Autumn in Delhi, and some IIT memories

The evenings are becoming quite cool. Sun sets at around 6:30, which is pretty early. We don't do daylight savings in India. With most of the population anyway having a very cavalier attitude towards time, the amount of confusion that DST can cause would be amazing. There is no longer the need for an A/C at all times. And even the fan can feel quite cool in the wee hours of the night.
This is the time of the year when the "raat ki raani" (queen of the night) blossoms. This plant has a very sweet and distinctive smell, and very strangely, gives out this smell only after sunset. So in the evening near my house you will be accosted by this all-pervasive aroma. The smell suddenly triggered a very nostalgic memory for me - my first year in IIT.
The session at IIT starts in August, and by the time you get over the ragging and are in a position to appreciate the surroundings, it is mid-september. When you are walking back to the hostel after evening basketball practice, you encounter this very same smell. A very relaxing time - practice is done, you are looking forward to dinner at the hostel (i know i know .. a lot of people would argue with me on looking fwd to the hostel meals, but to them i say "Ghee and boora will make any meal look-forwardable"). You might go to a movie later at night. Or maybe just hang out on the roof, having one of those endless discussions. If anything, IIT was a place where everyone had an opinion. And was not shy about expressing it. So discussions would rage on and on, and on a particularly varied gamut of topics. From the sex life of african bullfrogs, to the variation in a particular starlets looks over the years, to the best way to blast a steel glass high in the air using fireworks.
Or there were the ever present challenges of physical prowess, usually suggested, started and sustained by the competitive natures of Johri and Bhand. Fastest to climb down the 5 flights of stairs. Highest kick on the wall. And these led to other impromptu challenges, which had to settled on the sports field. Right then. The good thing about IIT was, most fields were floodlit. So I have played tennis with Johri and Rawal at 2 AM to settle a bet. Just as an example.
Whims were turned into records, which were duly noted down in IIT book of records. How many poeple can you fit in one standard hostel room ? I think the answer was more than a 100, with tables being used to create 2 levels in the room for people to crouch into.
Somehow our batch in Kumaon hostel was a very healthy collection of "Dhakkans" from all engineering departments. Dhakkan is a term used to describe the folks at the very end of the department merit list. Dont know how it happened, but it caused our batch to be the subject of many a advisory sessions from the seniors. But it did create one the better sports batches in the history of our hostel. Well, maybe there were people with greater skills, but we were definitely the most "enthu" (short for enthusiastic). Which makes up for a lot. Bhand, Rawal, Johri and I played almost every sport to a certain respectable level. And in our first intra-hostel competition, we kicked some serious ass, and in the process ruffled a lot of feathers in the senior batches, who felt they were not getting the respect they deserved.  These events were held after dinner, and the four of us alone made up atleast 3 or 4 different sports teams. The games would be scheduled back to back to fit in the limited time available, and on days we would play continuously from 9 pm to 1 am. This AFTER normal basketball practice in the evening. The adrenaline rush that comes from beatings more established teams was probably the only thing that kept us going. And we lost some also. But we fought .. fought for everything. Johri was the most aggressive one, not taking any shit from anyone. And we followed his lead. And we were soon getting the respect we deserved. Because we WERE good !
This beginning led to bigger things, specially the time in our third year when we won the inter-hostel sports championship. Just because we decided that we would. Rawal was the one instrumental in organizing it all. I dont think any other person could have done it. Rawal was the people person, convincing everyone to get with the program. Pure luck that we picked him as our sports secretary that year. I could not have predicted that he would succeed so well. Again, the four of us formed the core, but Rawal was the one who tapped the talent in the junior batches which took us over the edge.
Anyway, enough self-promotion ! I just got started on this and the words kept on coming. I think its something in the sweet smell of "raat ki raani" !

Went to IIT last sunday to play basketball. Had a good game. Varun constantly surprises me. He is good ! I think this weekend game has potential. We might just enter the IIT sports meet as an independent team. We have the people i think, even though the legs are not as sprightly as before !

Back home (?)

Interview date has been set. 8th of November. I will be back in San Francisco (and possibly Dallas) at that time. This is quite exciting. Till this came through, i did not realize that i am quite missing the folks in SF and Dallas. V should also be there in SF this time i go there.
Things have changed while i was away. Dani is not in SF anymore. Moved back home. Something like what I am trying. She is moving for someone. And herself.

Somehow i have not had a chance to use the 5D for a looong time now. not to say that i have not taken pictures. been trying things with the point and shoot. mine, niki's and delphine's. will post some samples soon enough. But i must say that i am itching to use the big one by now.

Gymkhana

Let me introduce the Delhi Gymkhana Club to you. Its supposedly a Delhi institution, a legacy of the british, still being subsidized by the government so that the elite of Delhi can have a place to go and find a sense of belonging. There is a 30 year wait for membership. So I was quite curious (well , a little) to see what the place is like.
The building is an old colonial edifice, and looks beautiful with all the whitewash and greenery around it. It is situated in the poshest part of Delhi. The real estate cannot even be appraised. You enter through a driveway which curves gracefully into the foyer in true bungalow style. The gate informs the general public that the institution is for members only. There is a flunkey actually checking cards before he allows you to enter. But then, he knows most of the members by face and does not have to bother anyway.
He knows most of the members because the average age of the member is about 70 years. On the sunday evening i went there, it looked like a geriatric ward in a Florida hospital, complete with the "lady in the wheelchair with glucose" (who was duly admired for being the brave woman she is .. to come to the club to socialize even as she is half dead. LOL). These old fogies are trying to revive long lost memories of the Raj, or the time just after it when these folks were still relevant.
The restaurant serves "Paneer a la Kiev". The room has been renovated to a kitschy  decor that the romans would be proud of. But the cutlery and the dishes still proudly bear the logo of DGC (delhi gymkhana club). (What the f*** is gymkhana ? can someone please enlighten me ?). Well fed rotund forms (well fed for the last 60 years !) order from the centuries old menu, which no one in the club has dared to change.
Somehow these places give me a sense of alienation. These are folks with whom i cannot find an iota of common ground. Army generals (nothing against them), retired bureaucrats, self-styled intellectuals, in short - people who have no touch with reality but still have the power to shape India's future. Still loath to let go of anything they can get for free (or subsidized). Not wanting any fresh air to blow in their burial chamber.

Niki and Sonam

Have not taken ANY pics for a long time. So, took my camera to Pahargunj the other day, but it rained. On coming back to Niki's house, there was some great light, so i asked Niki and Sonam to stand in front of the gaurdhouse.
Sonam's pics is a little out of focus. My fault entirely. Was not patient enough.


I like the background. I think i will go back and take some more portraits there.

Bands on my Hand

As an explanation for the previous pic ..
There is a festival in India called Rakhi. Sister tie bands on their brothers arms - and the brother promises to look after the sister. The band is also called a Rakhi
This is from last month .. these are rakhi's from Ruchi and my other numerous cousin sisters. You are supposed to keep them on till they fall off on their own. Some of mine have fallen off by now, but 3 still remain.
When i was a kid, one of the teachers in our school had an idea that all the girls in the class should tie Rakhis to all the boys, essentially nominating them brothers !! Even at that age, i had enough sense not to go to school that day !

Test From Google Docs

will this work ?

The Unexpected

Somehow it is always the unexpected which gives you the most pleasure. This is orthogonal to the "anticipation" concept which Navin has proposed and which i fully agree with (more on that at some other time).
Today it took me 90 mins to drive from work to Johri's place. Played badminton .. had a couple of good games. Came home and decided to go to Fox for dinner. It is happy hour all night long on Tuesday. 2 for 1 all night long. Can't beat that.
Had some good conversations with Johri/Ak/Nat/VK. That's what i mean by unexpected. Every weekend you get some sort of pressure to enjoy. (well, i do. maybe thats something i need to change anyway). But today was cool. A Bonus.
Karaoke was ready, but i guess the participants all bailed out. thats ok .
Been busy somehow. haven't had a chance to do ANY photography at all. which is sad. will make it a point to explore more places. (went to PG with niki and sonam, but the rain spoiled it all). Golf is progressing. I never thought i would ever have any comment on my golf game. But Johri insists on going. And its kinda fun after a while. When you can atleast hit the ball about 50% of the time. And the caddies dont laugh at you. And you can hit farther than the lone female in your group (Niki). Mostly.
Have finally managed to get the Johri household wired for music. Can play my iPod on their dying stereo. makes a hell of a difference in the mood of the place. Hope to exploit it in different ways someday.
Did i tell you about last weekend ? Gurgaon closed at 12 am in the night. Yes. Gurgaon. All of it. A new DCP (Deputy Commisioner of Police) is in town and has not been paid off enough. Yet. hopefully the club owners will have taken care of it by next friday. Getting home at 12 am on friday night kinda sucks.
Delphine and D should be back this saturday from their trip down south. Am looking fwd to seeing both of them. They are fun to be around - whatever happens.

Party Log

So just for the record, let me give an account of last week's revelries.
Thursday was karaoke night. D,D, Jeremy, Alice, Ruchi, Niki, and Natalie (she manages models). Not a very happy night for others, as none of use were great singers. And instead of the simple "Walk of Life", the DJ put on "November Rain" for me to sing. Disaster.But, we had fun.
Friday was mostly at Richa's place. Johri, Ak, Nat, Selvita, Walia. Because we did go to ministry, just 1/2 hr before it closed !!. After that, decided to ride to my place to get my ipod for music. Scared richa by driving at 120 kmph. On the way back got stopped at a routine checkpoint. Cop asked for papers, so gave him the registration. He takes it and asks me whose name the car is registered under. Of which i have no clue, and i tell him that. He asks for a license and i give him my texas licence. Which is punched, and invalid , BTW. I told him that the hole was for chain to hang it on the neck. He did not know what to do. Move on, he said. Mind you , i was above any reasonable alcohol limits at that time. But that is not important in India.
Saturday night was Aura, as I had mentioned. Nice hip/young crowd. Good music. Again, Ministry had closed early, so came back home, and had my first real conversation with D and D.
Tomorrow is a holiday. YEAH ! so, Buzz again tonight. I dont think i have to repeat who is going to be there. You know that already.

Routinely Normal

Life has settled into a nice routine. I am still able to keep up with the simplefit workout (though i confess i have missed a couple of days, and have not been able to resist some delicious gulab jamuns from time to time. well .. maybe a little more than that ).
Try to go to Gurgaon every alternate day to play badminton, and stay over at Johri's place when i do that. His 'mundu' cooks good food. Its almost like a return to the hostel days. That house houses 3 dudes(ok .. one of them is hosting a girlfriend these days, but that is a small matter). It is set up as a nice bachelor pad. Sharab and Kabab are plentiful.
The badminton is a nice cross training workout .. just because i am still getting my movements back. And once in a while i enter the squash court where Johri just runs me to the ground. I can safely say that I will be in excellent shape if i continue this for another month or so !!
I think this was one thing i really missed in SF - the play. You can run, workout, whatever, but now i realize how much i missed the games in my life. I am also trying to set up a basketball session soon, though i know that will be a big disaster for the first couple of days. I know i am not fit enough to run 40 mins on the full court.
Just got some reality checks .. went to visit Sonal's ailing dad in Jind. He has lost so much weight. The left side of his body is very unresponsive. I sat next to him. I think he recognized me, because he patted me on the head and extended his hand to hold mine. His hands are bigger then mine, if you can imagine that. He gripped my hand and i was completely taken by surprise at how strong that grip still was. He is a really strong man, still. I sometimes wonder what it feels like to know that you have a limited time to live. Very limited. What would I do if I knew that .. with the options limited by a severe lack of mobility !
Also, on the way back from Aura with Delphine and D, came across an accident. The police were on the scene. A car had rammed into a motorcycle. Delphine was driving, and said that hopefully no one was hurt. But i spotted the body lying on the road. I am glad neither Delphine or D noticed it. There was not doubt about it, it had the rag doll look of a lifeless shell. And no one was paying any attention to it. An easy way to die ? Better than when you can see it coming for an extended period of time and not do anything about it. ?
Aura was excellent on saturday. Had not heard good house music in a while. Had only one drink there because the music was enought to keep me high. A surprise : Sonam (another one of Sonal/Niki/Ruchi's friends, she's from Ladakh) came out with us. And she was totally into the music .. eyes closed, just dancing with herself and enjoying the music. Anyone that can do that is sorted out, i think. Tried to go to Ministry after that, but they closed early. So came home (Me, Delphine, and D), listened to some hindi pop, and talked about Hindi movies. Was nice. Had not talked to D and D before, except shouting across a table in a club. They are really cool chicks. Am i repeating myself here ?

A Quiet Sunday Evening !

On Saturday, Niki, Ruchi and I had a delicious teppanyaki dinner at Oriental Bloom in the Ansal Plaza. Johri joined us and we proceeded to jeremy's house, for a farewell party for his two sisters, who are going back to Paris. Quite an interesting crowd, the hightligt being this australian girl Penelope, who could really sing. She plays with a local band called "Men Who Pause". Say the name out loud and you will get the joke. Good band ..  might go to see them play sometime. Ruchi and Niki decided to have a small gathering at our place the next evening (Sunday), and invited Jeremy and family.

Ruchi dragged Johri and me to watch the GP2 race at Buzz on Sunday afternoon, and after that we played golf with Niki (she is pretty good), and bought back some mixers for the party.

At around 8:30, the four of us were sitting down at our place, and started with some wine. Ordered some food (which Ruchi thought was excessive) from Colonel's Kebab. Jeremy, Alice and Camille arrived at around 9:15. By this time we had also spontaneously invited Gypsy King (previously mentioned) and Richa + Walia. Because we thought we needed more people in the house to finish off the food and drinks. Food arrived (it was a lot) and we started on the Kebabs.
D said that she was with 3-4 other folks, and did we have enough food ? I thought we could manage .. after all, these were french people, who anyway do nibbles. Gypsy King showed up with Ankita and two other girls, one of them had enough attitude for 20 people, and teeth to match. The other one was kinda ok though .. I will let you figure out which is which. Oh, BTW.. she was going to LA soon !
And i have to mention Trevor and Charlie (the wife), recently arrived from London, on assignment here for 3 years. At this time we were seriously running out of glasses to serve drinks.

Then came D with the boyz. What i did not expect were 3 already inebriated and hungry students, 2 of which were gay. Putting all reserve aside, they attacked the food with gusto. Of course, after they had poured themselves some drinks. Here they are. The girl on the left is also french .. someone we met at a karaoke party one night.
Looking at their revenous appetites, I had to advice Johri and the others to partake quickly, an advice which was taken to heart by all.

This is a scene from later in the night, when the music was at full blast. This is about 1 am.  Richa, Niki and Ruchi are in the VIP area.

Now we are nearing about 2 am. Remember, this is a Sunday night. Sunglasses seem to be the theme of the night. At this point i had stopped noticing who was coming and going, and there were about 30-40 people in the house.

Ah, and there was this one indian dude (nobody can recall who knew him - and how he came to be in the party). He tells me, "My gay friends will really like you". When I made a quizzical face, he appended "and the girls too !".

So now its about 3 am, the party is starting to die down. I am leaving y'all with a final glimpse of D. Those are my aviators. From 12 years ago.

I fell asleep twice next morning in the office. Luckily, i am good at dozing off while seeming to be busy on the computer.

Life Lessons

Let me tell you a story. I dont want to disparage the protagonist in any way. He is a good friend of mine. It is not his fault that this happened.

This friend (lets call him Ram) met a european girl. Lets call her Alice. And it so happened that they really liked each other and this ripened into a very close relationship. Ram at this time was living with two other guys. He had never lived with a woman before. He's had other girlfriends, but this is India - live-in relationships are rare.

Alice started spending a lot of time at Ram' house. Started living there. One night, around 12 pm, the inevitable happened. She asked Ram to get her some tampons. This has never happened to Ram before. He is quite unaware of the intricacies of the female plumbing. But, being the quintessential gentleman, he goes to the chemist. And comes back with diapers. Alice is thoroughly confused. "What is this ?" she says. She explains the situation to Ram. "Ah !" he quips! "These can serve the purpose!".

Needless to say, he is made to go to the shop again, and this time told very specifically what to ask for. And he does. All is good.

Just a reality check ! You can not assume things. It was not anyone's fault. But all said and done, it was a laugh. He will never live it down.

OKOKOK .. On popular demand

Here is Ruchi, D and me, at Buzz on wednesday

Now it is 12:30 AM on a friday night. D is in Varanasi right now. Time for a reality check. Will do that and post results

Email Thread

About 15 days ago, I receive this email :

Dear all

Namaste.

I am sharing my contact no. & email address for your kind information by hoping for regular communication.

Mobile-9848026303

Home-081-560303

Office-081-520255,522668

Fax-081-520589

email- rajkumar.kshetri@gmail.com

Thanks.

Raj Kumar Kshetri

Nepalgunj

I have been receiving mail from this dude before, obviously a wrong email address, but i had ignored it till now. A safe thing to do would have been to block him. But I decided to be polite and inform him of his mistake.

Dear Raj Kumar in Nepalgunj

Thank you for the regular updates that I have been receiving

but I think that you have the wrong email address ..

I don't know you at all

as much as I appreciate the mails, please remove me from this update
list

manu

I thought that this would be the end of the matter. No. Raj Kumar from Nepalgunj had other ideas :

Dear Manu

Sweet love.

I can't understand that why do i remove u from my update list.

Hoping regular communication.

Thanks.

Raj

Nepalgunj

Now I am laughing. I could have again blocked him again, but this was too tempting. In India, Manu can be a girl's nickname also.

You idiot !

I am a guy .. so stop calling me sweet love

now that you know that, can you remove me from your mailing list ?

plus I am really not interested in updates from Nepalgunj (wherever the
hell that is)

m

I am still awaiting his reply ! Will keep y'all posted

Night Riders

Buzzzzzzzz !
Went to Buzz in Saket. Ruchi had promised D some indian pop music, and Buzz is the place. D came with her brother Tebo (the eldest sister is back in France for a vacation). Niki, Swati, Ruchi, Walia, VK. AK and Nat.
I will give details of the party later (with pics, as promised). But suffice to say that a LOT of alcohol was consumed by all.
We started on our way back at around 2:30 AM. I was driving (safe drunk driving - only in India !!!). Niki, Ruchi, D and Tebo. Just as we leave, a car with 4 dudes starts following us. I think they noticed us because of the ruckus we were creating outside the club before leaving. In fact, I think everybody noticed us, including 2 cops :-)
I still have not understood why, but following cars with girls in it is a done thing. I have done it in my youth, I admit. Rarely, but yes. So these youths were just following time-honored traditions.
Anyway - they are driving behind us, overtaking us, slowing down, driving beside us .. the works. A little scary, if you are sober. But we were not, so that was not a issue. I am driving steadily (ask anyone). At this point of time, the roads are almost empty. We have to drop off D and Tebo first, so Niki start giving directions. Slight problem - she remembers where they used to live 2 weeks ago. At one point, D has enough sense to ask where the f*** we are headed. U -turn. The youths are following us still.
We miss an exit. No problem. We back up. Its India. We almost miss another exit. The only reason the car makes it is because we are 5 people, and the car is difficult to topple over now. A lot of screeching tyres and braking is happening.
Think from the "followers" perspective. It totally seems that we are trying to lose them. Exciting stuff for them. They are totally pumped now.
So we drop of D and Tebo finally. The youths are watching us all the time. Then start driving to Niki's place. This time, the car pulls of next to us, and the youths gesture to us to roll down our windows. Of course, I ignore them and keep driving. The gestures become even more urgent, but nothing doing from our side.
Finally we reach Niki's place. Now we have to stop to let Niki out. The youths pull up alongside again. One of them leans out and asks us, "How do you get to Karol Bagh ?"

I dont know at what point they had decided to give up the chase and go home, but whatever that point was, they had been driven round half of Delhi, and were hopelessly lost ! Their home (Karol Bagh) is at the opposite end of Delhi. They probably did not know this part of Delhi at all. At that point, all they wanted were directions to go home.
So we gave them directions (hopefully right ones), they politely thanked us and went home.

Image Randomness ..

This is on my way back from Chandigarh. From the train. The problem with these A/C trains is that there is nowhere you can take a picture of the countryside except through the dirty windows.


I broke my (?) old badminton racket last week.



Whoever doubts badminton's authenticity as a sport should try playing 30 minutes.  I have started again after coming here, and am rediscovering why i used to love it.
This breakage was the result of a really hard smash. It did have a crack before, and my mom was using it regularly with no ill effects. I guess i play harder than my mom !
This belonged to my classmate in IIT : Puneed Dalmia. I forgot to return this to him when we graduated. I have met him only twice since that. He was a founder of JobsAhead, which hotjobs bought at a hefty price a couple of years back.

And finally some eye candy. She is Ruchi's anchor. In her TV show. I think i really need to go into TV production.

The Gang !

Here are some pics ..  let me introduce some folks from Last Week.



I have known Richa all my life. All my conscious life. She used to live 50 m from my house. We hung out almost every day since we were kids. Same class (different schools though). One of the coolest people i know.



Niki knows probably half of Delhi. The half worth knowing. If I go to party in Delhi, Niki is there with me. She is a partner is a law firm. One of the leaders in IP law practice in India. But when she parties .. she rocks! NIKKA SINGH is .. KING !!

I am working on D's picture too .. patience !

Bull Shit ? Not at all !

This dude was on the road on my way back from work today.
Obviously, this is rush hour. But no one dare disturb this the most untouchable of animals. Not only is it of the cow family, but it is also a "Sarkari Saand". (literally : government bull).
Those who have heard me talk about it will remember this. A bull is a cost center. It does no work (like an ox, which is a castrated bull) because it is too rowdy. But it is necessary to fertilize all the cows. So the government (yeah .. the benign ruler) gives each village/community one bull. It is community property. It is the whole communities' responsibility to feed it and take care of it. And the bulls responsibility : FERTILIZE ! It gets into high gear in the rainy season, when it sniffs out the cows that are in heat, and services them. What a life !
Me Jealous ? Hell yeah !

Here is a closeup, if you really want to admire him

Ancients

So let me introduce you to the 2 ancients in our family.
The first one has existed for 93 years, and is indirectly responsible for me. My Dadi ! She is my only living grandparent.
She is a little (well .. more actually) senile (in a very practical way). Cool thing is, she is living in a parallel world. In her mind, she has gone to trips to the US (where she did not visit me because she was too busy). I sometimes am jealous at her bliss.


She had lived in Lahore, where she was a teacher. She has raised 1 son (my dad) and married off 7 daughters. She had an iron-fisted control over all of them till about 10 years back. I have resented her at times for it .. specially some of her beliefs that used to be thrust on us kids all the time. Now she cannot even remember my name sometimes. Old age is very unforgiving.

The second one has been with the family since 1987. It is my dad's first car. In those times (yeah .. those times), poeple waited till they saved enough money to pay cash for a car. Well, the government chipped in with a really low interest rate loan (the perks of govt service .. god know the pay there is not the best !).

This is a Maruti 800 (yeah .. it really has a 800 cc engine). It was the first modern car in India, meant to be affordable for the common folk. My dad paid Rs 90,000 for it at the time. It was the first car in the block where we lived, and i was quite proud of it. But not as much as my dad, who still loves it.
We have had family trips where we have loaded 9 people (and luggage) in this car. To really appreciate this, you should know that the car was meant for a family of 4.
My sister has had it for a while (which was a big trial for the car, if you know my sister, but it came through with flying colors). It has been stolen once (which finally convinced my parents to buy a new car). It has NEVER given any problems (touchwood) in the 20 years that we have had it. It is celebrating its 20th birthday this August. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ..

Punjabi Underworld

For anyone who can even slightly understand punjabi, this is a MUST SEE. I have seen many mashups/dubs, but this one just takes the cake. The timing of the dialog, the expressions, everything is just perfect. And of course, the "Gaalees" (abuses) are the best you will see.




I am also attaching my version of the transcript .. I did it so i could memorize the whole thing.

hai !!! nee ta lagda hain aj bahut gusse'ch hai. nee bhen kidhar challi haan ? nee !

nee kale kanjar teri bhen nu lan maariya ! mekhon paise le ke mainu philospher da pistaul de'eta. Aa phad pistaul te paal (?) apnee bhain da phuda.

gashtiye kee yaad rakhengee. Aih mein golee banayee ah - te eh lohe diyan bundaan vee paad devegi.

huh ! tu pehle vee bhain-i-oye see ainj hee keha see -

accha ! ja phir bhain-uva !

tu phie nahin na mannee kise kanjar dee gal. Ai bund-mara laya hai ainna ne pistaulan inna diyan chaldiyan nee samjhiyan ?

tu apnee vich bhain na huva ! tu aidee gal na manneen kudiye !

tu apne aap nu samajhda kee hai bhainchoda kaaliya ! Ai teree maan da khasam pols de vich afsar hai vadda. kanjara. Chadd paran .. tu das asi ida kee kareeye ?

Aidee maa da chola maariya mein soch leya. Ainoo mein lai jaana hai chuk ke thaane, te jadon innoo vajje na panj chittar te aidee saree shokhee nikal janee hai.

Tu chuk ke lai jaana hai ehnoo thane mere paise kaun daoo ? Puchh is bhainchode bachhe kolon !

Tu maithon puchh ke pistaul leya see - gashtee dee bachhiye ?

Tu mainu gashtee keha teree maan nu lan maariya kanjree deya bacchiya - mein teree bhain kolon paise lai ke annee aan bhainchod talliya (?)
Ai kaale bondoo dee ta bhain nu yevan

oooooooooooooo

chad paran aidee maan nu lan main de layoon.

huh. de layoon.

aidee bhain nee javayee. tere layee mehentaan kar chaddiyan din raat ik karta. lakh rupaiye dee golee banayee.

tu bhain de phudde'ch lai lai oh golee. mein teree bund vee paad denee nale udee vee paad denee vich

lai duss yaar !

Oh tu apnee bhain ee aai jaandan hai gal sun meri is bhainchode ne nee mannana.

jabaan nu lagaam de oye gashtee deya.

tu badee doctor dee kudee hain ! Chup karke bai. Davan tainnu vee lun, kanjree deya ?

phitte moo ! kuttee de puttar.

badiyan sohniya gaalan kadhdee ..

tu sunee hai ? aidee te maan noo main oh gaalan kadhda hunda see oh nee kade aggiyan bolee. Jaa zara ja ke uhda pata lai kite hore no jaa ke phadda lai lave mainoo bhugatna pai jaayega.

Mangoes !!!

Yummy mangoes are still in season. "Chausa" is the local favorite .. at this time of the year. I cannot believe that i have been missing these for the last 12 years. For the uninitiated, there are several hundred varieties of mangoes in India, and you get these at specified times in the mango season. "Langra" is my favorite, though i missed it this year.

Came to Chandigarh this morning on the Shatabdi. They have cool new coaches, with huge windows and really nice soundproofing. Lalu is doing a good job !
On the way to the railway station, the security arrangements for our Independence Day were fully operational. We encountered 3 road blocks within 200 meters .. on the same road. I guess they don't trust themselves to do a good job the first time around !!

Took the Meridien front desk folks on a walk with our expert yesterday. Was supposed to be Lutyen's Delhi, but our security conscious police had decided to restrict access to most areas near the India Gate. We drove around some areas which i had also not seen. Walked for a bit at Gandhi Smriti, the place where Mahatma Gandhi was shot. Interesting place. Would have been better if it had been a little cooler ;-)

Messaged Shveta about the girl to ask if she was single. "Call her and find out" was the reply. Maybe I will do that tomorrow. Still cannot figure out how ALL records of her number have been removed from my phone. (I did store her number as a contact. In any case i should have it in my dialled calls)