Awesome thing # 60 and some of the worst days of my life

New Year is approaching and my life is becoming a living hell. The past 7 days have been a roller coaster ride which i will not be able to forget. Exactly 7 days ago, last thursday i had one of the best parties with my college gang at Machan (gurgaon) with ample booze and amazing fun. Next day I watched a stand up comedy act at one of the elitest places in Delhi and had the best italian in town. Best days? Hell yeah!


Saturday i went down with a terrible cold and remained bed ridden. Bad? Not yet. Starting from there, for the next 48 hrs i continuously fought with my parents for issues which have been bothering us for sometime now. What was worse was that i was completely lonely and had not one person willing to go out ANYwhere! The kind of social life I live, this alone is enough to crack my nuts. The constant cribbing at home made matters worse and for the first time i felt close to breaking down. And add to that the loss on the professional front. I lost a very good freelancer who was working for me, because of an ego clash (not mine, his). 


The next 4 days I spent talking to my friend in kolkata and planning a trip; which i successfully did. I was scheduled to first leave for the city on 29th and then on 30th. But a terribly silly un-understandable and unbelievable mistake did not let me book my ticket. I just could not believe myself when i realized i had to spend my new year here, where i right now hate the most! 


And today, with the feeling and acceptance having sunk in finally, I went again with friends to attend a Live performance by a new Indian band named Faridkot. Surprisingly the band was performing at Sura Vie, Sanjeev Kapoor's amazing pub in the heart of Delhi and we had an absolutely rocking time.


P.S. The only thing which bothers me now is that this is another thursday and i do not want to spend another week in agony. I hate my life :(

Awesome thing # 59 - 8 Years!

I met Vinson James today, after 8 years and that was the awesome part of the day. Had to wait the entire day for some action and by god what kinda!! We met, 5 of us; drank, at least 3 different types; ate; laughed, fuck we laughed so much i even blew my nose once (that was even more hilarious by the way :D); and then we came back singing. Bloody hell, fuckin unimaginably Awesome night..

Awesome thing # 58 - Cake

This goes down as one hell of a day in my books. A not so usual saturday slowly turning into a very bad one and then into one of  the best ones. Here's how it went
1. Woke up at 8 and left for the court for the usual hearing by 9:30.
2. Drove the amazingly smooth sedan at a relaxed speed of 100 and reached the court well on time by 10:15 (just 15 min late)
3. Proceedings got over in 10 minutes and by 10:30 we are free to go home!
4. But wait, one asshole from the proceedings is missing. Can't leave till his signature is inked. So wait.
5. Agonizingly Wait - 11:30
6. Angrily Wait - 12:30
7. Very Very Angrily Wait - 13:30 
8. The mother fuckin sob comes finally, after a 3 hour wait which i spend doing absolutely nothing except stare at walls and trees in the compound. Shit shit shit.
9. Now the judge keeps us waiting.We finally get free at 2:30
10. Time for lunch at Murthal :)
11. Try a new dhaba - Ahuja's this time. Amazing food and service! 3:30
12. Leave for Delhi. Catch roadways bus and leave for home. Dad leaves for office.
13. Bus comes and in the middle of the highway, takes a detour! Fuck!! Get in a fight on phone in the bus..even more fuck!
14. Reach metro half an hour later (already late by 3 hrs). 4:30
15. Call saxo and leave for Lajpat Nagar. 
16. Reach Lajpat Nagar and its bustling market - 5:30. Check out babes on the way ;)
17. Finally, meet vershney and his wife (for the first time since their marriage) - 6:00. Mission accomplished. Had to do this today else god knows when we could've met.
18. Have an evening snack at his brother's resto. gala time - old friends, old talks :)
19. Leave for home for Akshat's birthday celebrations. - 7:00 (already late by an hour)
20. Check out babes on the way back ;)
21. Reach home and start rushing. 8:00
22. Get all things arranged, burn coal and get ready for the bon fire. - 9:30
23. Forget to order dinner; order!
24. Finally all set!! Sit and the party begins...phew!!
25. Food done, everything else done, time for cake :O :) Awesomely amazingly yummily delightful chocolate vanilla cake. Wow, its taste still lingers :)
26. Sit by the fire for the story session to begin. Bade papa starts and how the next 2 hrs pass, we have no clue.... :)

Sucker for company

The hardest thing about being an entrepreneur (for some reason, i hate that word) is that you are all alone. For most part, that is true. The tough thing is that this most part comes in the initial years, when success is a distant dream, and failure is a daily meal and when you need someone by your side the most. This makes you (me) a sucker for company. Heck, any company! Most part of the day is spent in my office cum bedroom sitting alone working or staring at the computer. When i feel bored, i watch an episode of LOST or 2 and a half men which eases me a bit always. Charlie Sheen by the way is super awesome and if you have not watched LOST, please do. Mostly this brings me to the evening. This. Not a word uttered the whole time since waking up. Because there is no one to talk to! Sometimes I feel like calling someone up, but how many times can you call the same person up again and again? If you don't get irritated, they will. Sometimes I wish I could go meet a friend, but not even the better friends have time from office and their own lives. This makes me wonder, all the crap that people tell you about keeping work life at a second priority to personal things only makes sense when 2 people do it together. One alone will get BORED. And that is what i am. Pretty bored actually, of being alone. 


and this weather is making it worse. Laziness + boredom = madness!!


P.S. Should i just login to a dating site? I wonder if they even work with the fake profiles n all. Or probably i should call up some escort service? But they are costly. I guess i should marry? Whoa marriage seems such a great idea right now! 
Man, I wish i could just date some chick these days.

Awesome thing # 57 - People!

Tuesday sucked. I woke my lazy ass at 6am in the morning of this chilly weather and went to attend the Art of Living's 1st of the 6 days course - my second stint in 2 years. Why i went there was for the Yoga. They teach some breathing things which are seriously good. I still remember the first thing i learnt here 2 years ago. It went something like this 

There are 3 types of species in the world 

Dog - breathes 3 times in 1 sec

Man - breathes once in 1 sec

Tortoise - breathes once in 3 sec

Dog: lives upto 15 years

Man: lives upto 80 years

Tortoise: lives upto 180 years!

So, if you breathe properly, you will live properly.

This was the driving force which took me to this camp again. and it worked well for me the last time. If you try to breathe properly, you will inhale so much oxygen that it will give you a super HIGH, and give you a dreamless, peaceful sleep for days! and then to top it, it will improve your health, your fat will burn fast and your blood flow will increase. Super stuff, aint it!

But, i guess somethings are better left done only once. Like this camp. My first day here on tuesday was boring, sad and i hated the teacher who was taking it. They repeat stuff! The only good part came after 2 hours of utter boredom - we meditated and then did some breathing exercise. Needless to say, i skipped the entire camp after that and haven't gone there again. Nor will I go in the future. Sorry, AOL :|

The next day, wednesday, I met at least 14 different people throughout the day! Not including my family members, of course. Started the day at 8am, went to the court with dad and met 3 usual case-mates :P Came back and then met Romit and went to dce yet again. (4) Had the best post-lunch snacks again :) Then i went to the hospital to meet my older cousin who was admitted for some disease. Met him and my uncle. (6). Left that place and accidentally called up Tulsi, met her :) (7). Came back then and went for a walk with Piyush after dinner. (8). After i came back, saw my 'gali' people playing badminton. Struck a conversation with one of them and ended up playing badminton with the 3 couples. (14). Needless to say again, i have plans to start playing with them more often :)

Awesome thing # 56 - Frizbee

It was almost after 10 years that i touched a frizbee today and almost 15 years since i actually played. Well, when you want something to happen, it does eventually...and so it happened today :) Me, pandu and amar, a frizbee and a bat-ball went to India Gate to give our lazy and couch-ridden bodies some activity. And we found out one thing - Frizbee is damn tough a sport to play because of 2 reasons. One, not many people find it easy to throw the disc (pandu just couldn't throw it!) and partly because of it, two, it is very very tiring..because the disc follows some complex laws of aerodynamics to never land where it is intended to :P We had super awesome fun though. We also played some catch catch with our tennis ball :D Serious reminder of school days it was! 


And then came the surprise part. Me and pandu decided to beat up the other fatso to the ground, but instead those 2 buffaloes tackled me to the ground and jumped on top of me - with their 360 pounds of solid mass :( Man, that hurt. But wait, there was more! As i ran to get the bugger pandu to the ground, i slipped, got entangled in the cone-pointed iron chain of the pavement and hurt my left foot terribly. People who watched laughed hysterically :P Well, even i would have if i were on the other side :D But sadly, things were different. So i struggled to my feet again...and we walked (i limped) to the ice cream wala to have some delicacy :) Somehow, i felt good that i hurt myself playing :P It rarely happens to our age group now.


I don't think I have enjoyed any other game more than this lately. We should play this game more often. 


P.S. I am having a lot of fun these days and work is not good. I think some bad days are round the corner :)

Awesome thing # 55

I made up for missing Metallica last week, by watching Sonu Nigam live in concert today :P Well, to be honest he was pretty awesome. Qutub Minar in the background, smokin awesome lighting and this guy with his band performing to some nice beats. Without a doubt he is a super singer and extremely talented. He even composed a song live on stage with the lyrics from the audience at that very moment! But the bugger did not sing a single song from his most amazing collection - Deewana. Nonetheless, we attended this and then went on to have the usually amazing Italian at Big Chill. No alchohol tonite and the night went awesome.


P.S. The crowd at khan market is always composed of 2 kinds of people. 1, babes with their dudes and 2, us. This has been happening now since forever! :( One day i will be there with my girlfriend..one day.

Awesome thing # 54 - No dues!

Extension of my previous post. With the 2500 i gave back today, I cleared ALL MY DUES since feb this year, till today :)  No more burden of thought of knowing you still have to pay something someone somewhere!

Awesome thing # 53 - Formula 1

This has to go down as one of my best sundays in a long time. 3 things happened today


1. F1 Grand Prix. We were late in leaving by about 3 hrs. And when we hit the road, it looked like the whole of delhi was going to watch it. Was it that big a deal? Nonetheless, after crossing what i thought was a big jam, in noida, we skipped the main Greater Noida Expressway (touted as one of the best expressways connecting Delhi) and entered the service lane - for some unclear reason. Guess what, we skipped an entire stretch of massive 25km of jam on the expressway because of that, and drove at a 120kmph to reach our parking lot in flat 25 min!! (we got to know later that many remained struck in the jam and couldnt reach the circuit). From there, a bus took us to the circuit and then another to our stand. The race had started, 10 laps were gone and we missed the flagging by Sachin! :( Nevertheless, we could hear the engines of those monster cars revving from 200 meters outside the circuit and rushed in towards the track. What i saw just blew me away. In front of me, barely 10m from where i stood, was the gravel and then began the asphalt of the bend in front of our stand. And on it, revved monstrously the engines of F1 cars speeding at a ghastly 300kmph and zipping past us in fractions of seconds. The sound was deafening and the thrill, mindblowing! I could not believe cars being driven and controlled at such speeds. In 5 seconds of entering, my respect for the sport and drivers and the machine builders increased by leaps. Despite the speeds, we tracked all the drivers and their positions, witnessed track slips, overtakes, near accidents (though missed the hamiltion-massa clash) and yes, cheered the Force India team. We remained till the end of the 60 laps, as Vettel won, and walked back to our shuttle witnessing babes (super hot babes) and cars (super duper hot cars including Lamborghini Gallardo, Rolce Royce Ghost, Bentley Continental, Porche Panamera to name a few). Whew!! What an experience.


2. House break. After we picked my car we went to Piyush's house no 147 in Greater Noida, to replace a lock at his plot's main gate. We parked our car right at the gate and switched on the headlamps for a better view in the darkly lit lane. And in full glaring view, we both started to smash the already put up lock on the gate so as to break it and put the new lock. When we were done, some workers (working in and on the house) anxiously came running up and asked why we were breaking, to which we confidently replied that this was our house and you could carry on the work with the new key. After some phone calling (while i talked to those labourers), Piyush came up and asked them for directions to a market. He told them we'll be back in a while and sat in the car and asked me to drive us to the market. We'd hardly driven 10m, and this guy turned to me and said, "bhai galat ghar ka tala tod diya, bhaag!!" turns out, we broke into house #149 instead of #147 and by the time we had sat in the car, one of the workers had already called up its owner to confirm! Well, it was shit, and we just fled! :D


3. The after party. Aman's birthday treat it was and so, although i had already had a scuff with nipun and i (obviously) hate lakhot, i still decided to go (it was only the 4 of us). We sat at our usual, this time in CP, and surprisingly had fun! The music was good, i enjoyed the LIITs and the cocktail hookah and the discussions kept everyone talking. The icing was the cake which we got for Aman and it was amazingly delicious. But the best part for me was yet to come. When we left, i did 2 things which quite simply put, lightened my heart. One, gave back the 2500 i owed nipun and two, apologized for being rudely angry at him. You know, the hardest thing to say is 'sorry', specially when you can justify your behaviour. It's tough and well, i had to be a pussy and send a message! But well, i did apologize and whether or not i am forgiven, i felt light. (though it did not make me feel any better about how my faith was breached, but then somethings take time). I also learnt another thing today - "If you approach anything with the least, bare minimum expectation, you will always end up happier, surprised and satisfied." Who said it? Me!


Well, after all this roller coaster, I had a galla week. It can easily go down as one of the best i have had in a long time. And now it is time to approach the new week with the least, bare minimum expectation. :P

Awesome thing # 52 - Metallica concert, which got cancelled!

How it happened is another story. But more interesting is how i got involved. Friday morning, 2 days after Diwali, i woke up lazily at 11 to a chilly morning and sat waiting for my sis for bhai dooj. When she came at 12:40, i was still not bathed! I got up, and as i went to the bathroom, my phone rang. Saxo had cancelled his plan of going to the concert and thought of asking me to use his ticket instead - a 2750/- pass. Suddenly, i had a spring in my step. I thought for about 5 seconds and said yes man! I was ready in my jeans and one of punky tees by 1:30, all set to leave. "Clients gaye bhaad me, resumes gaye chutti pe, Today is METALLICA DAY!!" closely describes what i felt then :D (btw, i had chosen not to go to the concert because of reasons of money, but somehow at that particular moment money was the last thing on my mind. Specially because I had just sold off my saturday's F1 ticket for a nice little amount :D) \m/


So, I talked to Piyush and left with him at 2. Rushed to the venue and collected my ticket from saxo's friend and on  that way met at least 4 friends, already. Metallica was on baby! Now my tickets were for 2750/- and Piyush and Sumit's were of 1650/-. So i sold off the 2750/- one and got a 1650/- ticket with 1100/- profit :P Good day? Oh yes! Great day so far. It was 5 then and as we approached our gate, we saw some white skinned westerners drinking beer publicly - a crime for the brown skinned us, and thought why not man. Let's have some beer ourselves. 2 cans down and we would be all set to headbang with the band!! We went to a nearby and gulped 4 large ones! Man, we were all set and it was 6.


And thats when came the phone call. The concert was postponed :( to saturday :( :( "WTF! WTF! WTF! What the hell am i going to do with the ticket now?! Do i keep it and come back tomorrow or give it back to saxo? What if he wants to see the show tomorrow? and wtf, i sold his ticket of 2750!! How do i get That back?!! Why me??!! :(" is how my train of thought went then. Shit! We rushed to the venue and saw the ruckus. There were reports of hooliganism and the stage being set on fire. We saw some smoke alright, and the drums and keyboards were damaged. In fact a guy was carrying the keyboard high in his arms! Man, these delhi guys, they don't deserve a show. We left the scene with the crowd. There were some 28000 punks there, which included some of the best babes i have seen in the city!! It could've been an awesome concert man. The show was reportedly cancelled because of security reasons. Fuck Metallica. And Fuck the delhites. I guess we all have ourselves to blame. All the delhi rage went to the wild metal band as well, eh! 


Nonetheless, we were not going to spoil our night this way. So we stacked up booze and went to Piyush's friend's house. The night thereafter, not to mention, was awesome :) As far as the live concert goes, well, we sang L.I.V.E. and headbanged to the songs of Rockstar in the car on our way back. Created a live concert of some sort ourselves. Who needs metallica now :D

Awesome thing # 51 - Diwali

This was undoubtedly the best diwali of my life!! As someone somewhere put it - This Diwali kicked the ass of many previous ones ;) I soaked in every bit of diwaliness inside me this season - i shopped for stuff, i decorated my house with lights, i bought sweets, i cleaned my office cum bedroom, i burnt crackers and lit them in my hand (after like 10-15 years!), i had no tension of going to office in the morning or the next day or anyday and i was at peace with myself. I was happy. For the first time in many years, i was more happy than stressed at Diwali and by god i loved it. 


Whatever tomorrow may bring, however fucked i or my environment may be, this Diwali of 2011 will go down as one when i did just one thing for the past 20 odd days with 'absolutely NOTHING' at the back of my head - Celebrate! :)

Awesome thing # 50 - I cleaned my room!

I cleaned my room and i liked it :) Saturday i spent 7 hrs, from 12noon to 7pm, standing the entire time, without any food or water with only 1 mission - "thy room be cleaned before sunrise of the next day". and boy, when i was done did i get that rush of peace!! My room now is literally oozing tranquility from all sides :)


7 hrs is true. Sounds exaggerated but it isn't. I literally got scared when i first saw the room in the morning (i had already decided 2 days back that it was to be cleaned). I had no clue about where to start! Its a small room, only 12 by 8 feet i guess, with every single inch in a total mess - spider webs all over the place, filth in every hidden corner, dust on every tangible thing in the room. Fuck, i was living in this shithole for the past 2 years without ever cleaning more than my computer table. and worst of all, for the past 8 months (since i've been self-employed) i've been spending most of my time in this same room, working! I just couldn't believe my eyes when i saw this room today. Finally, after minutes of pondering, i started. Walls, windows, fan, cupboard, then the computer wires, floor and finally the computer table! phew!!! It was ecstasy when i was done. When i called mom to see what i had done, she almost cried out of happiness. She could not believe her eyes. I had FINALLY cleaned this room :)


Guess how i celebrated. By breaking a self made promise of not drinking :P 100 pipers and Absolut with 2 college friends to end the absolutely tiring day. Well, no complaints :)

Awesome thing # 49 - late night walks

Last weekend was the first of many (8) weekends, that i actually did not see Chaman (as Amar is now fondly called :P), Pandu, Jain and Himanshu's face! But as i sat on the bed, digging my eyes into the laptop absolutely bored, i had but 1 choice - i called up amar and piyush and begged them "Lets go somewhere, man..i am BORED!!". We caught up again, but just the 3 of us, and went to have some egg dishes of a popular andewala nearby. Soon health became the topic of discussion and we decided to start with late night walks and early morning jogging. 


While the jogging did happen only once in the past week, the late night walks have started fully. and i enjoy them a lot. Well for one, i get to tell someone what i did my entire day (i hope it was some beautiful lady i told that to rather than 2 hairy men :P). We discuss whats happening in our lives and how to screw each others boss and the lady we're after (both in different sense of course :P). Future, career, news, happenings, weekend trips, activities (we recently thought of starting a sports club..though never talked of it again!) all happen. and if we are on time, a pan or a banta adds to the flavour of the night :) 

Awesome thing # 48 - Anjum's wedding

After 7 consecutive weekends of walking and tiredly searching for the right 'black' kurta for anjum's wedlock day, getting it stitched, altered, madeover, and in the process gaining 10 kgs eating all kinds of yummy crap kamla nagar has to offer our delhi bellies, and because of this again getting the kurta altered, the day of the wearing finally arrived. Yesterday - 11th day of October 2011. As excited as school boys going on a field trip, we hardly slept the last night so as to catch our shatabdi on time. Reached Ludhiana and I felt the Punjab air in my head as we made our way to our hotel. and as true punjabbbis do, we started of our sojourn with chilled beer. no snacks, no food, Beer first! :D We were 8 of us in that room and what followed the next 2 hrs was pure awesomeness :) then peaceful sleep of another 2 hrs.


Now i am not of those who like to sleep around (pun intended :P) in a new city. So, as soon as the sun set behind the buildings and water tanks, i slipped out with 2 friends to explore the streets of ludhiana, spot punjabi babes and in-time have some chaat as well :D and so i did without disappointment. Ludhiana is a rich land, that i also found out.


Then it was time for the wedding. and out came the toil of those 7 weeks. Our shining black kurtas and jutis :) Coincidentally  the other 2 guys in our company also wore black suits and when we started posing for photos i realized we were actually resembling black pathan commandos more than dulha's friends! After briefly paying respects to Johnny Walked ji, we headed for the baraat, which was a little disappointing. The guy's christian family did not seem too interested in hindu traditions (it was an inter caste love marriage) and all we did was rush to the venue. Still, we had our share of frolic and after round 2, we were all set to burn the dj floor. Back at the hotel room after 2 hrs, we had another 3 hrs to sleep and catch our train back to delhi. Some 1 hr of bc later we slept and well, came back!


Although, the wedding ceremony did not provide as much of a hungama as we had hoped for, we did have fun and did what we came for. This was our little break from the drabness of delhi and the trip to ludhiana gave us a memory to cherish for a lifetime - this photo :)

Sadda Haq!!

Well, for starters, I had a seriously awesome night. Without booze! Old friends, and a lot lot lot of crap and bullshit ;) but i will not get into that. It is time for some serious thing :P and so i will start...


Whatever relationship (and by relationship i don't just mean love and friendships) you might be in, there is one rule you need to understand. The other person is not there for your bull shit! So whether you have a short term association with someone, or a long term partnership or an everlasting friendship, whether it is your business partner or your spouse or your dearest friend, you need to learn to give back a little, if not as much, as you take. By not acknowledging, by not responding and by not returning you are seriously fucking the other person. He will take it once, he will take it twice, but he will not take it the third time my friend.


Now, the argument. You will say why acknowledge? If your friend is so dear, why does it even matter? Well i will tell you why. People have one basic nature - expectation. They expect. Whether it is your parents, or your friends or your boss, they all expect something from you. THAT, is the only reason why they are putting up with you. That expectation can as simple as a mere laughter you share, but that is expectation alright and you need to understand that. Your parents expect you to take care of them when they are old, and that is why you are being taken care of now. Heck, that is why you were born in the first place! They keep you happy, so you could keep them happy. They put up with your bull shit, your crap because they expect you to deliver at some point in life. Your best friend deals with all your troubles, your mugging and cribbing so you would deal with his. He would expect you to. The reason why you stay with your friend is because you have a good time together...because you expect to have a good time together, you expect him to make you laugh and to make that hangout worthwhile for you. That is the reason you will spend time with him. If that expectation is not fulfilled, your togetherness will cease. and that is the reason, you have some friends and some 'people you know', because you do not enjoy with the 'people you know', because they do not fulfill your expectation. Do i even need to tell you why your boss puts up with your crap and why you put up with his?!


So, the thing is simple. Give and Take. keeps everyone interested, keeps everyone happy. Start to acknowledge, start to respond, because people around you, people close to you expect you to. A simple acknowledgement brings a lot of joy :)

Bad day for business, Awesome day for life ;) - #47

"Things only get interesting when you take full responsibility for the choices you make." 

If this statement goes true, my life at the moment is interesting as hell. Yesterday, as my mom dad left for a tour to southern India, my phone rang to the call of another Placement Head i had sent my proposal to. and voila..finally i had an audience!! Somebody..finally somebody..thought we might be the guys for their college and decided to call us up for a meeting. And so, my whole of thursday was spent preparing for the meeting, writing a well-defined 'new' proposal, taking copies and making files and rehearsing answers to questions that may be thrown out of the blue! Came friday and i was all set. Laptop, posters, visiting cards, my notebook, the files, the proposals, the pd (with some awesome songs and a copy of the proposal in case a wind blew away the ones in my hand :P) and my car keys (remember, my dad's away ;) )

A 45km drive on a butter of an 11AM road, the gurgaon-delhi expressway left me all smiles. What a start to the lovely sunny breezy friday. My buddy came along, in a tee and i had him change back to a shirt after giving him a tirade of abusings. and then came our destination. Lovely friday staff, beautiful receptionist, nice cosy meeting room. After a 30min wait, came the Placement head with his bag. and THAT MOMENT WAS THE END OF ALL THE GOOD THINGS OF THE DAY SO FAR! :(

What followed was a 90 minute blabbering of non-sensical horse shit out of his mouth, obviously kissing his white and black moustaches on its way to our ears. He just spoke and spoke and after countering him a first 100-200 times, i too finally gave up, and all we were left doing was nodding heads, with whispers of "Yes Sir" and "Sure Sir" in between. Fuck you ass! We breathed a sigh of relief the moment we left his shadow, and although the prospect seems bright to me even now, i secretly vowed not to do any business with his Poschim Bonga ass! 

So, all my secret castles, which i did make on that thursday evening, thinking about the money i would be making, and the cars i will be buying and the babes i will be %&^&ing :P, came crashing down at probably the same time on friday. What an interesting life :P

But well, a man's got to do what he's got to do. and so without letting any of this ruin my idea of the perfect friday that i had planned, i went and had a pretty mind blowing lunch with a friend, met a couple old friends (and got a compliment later on..i just love it absolutely when a girl goes gaga over me :D) and finally used my Zomato coupons for an amazing treat of LIITs and snacks - ABSOLUTELY FREE!! :)

The awesome part of the day? The drive to and back from gurgaon in my luxury sedan with the best music playing. :)

Awesome thing # 46

Without a doubt amar is the person i would credit for my knowledge of atleast 50% of eateries and pubs i know today in delhi! had he not been, i would have still figured out, but then the chicken and egg debate can go on..so let me just give him all that is due (though, i hope the egomaniac bastard never reads this!). So, out of the best pubs he took me to, Route4 is my favorite. Of, the roadside eateries, the ande wala (remember the cheeze mayo jalandari :P) is the best. and among chaat, it is the gujrati shop at kamla nagar. and his Sev Puri is pure Awesomeness. Heavenly. Luscious. take my word, have it!


So when, we were done kurta shopping this sunday, (we finally bought our 5 exactly similar kurtas :D) we went to this gujrati and again indulged in the mix of sumptuousness and yumminess :) and that my friend, was the best part of the day ;)

Awesome thing # 45 - Oreo!

Wow. What a rocking day! What a fucked up day! :( Now this is the real test. I tried my hand at about 5 different things today. Started fine with all of them. Fell flat on my face before i could finish! This friday of this 9th month sucked as bad as it could have. 


Let me try to figure out where was i at fault today. I woke up to an absolutely mind boggling awesome weather. Had no plans to seriously work on the friday. Was totally on for my tennis game in the evening. Had no plans of any interaction with the opposite sex today. and was damn sure i had to spend the night out with friends. Work sucked. Tennis sucked, couldn't play. The spontaneous confabulation turned into a disaster. why did i even call!! and the last thing..well, i screwed that up myself for sure.


So, what was the awesome thing about it. The best part is with such a day, a small awesome thing makes itself clearly visible! So here it goes. Hold your breath...


The most awesome thing about today was Oreo, mixed with whipped vanilla flavored cream and nuts along with some hot chocolate which made up the newly launched Mc Flurry at Mc Donalds. :D I can bet my ass it was the most amazing shake cum ice cream cum whatever it was i have ever had. Hell, it was better than the Big Chill Oreo Shake i am crazy about. Wow. It was awesome!

Zomatooooo!!

To all those five-ten readers I have, guys this post is dedicated to Zomato. Zomato, who?. So, while my blog talks about what goes on in my life, this is my greedy side, in an attempt to make it better..with an iPad :P :D 

Zomato (if you have not heard of it, get a (foodie) life!) is the place where you can find everything about food, and very recently about various events as well. Originally foodiebay, zomato is more than just a restaurant guide and probably the best place to select a place if you are not sure where to go and eat next! So, now you know Zomato who :) Now the rest of the blog talks about a small feedback for Zomato. Here goes..

Now, I am in love with this stuff. Zomato rocks truly and i had just one thing to say when it came to what i like about Zomato. It is awesome! For the things i want you to improve, i found 6! :D Explains a lot about loving relationships, doesnt it ;)

the 4 good things

1. I love zomato's interface. Specially the colors. The site is fast as well! and the new Events section somehow compliments the restaurant guide. I coudnt find anything missing with the events section. The "POPULAR ON ZOMATO - DELHI NCR" section on the front page is good. 

2. Your marketing initiatives - passes for featured reviews, iPad for feedbacks, are extremely good and impressive. Btw, congrats on the recent funding by InfoEdge!

The good part

3. The filters you guys show with the list of restaurants is just too good. :) I love all the information in that list. It becomes really easy to search.

4. Your staff (whoever deals with customer care) is very friendly.

the 7 things you could improve

1. Wouldn't it be nice, if along with the reviews of restaurants, you also showed what dishes were good. Sort of a "RECOMMENDED DISHES" section. Many a times, first timers to an italian or a french restaurant would not know what to order. The section could be categorized into veg and non veg. Even the square slideshow on the first page. Instead of showing images of random dishes, you could probably show some recommended dishes which upon clicking would take you to the restaurant page on Zomato itself.

Shift 'em up!

2. You have a "HOT Restaurants Today" section on the front page. Should it not be above than where it is right now? People who come to the site will be looking for a restaurant, right? and this info should be right under the nose of the visitor. Probably where "featured reviews" is. You should remove the "Our Editors" section from there! Its not serving any purpose. Again, shift the "Newly Added Menus" up as well!

3. Could we have "Zomato recommended Restaurants" as well?

Shift 'em down!

4. How about some "ZOMATO COUPONS/discounts/free desserts"? We could use them at popular restaurants.

5. You guys advertise on Coffee News. Why not start with that kind of a 2/multi colored sort of a newsletter..start with a 4 page only and circulate it among popular eateries like pizza hut, dominoes, subway, mcdonalds etc. only. At times restaurants will not agree with your rankings for them. So they may not want your circular on their tables, but McD, Dominoes, PD..they won't mind. They already know why people come there, a zomato guide cant hurt them.

6. Blog more often. It would increase your visibility with google and make you more SERP friendly. I would like Zomato to be above any timescity or similar restaurant guide. In fact why not have a Zomato restaurant guide published!!

7. Add  a TRAVEL or TOURISM section. This section can tell readers about weekend getaways, details of how to get there, hotels to stay and their reviews, adventure camps taking place, etc. etc. etc. :)

Awesome thing # 44 - workout and eggs

The best thing about a work-less, enthusiasm-less boring day is my workout. I do it not often, hardly once or twice a week but the kind of high i get once i'm done..is matchless. I usually run and do some mild exercise. That's it, that's my workout. But the running part is intense. You know, i was not born very athletic and so i have to try very very hard to stay in shape. My arms are not so strong, neither are my legs. I eat a lot of junk as well, and so this exercising part becomes all the more important. 


So with all these constraints, i run. With all the might i have. and after i am done running, (well, i try to outdo my previous best everytime), and after my legs have started to yield to gravity, and after it is not even easy to breathe, i experience that state of euphoric flying. It is awesome. I have to go through hell to feel it, i have to push myself over and over, keep murmuring just one lap more, just one lap more, while my music player stops making any sense and there's just one thing on my mind - to stop running. But, what excitement. :) 


and this monday, while i was at it..my ol' buddy joined me. He didn't run with me, he's a software guy (find the correlation :P). But after the sojourn, we decided to go have some eggs. So we went to this small khopcha of a place, with some of the finest egg dishes in the whole world (i can bet on that). and guess what we had first, Cheese Mayonnaise Jallandari (a specialty from our guy) :D Its mere mention waters my mouth right now. So, much for the exercising :)

Awesome thing # 43 - Murthal

Another day. another plan. and a healing of my bruised ego :) That romit can not make the plan and he should not mess with me was all that i was out to prove and did i not do it. Makes me feel good. I am not a proud fella and i have the smallest of ego, but by god it hurts when someone takes it for granted. For once, the guy kept his mouth shut and quietly accepted defeat and i am happy i went ahead and made the plan of the 4 of us to murthal. So,  the war was won, without a drop of bloodshed. We didnt have to cancel. Aman had to miss out though, but then it was a war today :P


The rest is a cliched series of awesome events. We drove all the way, lots of bakar all the way. My tee matched exactly the staff of the dhaba we ate at, and yes i am sure i was confused with those guys on multiple occasions and made fun of :P Of course, we had some delicious paranthas, and kulfis and lots and lots of 'sirke wale pyaaz' ;) Then, some photos and some walks later we drove on the super cool NH1 in the beautiful weather with our window glasses down and beautiful music playing, only gazing out the window at the almost full moon in the blue night. :)

Awesome thing # 42 - Relativity

A small 'take your time out and give it to someone else' by you can do wonders for that someone. I was that someone and the small gesture was that little over 20 min chat with my bestest friend :) well, the friend was a 'she' and so this post qualifies under awesomeness :D Whether the chat was spontaneous or intended to make me feel good (i was not particularly in my best mood this day), it did the best thing to me - brought the big grin back :D


An overstated quote by Einstein comes to my mind, “Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity.” or so i experienced it. Damn, that hour had to pass.

Awesome thing # 41 - Chandni Chowk

Burrrrppp!!! Back from chandni chowk, on another kurta hunt, which once again ended in a failure. but what did not end up as a failure was the food and bakar. Pandu, me and jain this time, we had chhole bhature (5), tikki, kachoris, Rabri, lassi, masala paneer, gol gappe and a lot of air and water to go with it. burrrppp!! excuse me for doing it again. My stomach is so damn full right now..burrrppp!! I am sorry again :P the only thing which can cure it now is whiskey. we discussed and came to a conclusion that a 150ml whiskey at night will give you the most awesome crap of your life in the morning. Well, time to try it ;)

Awesome thing # 40 - fucked up day..amazing night

What a fucked up day man. All because of the assiness of romit. The fucker doesn't know what he wants but is ready to blame others (read me). All he did, and will keep on doing, is spoil his own days and parties.


So, while the plan to murthal was getting cancelled, i was out with my schooliya friends shopping for some kurtas. Now, we have decided about wearing same kurtas for Anjum's wedlock. 5 of us :D and so it was necessary that all 5 of us agreed on what is to be worn that day. It sounds tough, but let me tell you its a lot tougher with these guys man. We spent 5-6 hours and couldn't zero on that 1 piece we all were ready to dorn. So we bought some belts and came back home :P


and then began the night. some unexpectedly, me, nip and lakhot decided to crash route04, yet again, and what a night did we enjoy. Pastas, omelettes, bongs, LIITs, wat not. Our daredevil nip even got the guts to order a drink for a damsel in a pretty short skirt sitting across us. He got dumped from the same distance though :P Lakhot paid my bill (for reasons of an old loan) and i had the whole 20km of rain washed, brightly reflected road to zip, zap and zoom my luxury sedan at 120kph back home. What i call a jhakaas end to the night ;)

Awesome thing # 39 - Sunny Monday

What a beautiful monday i had. The only thing that could've made it better would have been a female accompanying me rather than bikki! 


With an almost null of Monday blues i have these days, i was called for lunch by my ol' pardner of evs at IHC and for lack of work, i sure did agree. It was a splendid sunny day, a little hot though and i visited the notorious Lodhi Garden and its forts or tombs which looked absolutely marvelous in the backdrop of white clouds and tall bright green trees. and of course, i did spot a couple of couples behind the trees having their share of fun as the week began :) Once at ihc, we went to the American Diners and had some pancakes along with a delicious pasta with an amazingly good ice tea. Talk was limited and i liked that.

The place, ihc, is such a stress buster, such a relaxer that you could actually spend your anytime of the day there..even alone. We left for home after seeing some paintings and i came back to spend a rather quiet monday at home too. Beautiful, peaceful. :)

Startups

Startups will only work when your team has competitive and smart people, who are smarter and competitiver than you. Else, all enthusiasm, all energy, and all effort will die down and be wasted eventually.

A day that couldn't be awesome, a night that just fell short..

Friday was supposed to be a dreadful day. At least that's what i thought when i woke up, extremely pessimistic. The only good thing, i had hoped to myself, was going to be the lunch i had planned with the same old combo of the ugly man and the pretty damsel. Apart from this, all i was going to do the whole day was run around in Gurgaon, on feet and autos, meeting heads and discussing proposals and probably getting rejected. And I was almost sure that the night's get together at Vikas's would be as dull as the last time. And so with these thoughts, I left home, 2 hrs later than when i was supposed to. 


Turns out, the worst thing about the day was the lunch! :(


While, i spoiled both their lunches for sure (and consequently mine), neither did i have to run around on feet or autos in Gurgaon, nor did i face rejection (well, at least no downright ones) :) Of the 10 i had shortlisted, i visited only 4 schools, because traffic snarls, but in an a\c car with music blasting. 3 of them showed encouragement and 1, hope. My day had begun. I left vershney's car at the office and then ate his lunch, so he would be spared the rod by his wife, and then met a lot of old acquaintances by accident. and  then it was party time.


We reached at Vikas's at around 8 and surely in another 2 hrs, it was the 11 of us. What followed was food, drinks and a laugh riot and more food, drinks and more riots. I did impress everyone again with the flaming shots :D and i was happily complimented by one of the girls in the party ;) 


then, nainy spoke and the rest..became history. We had to leave the awesomeness, that was becoming of the room, to head home in the darkness of the night. 

Awesome thing # 38 - Delhi Darshan

I didn't know it was spelled as Jaynie. All i called her the whole day was Jenny, and it sounded better too! Amar's sister's friend from the US wanted to do a dilli darshan, and I was selected to do the needful. I picked her up at 10:30 AM, on a very hot and humid thursday and as somewhere down inside of me i knew i am not good with women, I had asked Ankur to join in, so i am not ridiculed after the trip. 10 minutes with the lady in the metro, i realized calling Ankur was not a very smart move :P i had already started having a good time! Nonetheless, we started off with Lotus Temple, and went to Qutub. Lunch was had at the royal Moti Mahal of Daryaganj (sumptuous food), while Jenny enjoyed the rickshaw rides in the streets of chandni chowk and chawri bazar. We then took her to Jama Masjid and ate the famous Rabri Faluda of Giani at Khari Baoli in Chandni Chowk for desert. I was still tempting to eat the gol gappe, but then i ignored the urge.


Then we went to see the Akshardham temple, what we later on came to call a mini amusement park with a flavor of religion and nothing more! Spent a fortune on the tickets (well i was the only one paying :( ) but got to see some nice fountain show (with a sucking background music) and a great boat ride. My advise: don't buy the tickets for the movie they show. We also met a very enthusiastic old man who was perhaps more fascinated with the concept of Akshardham than he has ever been with anything. But i did get to know some new things from him. 


The day came to an end and we left for home. But not before i had a plate of gol gappe and let the lady had some as well ;) well, she liked them and on our way back all we discussed about was food food and more food. And of course i learnt about the concept of couch surfing, which maybe i will do some day! and then came the best part. When i dropped her home, i got a very nice, warm, tight hug. Well, i have never got one, and so needless to say..i absolutely loved it :D 


the day was never over yet. how could the bugger amar, let go another opportunity to show his extrovertial skills :) so, he threw a small party at @Live in CP and we (me, him and her) went and had a nice new (for us) wheat beer - Paulaner. Well, after spending a good bit of money in the evening, i didn't mind free drinks!


A day well spent? Absolutely!! :)

Awesome thing # 37 - Anna Hazare and some beer

When i went kite flying on Independence Day and ended up playing cricket on the terrace all the while having a great time, little had i thought where the next day would be taking me. While Anna Hazare was arrested into prison on 16th august, and the whole nation, and more so Delhi, thrown into a turmoil of protest of magnanimous proportion, I was quietly having my breakfast watching some english flick. and then i decided to go and join the protest. Somehow i didnt like the arrested part of the news. 


As i reached the Chattrasal complex, it was easy to see how mad the people actually were. Needless to say, I had never ever in my whole life seen a movement as this. It was huge, and it was scary. and more than me, i found it was the police that were scared. There was an uproar on 'jail bharo' and while i logically wanted to stay out of that, i did not want to miss being a part of this protest as well. I might not agree with lokpal, but certainly i was a big fan of arvind kejriwal and his words were enough to convince me that the lokpal was the only way this government could be taught a lesson. 


Now, i dont actually agree with it completely, but then the country is going down badly..it's falling apart in fact..and with a controversy we ourselves at home are engaged in, i feel all the more needy about bringing this fuckin corruption to a swift end. So, i shouted slogans and when Ankur joined me at the stadium, we decided to show our solidarity by going to India Gate for some candle march. 


Well, it was childish alright, but then..who cared. There were beautiful women there carrying candles :P and on the way, we did have some KFC burgers. and when the protest or the candle light march ended, we did go to Route 4 and gulped a few beers along with delicious pasta. and well, you might say it was shameful of us to do all that while there was a guy who was fighting with us, i will argue by saying we did protest but we had never decided on a hunger strike. We were still with Anna, but if Route 4 decided to honor me by giving me a 'Prevelidge Diner's Card' for being a loyal member that very day, i'd say..why refuse :)

Awesome thing # 36

What started as a very early drab day with a visit to the winter-time court (for some reason) and was soon turning into an extremely boring one, became one of the most awesome days of the week. Not within 5 minutes of switching my laptop on, i received a delighted client's delighted feedback along with a happy news of winning 1000Rs vouchers from one restaurant review website (I had written 7 reviews one fine night for them, without any monetary greed of-course, of which one got selected). Now, even though i have not got any vouchers yet and even though i don't even care that i will, this made me very very happy as it had been 26 years since i had ever won anything like this! :) 


The day continued to be great as i spent my evening in the company of a Tennis racquet and Wilson4 balls and some great shot play :)


In the word's of Rosesh...Whooppieeeeeeee!!!! :D

Awesome thing # 35

Well, Sukhdev might be getting some foodie hotties, but the hottest chicks come to Gulati's 8-), where i dined today with my mom, dad and my brother. After a very long time. I eat vegetarian delicacies and the Lachcha Onions with spicy Paneer Hyderabadi, and Subz Mela were enough to create a flood of water in my mouth!  What an awesome dinner :)

Happy Friendship Day - Awesomeness in Kasauli

You know the best part about best friends? They don't listen to you. So even though I didn't want to go for what turned out  to be one of my best trips, I went! and it went like this. After 3 months of blissful (as told to everyone) marriage, vershney's better half finally had enough of him and decided to stay away for a couple weeks. Vershney too siezed the moment and off we (along with saxo and manglik) went to kasauli to spend the weekend in the luckily super amazing weather. It was a road trip baby!

From paranthas at sukhdev (alongside some hot chiks; somehow you will always find hottie foodies there!), to fighting over getting the steering of the Ritz, to driving on the hill with an overcast weather, to reaching kasauli with drizzle and less than 10m visibility at 6000ft, the trip had just started. The night was spent laughing hysterically (my stomach still pains just at the thought of it) in a luxurious room in an unexpected place, with a bottle of whiskey and flaming shots of vodka (the way we welcomed the so called friendship day) to go with the best biryani I have EVER had! and just before we retired to bed, there was enough time to awaken the entire hotel by ringing car alarms in the parking and running off madly into our beds without a clue :D and did i mention the best sunset I have ever seen, standing at the top of the mountain with nothing between you and the sun, except emptiness and the horizonal mountains? Well, now i did :)

and how could a trip to the hills end, without a trek to an unexplored top! We did find another amazing view and a jungle and of course some snake holes. And yes, just in time we got a gift for vershney as well!

Well, a beautiful trip. and a memorable one. :)


P.S. Thats Awesome Things #27 - #34 for you. Count yourself ;)

Start Living

I have to start this blog with these amazing lines


दिलो में तुम अपनी बेताबियाँ लेकर चल रहे हो तो जिन्दा हो तुम
नजर में ख्वाबों की बिजलिया लेकर चल रहे हो तो जिन्दा हो तुम
हवान की झोकों के जैसे आजाद होके जिन्दा रहना सीखों
तुम के दरियां के लहरों के जैसे बहना सीखों
हर एक लम्हे से तुम मिलो खोलें अपनी बाहें
हर एक पल एक नया समा देखे ये निगाहें
जो अपनी आखों में हैरानिया लेकर चल रहे हो तो जिन्दा हो तुम
दिलो में तुम अपनी बेताबियाँ लेकर चल रहे हो तो जिन्दा हो तुम

If you carry dreams in your eyes, you are alive. If you carry impatience in your heart, you are alive. If you carry surprise in your eyes, you are alive. 

Yes, I am alive.

Everytime i watch this masterpiece from Zoya Akhtar, I feel alive. Today, i spent some more money and watched it for the third time! The movie evokes so many emotions from within. So many. 

It always takes a movie or a song or a speech by someone else to actually make us realize how we feel from within, what is it that is troubling us and to question, 'do we really have the courage to stand up against it?' Well, we do. All of us do. but as a friend today put it on his social networking page - "zindagi ka sabse bada rog...'kya kahenge log?!'" :) I think it's high time people learn to start living life their way. Start doing what makes you happy. because one day, one day my friends, that honda civic in your garage won't matter to you. and what will, you will have left far far behind. Either don't live to see that day, or start living.

Awesome thing # 26

I watched one of my most favorite movies for the 2nd time in a row, for free, with coke and popcorn, without paying a single dime. That was 5PM. Then I went for a play, and then had dinner, for free and a wonderful super awesome dessert, for free. I was also driven to all the venues mentioned above and back home, you guessed it, for free. Do i even need to say, how my day went? :)

Awesome thing # 25

Life is not going too well at the moment. But, awesomeness finds a way to creep into my sad story ;) 


So, between a pretty boring last week and an enormously boring sunday came the saturday. I met my EVS buddies (Amit n Dheeraj, both of whom have now left the sucker that place was :P) and shared a couple beers and some quality Chinese food at CP on a rainy evening in Delhi. Me and Amit made a plan to attend Dheeraj's wedding together in december and start quest on a new business proposal the coming saturday. God knows if it will materialize, but with the McD chocolate softserve after the food and an auto ride back home in the beautiful weather, all i hardly cared for...was nothing! :)

9 Lessons from Business

I can vouch for the fact the starting a business is the single most exciting thing in the world. I mean really, if you want some excitement with your life, start a business. There'll be challenges, back stabbings, achievements, downfalls, riches, bankruptcies, 10 new friends, 100 new enemies :), you'll see it all.


and while, 6 months into setting up my own establishment, I am still groping with the righteousness of my decision, I am proud to say that every day of this half an year journey has brought a new learning for me, some of which i present below.


Learning 1. Importance of a good team. You might be having the greatest business idea ever, it will not work unless you have a great team. A single wrong individual in the founding team of your business plan has the potential of ruining the whole setup, all because of the trust you place. You need to trust each other because that is important when you start; but trusting the right set of people will create the difference between success and failure.


2 of my plans failed because i chose the wrong guys to work alongside me. They never shared the vision, never gave enough time and kept assuring me that they will bounce back, but never did.


So choose the right guys, people who share your vision and are willing to go all the way to make it possible. and more importantly choose the people who are as passionate as you are but have different set of skills than you. Then you will make a great team.


Learning 2. Baniya-logy. This is an Indian learning. You need to have a 'baniya' in your team. Now, this is not frivolous; i mean it. This particular race of people are misers and will go to any extent possible to save that 10 paisa you might be tempted to spend. A baniya will make sure your expenses stay curbed, and if you're outsourcing something and paying for it, the baniya will stay up at night and make it for you himself. :)


My present business idea is still up and running because of this baniya i have alongside me. and yes, we've saved a lot of cash all thanks to his miserliness.


Learning 3. Never give away freebies. Freebies remove the trust from your products. Give a Trial Version or a 'limited number of days Trial', if you so may..but never give your products for free.


Learning 4. Never price your products according to your whims. Again, trust from your products will be lost. Analyze your competitors' products or similar services in the market and price intelligently. (Don't just price a 100 bucks less than your competition because that would mean that your client needs to pay only 100 more to get a renowned service!)


Learning 5. You are not here to make friends. Mostly you will be dealing with people who don't know you or who don't like you. These will be the guys who will also offer to help you. and when you start, it is help that you want from all sources.


So, whenever you take help in terms of finances or resources or even simple testimonials, keep a record in writing. Exchange a mail with the benefactor seeking his approval or have an agreement signed. Because if you don't, you won't believe it happening when some of your trusted 'benefactors' actually come lashing at you at a later time.


Learning 6. Build trust of your clients. A delighted client speaks good of you everywhere he goes and refers your product to every person he meets. Delight your clients, by going that extra mile; they'll love it. It will always bring you extra business.


Learning 7. Keep your best friends out of your business idea. There are many reasons to it. One, they're your best friends and 'learning 5' does not go down well with it; you will lose the friendship. Two, if you fail and get stuck in dire straits, it is your best friends who will come and help you. Three, you can always ask them for money without any interest or written agreements; they are probably the only guys who will trust you and if you cannot (are seriously not able to) repay they will be okay with that. 


Learning 8. Read. You do not know what all is happening in this world. When you start reading, a magazine or a book or just blogs, you will find out 1005 new technologies which can make your business plan simple to execute or 23410 new people/mentors/forums which can help you out with queries on your start up.


Learning 9. Wait before you go public. Discuss your idea in the forums or with mentors, but don't make it public on your FB page or twitter before you are pretty sure that, 'OK, its going good now.' It will add a lot of character to you and your startup when people in your network find out about it through some other source or through a news clipping and see it as established.

Dhanaulti (Part II) - Awesome things 21-24

The view that made the trip worth it

Finally, I got a much needed break. 

A gage cab driver, a yellow number plate (read commercial) cab (which unnecessarily cost us 600bucks more), my college senior (because of him and his adventure-prem i actually planned this trip), 2 of my college classmates (one, my nemesis on the cricket field and the other in the photography department), another friend (who strangely agreed at the last moment to join us) and I, left for the green and wet grassland hills of Massoorie and Dhanaulti in the wee hours of saturday while a spectacular weather took stop on our hometown itself. 

Some 8 hours later, we were not disappointed. While me and Aman knew what it would be like, we both were relieved to find the untouched beauty and serenity of the place still pure and that our decision of getting everyone else up here didn't earn us any abuse :D (awesomeness)

Dhanaulti was just the way i had left it 3 years ago - divine. All it had was absolutely green grass, and wetness..everywhere! My eyes were set straight on the treks we would be doing and with Aman and Ankur to give me company, my vacation had begun. As for the other 2 'adventure seekers' who were also carrying the costliest cameras among us (one a 28k and the other 35k worth), they were here for photography and they hated well..treks. :) Quite ironical huh - photographers who hate to walk :P So we dealt a pact, that we won't stop for people who were left behind...suited me just fine :)

After making everybody walk more than what was intended, meeting 8 Jaats topless dancing in the mountains to  the tune of munni badnaam hui and drinking BP, handing them our only water bottle (for fear of being beaten up as when i approached them, none of the 4 bastards came up alongside me..infact the 2 photographers completely ignored the acquaintance!!), coming back to our hotel only to find one of the Jaat back there recognizing me and offering me a bottle of BP :), and a hot plate of maggi noodles (nothing can beat maggi on a mountain), we finally rested in our room to open our own stock. (awesomeness) After the overgrown mosquitoes (there were some evolved varieties of them in our room. Trust me, in some billion years from now, there will be mosquitoes as large as there were dinosaurs) were squashed by some towel and chappal stunts, we decided it was time for eggs and a toast.

There was vodka, there was scotch and there was Nipun. After convincing everyone that he has grown up on his drinking habits now and that he would only be taking scotch, the guy fell on the bed after his second small and fell ill. And while the rest of us 4 laughed our guts out for the rest of the night, he found it more amusing to keep himself busy with his cellphone. So much for coming up at 10,000 feet for a break from technology!

View from Surkanda Devi @10k feet

One of the many spectacular views from the trek

The next morning saw so many more treks. Even the usual Ma Surkanda Devi trek was detoured by me and Ankur to take some off tracks all the way to the temple. We had fun. The view was majestic from up there. After we came down, we decided to embark on another not-known trek, a very steep one. When the photographers decided to skip this one, for the sake of their safety, they had no idea what they were about to miss. What we saw from when we reached the top of the mountain, was the reason why cameras had to be brought up there! It was a spectacular view of Nothing! (awesomeness) It's like when you see a beach for the first time. There was the ground on which we walked, and then it vanished. An abyss and following it emptiness. for all that you can see. till your eyes take you. Deep in the horizon i think i spotted a river snaking up. There were small mountains, there were clouds and there was a valley too. It was, as i call it, Awe-mazing! So, while the photographers missed it, I took a lot of photos :)

Massoorie showed us why she is the queen afterall!

Then, we left for massoorie and some kempty falls, which was pretty boring. Up in massoorie and in our hotel room, once again it was time for a toast and the same Nipun story repeated :) The rest of us 4..by god, we had fun! (awesomeness)

Morning after, we left for the desert back. and once back, i spent 3 days coming out of depression (and the temporary end of awesomeness) :P