The TimePass of India

One of my friends says that I never talk about myself... I got this in an email from her, and decided to put it up on the blog...



1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? - my name means one who knows everything... Its not a noun, its an adjective used for God

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? - Men dont cry! We hunt..We kill duck..We eat raw meat..We no cry!

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? - yes, its another thing tht others dont :P

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAL? - i like dal chawal with buttermilk and a lot of other side dishes (wht? i like to eat!)

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? - none tht i know of!

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? - Yeah, i am a nice guy!

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? - with close friends only
9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? - No..if AXN and world's most amazing videos have taught me anything, i wouldnt!

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? - Nope..dont like any

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? - hahahaah...i love this one..no, i dont!

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? - yeah...though not ass-kicking strong, i am strong enuf not to let my ass get kicked

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? - coffee almond

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? - depends on whether the person is a guy or a girl!

15. RED OR PINK? - red

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? - tht i find it difficult to dedicate myself to one thing..this is my least fav thing bout myself

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? -my kid sister..miss her big time..noones here to laugh at my silly jokes now..

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? yep

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? - grey pants and no shoes(why was this ques included? )

20. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE? -uttapa.....

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? Pehli Nazar by Atif Aslam from Race...imagine me listening to a hindi song! But this ones the best since Doorie..

22. IF YOU WHERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? - Fluorescent Orange..I rem kids fighting over it..

23. FAVORITE SMELLS? - Dettol, Jai soap, the Cologne tht u get on Indian Airlines flights, tea(when its being made), Gillette roll-on

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? - Akshay Sukhtankar..hes a classmate who now works in the same firm as me..

25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? - yeah i do..shes pretty cool

26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? - liked cricket but lost interest after Ganguly was dropped from the team...

27. HAIR COLOR? Black, coloured brown

28. EYE COLOR? - black

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? - no..my eyes r too sensitive

30. FAVORITE FOOD? - anything thts vegetarian and spicy will do..i hav a weakness for paneer and mushrooms

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? - happy endings..i love them (I hope I dont come across as girlish )

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? - Mithya..loved it, except the ending....

33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? - dark blue Tshirt, actually its SPCE's mech Tshirt...

34. SUMMER OR WINTER? -winter afternoons..Diwali vacations if I can get them..

35. HUGS OR KISSES? - Cant I get both? Hugs I guess..

36. FAVORITE DESSERT? - not much of a dessert person actually... i like to have fruit salad though..

37. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? - Arshat!

38. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? - hero, boss , guru :P

39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? - blink! It was given to me by a friend, and the literary genius tht i am, i hav been trying to complete it from the last 1 month

40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? - er..a mouse!!?

41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON T.V. LAST NIGHT? - Simpsons, My wife and Kids and Sarabhai vs Sarabhai

42. FAVORITE SOUND? - bagpiper, guitar, birds chirping, mooing cows with bells round their necks

43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? - Havent heard them.. But arent Rolling stones those skinny guys with swollen lips..why are they so hyped?

44. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? - I hav been to London once. I hope this is not one of those philosophical questions...

45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? - Yeah, i can climb up walls and stop high speed trains with my left hand..

46. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? In a hospital

47. WHOSE ANSWERS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK? - yours I-am-what-I-am!

Face lift!!
Yeah... My blogs got a face lift.. And I am the Plastic surgeon(sounds cool ) behind this fab work!
(Hilary duffs Pic below is just to make sure you read atleat some parts of this post :P)



The template I had a few days ago was one of a kind but I was bored with some much dark green (or bottle green as girls wud call it) in the background and wanted something white, Simi Grewalish white...

It took me about 40 manhours to design this template completely. The main structure is "inspired" from Finalsense.com's Auto template. But it seemed to impersonal...too unarshatish.. So, I had to come up with this!

So what do we have here?
I wanted the diary-feel so I have kept tht area intact. Actually I have tweaked it a lot! Top and bottom margins, padding, line height are some of the things you have to take into consideration. For a mech engg like me, who has trouble even with C and C++, Css stylesheet was gonna be difficult, real difficult.
With a lil help from Pushkar and Sameer and a lot of Trial testing, I have almost achieved wht I had set out to achieve. :)

The header could hav been better, I agree, but its not me, if its not shabby :P...

All these days I have really missed blogging(stop rejoiceing, I am back!). Revamping your blog takes a lotta time.
Point to be noted: I dont have a lotta Computer Engg as friends. I should do something bout that! It would have been less frustating(yeah thts the word) with a Comp sci guy by my side..

Now tht I have the template back in place, I ll be blogging more often *evil grin*

There is so much I wanna bore you guys with...I wanna talk bout how the xml collapsed and how coding sucks and stuff, but I guess I ll keep it for another day..I am too tired anyways..

Well for guys who wud wanna have this template follow this link.
I wudnt mind if someone wud like to make donation for the Arshat Chaudhary foundation for lazy engineers (Believe me, this is your chance to give back to the society) Know-thy-self Blogger Template

Last sunday I met some of my oldies. I call them my oldies coz i have known them for more than 9 years now...And as it goes with old friends, it was great fun...

Some musings
*Powai doesnt have half the outlets tht Nirmals does!
*Powai still is a lot of fun
*Its fun with your old friends even when you have nothing to talk about and nowhere to go...
* Your friends know you too well to see through you when u are lying..
*You can talk bout anything to them
Arshat: Some guys make me wanna be a girl (@#$#! did I say tht out loud?)
Harish: whaaa?
Sandy: ewww..
(Yeah! I had said tht out loud..)
Arshat: er..well George clooney and John Stamos...
and my German boss (shit! did i hav to say his name!!)
Sandy: ewww..
*Well maybe you cant talk bout everything with them

*The problem with ppl who know you inside out is tht they judge you before hearing you out..

*Its bloody cold here! Sunday was the coldest day in the last 45 yrs in the history of mumbai! (10.2deg C is the recorded temp in Santacruz..Powai is colder..In Mulund its snowing...I have a tendency to exaggarate)..Take out the wollens ppl!

*Its fun when there r two guys and a girl! Coz when I say sumthing stupid, trust Harish to come up with something equally foolish.. Makes me look a lot better

*If there is a single girl among two guys she ll get special attention..(Ah! genius!)

*Mochas is absurdly costly!
Sandy : I will have the "cookie crumble"
Arshat: tereko cost patah hai? Rs.95!! (I can be quite a chindi if i want too)
Harish: I hope you know, ur cookie is gonna be this big(his fingers denoting the size of a 5 rupee coin)
We being the smart ones called for the- "Con panna" for Rs.40! Nice choice we thought..

When we got our orders we found the "Con panna" is called so for a reason. You see, its a CON! The size of the cup was smaller than the cups which come with the Barbie friends set!



(My female friends hav passed me on this info..I havent even touched Barbie till date..er..well..maybe once or twice..)

Sandy got her cookie crumble, the size of cream on which resembled the hills tht overlooked Powai..
Bloody Mochas..
Just to add, we mowed down half the hills from Sandy cup...Lifes so fair..

*There are many firangs roaming around in Powai..With not many hotels around, I wonder where they come from..

*All my friends have topped their respective trades sometime or the other...For eg - Harish topped school..Sandy topped the univ last yr... In most parts of the world having such friends would classify me as a loser but I can safely say they are not as geeky as their portfolios sound..

*If there is a single girl among two guys she ll get special attention (Did I mention tht already?)

*No matter how much u like the guy and how much you miss each other, u cant hug at the end of the day
Arshat: akward hug or cool guy handshake?
Harish: cool guy handshake for sure!
Stangely enough ask a girl this and you get a stare tht will make sunny deol pee in his pants


Its been a great 9 years with you guys...We have been through good and bad times together.. We might not hav a lot of time for each other more so as we get involved further with our respective careers and stuff... But I just want you guys to know, phone calls or no phone calls, mails or no mails, we will remain friends forever...
I hope I be there when Harish gets married and stuff (and stuff? :P).. I hope to be there when Sandy has a daughter(I m sure u gonna have a daughter...)
And hope we be there after our retirement and then we talk about all the fun we had when we were 20 over a cup of...er..."Con Panna"?? :) 2 guys, a girl and "Con Panna"

365 days
106 post
6500 visits

Yeah, its been an year since I started blogging... I remember how the blog-bug bit me...

I was searching for some Pu La Deshpandes audio mp3 for download, when I came across Gaurav Sabnis' blog....a COEP passout doing his MBA from IIM-L...I got fascinated by his writing and it was fun living his life at IIM through his blog (He blogged almost everyday)
As I read through his archives I came through the IIPM scandal. I dunno if u guys remember about this kid who through his blog had ransacked through IIPM's tall claims and stuff.. and there were articles in the newspapers...Well, Gaurav was tht kid!! Now dont be too enthu, the guy writes about politics and stuff now(hes writes like a grownup now) and tht somehow is not very interesting for me. Thts why you dont find him on my blogroll no more...

Anyways, thats when I decided to start my own blog. Here is my first post.

To be honest, I felt my obsession with blogging wont continue for more than 3 months or so... But god bless my ramblings about engineering and Mseb and mmrda tht I had something to write always !

There were times I used to wonder if my friends really liked my writings(or they read it at all)
But a few weeks of my absence on the blogosphere and all my friends would ask me if I was alright and why there were no posts of late!(Its weird how ppl can get addicted to gibberish)

I made a few blog friends too whose names you would find on my blogroll.. Thanks for the inspiration guys.

I am not a guy who is used to compliments, so it was kinda pleasant when ppl complimented me on my writings...Its sumthing tht keeps me going...Pls keep those coming :)

I so wanna thank everyone who visits this blog(God bless your soul) and posts their comments to make this a better place. But I cant include everyones names here coz its a long list(and I am sure most of you know who you are)... But wherever you guys are, I wanna say -

You could have been anywhere in the world but you chose here
Kinda unbelievable mate but its been a whole year...

So many days, so many thoughts gone by
Some yet to come, some yet to be tried...

You guys have been a lovely crowd
Thank you all for coming out...

I look at you guys, I take a bow
The posts ll just keep coming, stay glued to your seats now! First Anniversary

Part 1 of the "Hey Dog" trilogy.(Yeah, just like MATRIX!!)

Read the Part 1 -Hey Dog (The original dog!) here..
Read the Part 2 -Hey Dog (Dog's day out!) here..
Read the Part 3 - Hey Dog (The return of the wise one) here..
(No reference between the three, just like MATRIX!!)

Theres something I really love about my workplace. Its the lush green lawns, the gardens, the flowers in their full bloom..And I love the fact tht you have to walk along the gardens to reach the office from the campus gate...Its really lovely...It actually makes getting up early less miserable for me..

Nowadays a canine couple with pups in tow has made the garden its home...Now we dont allow anyone without an identification within the factory premises, but for these guys we made an exception...

I look at them enviously(you ll know why) every morning as I pass by the lawns to enter my office..
Its a family of 6..(or maybe 7)...There is one Daddy dog(sounds like some rapper no?)..one mother dog, and 4 or 5 pups(whtevr happened to family planning!)

This Daddy dog is kinda ugly, black and white in colour and looks kinda malnourished and limps a little... Mommy dog is all white and pretty(in a doggy kinda way).How on earth did a dog like him get such a pretty female to like him...The look like Mandira Bedi and her husband
would(who is he anyway?), if they ever went out together...

Anyways,
Some dogs have all the luck..
I mean, look at him, rolling in the grass all day, licking his..u know what...sniffing her..u know where..
Why? Why? Why did he get to all this fun((?)) stuff on a monday morning, while I sit at my desk and work all day!

I stopped by him(the dog)..I looked at him like Sunny Deol looks at people hes gonna pound with his dhai kilo ka haath.. He just looked away, like Sachin does, after hitting Shoaib for a six!

But there was no reason for me to be uncivilised..After all we were supposed to be best friends(Dog is mans best friend..Aaarrggh)...So I decided to go through a small chat..




Hey dog!

Hey dog!

Hey!!? Why did u call me dog for?

Bow-wow!..I thought we were doing tht rapper thingy...U know, where one rapper calls the other "nigga"....Btw, why did u get all mad when i called u dog?

Er..u see...we dont like being called dog...esp by a dog!

Hmm..i see..u humans are weird. I love being called dog..

Hmm..Is it fun being a dog?

Lemme see..I stay in a garden whose maintainance is done by ur company, and I dont work for ur company...And tht girl you losers have been eyeing for days now, stops by me to say-"How cute" everyday...so..i guess its fun being a dog...

Well,she says tht bout ur kids and not u...And I am not eyeing her, some of my friends are...and they are not losers..on second thoughts, maybe they are..

Hmm...u sound pretty cranky..Hows life?

Well mine is a dog's life..

GREAT!

Er..well..the word dog isnt taken in a good sense in our world...no offence..

Hmm..I see..So ur life is boring?

Kinda...I mean there nothing concrete tht i do..

Neither do I...

Thts why I said Its a dogs life!

You have any girlfriends?

No...Why?

I have lots! So ur is not a dogs life after all!

You have lot of girl friends? Shudnt you be calling them bitch-friends? bwhahaha

Hey! Watch ur tongue....

Er..Sorry! I didnt know u were so touchy about ur girls...Is your wife cool about it?

Yeah..kinda..

So, u dont have monogamy at your place?

I believe trust is more important than monogamy..

Man! u r too smart for a dog..

I know..I get tht a lot..

So...er..I dunno if I shud be asking you this..but how do u get the bitches to like u?

Oh..so u wanna get into the game...gonna get jiggy..gonna smack up some...

Will u pls stop tht!! Cut to the chase..

Er..bow wow!ok! ok! why r u so cranky! Well, if u hav to know - Its all in the sniffing!

Sniffing?

Yeah...ur first sniff is enough for her to know ur intentions..

Oh I see..I dunno why I asked a dog for advice! Monday blues I think..Dont u feel the blues on a monday morning?

No..er...Shudnt u be at work or something..I mean yours is a 8:45 shift, and its close to 9 now?

Yeah...I shud be...I shud get going..Was fun talking to you...

Same here..You cud have made a very good dog..

Thanks..er..i guess..



I turned around and started walking towards my office...Did I just talk to a dog for 15 mins! Guess I did..Man! I looked back..He was there, playing with two of his pups, the other three were still asleep cuddled next to their mommy, she licked them every once and again...It was a
pretty picture..

The ugly dog, didnt seem ugly anymore.. Hey dog!

She stood there...As pretty as ever..."Hi! Where are you?" Her voice sounded as sweet as it did 8 years ago. Thank god testosterone doesnt touch girls!
"I ll be there in a moment..", he said. He could see her from the first floor of the mall...She wore a white kurti and a pair of jeans.

They shook hands. She looked at him and smiled... Her smile could light up a thousand rooms. Its the kind of smile which makes you feel everythings fine and if its not, it will be...Her eyes were soft, her hair were long...she was shy, simple, elegant, girlie, pretty...She was the kind he dreamt of...The kind you wanna take home to your mother...The kind you read about in Novels but never meet in real life..He pinched himself a couple of times to check if this was a dream...It wasnt..

He had never acted this schoolboyish for any girl.. He came from work, took a shower, got rid of the stubble he was sporting from a couple of days and rushed to the mall to reach 15 mins before time. All this from a guy who doesnt even care to comb his hair and always reaches late when his friends call him..

They talked.. About movies and places and stuff.... She did the talking most of the time...He was amazed at how much this girl knew..He knew no other girl who could hold a conversation like her..."Shes so intelligent..so well read", he thought... And the innocence with which she puts up her point, leaves no scope for an argument.. His friends say that he argues a lot... If there was one girl he could never argue with, it would be her..
He did say some gibberish every now and then and She laughed at all his silly jokes...and it was nice to hear her laugh..she laughed like a 7 yr old would, with all her heart and with innocence brimming over..

He thought about the day when she told him that she ll be coming to India... He never thought she would wanna meet him too..And He never had the guts to ask her if she would...
But tonight he had been good..There werent many occasions when he was awkward.. He carried himself pretty well,he thought...

It was getting late and she had to get home..It had been more than 2 hours, it seemed like a lot less than that though...


"I have to get going.",she said.

"Oh..ok"

"Thanks for everything."

"Thanks...Thank you...", he said..

"Bye!"

Time stood still...

She smiled..

And everything was fine.......


____________________________________________________


Kinda abrupt ending, no? But I dunno wht happens next, so I guess you guys will have to do with it... Plus this is my first attempt to write something in this genre so pls dont make fun of my writing ...
Everythings fine.....

Crimson Lights..Oh so few,
Mumbai has a lot more, but this feels new...
Long flights bore me, but not today..
Fulltoo enthu I am, as my craft lands on the runway..
Cold mornings, Lazy afternoons wait along...
Home away from home, here I come.

I got to visit Nagpur this weekend. There was a wedding in the family. I reached Nagpur airport on Friday night 3 hrs late than scheduled!

I thought of these lines(calling it a poem would be like calling Sunny Deol a Pole dancer) when I was looking down the window of my Business class seat.. And the mention of the Business class is to..er..well..brag :P

I have been working(?) for the past 5 months and I needed a break big time...
So how was my trip? Well amazing and hectic!
2 days of my stay there involved a lot of travelling... We(my parents and me) had to rush to Wardha* as soon as we landed at Nagpur.
We reached there after the guests had left...The groom was slightly miffed..but wht to do! All the flights were late tht day!
(*Wardha is 75 kms from Nagpur. Wardha is known for Sewagram where Gandhiji spent a lot of time.)

I love the winters...esp when I dont have to get up early. So its fun when u get to visit some place coz then u can stay late in bed.


One of my friends who stays in the US once told me that she would find it difficult to stay in Mulund, coz she had grown up to the idea of living in a small town... Now I can decipher what she meant by tht... I mean, life here is so cool.. 9 am isnt rush hour,its just morning ... 5 pm isnt the time to drive into a traffic jam , its time to go home... No one seems to wanna get anywhere here. Life assumes a natural pace here.

Homes here are like they shud be...with a small lawn and a porch in front of the house... and a Bajaj Chetak or a Hero Honda splendor parked in the porch.And most of them have a terrace, from where u could see kids playing cricket (and blatantly twisting the rules in the favour of the kid who owns the bat and the stumps).
If you have time, which in all likelihood you do when you r in a small town, you can enjoy watching the sun set and wonder where does it go at night.. If you still manage to bore yourself, you can read the Marathi dailies tht u thought never existed. Or you could also watch Doordarshan and reminisce of the good old times when we didnt have a choice and waited an entire week for the Saturday night movie. I would be amazed if anyone says that they can watch an entire movie on TV nowadays..


One more thing I like love about my native is the kind of food you get... I mean, its not very rich or anything, but it tastes very different from the stuff we get here in Mumbai. Plus when you r touring your native, like I was, there r no fixed eating times. That means, every time is eating time. My mom, a doctor by profession, obviously doesnt approve of such a haphazard eating schedule, but wht to do...when u r driving from ur dad's friends place to ur aunt's place, u
have to go by their schedules...

Afternoons here are so lazy... You lay back in your chair and wonder why the sky's so blue...why is the grass so green...and why is it so cold outside at 3 in the afternoon..why is it tht I dont lie down like this more often..Why cant life be this simple...Why do I have to leave for mumbai tomorrow...Would I wanna stay here all my life...Is this how it feels when you are home? Am I home? Is this home..?



Crimson lights, they so many..
Aint I supposed to like tht? I find it so funny...
Phils and Philosophies I leave for another day..
I am now coming back home, my craft lands on the runway..
Cold mornings, Lazy afternoons long gone..
Ladies and gentlemen, I am back home... Nagpur-Wardha-Nagpur-Mumbai