Koyal si teri boli, ku ku ku ku ku ku...!

"Koyal si teri boli, ku ku ku ku ku ku".....kich kich kich..

The 6-seater came to a halt, with a forceful break from the man behind the wheels, amidst the loud and at the same time mellifluous sound of the 90’s musical melodrama. "Chauda rupaye zalet, doghanche", demanded he, air of arrogance following him. I handed him a 10 rupee note and 5 rupee coin, only to take back an anjur (fig) toffee.  "For a change, let’s accept the change instead of 'change' ", quipped my companion, Amit.

 "So, we have reached PDC-2, finally..!” exhaled both of us, content at having made it just in time to attend the city wide Antakshari competition. Commute from Magarpatta to Hinjewadi never felt comfortable during the past 1 hour or so. Having known this before hand, we still wanted to attend the second round of the competition, promising our respective managers that we will come on weekend (really ?), if need be. Sometimes, there is an inexplicable force which drives you, which drives the way you do certain things, which drives the way you take decisions. The force which has suddenly gripped you, and has been brought into play by you, with which you seek a female with whom you would be happy to argue, only to end up at a bittersweet question, “Tumhala jinkaychay ki anandi rahayachay?”. The get-me-married force, I mean. Couple of days back, my dad had called up to update me about a marriage proposal, 4^th so far. The girl, like me, worked in an IT company, in Pune itself. Sonje was the surname of the third party, I mean that family. Working extensively in an IT company has its share of effects. “Ghari pahune sodayala jaych asel, tarihi, sadaiv-sukh-dalanach dar ughadanyapurvi tumhala, ekda swipe kel pahije asach watel.” Aso.

“Aaj sagala kahi sangeet may zalel distay are”, Amit pulled me out of the world of my thoughts, to get me back to where we were currently, at the competition venue, PDC-2, another facility of my organization in the same city. “Tamtam walyan suddha gan kasla bhari lawla hota; kanat godtel otun jeva te galyat utarat ani mag ghashat tyacha jo godwa janawato, tasach watal bagh mala, te gan aikun.” opined Amit sarcastically. “Awara aata”, I had to pretend a laughing-angry-bird-expression, to curb Amit. But somewhere, in the background, a demon thread was still running the music player with ‘repeat’ mode on, and was playing the same song.

“The second round is about to begin and all the participant teams are requested to be seated”, shouted the loud-speaker. Everyone was seated within minutes, for discipline was somehow overshadowed by the hunger to perform.

And there it was, the breathtaking display of beauty. A team of 2 females seating diametrically opposite to us. “Thank you lord for the world we see, thank you lord for this lush green tree..!” was Amit’s immediate reaction. I don’t know where do bachelors get so innovative of thoughts. But they do. “Fatakadi aahe be”, craved he, And I had to help him realize that the 1^st stage was beginning. As the game started progressing, it started becoming more and more evident that the game was on between only 2 teams, myself & Amit Vs. Fatakadi errr.. Nikita & Shalini. And so was the game on, of countless human emotions, as the teams of opposite poles kept fighting for the top spot. The penultimate stage was : identify-and-sing. One of the team-members had to go on stage and act out for the song, without uttering a single word. We had an edge in terms of score and were a little ahead of the 2nd rung team. I asked Amit to go for it and enact.

He was smiling as soon as he saw the chit and started enacting, pointing right away towards fatakadi, while referring to Sunil Shetty and Aish from Devdas in between. I guess hints were strong enough. Because fatakadi was furious enough, if her expressions were anything to go by. But I somehow refused to budge, only to lose the opportunity and an early shot at the top spot. Knowing which, the expressions in the enemy camp changed for good, with one of them looking like a smiling-angry-bird and the other one: happily-smiling-bird. We lost in that stage and subsequently the top-spot.

            Obviously, Amit was not going to be pacified easily. “Tuz dok madhyech charayala gel hot ka?”, fumed he, demanding an explanation. “Mitra, mi fatakadikade nahi, tabkadi kade pahat hoto, 2 diwsanpurvi babancha phone aala hota, Shalini Sonje mhanun mulgi aahe, Punyat s/w company kam karate. Tich hoti ti, Fatakadi chi sathidar, tabakadi.”

“Mag, lagna jamanyaadhich sharnagati ka? Utawale navre an..???? ”, he cut me abruptly.

“Nahi re, mi gan lagech olkhal hot.., pan ek pahayach hot, kit ti hastana kashi diste te. Tich hasya fakt othanwarch khelat hot. Hasna he fakt othanparyant seemit rahu naye, te dolyatun disaw. Karan othanna ekwel sahaj khot bolata yeil, pan dolyanni khot bolan far awaghad asta..! Mhanal, chala jara baghuya ek sandhi deun. Ani tyanchi team jinktey he kaltach kay khulun hasli ti. Shalinichya ghari jauya 2 diwsanni, kande-pohe khayala.”

2 days later -- 

“Chaha”.

And that demon thread suddenly sprang to life, on reception of the acoustic vibrations of that sweet word.

"Koyal si teri boli, ku ku ku ku ku ku"...!

Note : This story is a work of pure fiction.

चमचमीत-Royal

Navya girhaikacha karunshini

nava number dial,

navya baya-mansat nava gadi,

distuy bagha kasa chamchamit-royal..!

A lovely, lazy, sunny winter morning on a Saturday

Hello again, albeit a little late..! Oh yeah, quite late actually, almost an year.
I am myself busy figuring out a reason for taking so long to return here. Couple of reasons I could think of,
1. Maybe the creative writer's genes are active only at this time around of the year. ;)
2. Maybe happening meets, get-togethers take place when calendar reads January :P
[or maybe I am not part of them at other times :P, but that's a different issue altogether]
I don't know, you figure out. Anyways, here's the 3rd post from my kitty.
A lovely, lazy, sunny winter morning on a Saturday. This was for Nash. Yes, because he's got all the time on the earth. And his followers, like me, have to be on toes to follow time-lines. As was decided on the previous day, myself and Ajya
were to meet at wakad around 9:30 AM, so that we would be able to keep the timing and be at Mayur's place just before all wall clocks smile [that's 10:10 AM]. We did keep up to our reputations of being American-Indians [that's what IT guys like them to be called as, these days], and were right there, on the parking floor of Mayur's housing society, just after the Indian clocks spread some smiles around.
I was the first time visitor and Ajya had been there before, and was obviously expected to guide both of us to Mayur's flat. But that was not to be, as it seemed like even Ajya had no clue about the exact floor. We belong to ND and free breakfast is enough of a motivation to find out the exact floor. With lift taking rest, and my completely-recovered-from-khoorup feet, we decided to go for the stairs,
and by the stairs. And Mayur was spot on to smell the hunger, err, sense the murmur between me and Ajya and the door opened just-in-time as we were about to turn and take steps to the floor above.
One could have hardly ignored the innocent expressive smile on Mayur's face. The smile was owing to the arrival of charming demons I guess. And married men do look innocent right after their marriages, or at least they pretend , or they have to pretend at the least. :P [Mayur, don't take this seriously, just trying to use some variants of the language here, and the fact that I am married too will definitely help.]
"Taare zameen par" was what I hummed [manatalya manat] and we entered in the hall. Neat and clean, everything arranged with due consideration, perfect color combos, in short a woman's presence in the house. Believe me, they[women] take these things [home-sweet-home] very seriously. No matter even if its bunch of NDites, who have been in COEP hostel for a staggering duration of 4 years. :P
We had to wait for a while before the rock-star arrived, yes Mr. Nash.
And Mr. Fundoo followed the suit. And as its said, the circle was complete, rectangle was drawn, and what not..
We sighed with a big relief, as the wait for breakfast dishes was logically over. ;) With only 5 members of ND together, rest were thoroughly missed, but not that we kept talking only about the guys who were absent. [we have got other businesses as well :P] Anyways, I did think and curse the bridges or the areas beyond bridges in wakad which had resulted in Ram's conspicuous absence. Ram, for details, maybe you can give a call to Nash and Mayur, who, if the readers don't know, have a rare distinction of spreading awareness. Yeah, com'on guys, its true, believe me..!
Anyways. Mr. and Mrs. Mayur played perfect hosts, and we were obviously delighted to get the special attention and 'aagrah'..! With mouth-watering MH-22 delicacy and a Bengali sweet, it was a gimme-some-more brunch. Yes, I did not blink, it really was a breakfast turned into mini lunch.
Oh yeah, Maddy, you were so missed and you so missed it.! :P
With bytes, sorry bites, gushing down, the game of pot-shots was on. As always, the cynosure and the anchor was Avi, [of course in absence of and with due
respect to Pashya]. On a little different note, I am convinced about the convincing abilities of Ajya. He not only enjoyed every bit of the get-together, but also had a group of colleagues, [he works in IT], come and pick him up from wakad. And only a phone call from Ajya made them feel so guilty about delaying the departure to the destination, that they actually came all the way near Mayur's place to get the little wonder on-board the vehicle.
Meanwhile, we also had the privilege of getting a look at Avi and Ajya's just completed flats. Swimming pool was just awesome. Otherwise how do you explain all of us blindly following Avya to see it from different angles while it looks the same from everywhere.There was only water in it. I don't know what Avya saw in it, and what we saw in Avya. :P

On a philosophical note, all the young flat owners must be feeling proud, and they have every reason to feel so. I would really like to congratulate all the new flat owners, who have started a new era, a new generation.

On this note, I would like to end our conversation for now. Keep visiting.

P.S. : Mayur and Vahini, our hosts, you make a lovely couple! and breakfast too...!

Where's the party tonight!

Hello again! Quite a bit of time taken to come back here..anyways..So here's my 2nd post.

Firts of all, there have been quite a few transitions in my life.First one being my joining G S Lab, and thereby moving to Pune.Rest, I will keep u guys posted on. :P
So Pune, as we all know, has been a happening place! More so, with the likes of Avinash Narwade [my Senior from engg. coll] (read DJ Nash).
And luckily, I stay just 10 mins away from the Center Port (a flat in Aundh where DJ Nash stays).

On a fine week day, a forward was sent about a weekend long music event which boasted of "War of DJs" and live performance by rock bands. A treat for people who enjoy music, like to let their hair down, or just watch it from distance. After all, who the hell cares about who the DJ is..all we want is "dance..baby..dance"!
So, it was enough for the group (Maddy-the event manager for us,Ajya-music Guru, myself, and of course DJ Nash).
What i did not know about, was, another joinee to the group whom i had met before but hadn't watched closely. None other than, Mr. Chaitanya (DJ Nash's classmate)! The guy is fundoo!
The venue for the event was SIIB, Hinjewadi. Next to the organization where our own hero (Maddy) works. :P At 7.15,[of course PM, War of DJs is not supposed to be at early mornings] we left. Hang on..we left in 'Punto',courtsey, Mr. Fundoo. The car was rocking, comfort was there to feel, and the driver was even more rocking, u gotta feel the twists and turns.

On a philosophical note, while being in company of these guys, I realize that its not about external add-ons that make
the moment enjoyable, its about simple things like zeal, enthu, sense of humour.

As we did not have enough passes, we had to pick the required ones from one cool dude..from one of the members of a rock band which was to perform at the event. Man, the attitude shows up..I guess they have got music in their blood.
Mine never smells like that..maybe u would get a couple of books after dissecting me.Bibleophile, never mind! Hardik, the cool dude I just talked abt, gave us the passes and we then straightaway dashed at the venue.
After a long time, I was at a college event, reminding me of my days in COEP.But the nostalgia was quickly washed away by the 'tongue-in-cheek' jokes being cracked around.No one was spared.After all, the group holds the name very proudly,
"Nusta Danga" [only fun!].The typical management college atmosphere was conspicuous to be ignored. Out of nowhere, one of the students comes and asks you to purchase a BhelPuri.Even after telling her, that we already have emptied our pockets at the coffee-sandwich stall, she goes on to convince and finally someone relents to buy it for 10 bucks. "Tumhare liye maja, aur humko fukat me saja", my Hindi speaking Marathi heart cried out. In vain, DJ Nash has got a big heart.
So he was the one who dared to buy the "Bhelpuri".
We settled down on the stairs of something like an amphi-theatre, and watched the stage getting ready for the event. One thing i did not like, was, the timelines not being followed. The event was to start at 7, and the warm up itself continued till 8.
Yeah, i work in IT, and i am very strict abt time-lines being followed by "others". Finally, "War of DJs" began, which of course, ignited the dancing dragons within us.And within no-time we were on the dance floor.[honestly speaking, i had to be pulled in ;)]
One thing i still dont understand abt good dancers, where the hell do they get the steps from, and that too spontaneously. Look at Nash while dancing, u will feel the innovative energy flowing all along.U just keep guessing what the next move's gonna be, and he gives a surprise for sure. Man, i wish i have that skill.
Ajya, the guy knows some subtle moves, and creates few as well, making it more joyous to watch. And Maddy has his own flavour, I better be off not talking abt it as it needs a verbose explaination to put it in words.
Mr. Fundoo was unstoppable as well. Out of the blues, he comes up with something similar to 'kajrare', and introduces it as a signature step, cutting across the heart, making u dance at one time and wonder at other!
DJs kept coming and going, we were enjoying the moves.One of the DJs was even booed by the crowd, apparently for playing some out-of-sync Hindi songs. The organizers had arranged for 'rain dance' as well. I really need to check out who the hell has got this concept in..and for what purpose? Dance while it rains..??? Must be an IT guy..They need channels to free their energies.
Cursing the DJs, the ones who played, i dont know what, something crap, we continued dancing, till it struk that we were hungry.
[to be continued..]

It feels cool when you vote!

yo..yo..yo..here I go! The wait is finally over and here I am..writing my first post.
Feels cool. This is as exciting as it was to vote for the first time. Oh yeah..I exercised right to vote for the first time in my life!
As luck would have it, my leave had to be cancelled to be part of a release which had to be scheduled only during Diwali (yes..you guessed it right..I am an IT professional).Anyways, the inner voice told me to grow up..(thats how u convince urself when u really want to do otherwise).
So i decided to go home a week before and create & celebrate some pre-diwali events [i know, there are none, but need to pretend]. I got the flight tickets booked to Hyderabad from Bengaluru and then a train reservation to GNR from HYD. I really did not know the price of 10 minutes until after I missed the flight. I reached the airport at 6.10pm and the flight was to take off at 6.30.I was greeted with 2 words which made me numb. "Not possible"! ("You are late for the flight"--a ticket of which cost u 3000 INR..what the hell!). With a brave heart, I bought one for the next flight and was given refund with some charges deduced..some solace.I dont want to get into the details of how the flight did a go around before landing at HYD, because of turbulent weather, and how it scared the shit out of me for a moment when the plane took off just when it was landing!Guys..it was scary.Of course..i missed my train and had to take a bus to finally reach my desti.
After spending 2 days @home, it was finally time to get back to work, but the jago re! campaign had its impact on me - liitle late- but better late than never. I got my leave extended by one day and planned to leave on Tuesday, 13th oct morning @ 7.50am by train, after i caste my vote.
It was really pleasant to know that voting was to begin at 7.00 am..and believe me..it did..those guys were right on time. As instructed by my dad, I went inside the booth at 7.30am, with PAN-Card held in one hand, to be able to show it quickly enough.The voting centre was a school.One of the classrooms was where i was to press the button, on an EVM. As directed, i got into the room, and joined the queue of enthusiastic voters who were already there.Before that, there was an instruction board outside the room, at the entrance which had the "Do's and Dont's".One of the dont's was, to keep the mobile phones switched off, once inside the room. The moment i stepped inside, i could hear "Bidi jalaile...jigar se piya..jigar ma badi aag hai..". Whatever!
"Tumch nav kahi match hoina buwa..tumchya gharatun dusara koni asel tar gheun ya bar tyanna." [your name doesnt seem to be matching with the one in the list I have.Could you please get somebody else from your family to ascertain ur identity?] I heard the convo between a man standing ahead of me in the queue and the election-officer-on-duty. There was an issue, with the I-Card I guess. And next, was my turn. With ink applied to the back side of nail of the index finger of left hand, I was then directed towards the EVM. I located the candidate on the EVM, pressed the button. 10-20-100-500 millis..nothing seemed to be happening..And finally, after a thousand millis "BEEP!" A feat achieved!
Next day, when i returned back to my home @ Bengaluru, one of my flat-mates was spot-on to notice that i voted & did not forget to ask with a wicked smile.."Looks like u voted..So how much could u save after paying for the train ticket? :P" I was prompt to reply, "Muze pata hai, tu nihatta aur akela kahan milta hai :P"