year 2008

Jan 1 : don't remember!!!
Jan 20: submitted my diploma document. :)
Feb : apply apply, no reply!!! :(
Feb 14: hahahaha
Feb 28: mosh's wedding... and I couldn't go! :(
March: on the verge of leaving hope... am I too demanding and specific about job? :(
March 24: something special.. <3... finally... :) :) :)
March 25: one more special ... my first day of job as a designer... almost the way I wanted!!! :)
April 8: my first designer salary! :)
May 8: started loan repayment. :)
May 25: My first earned gift for my parents' wedding anniversary. :)
May : got my dream gift from mosh... guitar!!! :)
June: Joined guitar classes.. :)
June: attended the only 3 classes after paying for 3 months!!! :(
June: searched a lot for flat on rent! :(
June: Managed to bring my bike form mumbai... hoodibabaaaaa... :)
June 30: almost homeless!!! :(
July 2: shifted in a new flat... surprisingly nice... :) :)
Aug : dnt remember.. routine may be... :(
Sept : searching for a nice gift is a biggggg task... :)
Oct 3: mom and dad came to my flat first time.... made it look like 'home' :)
Oct : sid went his home for treatment of jaundice.... :(
Nov: Sid still not well... and me alone in this big flat! :(
Nov 4: Lord of the streets arrived.. my new sexy bike Yamaha FZ16 :)
Nov : waiting for convocation ceremony and classmates and... ummm... :)
Nov 30: shweta got married!!! damn.... couldnt go there as well... :(
Dec : Pavan's superbike accident... :( :(
Dec 8: convocation.... finally....:)
Dec 8: after a long long time... cried from the bottom of heart... :( :(
Dec : almost everybody I care for is settled... almost... people are struggling to be in touch with each other... not that everyone is happy for everything and everyone... but yes.... things have changed a lot this year... I have started writing on my blog quite regularly instead of writing senti poems (hahah)...
me and sid manage to go for rides almost every sunday.. explore ahmedabad and around.....
So much has happened this year!!!! personally it was a lot better than 2007 for me...
Sometimes we run out of fuel.... manage to search for a nearby fuel station somehow.... and we are ready for next ride....
keep riding.....
:)
Hope to see more :) and less :( this year...
very very happy new year to everybody...
:)

crowd at 'adalaj ni wowwww'

Sid being out of station, I am not supposed to explore any new place (supposedly DHOLKA) this sunday! I took this opportunity to go to 'Adalaj ni vav' (stepwell, some 27 km from NID) which almost everyone in ahmedabad has already seen.
Surprisingly this was quite a big and wrong assumption of mine. During the 3 hrs we (Purva and I) spent there today morning around 150 school kids and 30 other gujaratis visited the place. At one time the place looked (and sounded) so crowded that I immediately escaped to the ground level from bottom-most level for fresh air. (after some time I found Purva climbing up with a very very sad face, the reason being ' there was a very nice (small) boy in the crowd whom she tried to photograph under the sunlight from main opening of well, but his teacher just took him away with her. I quietly listened to this atleast 4 times on our way back! so the boy must be really NICE!!!)
Anyway, this place being so popular and very much photographed already, I am just posting few random and hopefully strange photographs here.

(and don't miss the photograph with a horse sculpted in a row of elephants may be because there was no enough space for one more elephant!!! )

(CLICK to enlarge)

'Salaam Bombay' by Mira Nair

This quite old (1988) movie is dedicated to the children on the streets of Bombay.

Everything (almost) in this movie feels so real, as if not even the smallest kid is 'acting'. Manju, the little daughter of a prostitute, krishna, the small boy struggling to earn Rs.500 so that he can go to his hometown, and those boys living life of roadside 'gundas' or 'mawalis'... all of them just fit perfectly in their own roles, very naturally. Reminds me of DoorDarshan (DD) TV serials in childhood. And why not, there are actors from DD!

This movie, unlike others shows a little different image of Bombay. That of more like a 'trap' and helplessness than 'attraction' or 'addiction' or 'wealthy and fascinating city'.

There are certain sequences which are very hard to forget for me.

e.g. the one in which manju's mother asks the lady authority ' Wo meri beti hai, government 'ma' kaise ban sakti hai?'

and the one in which krishna returns to his adda from remand home and finds a 'new' boy who calls himself 'chillam'. For everyone in and outside movie, chillam was a character who died some 20 minute back in the movie. Everyone is replaceable!!! individual doesn't matter to city, its just a personal matter!!!

Reminds me of many children singing songs and begging and selling something or the other inside local railway compartments...

The movie doesn't give any solution, but it does a better job, of making you think!!!

Somehow I am attracted towards 'Teach IndiA' campaign even more strongly.

Today I learnt..

that more than one's skills, talent, abilities, health and wealth, it is ATTITUDE what actually shows in the final result or work output.
I see people who are capable of much more than what they actually do. It's just the lack of right attitude and willingness to do good work than actual abilities!

joy of painting....

Moving ahead from painting our imaginations on paper or on screen.... to actually painting the vehicle panels ( with dirty primer coat on them) is just an awesome experience!!!!! seeing the body changing its colour gradually with fluid movement of the air gun around it can't be described in words... The smell of spray, the magical motion of hands holding the gun, the sexy waterfall just behind the slowly advancing body panels (to dissolve and wash away the extra paint spray) and the result!!! the wet glossy paint on vehicle... wowwwwwww... even the way these body panels are arranged on the fixtures hanging from the moving conveyor look like dynamic sculptures!!! I was so overwhelmed by the experience that I actually enquired about the training for it to the paintshop head!!!!! hope I actually end up setting up a small paintshop at R&D and then PAINT the plastic panels!!!! wowww feels so nice...
I fell in love with colours all over again!!!!
:)

The fastest woman in the world on two wheels....

The 32-year-old Leslie Porterfield, who rode her modified Suzuki Hayabusa at the BUB Motorcycle Speed Trials, hitting an impressive 374.715km/h is now officially the fastest female motorcyclist in the US. Leslie, who’s broken various land speed records and who’s actually the first woman to enter the Bonneville 200mph Club on a conventional motorcycle, has been riding bikes for 16 years.

‘I’m hopelessly hooked on motorcycles – I truly love motorcycles and the people involved in motorcycling,’ says Leslie, who’s also an entrepreneur and owns High Five Cycles, a used motorcycles dealership in Dallas.

On her everyday street rides

"I have several bikes. Most of the time I ride my 2008 CBR1000, or my Ducati 998. I also have a CRF450 motard bike that I zip through town on. It's such a hooligan bike! I try to keep my high speed on the salt at Bonneville. I will say that I've had a few too many speeding tickets, and maybe one or two in the triple digits. But that was a long time ago!"

Yo Leslie!!!!

:)

(from FasterAndFaster blog)

The worst part 2.....

I baught a new pendrive day before yesterday... a new and slick one..:)
few minutes ago Sid told me he found my pendrive in his bag!!!! :(
Is there any word or phrase for this situation?
(Apart from 'the worst part 2')
may be there is.....
i call it 'hahahaha'...
:)

The worst part of losing.....

Few days ago I lost my pen-drive. It had some data in it. I don't remember exactly what. And thats the worst part of it.
I don't know what I lost!!!

आणि मी...

न अंदाज कुठले, न अवधान काही
कुठे जायचे यायचे भान नाही
जसा गंध निघतो हवेच्या प्रवासा
न कुठले नकाशे न अनुमान काही

which software?

Part of conversation between me and a newly joined colleague. He joined as an engineer in R&D of Induction Furnace division. He had seen me test-riding one prototype.
He: so you are in auto division?
me: yes.
He: R&D?
me: yes R&D.
He: mechanical or electrical?
me: no no.. not the engineering R&D. Actually I am in Design Studio. I am an Industrial Designer.
He: Oh you are a designer!! WHICH SOFTWARE?
me: ummmmmmm......
me: ummmmm... (photoshop?, corel? rhino? alias sketchbook? hahahahaha...)

Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Valentino Rossi

What’s better than just having Angelina Jolie for your wife? Having Angelina Jolie also sponsor your motorcycle habit, that’s what. According to In Touch magazine, old man Brad will soon be turning 45 and to celebrate, Angie is giving him a Ducati Monster 1100 as a birthday present. Brad, who already has a Desmosedici RR, is a big motorcycle buff and even says he wants to be like Valentino Rossi.

Speaking to Riders magazine recently, Pitt said ‘We are both in the public eye and it is rare for us to have big heroes, but I have one who I put above everyone else – Valentino Rossi. I would give anything to be like him!’‘He is always cool. He seems to have a calmness which is almost beyond human. He can do the impossible. He looks like he weighs 30 kilos and yet he is able to stick to the asphalt without crashing. He looks like he is dancing when he rides, it is pure poetry,’ says Pitt, who’s obviously besotted with 'The Doctor’s' talent.

(from faster and faster blog)

when it does mean it!

jo bhi dukh yaad na tha yaad aaya,
aaj na jaane ye kya yaad aayaa.
Yaad aaya tha bichhadna tera,
fir nahi yaad ke kya yaad aaya!...

Most of the times there is nothing 'filmi' in films... it comes somewhere from real life only...
If you have experienced it, you will know what it means!!!
Like the above gazal by Hariharan in album 'Hazir'.
It says so much... no other words can express it so well... except your own experience!

wowwwwwwww... :)

It's feeling soooo nice!!!!
:)
finally... the convocation day... :) starting tomorrow morning!!!...
More exciting is the fact that by tomorrow morning all my batchmates will be around!!!!
Great fun it will be... and I am so excited! The place which suddenly had lost some emotional connection will regain the emotional attachment.. atleast for next few days... and new memories for even more days... Actually I am feeling so nice since yesterday evening... when I tried my new traditional convocation outfit.. :)
This reminds me of some not so exciting things...
1. I still haven't baught pair of chappals,
2. have to do that registration thingie for convocation
3. Have to collect the silk stole from admin dept (that means I also hv to keep Rs. 1000 ready)
4. I have to wash the extra bedsheets for our family guests!
5. Have to render those extra mattresses ready for use (little confused what exactly it means!)
6. wash my bike ! :)
7. clean our house...
8. swadanusar namak ( means anything else as required!)
And I am still so happy!!!!
wowwwwww....

follow-up by Maithili

After a long long long ime, I came across something worth great respect, not just because of the issue it refers to, but the intention and the basic eye-opening act which I never came across or tried myself earlier and just kept talking about it. The 'follow-UP' blog by Maithili! I request everyone to visit it and add the link in their own blog for others.
Thank you very much Maithili.