Sunday, July 22, 2007

An adventurous fun filled weekend !!

Thank God I took an off on Friday.....Vivek and I started our day packing up for his trip and then drove till Nimhans at Koramangala to fight with the officials regarding my sister-in-law's study certificates...then followed shopping @ Forum Mall...then again returning back to NIMHANS to get the certificates...and then a trip to Sarjapur where Vivek's office was,he had to get some stuffs from the travel desk since he was travelling to Canada the following day!...And then we were so damn tired that we headed towards a restaurant just next to my home to have a cup of tea with some snacks to eat...Then we headed towards Vijayanagar as we had to drop in Vivek's trip luggages there...had dinner and again headed back to Banaswadi home!!.....phew...indeed a dead tiring day as we had travelled all round the jam-packed city and we were both flat by the time it was 12AM.

Next day was even more exciting!!! Got up early ...went to temple....went to shop @ Com Street....rushed in @ every shop and bought some footwear/clothes etc for Vivek's Canada trip.After we shopped Vivek smiled and told me - "First time I am shopping and you arent ;)"
Then we rushed back home ...did some final packings and headed towards Vijayanagar...had a delicious mommy-made lunch and headed towards Chowdiah Memorial Hall!!...why??? to watch a play called -"Five Point Someone" (a humorous story about three friends in IIT who are unable to cope).

A short note on the play......the play was damn good....the artists looked like theatre professionals...they enacted the play so well....like as if I were reading the book all over again....Five-point Someone was the first ever novel I had read till now...and it was the first time I was watching a play ....to add in more excitement the book's author,Chetan Bhagat Singh too had come to watch the play....wowww!! it was sooo nice....!! The actors were damn cute...esp the person who played the role of Ryan looked cuteee...the person who enacted Alok played his part well and so did Hari's role!The people who played the prof's character were damn good....especially their voice modulation was remarkable!Not to forget the person who played Neha was a pretty dame too....quite soft yet she gave justice to Neha's character.All in all a humorous play by the 'Evam Group'!!!

The play got over by 6pm ...It was raining quite heavily....Still somehow me,Vivek and my bro managed to get an auto and reached Vijaynagr by 6:45pm...again did some final touches on packing...actually speaking re-packed again ;) ....then we thought of sitting an relaxing down to watch TV....but the power went off...When the power came after an hour,it was almost time to have dinner.....at the last minute decided that the whole family would go to see off Vivek at the airport!!!.... Left to airport around 10:30PM as his flight was @ 2AM....Reached the airport ~11PM.....said bye-bye and wished him bon voyage....he looked like this little kid jumping with joy all excited for a trip to a beautiful place....and I looked like this sad soul waving out happily to my hubby but feeling sad deep within since I would be missing him for a month!!!

Also met Madhu and her hubby who were planning to take the same flight as they were heading to US after their marriage.My other colleagues - Vinayak and Aruna too had come to see her off. Hugged Madhu and wished her too a wonderful journey and headed back to my mom's home!!

Indeed an adventurous and fun-filled weekend it was :)

Whats in a name....

Yesterday I received a mail from my cousin sis from US.She was mentioning about the funny things I used to do when I was small,and she was asking about my mom whom she calls "Muruku Aunty",since my mom used to make yummy delicious 'murukus'(also known as Chaklis,is a savoury snack popular in India) when my cousins were kids.Infact that reminded me of the funny names both my bro and I used to call our uncles and aunties.......Some of them were :-
  • Biriyani Uncle - This uncle was my dad's close friend . When we were small this uncle used to bring good chicken biryani for us often.....since then we have started calling him Biriyani Uncle :) Even today me,my bro including my parents and their other friends call this uncle by the name christened by us :D....everything's the same only except that we dont get biriyani's now from him :'-(


  • 'Jeddi' Mamman/Uncle - He was our neighbour in my childhood days. We used to alwaays see him on the road in his 'Jeddi's' a.k.a Bermudas now :D ....but when we were small we could hardly understand what a 'bermuda' was...so since we used to alwaays see this uncle in his shorts...we named him as "Jeddi Mamman" :D...I remember my mom used to tell me not to call him like that......so now since we have grown big;) and also since he has 2 grown up daughters, we refer him by his own name itself :)


  • White Aunty - It actuallys sounds soooo funny when I have to call this aunty by this name even now. This aunty was my childhood neighbour,an old widow.I used to see her always draped in white saris.Since the rest of the aunties were always seen in colorful saris except her,we used to call her "White Aunty"...and call her the same even now!


  • 1..2...3 Miss - She was my montessory Mathematics teacher....I was barely 4-5yrs old,I never knew her name,even till now!I remember when I used to run back home after my class, I used to narrate the days events to my mom and tell her - "Today na..my 1..2..3 Miss told me this.....1..2..3 Miss scolded me...etc"


I vaguely remember the other funny names I used to give my uncs and aunts....including my school teachers :D ....it was difficult to remember these people by their names hence they were named by us either bcoz of their attitude or dressing style or behaviour :). Also remember an aunty whom we call as "Baby Aunty".Her name is something else but I guess it was her pet name,so now since she's quite an elderly person...we call her Baby 'Aunty' now :) sounds funny actually ;)

Yeah ofcourse vice-versa too worked well...my school teachers remember me because of my initials 'T.V'.....my teachers used to give me various TV names....those days it was -Dynora...Solidaire and all....So they used to call me with such weird TV names.I guess even now sometimes I get teased because of my initials....but whatever it is I zimbly love it when people call me "Anu TV" :)

Monday, July 2, 2007

Encounter with a strange auto driver !

Friday evening 7pm .....I had accompanied my sister in law(Vidya) and her husband(Kishor) who were out on a shopping spree @ our very own Commercial Streets. I did not have a tiring day at office hence I had some energy in me to walk around the busy streets of ComStreet! We walked into many shoes/dress/bag stores,fought with some shopkeepers on the huge prices they charged and bargained and finally had 3-4 heavy bags with us and were waiting to be chauffeur-driven by 'Baasha Bhai' a.k.a auto drivers to common man ;)

It was ~8pm and I guessed legally an auto driver shouldnt be charging "1 1/2 fare" but knowing our very own auto drivers I was almost expecting the demand fares to range from 60-80's. Normally it takes ~50Rs/- to reach my home. I walked few steps and saw some lazy auto drivers who were busy with their evening chats with their friends and smoked away happily,in between gave us 2-3 glances but still continued their gupshups with their friendly colleagues. 2-3 of the drivers standing @ the auto stand looked fiersome like as if they had just been freed from jail and were hungry for victims. I almost walked away from them when I suddenly spotted an autodriver who looked like he was in his teens,maybe 20's something and looked quite like this boy who is thrown out from school kinds.Felt pity for him and I started my usu style of bargaining - "Banaswadi....yeshttu?"...He happily said 70Rs.....I laughed and said -"Fifty inda start maadona?(lets start from 50 bucks)" . Somehow he reached "60/-" then I still insisted "50/-?" and walked off when he came behind me and said "Aayithu , 55/-" I thanked my stars for that moment coz one needs to be damn lucky to get an auto in Bengalooru and then we Vidya,Kishor and myself jumped into the auto with our shopping bags!



Watta an experience...my oh my!! he zzoooommmmed and sped so fast in that heavy traffic jam on Mosque Road.He took so many huge deviations for turning a simple right or a left or overtook many 'friendly' vehicles [I call them 'friendly' coz these vehicles followed the traffic lane principles and rode smoothly] and my auto driver zoomed past cab drivers too!! :-O...Can u believe that??? Overtaking a taxi/cab driver in Bengalooru needs some guts mannnn!!!! phew!!

Each time he escaped traffic signals and disobeyed the traffic lanes principles and zoomed across,my heart almost skipped a beat! We three passengers stared at each other and crossed our fingers almost hoping that we would reach home ALIVE!!

Before reaching my home ,there is a small lane which one needs to cross which consists of BAD roads with many potholes and pits and cowdungs and what not...Its actually feels terrible to ride on these roads before reaching my home sweet home !!But one cant expect anything less in Bengalooru roads:) ! And then started a small tiff!

My poor auto driver felt frustrated that he wasnt able to zoom on these 'junk' roads...he could get the smell of cowdung and s!#$% and so could we but we patiently complained nothing! Then he almost got pissed off and started spitting out and looked at us and said in his local language " You guys stay in this area....this bloody area....myy!! you made my auto come through these stupid roads" We three still remained silent....but he continued complaining!! Spat again once or twice outside and again looked behind and shouted - "Senseless ppl,what kind of area is this..Youu live hereee??.....damnnn!!" I spoke - "Look here Sir(one needs to give respect to these ppl sometimes only),you are not the first auto driver to have travelled on this lane" and I pointed at few more autos who had just crossed us and said -- " they too are travelling without any complaints and whats wrong with u" He stopped his 'possessed' vehicle...scrrrrrrreeeeccccchhhh!

"I am not driving any more further...come what may" said he and spat again outside. He was almost getting onto my nerves ,but I still spoke calmly and said "Look here our house is hardly 1-2km away and you can drop us there and I will show u another route to come out of this area".He started his engine :)...phew...I looked at my SIL and her hubby who looked almost puzzled and had a mixture of shock and amused type facial expression! His 'Mercedes' went just a further and again stopped....got out....spat twice or thrice(like as if I had dumped him into a pool of cowdung or S##%) and said -"Get out ppl,I am going no further". Enough was enough for me,firstly I have this special grudge against these autodrivers and somehow I was thrilled in showing my anger at this guy too! The three of us got down as he continued his usually spitting game and spoke some local slangs to himself .....I said with almost no patience - "Look here Mister I had promised u the fare which u said provided u brought us till the place we mentioned!I think its your duty to drop us at our desired place and not in the middle of a dark road(dark since that area had a power cut and it was pitch dark!)Mind u ,you are not the first auto driver in this world to travel on this kind of route....moreover is this the way you behave to a passenger??...I am going to give you 10/- less and nothing more" I somehow felt pride within for the simple feeling of having spoken such hugggeee dialogs in kannada ;) And then he again argued badly.....I continued again...I added - "Fine ...Kishor you give him the correct fare and I am noting down his auto number and make sure his license gets cancelled at the earliest for such a rude behavior" ...I said that and I almost felt my heart beating faster than before! Pin drop silence for 3 secs....he said in a loud voice - "Okiies.....fine ...reduce 10/- and give me my money and I will make sure the next time when you come to Commercial Street how to handle you ppl"..Dhamkiii.....I too responded harshly - "Fine fine....go and lets see what you will do at CommStreet anyways I have ur number noted down...huh!! " Kishor intervened in between now and spoke calmly,not knowing the local language said "Jaaoo bhaiyaa jaaooo...baad mein dekhenge..abhi tak kuch nahi bola...lekin start kiya thooo...."

The next moment I saw the angry autodriver ofcourse spitting out once again and take a turn and drove away in fulll speed into darkness! We three walked for another 10mins to reach our home and laughed and teased about how he spoke and spat and acted :D.....We walked back home ~9pm happily and excited to narrate this funny story to Vivek who at this time was almost worried waiting for us :)

Sunday, July 1, 2007

..and she made the difference!!

"Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints in our hearts. And we are never, ever the same."
-Author Unknown


Today I am thankful to God that He has showered me with some wonderful people whom I call as "my good friends"...most of all I thank Him for sending a 'best' friend in my life.

I still remember the day she came and sat next to me @ my tutions.She did not speak to me and I used to have this thought in my mind,"Man,watta attitude she has....damn why cant she sit somewhere else" .....As days passed ....months flew we became the best of pals...and I am so happy that I met her quite early in my life....

I still dont understand the meaning of a "best" friend.....But I know she is that one person with whom I can spend a day with loads of fun and laughter....one who understands the meaning of my silence........one who sheds a tear when I am sad.......one who is more happier for me than myself.......one with whom I can get pampered and also pamper....one who can give me a solution even before I narrate the problem...one who stood beside me when everyone thought I was wrong......one who gives me that inner strength and confidence......one with whom I can trust on anything ........People generally used to tell us "You are like one soul in two bodies"...shez made that difference in my life.

A day had come when I cried as she had to travel miles away from me...But I was happy for her as she was getting married and settling in the US ....Even today I chuckle when she calls up from Unc. Sam's land only to end the conversation with ->"Anu daa when you coming to San Diego".....

I miss those days we had lots of fun...I miss those times we played some pranks....miss those days when we simply laughed for nothing ;).....I miss being myself when I was with u.....I sometimes miss my dearie friend Poonam :)