting, I will cut the project in his constituency?”

She was a able teacher in side a village school and the ruckus around , and the rubes from all side were enough to unnerve any other political figure, the very fact that she can fight it out like that standing there in the Parliament is the very sign of the days of administration to come,.

 

She does not leave the session, she does not walk  out, she does not throw the pen down, she does not visit the train wreckage any more and threaten incessantly to resign, She is now a changed Mamata

 

But her budget and whatever honest form it had ( no heavy words, no extra ornamental statements, a budget as it should be )

 

The only problem that the nation will have to hear from two severely accented Bengalis giving the rail budget and the national  budget J

 

 

Anyways, the rail budgets fundas were derailed by another express, the Sachin Express,

 

Sachin is not for cricket,

Cricket is for Sachin!!!

If there is a god on earth

If there is god on earth . He is sitting in a Gwalior hotel now

 

He is Sachin, he is the greatest of them all ,

 

Today I saw a Sachin , that knows that he can now play like it is the year 1995, there is a Azharudding, Sidhu , and Jadeja

 

 

No, I think , he knows that India is now undoubtedly well on to its way to the no 1 spot in World cricket in all forms of the game. Wait till, the next T20 encounter.

 

Just think of the bowling teams plight, Rahul Dravid, Laxman and Tendulkar can nowadays be rested for a match or two, they play their own games and don’t have to bother much, the youngsters are all well set

 

Today when I ask my cousin who studies in class X , and is sitting for the exams, he says to me that there are parents who make their kids  skip the exams, if there is a game sessions , or if the coach asks so  … I ask him how difficult is it to make it to the Bengal team itself, With franchises and IPL and ICL , there is a ongoing cut throat competition for even the  middle order of most of the state teams. Today  just to make it to the 2^nd division is a difficult and uphill task, and let alone play good, and play at the top levels consistently,

And that is exactly the reason , that we have a kitty full of newcomers who are all able, in the form of Suresh Raina, who once was said to be the next god of the left hand players off side, there is Dinesh Mongia, who though now lost is a very strong middle order batsman, we have Rohit Sharma who can do all the departments of cricket as good as any other great player.

Gambhir is an established , world no 1 ( not now may be )  , then there is a Robin Uthappa, and the funny part is Dinesh Karthik comes back as a batsman and not a wicketkeeper. And the prince of cricket . Virat Kohli , all of the above players have single handedly rescued India on more than once occasion. Irfan Pathan needs space to head in , whereas Yusuf is in sublime form. All of them above can enter the circuits and just perform as if the environment has not changed, they find the international level to be just very close notch to the first class in India today.

 

They all are best in the domestic circuits, and they are soon to be the next legends, but with a team which looks like the Real Madrid of cricket, Sachin knows that other than the new comers, there are the bullies of world cricket, If Pakistan boasts of a certain Shahid Afridi , and England still dreams that Kevin Pietersen will some day come back to his first shown form,  What I can definitely say is there lies in the Indian team three such bullies, three Shahid Afridis with far better track record and control of the game and the shots, which makes Shahid Afridis, Centurions centuries look smaller in the context

 

We have a Sehwag , the impeccable form that he is in  , and the way he feels that defensive game for him is the riskiest game, and the way he made a 290 knock in a single day of test cricket.

We have a Yuvraj, six sixers apart, he is a class of his own. I am sure that on  one favorable day , when Yusuf and Yuvraj as partners to each other for 15 overs at a stretch , the opposition will have to look like  kids in the training camp.

We have a Dhoni , who is consistently, playing not out innings and if he continues to do this for another year or so , I am sure that he will end up with more than a 100  half centuries behind him and the highest possible one day average. Today he played a different  innings, that kind of innings that we had seen in his earlier days. He played that cushion to the Sachins 200 and as usual such a great land mark came fitfully in the 50 over itself which started with a Dhoni sixer

 

We in India, have a phenomenal batting order. Sachin can play his own game today , never was he more relaxed then he is now. Ponting almost caught him up on the centuries tally in the test arena with 39 centuries and Sachin 43,  but then there were 4 consecutive centuries and Sachin is all well set for 50 international test centuries,

 

But the way he batted today , I don’t think, Gambhir should come top of the order. Gambhir should come to consolidate in case of a quick first wicket. Today Sachin from the word go just resounded his pledge, that the century that he missed in the first one dayer in Jaipur, due to a very  unfortunate runout ( running is a department where is a master in his own zone , I am sure that we will soon see a 300 run partnership , between him and Dhoni  with the minimum number of boundaries, , and it could be  in any form of the game )

 

The batsmen of the Indian team are in such sublime form that the first test defeat in Nagpur where the Indian team went all out twice in score below three hundred is like having the probability as that of the chance of getting 20 tails consecutively . That was a rare , lapse, I am sure, since you have to read in to the teams colors, as it is now. It is a team where any great would want to play ,

 

And all this is an answer to that question “Cant a country of a billion people produce 11 gems who could dominate world cricket today “

 

Today , schools and parents and teachers are changing. Taare Zameen Par and Three Idiots are becoming block busters,

 

 

The not so important Physical Education dept in many schools in India, nowadays is a full fledged department with a head of the dept and many staff with multiple coaches,

 

Yes we may not yet be bringing the golds in Olympics, since in strength we are naturally not gifted like the Caucasian and the Nordic breed  and in a country where we are cramping for space and food, we have some how never got it in terms of physical stamina and that is why you will find very occasional wrestlers or soccer players or sprinters who make it to the top circuits.   Yes , we know that we are not yet there but in Cricket, when once we were asked “Cant a nation of 1 billion people produce 11 gems ?” we have finally answered the call,

We have those 11 gems, we  have a team to beat which , you will need a team to make atleast 350 runs in every innings,

 

 

Eden Gardens

well,
amongst all the things that I never thought I will be able to do , one was getting a chance to watch Tendulkar on the field while he played for 20 years and I witnessed it all .

I started my cricket watching days with his first test 100. He becoming what we called a master blaster in that new zealand series where Stephen Fleming had his debut

Sachin was at that point of time still searching for his first 100. And now all I know is , he is sitting on more than 90 international 100s.

Adding two pics from the 6th Gate Tier 2 stand

Egg shells for plants

Egg plants come from here, if you may ask me

Hooters, where art thee

will gleeful eyes, when I mentioned that a hooter is standing out side, all in my group went to see.

All men, ( I mean all boys basically )

Anyways, this was all the hooter they could get

Random Pics here and there

Balle balle,
well, could you find an appropriate place for this one. Yes, there are , but on the top of a competitive journal .

One random flight I took

After I got my job, I was touring all across the country , young at heart, with money in pocket and a will to spend,
I did cover a lot of the sectors.

Some times there are some sights that strike a chord , some where, but due to the lack of a camera in hand, I was never able to catch much,

I remember, the family that was sorting all its porblems in the Delhi airport,
I remember the Jammu couple, who were calling their neighbors to still come to the airport, buy the tickets and board the flight, and all this, when were just starting, ( I mean that the plane would started taxing within a few minutes or so

I remember the Himalayas, the peaks, on a sunny day in a flight to Delhi again.

I can still remember the beautiful Gujju Bong, who sat next to me and then we talked the whole journey.

One of the most beautiful woman that I have come across
Anyways, here are two familiar sights, that Indians, ( new age Indians ) always see, and take it for granted,

Well, I choose to live for the moment!!

Elfs do get some service in this mans world

This was one random pic in Darshini in Begumpet, last month,
Early morning had gone for the driving license test, on the way stopped in this place to eat some Dosa,

It is like any other Dosa or Idli spot in South India, self service, but the 'S' was missing ,

and I dont think Legolas would mind it either

Dream Girl

I did not know what I really wanted until I saw this picture

here is some one, whom no one will accept at a first shot, it is like the little own Princess Diaries. Anne Hathway, turning into a fairy, similarly, here we have some one with the potential to win a contest hands down anyday.


All you need is some careful tampering, tinkering here and there, and there you go

Odd pigeon out

Chaai , Chaai

Some days ago, I went to Kharagpur, and had written a whole blog on it. I was amazed at the 2:00 AM tea vendors, in full steam, earning their 1 rs from one cup of tea. Trying to find at least 5 customer per train. For them the run , the marathon is on all the 24 hours, since all night trains run all the hours.

Last three days I have been going to Purbachal , ( right behind the stadium if you are coming from Karunamoyee, or if you were to take the road that takes a left at the Hyatt Regency ( if you are coming from Ultadanga) , on the By Pass. Purbachal is where the apartment culture of Salt Lake starts. It is one of the famous ones other than the central government staff quarters and Laboni.
Well, if you are coming from the EM BY Pass you will at first see some make shift slums ,strategically placed so that the foreigners with their Nikon and Canon SLRs dont have to hunt far for a picture of the abject poverty of Indians . The walk out of the Hyatt, check for cars on the left and right and then cross the road, click pics to take way back home as a souvenir of what they saw in India.

One of my friends in US had asked me , ( she was a pen pal, in times before mobile and Email ) "Do I go to school on an elephant?"

I really really did not want to break her heart. I also heard from a friend in Los Angeles that her father always taught her that if she were to grow up and understand how lucky she is and that she should stop whining, she should visit Asia, or atleast India. I believe China now poised to become the second largest economy officially this year, the west rather set their vision of these countries correctly.

Still , coming back to the point, if you were to take the road that divides the FD and FB blocks, ( the big road with by lanes on both sides and buildings making the road look like a valley amongst the giant walls of human settlement)

This road is wide, and does not see much traffic. The cold there was unforgiving and the bite early morning around 6 , still claws inside me.

End of the road , if you were to turn right you will hit Purbachal cluster 1 and 2 and between the cluster 2 and 3 , near to the Martin Burn gate to the Salt Lake stadium you will see this chaai stall

Early morning, draped in shawl, the woman there was cutting the onion and green chillies for some Aloo sabji , The dough was not yet done.
The old man in the picture, asked us, what we want, gave the 2 teas and went back to his seat .
Laid back , complete laid back.

A blog dedicated to my favorite Anatomical miracle

A
Adam’s own – Ace – Alcove – Axe wound – Men’s Aphrodisiac – Anemone of love

B
Blossom full of nectar – Blossom – Bunny – Burning Bush – Baby basket – Baby carriage – Baby hole – Baby maker – Belly entrance – Bearded lady – Beauty spot – Beaver – Bit of jam – Big bud – Black hole – Bower of bliss – Bucket Of Brains – Butterfly – Bucket Of Eels – Bush – Bushy park – Bird – Bird’s nest

C
Cum craver – Cock squeezer – Candy – Cake – Cape of Good Hope – Cave of Harmony – Cave Of Wonders – Cavern – Camel Toe – Center of attraction – Central furrow – Certificate of birth – Chimney – Chocha – Cleft of flesh – Clitty – Cock Alley – Cock Hall – Cock holder – Cock sock – Cock Lane – Cockshy – Coochie – Cookie – Corner – Covered way – Crack of heaven – Crave cave – Cream jug – Crotch – Cunny – Cunt – Cupid’s Alley – Clump

D
Door of life – Down there – Dick driver – Danger zone – Dick sleeve – Daisy – Deli Meat – Divine scar – Door of life – Downstairs – Downtown – Dripping delta

E
Eve’s custom house – Eye that weeps most when best pleased

F
Fanny – Fortress Of Solitude – Female crucible – Flesh Canoe – Fie-for-shame – Fish – Flapdoodle – Fleshy part – Flower -Flower heart – Flower of chivalry – Fool trap – Fountain of life – Fountain of love – Front door – Front Bottom – Front garden – Front office – Front piece – Front window – Fruit cup – Fruitful vine – Fuck hole – Fur pie – Fuzzy wuzzy

G
Goodies – Garden of Eden – Gasp and grunt – Gate of life – Gates of Heaven – Gateway – Generating place – Gentlemen’s pleasure garden – Glory hole – Go down to the finish line – Gold mine – Golden donut – Golden doorway – Golden valley – Grand Canyon

H
Head catcher – Hamper of goodies – Hole of holes – Holiest of Holies – Hide-A-Way – Hotness – Hair pie – Hairy oracle – Hairy ring – Hairy heaven – Happy Valley – Harbor of Hope – Heart of the peony – Heavenly part – Hey nonny nonny and a hot cha-cha – Hole of content – Holy of Holies – Home sweet home – Honey pot – Hot Pocket – House of security – Hee haw – Hooha

I
Inner heart – Inner stream – Inner terrace – Ivory gate

J
Jaws of Hell – Jewel of the Empire – Jeweled enclosure – Jiggumbob – Joy hole – Joy trail – Juice Box

K
Kitty – Keyhole – Keystone of love – Kitchen – Knick-knack

L
Ladder – Lady Flower – Lady Star – Little girl – Little Front Butt – Lapland – Leather – Little sister – Locker – Lotus – Lotus flower – Lotus of her wisdom – Love box – Love canal – Love chamber – Love jungle – Love Lane – Love’s channel – Love’s harbor – Love’s paradise – Love’s pavilion – Lower lips – Lowlands – Lunch Box

M
Mantrap – Main Street – Minge – Manhole – Multi-Purpose Hall – Middle eye – Milk jug – Mine of pleasure – Miraculous cairn – Miss Laycock – Modesty – Money box – Mons pubis – Mother of all saints – Mother of all souls – Mound – Mouse trap – Mrs. Winkles – Mouth that can not bite – Muff – Mysterious cavern – Mysterious valley

N
Nature’s oven – Nice slice – Name it not – No-No Zone – Nature’s tufted treasure – Netherlands – Nick-in-the-notch – Notorious V.A.G. – Notch

P
Panty Hamster – Pandora’s box – Paradise – Peculiar river – Pee-hole – Pink – Pink Parts – Pink Sink – Pipe – Pipe cleaner – Pit hole – Playground – Plaything – Pleasure boat – Pleasure center – Pleasure center of heaven – Pleasure field of heaven – Pleasure garden – Pleasure house – Pleasure palace – Penalty box – Pole hole – Portal of Venus – Precious gateway – Pretty – Prick scourer – Prick-pocket – Penis parking – Privy hole – Purse – Puss – Pussy

Q
Queen of holes – Quimmy – Quin

R
Road – Road to heaven – Rooster – Rose – Rosebud – Rest and be thankful

S
Soft spot – Strawberry – Shame cave – Snatch – Seat of pleasure – Seat of wisdom – Secret cavern – Sensitive cave – Sensitive cavern – Sexual cavern – Shady spring – Shake bag – She – Shell – Skin coat – Scut – Silk funnel – Slice of life – Slit – Snatch box – Solution of continuity – South Pole – Spender – Split Peach – Spermsucker – Spice of life – Sportsman’s hole – Strings of the lyre – Suck and swallow – Slip And Slide – Sugar basin – Sugar donut – Sweet scented hole – Lady’s Secret – Sacred “V”

T
Touchpad – Temple of Venus – The great divide – The VIP Lounge – The channel – The hot oven – The never out trap – The saddle – The treasury – Thicket – Tongue depressor – Tootsie wootsie – Toolbox – Toyshop – Treasure house – Twat – The Sperm Bank – The Death of Adam

U
Under the hill – Undertaker – Upright grin – Upright wink

V
Va-jay-jay – V-jay – Vag – Vidgie – Valley of Decision – Venus mound – Venus’s honeypot – Vertical smile – Vicious circle – Virgin knot

W
Warmer – Who Who – Womens weapon – Water box – Wet Pie – Wayside fountain – Wazoo – Whispy Mound – Womanhood -Workshop

Y
Yoni – You know what – Yum-yum

 

269 minutes lost in a single day of testmatch

Today in Chittagong, the 269 minutes of a test match day was lost in the fog.

 

We don’t need floodlights in the modern cricket grounds, we will be needing fog lights, pouring deep in the field, and the orange ball might be around the corner

 

But still, the find of the day , was this blog , I really liked it, hope you do too

http://www.cricinfo.com/page2/content/story/444066.html

 

 

This guy is an IT consultant and good that he gets time to write in his daytime. Anyways, the ICC is planning for day night test matches (some revolutionary idea they say , I am sure one of the guys , eating popcorn, came across this idea, and all of a  sudden this is now in the pipeline )

 

 

Anyways, the IT industry is down and people are sad, and gloomy about the prospects about the future.

I blog, this mister Karthik too does the same. We have nothing else to do , either.

 

not good signs at all, for the beginning for 2010  

City Center 2

If you are new to Kolkata, you will be surprised to know that there are two city centers in the city, which are remotely any where near to the center of the city, but yes there exists but two of them

One of them is famous, the one in Salt Lake, as it was on the primary , or the premier ones in the city, with the institutionalization of the concept of malls, where you shop, eat and then watch a movie . This as a new new high, and with the coming years, now we have at least 5 INOXes within the city,
there are two City Centers, two Fame malls, and Forums and South City and Mani Square ( where money does not square but gets lost, vanished, vamboozled, simply disappears )

Now there are 3D screens, there are lush seats, comfortable sofa sets, there are 35 rupee halls and 10 rupee halls too. Khanna though closed now, was till the recent years selling tickets in single digits.

The same goes for many other non mall cinema halls, like our very own Jaya here in Laketown.

The City Center one is in Salt Lake, and the majority of the cinema goers are the well to do crowd or the first timers or the very poor but temporarily cash heavy software engineers. The tickets here come for plus 150 , and the rest of the malls in kolkata do sell them for 90-110 rupees range.

And 100 is something, people would like to shell out for a movie once in a while. We dont go to the movies any more to skip the heat , or to get rid of the staring eyes, or to cough at, sneeze at, talk on the fone.

We go to the movies, noawadays with etiquette, we stand up to the national anthem when Kabhi Khushie Kabhi Gam plays. We switch off our mobiles or at least stare at people who dont.

But we still try to do them within the limits of the city. Not at the end of civilization, in the nest of Gaffar Molla, but I did so....
I took a turn from the end of the Sector 5 road. I took the right. I crossed a fly over. I reach this point where most the completed buildings of the new town exist. Most of the flats here have been taken by NRIs and the rest by some of the bosses here of the software companies in Sector 5. These apartments right before the Home town ( that which will not open in the near future ) , is the last strand of civilization in the New town. Then started the torture,

not a soul on the road, not a stopping car, and the chill,
I went all the way till the first circle, on the right I could see darkness, and on the left, I could see darkness again.

So we went all the way to the Chinaar Park , I stood there for some 5 minutes, and cold biting me wherever it could I took the left from there, expecting the airport in that direction, I mean generally speaking.

All in all, it took 10 minutes of driving in the dark , desolate place , and some marauding sedans, going at top speed that i finally reached what you call City Center 2.

Yes, it is near by if you get in from the VIP , near the Haldirams, but on this other side, I think it is that feeling that you will never see another human soul again.

There is a new shop there, called the Max, The colors of the T Shirts, the tops, all were unique and it looks like it is their only shop in Kolkata
The prices were inexplicably cheap and the range was good, So this was one good find.

There was this college band that was trying its luck playing some of its own numbers, and also Mohiner Ghoraguli ,
there were some other performances, like the road side, tricksters, and the fire games.

There was a troup , there acting a serious play on the Nandigram

A bunch of Bihari guys behind, me , did not take it seriously though, but it was sad, Bihar and Jharkhand facing equal difficulties,

may be that the ones who understood this issues, did not come this god forsaken new town city center to see a play .

All in all, I liked the end of the journey , since the Baguiati area was warmer and I was feeling nice about the fact that I will not have to trace my way back to Sector 5 the other way round .

The cold today in Kolkata which stands at 12 degree they say, has almost dehumanized this street outside, which usually hosts a lot of people

On a day when Jyoti Basu died, I expected some kind of activity like party office people saying a word or two on a mike

This was one of the most silent of exits of a political giant, that I have ever seen

My mother and sister are watching some Apsara awards,an award which is nothing but an attempt to make another award popular, the Filmfares are in the shape of a lady and by naming this award an Apsara, they are simply increasing the importance of women in the industry which has now come down to a naught, given the fact that they will have to search hard for a new Madhuri Dixit or a Sridevi , ( forget the legends, like Waheeda Rehman, or Hema Malini ) to do a movie like Sita aur Gita, or Chaalbaaz.

Some attempt huh
By the way , I took some pics of the New Town City Center, have uploaded them

The art of dodging creditors

After running around the world of network marketing, personal friendships, from seeing small business run to seeing friends losing it all.

I have a good amount of money from my job and that helps in this worldly experiments,

 

After all the fighting, and living this world , this so called sansar, all that I have learnt is, “it is all about dodging the creditors”

 

Credit cards, -- people who dodge the next door neighbors for years, for them it is like cakewalk, they take a credit card , work in a respectable MNC though, but they too vanish, in a world of no professional responsibility , and no moral , ethical  dependency towards fulfilling your commitments, it is easy in todays world

 

Bank Loans – loans if you take in thousands, you will be sharked down,, if you take in crores, you can not pay it and stay alive , in the fish pond for years, and may be in the long run, become a respectable client , or die a peaceful life. You take 1000 crore from the bank, pay the manager 2 crores, and he wont bother, take it political, use that 1000 crores to fight in the court and you are bound to win

 

From friends – well, if he is in the same office, change your office, if he is another town, change your mobile number, that is very easy, stop contacts, dodge , dodge and dodge, people are crooked to start with and other people know it, and I am a pessimist, when the money goes, I only think of it as gone. I never calculate it as my own any more, it is rather of an income to me to get it back after years

 

And market – well, muscle power if you have, there is nothing like it, you are rich, you are famous, and no one will touch you, and thus there exists a device of the market called credit, all bar in front of you

 

we sometimes look at a ant hole and think how this poor insects stay in those crowded places, how rats infest their holes, now imagine, when you look at the current market , the current great Indian buzzars,

they are full this insect holes, where the competition is not only cut throat, it literally, dries your blood out, embalms your body and sells it to your family

Rather audacious

Sehwag, had bluntly answered the press conference, that “Phew, Bangladesh , not to worry, a simple test match,  a ordinary side”

 

To that, a Bangladeshi journalist had  answered : “Tell me ,what are we weak at, bowling, batting, fielding?”

 

Sehwag replied : “ Does not matter!”

 

I was expecting a blistering start from the Indian team, but with 6 wickets down with Dravid and Laxman falling like they never existed, and the responsibility on the shoulders of one such pillar who usually stands alone and has never given the Indian team a good foundation, I have little expectations from the little master

 

I just wish , that as Saurav had made the Sri Lankan commentator Abenayeke look like a fool , by coming down the pitch and hitting a great six of the bowling of Jayasuriya,today , Tendulkar will wake up to his real need and take this team to some sort of respectable score

 

This is the team, for which Daniel Vettori had commented after an one day series that we need 400 + runs in all matches to beat the current Indian team,

 

and that team falling down so quickly, ( I am not saying that it hurts more since it is Bangladesh ,. today , when Bangladesh gets invited to Australia for test series ) it hurts to see this state of affairs

End of the era

In West Bengal today , there has been a change, a visible dateline, a turn in the road ahead, a dent in the political aspirations, a clear point in the chronological events of the state, when you can say, that yes, 2010, an year of change,

 

Change, yes you can see, hoardings of the newspaper, Bartaman, that says, “I don’t want to move anymore, no more stances, change is inevitable , and this sad story comes from a figure that undoubtedly resemble the old politician of this state “

 

Well, he is no more, Biman Basu, a rather, strongwilled man , came to tears, saying these words. I know, that political camaraderie exists, and it is not Amar Singhs resignation that opens up the internal conflict, it is Jyoti Basu demise that shows that CPIM is made of a core team, with a will and a propaganda.

 

It is sad, that such a close team , such a bunch  of talented individuals, and I am not talking about a mere state topper , in the finance minister. I am talking about a group of political scholars,

 

That change is inevitable and idealistic politics will not work out , is known by the educated few, but vote bank is a reality, some do it, by offering color televisions and by inviting foreign investments, and some do it, removing financial inequalities. In the process, even iron gets rust, and that same rust is now in this team.

 

IN laymans words, this was a great team, of strong individuals, and I have written it in this blog once before that, during the Nuclear treaty fiasco in the Indian parliament, the only political party who was following, its agenda, its own commitments was CPI (M )

 

I am no political enthusiast, but I do know the difference between people with talent and people without. And politics is a game of different hue all together, and in this country where mass demographics make it one huge challenge to make anything work, politics takes in a different angle all together

 

Jyoti Basu died today, at 95 , we could not have expected more from him, but this is that point of time, when CPIM leaders can look back and say, that without their leader, in spirit, their lies a void , and vacuum that will earmark their finish as a political party .

 

For me a common man, there is no difference, I know, but when I feel as a citizen I know that there comes a change, not in favour of Trinamool, but a dissent against CPIM.

It is not love for Trinamool, it is a hatred for CPIM.

 

 

New Channels

Well, if you are in Bengal by any chance at this point of time, you will not be willing to open the news channels now,

 

Yesterday I overheard the local guys here , ( mostly the guys who sit on the rock walls , and sing the red songs of the CPIM, and wait for the monthly cadre salary ) . All these guys, had their own agenda, they had set up their own medical board right here below the porch.  They were discussing the Urine levels of Jyoti Basu, the haemoglobin counts, the Lipid test results

 

They were talking about the difference between haemo dialysis and normal dialysis, the effects of the chill factor in the climate and the results of it, How we lost Moti Nandi to the weather and may be also will loose this old nonagenarian politician.

 

And later on , before sleeping when I switched on the television for about a minute, I could see the bottom line in one of the newspapers “Situation is critical, urine ….”

 

I am not pointing towards something that is gross, or anything like that, Mr Priya Ranjan Das Munshi is on a life support system right after the Durga Pujo , ( ie about 3 months now ) all on a bill of 3-4 lakhs per day ,or more that I don’t know.

 

But this time with Jyoti Basu it is different, since he is not in a coma, he is alive and kicking, but the doctors are not able to put out a sure shot result either.

Not dragging this matter any further like the left front is used to , I would like to point out the other nonsensical reporting I saw in one of the news channels

 

it is “this millenniums longest solar eclipse”

Why not, it is the 10^th year in the millennium and you are seeing  the longest , which is correct

 

 

Well, one of the hindi news channels, the real producer of Sansani khez , khabarei , vaardaat, dehshat, hawash, khoon, bhoutik, aloukik,  stuff,

 

The sun goes light with time and in another 20 it will be at its weakest point , the channel plays “Suraj huaa madhyam ….”

 

 

 

Meyer Biye Deben Na

and maamaar saathey bhaagney free

Signs

This was a sign . Proof that Aliens do exists and there are Roswells in our country too. Read the one at the bottom

If you are not able to read what is there,

Keep an watch on suspicious persons , people speaking in alien language with alien features
I know what they mean

The last train from Kharagpur

That is the train ,that comes all the way from Puri, starts 7 o clock in the morning and reached KGP at 11 in the night. This is one train that for some reason stops at santragachi , which I later realized why

the Puri Passeneger is one of the slowest trains in the country , and since it touches all stops in the KGP Howrah routes, including, NagaerPakrail, Abaada, Haur, the ones that trains dont even slow down while passing. But this one train stops everywhere

there was one security guy in the coach that I was in, which I later fathomed was the sardar of the goons on the train route. He is the official boss and informer of people carrying stuff on this route. I was carrying a rather costly Omnia Set and was peeved at the idea of getting into a typical scene there,

Well, the train was late and it stopped at halts, at signals and every where possible, the journey of 114 kms from KGP to Howrah took 5 hours,

The only grace from this fall of travel in India trains was the fact that opposite to me there was this family, all hawkers in this route, which I later realized, the mother a Tiranga Gutkha fan, the father a mobile seller with n mobiles on him. He sold tomatoes in the day time,
These guys knew the whole route like the palm of their hands, they knew which part of the platform the train was in, they knew the tea vendors by the first name, they knew which train was passing by , almostby the sound of it

KGP was a chilling, it was almost 7 degrees when I started, and with the train going fast at times, and without proper windows , which shut half way, got stuck some where, lucky or unlucky me , to get a window side seat, I took like the chaddar that was supposed to be used if I laid down, I wore the chaddar , closed myself in, and observed this family,
Wondering this wonder of the railways,
This family , just lived in the trains, they knew the cops, they knew the TTs , they know where to do what, which platform to get down

From the sound of parcels and cartons getting offloaded at the stations from the vendor wagons, they could tell, what was getting loaded,
they told me the cauliflowers, ( fresh as they can be ) getting offloaded in Sankrail, fish which is fresh to the point the the most miser of the Bengali middle class would pay a fortune for was getting offloaded in the Panskura and the Mecheda station

I was surprised at their intrinsic and almost instinctive control of the running train

at one point of time, they were talking " lets get down here, go to the toilet, buy some fish and take the next local"
it is like walking naked in your own bedroom ,for them


Anyways, I did capture a nice picture from the running train inside the platform of the KGP staion

I am an amateur foto grapher, and this is a proof of it for sure

And the one about the Hatis

Well, he is famous
His name is Patiram Hati,
I always thought that the pot bellied, Headooo
or the head master of the hostel in which Nantey and Fantey and KeltuDa studied, had been a metaphorical name with black humor to it

Mr Patiram Hati , having acted as Hanuman, as Ravan , in many a jatra, I thought was one in a million.

But here in Kharagpur I could see that Dr B B Hati , does exist and he runs his clinic pretty well from the local feed back

Well, the name is behind my friends back , I saw this much later while looking closely at the picture



Well, there are two more pics though,
the one with parcle <--- which i think the author means as parcel.
and the one with nusing home <-- which is nursing home.
Though not much of a thing to make fun of , but yes, all across the country I do come across millions of such mistakes
the one in Bihar that said "Child Bear" <--- chilled beer
still is the winner. I am still trying to find the second best,
though this 25th Decemeber , I saw this Meena Bazar Sherwani shops, which sell, traditional Hizaabs or Sherwanis for the Muslim population of Hyderabad, was pretty happy selling Santa Clause suits.
That was a real good bargain , like Russell Peters said, a Chinese guys selling a Louis Vuitton to a Indian guy ( that is the sale that i want to see )

Well, some ads dont pull you anywhere

This was the ad for sweater, well, in the world of skinny models, I welcome this change

Kharagpur trip

Well, after a long time I am writing some posts.
I thought why not write about the IIT KGP trip. And it was what i had expected, a memorable one.
Better it would have been had it been through a BTech experience, and the guys who come out of it, I have seen the passion in them to prove themselves. I have met some of them in my career, and the KGP guys do have a lot to talk about the college , the campus and their mess. ( the one thing they all unanimously miss are girls, which is a a sad fact )

But still, the campus is what i would ideally say a place to learn, to gather more knowledge, the place to have fun too. There are so many dhabas inside, there are schools, there are untrekked places, and obviously n number of academic buildings, the Hizli Jail, where the fighters like Khudiram Bose of the Midnapur district were kept.

The roads in the campus, canopied by all familiar trees, tell a story of a well cared for campus, with the Malis or the gardeners coming to work on e daily basis and not a yearly once , whimsical visit.

Since most government paid, gardeners in the country seldom go to work for which they have a salary coming.

Once picture that always wanted to put up , is here

I always wanted to walk through these roads, to office and come back at the end of the day through these.

Bhubaneshwar

Well, I went to Bhubaneshwar after a long time.
The station is much small compared to the other stations of the state capitals. I was rather surprised that Cuttack station smelled so bad, since i had better memories of Cuttack , but for Bhubaneswar the things were of the different hue.
Bhubaneswar , has changed itself in to a town with huge potential , as my Mama says, they have been fighting some of the worst draughts, inspite of having a corridor where mining makes the state a rich in ore , and thus cash rich state. Orissa has been a predominant name in the UN summits, with hunger related suicides and deaths, ( a picture of the countries worst report card or a breakdown of any system ) .
Kalahandi , as we know, came as a surprise to the educated world of the result of human greed, the land there is rich, but the people there are so poor they would trade anything for a piece of onion ( which will soon be the condition of the Indian urban markets, where the western dollars are not coming easy and the super taxes sapping everything to run the ventlators for Priya Ranjan Das Munshi or Jyoti Basu )

With the commodities markets, and bunch of Dallals in the Dalal Street dictating the hoarders across the country, it is a sad state of things, that we have to write about it in a blog and it will be read by a few more educated students of this nation.

The top brass is more worried about a misspelled word here or there, or a Shashi Tharoor comment. They are worried about " Shhh, we are not supposed to talking it aloud , that Rahul Gandhi is going to be the next PM "
it is like one of those open secrets

the rural bengal doesnot name the snakes or the ghosts in the night, "they are known as "Tenara" "
Tenara aaschen
Tenara choley gechen

Anyways, What I saw in Bhubaneswar was a eye opener , the out side of the station was neat , and it did not make my mind dizzy , with rampant taxi, auto etc etc drivers, who make your life hell elsewhere.
The circle outside the station was neat, and all the way till Patia which is about 15 km away from the station I did not see a single pothole, all 6 laned highways, we talk about after watching a hollywood movie
There was once a time, when train loaded with Oriya people came to Bengal to study , to be cooks in peoples home, people form Andhra came to learn about Dairy Farming technology, about the fisheries in Kolkata

Today Mamata Bannerjee has to put out a train every month from Bengal to oriss , from Bengal to the other states. ( just like Bihar obviously) . Since, people need to go out the state to earn.
I am putting this early morning picture of the road outside Patia ,where people feel safe for the morning walk, there is a less polltion , the shops are away from the main roads with gaps to keep your car and bike, nice planning I should say

the cushioned seats in the platform number 1 in Bhubaneswar does a lot too

Plastics striclty no no

Ok, the drive against Plastic , right after the Copenhagen makes sense . Though global warming was an issue, but India and the west is still fighting the cold weather as of now.
But this poster opposite to the Jaya Cinema Hall takes the cake for the spelling ,
For those of you who dont understand Bengali or cannot read it,

the poster says
"Plaestic instead of plastic " , not a great mistake to ponder upon, but for language enthusiast, who know that the standard of Bengali is going down in the state as the good sons of Bengal are now in Bengal-uru, or Hyderebad .

Just a little bit of pride

I went to Strand Road the other day , the end of MG Road, I saw this old building that belonged to the Raja of Darbhanga , ( a part of Bihar ) . This has been a shop that has been in the family for 95 years now. Started in the times of the World Ward I, it satnds still today , as a sign of a great saree shop of the Burra Bazar

This shop and the hotel Royal have been there in the Burra Bazar for a century now.

BBC at time

I have been a frequent visitor to the BBC site in the last few months. There are many catchy captions but this one belts it

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2010/01/obamas_bigger_rod_for_banks.html

 

Also , there are there banks with security holes , so no wonder

 

I wonder, what the people will think, when they read one of the best captions for 1990’s when Bill was asked, “Why do you think, the average American will go down on their knees after all this?”

Well, someone did go down on her knees to start with