My Wedding Experience

I cant surely put a mesmerizing wedding experience in a singular blog for it would be an injustice to the truly wonderful experience of a lifetime. I can however give a precise note of the feelings I felt when I wintessed the entire ceremony all like a king. Yes I say king because for the entire ceremony you discover yourself as a blessed man. Everyone there is busy in wedding preparations & everyone is enjoyingthe moments for you. & yes ofourse everything out there is done for you. I felt this ceremony gifted me a surprise package when I realized the worthiness of it. You see happy faces in & around every corner & more importantly your own face glitters with more charm. I really can't shape my feelings in words here. It was a full one week wedding ceremony with all the rasams performed most of them by my mother. She did all the pujas to keep the family god (or devta) happy. The haldi rasm was particularly my favourite one & I enjoyed every single moment of it. It was nice body massage & I was waiting eagerly for it. The turmeric had auyervedic powers & I was thrilled at the prospect of playing holi with turmeric. It was real fun with the family members. The barat was a real awesome procession in the wedding ceremony. The entire crowd - known & unknown all dancing like mad at whatever disco notes played out there. You are seated in majestically decorated car with flowers of varied types. & being dressed in your favourite wedding dress surely gives you the feeling of being at the top of the world. Then the garland exchange ceremony & the countless photogrpahers & cameras/mobile phones with cameras keeps your mind awestruck. Beleive me we both had the same feeling -for that day we were like celebrity - & every single person out there - elder or a kid, big or small, relative or neighbour, all wanted to have snap captured with us - the couple. It kept my mind wondering - was it a wedding?? or a dream ? or a stardom show for the night. Whatever it may be, surely that was the moment of experience for a lifetime. In our custom, the wedding continues for the whole night. I was wondering if I could manage to keep my eyes wide open all the night, but it was not a tough task, for I did not feel any need of it. All through the wedding, I was keeping reminding myself - that this is the moment of the life time when I am taking this wedding oath. I was read all the promises I need to take as husband. Again the saat phere, which the pundit wanted to finish it of in only 3 feras. Everyone revolted & we took sufficient time to completethe mandatory saat feras. Afterall wedding happnes only once in a lifetime. The morning came with some tears in the eyes of my bride, for she realized, she was now a guest in her parents home. I was speechless & I had unexpressive emotions to share. All relatives gifted valuable items - jewellry, cash/gifts & love & kind blessings to both of us. We were moved.
We came back to my hometown in afternoon where there was another set of rasams to be performed. I won the ring games played between the bride & groom. There were many other funfilled activities or sort of games & I ensured that I became the overall winner. She did Ofcourse won many others. The day passed long before it was complete 24 hour schedule. The wedding moments have been captured in memories in mind & in the memories of Cameras. The wedding pics are ready & I can't again give a proper description of the thrill seeing the wedding pics. This blog is getting longer & I know it should be. There are many other notes I wish to share, but then I comprehend the reading barometer. So I end this blog here; & I have another beautiful experience to share - our visit to Kashmir on honeymoon trip. Its truly a heaven on earth & I have my experience to justify it.
Cheers
Bhola

21st November - 2009 (waiting for it)

So again I come to my blog with a fresh heart. The preparations are nearly over, only few things needs to be completed (I still need to buy a pair of spectacles). The wedding dress is ready & so am I. The only tension I will have when I go home will be the amount of luggage I would be carrying with me. It still bothers me, not because of the weight, but by the utmost care with which I need to handle the special dress on my way home. Anyways, its just a mere 2 weeks dirty affair in office till I am ready for the adventure of my life. I am sorry, I mean 'our' life now. Frankly again, the things in office does not seem to take any positive charm. My unix scripts are not giving the expected results & I am bit disappointed with the output which I am supposed to generate everyday. "Leave the shit" you may say. And so I just am not ignoring that, but thought would like to mention it here because someway or the other, I am just not out of it altogether. No issues, again. Hmm. quite a tight task for me again today what to write here. Its just I have thoughts & wishes & I hope & pray all things should go very well. Back home the mood is set & my parents are very very busy in getting wedding arrangements done. My big B has left for Bihar today & he wil be reaching in a day or 2. Slowly the environment would bring the wedding charm, as most relatives join. I am just counting days now... I want to be with all my family members together. That will be the great feeling. No forgiveness for cutting down long story short. I am busy, yes you can understand. When I come back (guess from where...ok I give you the clue: Dal ****) I will have lot many things to share. The bliss of a wedded life & the feeling of a different life. Man I cant explain it now unless I experience it for myself. I unerstand there will be burdens of responsibilities (firmly pointed by bachelors), but I never was the person who sided myself away from them. So dude, the invitation cards are still on its way & before I go home, it will reach to you with a genuine request of your presence on the D-day. I will detail my invitation request in the wedding card. Let me see when I post a new blog next time & what theme I would chose as the subject matter. For now, I just close this with a warm smile, looking forward for a wedded life.

Cheers

Bhola

The Wedding Bells...ringing

Come Nov-14, I plan to go home - to my hometown in Bihar & yes this time for a definite reason. Guys the D day has been fixed. It was planned when I was in my factual hometown & my birthplace, Tura, Meghalaya. The trip was indeed a soothing one & I shall be giving a more elaborate note of it shortly. Right now, I must discuss as what can be termed as an important phase in one's lifetime. & 21st Nov 2009 happens to be ideal muhrat date as has been fixed by pundits & agreed by parents of both. I know it came as a bit of sweet surprise to me as well, given the fact, I came to know of it very shortly just like many others do. But to tell you truth, initially everything was planned to be scheduled for next year in winter, after taking into account the various pros & cons as assessed by the family members. But the year 2010 promises to be unique if the weddingdates are concerned. Yes, it is a proclaimed fact that there are no subh-muhrat for next year till as late as July, when the scorchingsun comes at its furious best. And ofcourse, I was engaged in May this year & so the parents thought Nov month will be best to get the knots tied for me. And there I go my friends - hopefully, with God's Grace I shall be starting a new phase in my life .& You people are most invited to the wedding ceremony on the blissful evening on 21st Night in Capital City Patna. Yes Of course the wedding cards would find its way to you very shortly, I thought I must post this message with a delightful welcome note to you. My calendar is booked for another long vacation & I shall be back to office in Dec. Proabably many things in my mind are not taking the shape of words, if you can figure it out. I feel I have so many things & views to express & at the sameI feel I am falling short of articulating my thoughts here. I am glad, infact very happy, & bit concerned too about some minor things. But all in all, I just know one thing- one of the important dates in my lifetime is approaching soon & I want to embrace every moment of it with both hands & in this I again seek God's Grace & blessing from well-wishers. The start of a married life & the subsequent dismisal of bachelorhood would some way bring myriads of informations in future, may be some of which I would ponder over & put them here. I stop for the day, with still many things unshared, but I feel, its just a start of a new chapter & I am just going through the preface page. Wish me all the more & I need all the blessings.
CheersBhola

Things dont get better with time. I start with a negative sentence, because this is how the things has been for me for quite sometime. Its been a tough month for me; I have to devote much of day timings to Office, Office & Office. 9 am to 6pm is the testing work I am doing & after that, I have a online training course for my new Team, I am supposed to join this week. Frankly, its not the work load again, but then straining part which generally takes a mental toll. Everyday till 10 pm it hurts to stay in office & then wait another 30 mins for the cab & reach home by 11pm, all with exhausted vigour & laziness. Ok, this is not so bad I understand but then, this is a sudden & unexpected news which had come to me & I was frankly not prepared for it. To tell you the worse, I am still apprehensive about my role in new team, the pre-skillset required, & most importantly the shift timings I would be required to work in. I just know, I would be working as a new team member (& like all others in that new team) in US based client & hence there will be shift-timings for office hours. Man, this is bad news! I dont really enjoy hearing it. & I really am not enjoying writing this here.
Anyways, I have to wait & watch whats best for me. Things were tough for me through this year at the work front, although seemingly easy. Let this not be an all sadistic blog entry. I have a good news to share, I am off to my hometown this weekend & I wont be back office untill 2 weeks. I just look forward to have a happy trip home, because I know, I await some unpleasant time in office. Anyways, its part of the corporate game, I have to understand. Right now I just wanted to have a little break from the hectic job & training schedules. Blogging is not the best, but surely a releiving break since I can talk to myself in proper words here. I will not really brood much today on topics I am not so intersted. I just wanted to say, I need a break & I need to pack my bags. Two years is a long period you visit your hometown, but this has come at needy hour. Happy Journey Bhola Prasad!

Cheers
Bhola

The Scary Flu

Swanking around the handkerchief across the face, gives no real feeling of being in a comfort zone. But the scare of Swine Flu has gripped the entire city with fear. With already 14 deaths across the country & increasing (& nearly half of them in Pune), the concern for the communicable flu is genuine. The city is being percieved as the epicentre of the disease with more number of fresh cases reporting everyday. Infact, the terror of the disease is causing more pain than the flu itself. Swine Flu is in the air & everywhere in the minds people & also somewhere in the lungs & throats of a number of affected ones.
Anywhere in the city, you will see mask in place of a face. & beleive me, the reaction among the common crowd is far too exaggerated. Its true, "Prevention is better than cure" but it holds more meaning if done in the right way. Its more about maintaining a better hygiene & following clean living practices, rather than only covering a sheild on the face with little knowledge of the side-effects of the masks. The normal masks are not full-proof for prevention against the deadly H1N1 virus, & what more, if not disposed properly after use, it too can become a source for other common bacterial & known viral diseases.
Yes the masks are not doing too bad atleast in terms of business. Suddenly there is spurt in demand of the high protective masks, which normally are meant for use by chemists & lab assistants or doctors. The black-marketing of the N95 masks (yes the mask model & the not sophisticated handset by Nokia) is news across the TV Channels. My friend Ronnie was fumed at the prospect of an illegal business carried out by greedy shopkeepers in times of a National Pandemic. Who else to be blamed, except for these people & the helpless common man?
And not to highlight more the role the media play in times of such criticality. The media's perception of the viewer is that a common man is a hapless, ignorant, illiterate, & frenzy crowd.
And thats the simple reason, they take the common man for a ride & show anything according to what they feel is correct. Be it over-hyping a common subject, or showing only side of a story, or promoting only the news they feel, will increase their TRP, least bothering to showcase the article, a common man should be aware of. Its quite the case with Swine Flu, too, for if you see the case, you are more likely to get scared of the disease, instead of gaining any knowledge.
A number of deaths occur everyday in India, due to the common disease like fever, jaundice, acute cough & cold, but these hold less appeal for the media. Or for that matter, the number of people dying in road accidents annually. Message is simple, this is India, & everybody is busy in making money, be it the sales-man, the media, the opportunist and even the Goverment. And guess who is the one at the receiving end? Yes you & me, the Mango-people, the common man, the aam-junta.
Hopefully, the era of the deadly virus will subside (like historic case of SARS, Bird Flu) & lets hope the vaccine is out soon, before the H1N1 becomes a roller-coster topic to inspire Hollywood to invest for an Oscar-winning thriller.

My Experiments with Maggie

The recipe is simple. You chopp some onion & tomato & some few fresh green chillies. Fry them gently in a pan, & put appropriate amount of water in it for boiling; & then you put ur maggie in it. If u have grean peas, that would make an ideal combination of an exotic recipe. For those who crave for more spicy food, put that extra red chilly powder you will see an amazing matter in ur cooking pan, the aroma of which, will drive your wildest digestive juices in your tummy. Keep steering it for sometime & let the others stare at your cooking skills. Take out that fresh green- Coriander leaves & sprinkle them on top of your cooked dish. That would add the final flavour to your art & this is surely going to water your tongue. Yes you are ready now. Go for the delicacy & serve it steaming hot. Yes that's pretty simple & at the same time it is the most delicious food item giving sharp competition to the luxuruious, costly & tasteless 5-star menu. Be it anytime of the day, its always a cherishable snack. For breakfast, there is simple maggie with less spices. For lunch, the red-hot spicy maggie is a mandatory option. And for dinner, quantity is the name. No matter how many packets of maggie are cooked, never in my lifetime, did I face a situation that we had some extra stuff. First we cook what we eat & then we eat what we cook. Plain & simple. There are addicts to tea, coffee, cigarettes, & then there are like us, who are given in to this magical dish. I never heard any of my roomate saying a 'no' to maggie. Man I need a testimonial in orkut, certiying the facts about my genuis art of cooking maggie in a unique way. (Singla, Gurchet, Sumit, Sagar, Tripathi, Raghu, Rini, Appy, I hope you all read this some day).
Then there are different varieties of cooking maggie too. I still am a fan of unique 'Soup' Maggie, discovered by one my great friends, Sagar. Or else should I call it chilly soup with maggie flavour? It contains numerous green chillies, tomato optional, & more quantity of water to allow the maggie to float in it. I bet you, it will scare the ghost out of you & your tongue would be sent to the hottest & deepest core of the sun. You will be sweating & it would be tough to differentiate, if u just took a bath! And tell what, its still the more lovable dish. I become a crazy fan, yeah.
My roomate Raghu, erstwhile was averse to maggie menu (given he had awful maggie preparation by home cook). I calmed him one day, & assured him the maggie cooked by me wont be a too bad thing to eat & that definitely he would like it more than I could convince him!
And guess what, when he was served, he was busy grabbing the food & didn't utter a word of praise untill he cleaned his plate. Satisfying his hunger, he gave glittering look & smiled in content & then he began to criticize the home-cook & he was all praise for me. He declared everyweekend, Sunday night, Maggie must be a dinner option. I gleefully welcomed his comments & assured him my best of services as a maggie charmer! I dont wish to do some self praise about my cooking art, but I felt maggie has played an important part in my bachelor life (& for all the bachelors for that matter). Its one surprise gift I would like to keep the cooking talent & when I get married, I would love to recall my bachelor stint with Maggie. Maggie makes no choices & age is no bar for its lovers. Kids are crazy for it, the elder love them too; for youngsters, its a necessity!!! Its synonimous to the bread-&-butter concept.
Its summer or winter, day or night, Monday or Thursday, maggie rocks all the way!!!

Cheers
Bhola

The way it Worked

On monday, the 29th of June, 2009, I get my passport & I just felt like now I am considered an Indian citizen in true context. After a period of 1 and a half years, finally now I become an eligible citizen with some rights. Man it was really frustating all through having missed few onsite oppurtunities just because my passport was not ready at this juncture of my life. Utterly dismaying! Let me not stop writing about this, because this is one experience in life which I would never forget in my life. My passport was delayed because of some issue - the officials stated that my Police verification was not yet received by them despite the adress verfication already done in year 2007. What else could I have done? The police officials rubbished the claim & said that they had already sent the details to the Passport Office. Then I contacted an agent. He took money & assured me, in less than 45 days, my passport would be in my hands. I was glad. Then 45 days had gone & few more days also passed by. This converted into months & finally into a year & my application had no sign of progress. I could just contact the agent who just claimed that I need to wait for some more days. Nothing I could do, except for listening to his words. Then one day in march 2009, one more oppurtunity arrived & I was asked by my boss If I was intersted in going to Australia for 3 months for one project. I waved out a sarcastic smile to myself. I thought this was about to happen. Then it took me for some real action. An another agent in Pune had advised me to FAX the officers enquiring my application status report. My boss had another suggestion that I should go for an RTI application. I thought I would try for all things whatever I was advised. I kept calling SPO Office; RPO Office, e-mailed them, & also had a fax sent to them with subject line mentioning RTI application. Man it did work. Next day I received a call from Head Officer, Passport office Guwahait & he explained I can resubmit some personal details which he had emailed me & that I can resend for the Police Verification. I did exactly what I was asked: Re-submitted personal particular form, asked my bro back at home in Meghalaya, to enquire with the Police Officials to do the verifications. Then I kept on calling the offices & regularly put a fax to them enquiring about the status. It began to show some positives & I could easily see that a Fax does wonders. Never had I expected that a Govt Office would work so fast! And shortly after the verification report was sent to RPO, I could see the status online that something had happened & that my passport is granted to me. Immediately I a took screen-shot of my desktop to capture the glittering status of my application. You could imagine my joy, I was so thrilled at the prospect of becoming a passport Holder & I swear I would not have felt so enthralled had I been offered an onsite tour if I already had one passport. This was the description I thought I must put up in my blog the day when I get my passport in my hands; & again thanks to the Cramer-ASMS Integration testing, it took me some days to post this blog.
Talking about other things here, I have been associated in different team on loan basis on the work front. I am not sure what full time projects are about to come & my boss had already cleared mentioned in the team meeting that due to the present market condition it looks grim that any new full-time project was in due for us. I kept my fingers crossed. Well in this scenario, I could possibly not do much :( , there is no way I can send a FAX to HIM.

Cheers
Bhola

As you like it.

Its been more than a month & this is my latest blog entry. Yep, amdocs finally accomodated me some project & I become a busy bee. Yeah, today I just managed to find some time; infact I am free for some hours, I thought why not give some precious time to one of my favourite hobby. So the delayed blog entry here & frankly, nothing of keen interest to me as of now, which drove me to write this. Its just that I simply thought that I must brush up my writing skills with a desire to let the flame of wit burning. I have been associated here & there & in this & that tasks as per requirements of the project, or better say by the mood swing of the project boss. There was virtually nothing I could say, given the fact, I was completely new to the project & I was not even aware of what Tasks I would be required to perform. For me it was completely a new lake in which I needed to jump into & learn swimming. & SO yes, I started banging my limbs & did quite manage to float aploamb!
Ok enough of the boring part. Life has been good otherwise. Infact quite better. Yeah, man now I am a committed man & yeah I am just trying to adapt myself to the world of commitment. Great feeling it is, but at the same time, there are other wild thoughts of unknown concerns, which keeps creeping into the mind I dont know from where. Perhaps I even dont know what I am talking about, but yes its just typical of me, I must admit. My cellphone is presently in the busiest phase of its lifetime. The battery back-up is a concern for me everyday. Sometimes I myself even dont know for how long I talk. & beleive me the scale is of hours. At the same time, the subconcious mind knows it for sure this would be one of the best lived moments to be later recalled & cherished for. Yeah the so called golden moments, preserved with thoughts of sublimecommitment. There it goes again. I have to attend to it; hence cya later.
Cheers
Bhola

Engagement News

And finally me & my parents decided on a matrimonial match for me. It happened on 6th of May'09 amidst all close relatives & it was a big affair than I had earlier thought. Not surprisingly, the week long vacation to my native place in Bihar (Dehri On Sone) had this on cards given the fact, we had a pretty decent match for me which my parents were seeing for atleast 2 months. The girl comes from Patna & is an MA Graduate & currently working in Mumbai in Banking sector.
Well I wont dilvulge much on this topic for now but I must include that this is great oppurtunity & warm feeling to be 'engaged' & be included in the list of 'committed' world. Its just the start & more to come from exp. For now, I can only express feelings of happiness & contenment. Many more apprehensions about certain things still tickle in mind & I can do no good by giving a posting to it.
Well of course its a pleasurable thing when you see your ring finger & see the beautiful golden ring in it. Its a warm feeling of love & affection. Infact much more than this, which I am not able to convey here thanks to my poor skill of power of emotional expression. I will leave it to you guys, for one day, when you are engageg/committedyou may have your own thoughts & beautiful feelings to express. Oh yes, certainly, the W-day is not so close as you would have thought. Not this year for sure. Our parents would decide on a particular date which should be in the month of Jan next year. And certainly summers are not the best seasons for marriage. I thought, infact, I needed the space to get mentally prepared for a married life, after one sudden day you realize you have stepped into committed world. Afterall, I also didnt want to lose the charm of being committed for a short duration. I am indeed very happy to post this blog on account of my sincere expression of entering into this beautful world of committemnt.
Cheers
Bhola

The Indian Premier League

The IPL season has gripped the entire cricket loving fans. And I am a no exception to it. Its good to see the entire flavour of cricketing talent producing some of the best moments in the history of the game. And its not simply about cricket, its about how best the game can be & how great excitement it can generate. In today's world where everything is changing for the better, thanks to developing technology, the demand for speed & effectiveness has been a prime guding factor. The need of the hour is the best & not just the good. IPL deed just that. It has also succeeded in developing a unique bond between the erstwhile rival players. Its good to see Gibbs & Gilchrist as the dreaded opening partners. And the majestic pair Sachin & Jayasuriya is a treat to watch. The adrenalin is sure to get a boost & how one cannot help to take deep interest in watching devastating plunder of bowling attack. Also, you realize, the very vagabond attacker, Hayden is indeed a great stroke player, & you now begin to praise the strokes he now plays for the Chennai team, which earlier you criticsed when it was hit against the Indian bowling attack.
The whole world seemed to be engrossed in the Cricketing world & even the housewives dont seem to relent the matches their husbands watch with keen interest. There is IPL everwhere. From the TV set, gossips, newspapers, advertisements, betting, & in the people's heart. You talk to a very good friend & first thing you ask him is who is his favourite team. You become his fan in heart, if he supports your own team, or else, you will look at him with contempt. Sure shot, the history of cricket has not seen so much enthusiasm in any other form (except the World cup, but then one has to wait too long- for 4 years) but IPL has surely changed the face. Surely, its all about money, but the spectator has no problem if in return, he is treated with amazing talent show in short time. T20 is much adored than the One dayers, you save time, get to see more of blistering cricketing strokes, more enthusiasm in the game & more amazement in the players & the viewers. What else could one wish for a sporting entertainment other than IPL. And not to mention the glamorous cheer-leaders, you do enjoy every boundary hitting shot- 4 or 6, they are always there to cheer for you. The best part, however I like about this great game is that it brings the entire world together for a talent show & internally feel happyf or the Indian fans & their love for the game & their gift to the fans in the world- the Indian Premier League.
Cheers

Bhola

Kahani hai Purani...

Last night I had a dream, I had gone back to my childhood & having all lot of fun. The first vague impression I remember was struck when my father had brought the Dynora Televisionwith shutters from both ends. I recollected it was exciting moment & when me, my sisters & brother gazed in amazementhow precious that wonder box was. We knew its called a Television set, but frankly we didnt know how exactly & what exactly it presents for view. I guess it was in the year 1986 when the set was brought first in the whole locality. Surely my father recived much appreciation & accololades for having a heart for entertainment & bringing "a luxuxry at home". Now I remember the myriad guests always at the doosrstep expressing their keen desire to view whatever was telecast on DD1. Sure enough, the TV set was inside the bedroom, which coincidentally happened to be the drwaingroom as well. So the guests had a comfortable time in my home & it was indeed a warm feeling to entertain good no of hosts for the evening show. Everybody praised the wonder box & each person would vehemently enquire the basic- the price. There were indeed great movies which DD1 telecast every Sundays. The dinner was ready by 7pm & by 8, the entire family members would have done with the food. Then in no time, each member would occupy the favourite & comfortable space in the TV room, much behind the scheduled telecast ofthe show. I just remember few movies & ofcourse I can never forget the social environment at home, when the greatest movie Sholay was being telecasted. Indeed such was the enthusiasm, the home seemed to be a theater & each member enjoyed much more than he had expected. Well of course, the homemade tea & some freshly fried pakodas was an added bonus to the thrilling entertainment. The whole environment seemed to be a charming space with genuine merriment in the eyes of each viewer. The glitter in their eyes only told more of their happy feelings .

How I wish, if time could flyback & I could rewitness that merriment. But no, that thrill has no meaning much today. Technology has grown so much, that today's toddlers know well about the idiot box & what programs they show.Why only TV? The computer, mobile phones, AC, are just existent things to them with no much amazement in them. There is no bond attached to the TV set, but only to the favourite serials/cartoons or remix songs.The innumerable channels have surely changed the people's prefrences of entertainment. You surely dont enjoy now what is being telecasted & hence the TV remote buttons are always busy. But one could never deny, how good were those old days when everything which were telecast had some genuine intersts & logic. Byomkesh Bakshi, Ramayana, Malgudi Days, Alif Laila, Tehkikaat, well & few more I still hear are remembered by some. May be, I thought, people are usually inclined to praise things of the past, but at the same time, I too felt some sincere logic & some sincere entertainment was the prime motto of the telecast in those good old.

Cheers

Bhola

So to say...

Its now that I dont have access to the internet from home, my blog entries would be less frequent& I dont wish to either use my keyboard in office for this writing a blog. Hence this delayed entry & something without a relevant topic. Just would like to share some random thoughts & some facts for today. We have again shifted to our new flat in Vimanagar. The place is good & so seems to be the society. There is no bachelor problem there, & the water woes are far from heard. All in all, the flat in Eden Park is really good & much better than the previous one - in Disha Horizon. No, I wont be describing anything else on this. My thoughts have been given a rest & I wish I could find regular time & importantly the leisure to continue this which has now turned into a casual hobby. Well then for now, I am stopping here but not with a promise of regular visits to this site.If something pops in my mind which would bring enough interest for eligiblity of a new post, that will not be missed. Of late, I have run short of interesting stuffs too. Hopefully, times ahead would have much more to bring.
Cheers
Bhola

Oscar, genda Phool, & stuff like Billu is Barbaric

OK, I am not a regular writer. Pls forgive me. & for other reasons, I didnt have the net connectivity at home to express my thoughts here. So here comes a pretty delayed blog-entry.
Also, the weekend was quite busy one, & we finally managed to bring new things ranging from utensils to grocery for making a life in new home. The unfurnished flat looks decent now but not upto mark with curtains still missing.
Well the news everwhere is about the movie Slumdog millionaire winning the Oscars & stuff like this in which I am not too conversant with. Apologies again! But heard AR Rehman had created history & won the prestigious award for his music composition. 8 Oscars for the SDM. Well a great thing certainly, but frankly, I felt the whole matter was too exaggerated by the Indians who I thought were ready for a credit for a thing which actually was worked upon by non-Indian. Though the casts are indian, but the idea, script, direction are not so & hence there is no much credibility to be assigned to Indianess. Others may differ from me & but I am not to argue with anyone; I just expressed my views, & you must do yours as well.
Well talking about latest bollywood works, Billu Barber & Delhi6 were major movies I recently saw. Delhi6 was pretty good & 3 star is good rating for it. Dont expect Oscar winning thing from the Bwood who targets the money from the public & do not beleive in any such Award. I must say the song "Genda phool" was actually amazing & so very domestic & charming. The lyrics is soo good & cant say anything about the talented music by Rehman. You simply have to hear to admire it. Family song or folk song aptly potraying the charm of feminine local vocal talent. Any wedding in Hindu family would surely see this song being played out loud in full volume to the whole tune of wedding celebration. Its really full of environment. Ok I am closing this here otherwise you might think now I am exaggerating.
But Billu Barber was a disaster I must say. I regret having wasted money on a pathetic work like Billy Barbaric. Never did I expect such a tormenting act by SRK. I felt I was tortured for 2 hours & something. Senseless, worthless, actless, meaningless & many other adjectives ending with 'less' can be used to describe this disaster. Unnecessary & ubiquitoes songs, & unnecessary self hype of SRK made me wonder why could a genius do such a stuff like Billu's friend. Must be SRK bit insecured now I felt, & hence by way of this movie he tried to flex his old tornout muscles by advertising his success works, since he realized his peak time is over now. That really sucks! No more to discuss again on irrelevant topic please.
Cheers
Bhola

Calm Environment

Its the 20th day in Pune & I think its been a long time here, for i had plenty of time in this 20 day period. Frankly the honeymoon period in the office is still continuing & currently I am having the leanest period in my professional life. Its the longest ever training session on Cramer which is scheduled till 16th of this month. My entire training quota for the year is exhausted now. The project is yet to be assigned to me & other team members & so this month, the company would not mind giving me salary for my patience.
The entire hectic workholic attitude which a was part of my character in Mumbai, has been now washed away, & I rediscover myself as a calm person with great mental peace. I feel fresh as everyday & feel I have a plenty of time for myself & for friends & family members. So much time that now I have involved myself to some recreation & fun, besides also doing with some creative exercises which I wont reveal here for the time being, since I need results to provide something concrete. But yes, the office pool is fun & addictive. Me & Ronnie steal as much time as we can to try our hands on the professional game. We realized, we were good beginners & played some good shots. Now the confidence level has gone up & I am sure in some weeks, we shall be pleased to declare ourselves as some professional players. Will challenge to whosoever wanna fix a game with us.
Back at home, we are seeing another flat & are yet to shift to new apartment. The bachelor saga will never be eradicated from my mind. Nice experience we had dealing on the bachelor issue but sadfully felt so helpless since we could do nothing in an uncompromising soceity who have a pre-concieved mindset about pitied section of the society. I have discussed this in my last blog & would make no further comment on this.
But yes, plenty of time at home, I reach by 7 Pm sharp; &the company bus service drops me at the main gate, there is no tiring journey like the one in Mumbai (20 mins walk+15 mins crowded local train+15 mins auto back to home). The stamina is still entact & both body & mind are ready for any adventure. My roomate Raghu makes lovely tea after reaching from office & it further sets the mood on. Plenty of time to watch the favourite TV channel, read the entire news in the newspaper, surf the internet for fun & make a good blog entry as this. Oh yeah, no dating dudes, I am still single, no GF(s), no phonecalls, & I may still think, I am a poor chap in this regard. It just didnt click in my way; not sure what it takes to find a GF, the SPRITE factor just didnt work out for me. Well of course I am no dude with tricks to win a girls heart,& never did I realize this art is so important. But now its too late to learn this. Anyways, nothing regretful; hopefully I need not learn any trick, luck would have the thing which is destined. Well ok, now I am being bit innocent like my name I do agree, as against most of my friends who always call me a misnomer.
Beleive me frankly, I just said bhola is somewhat bhola. Deep inside, like others, bhola is true Bhola. No blowing my own trumpet!
Cheers
Bhola

Life goes on...

Amdocs in Israeli company & its base in India was setup some 4 years ago. Magarapatta city in Pune was chosen as the dream location & it is indeed a place really worth. It has all reasons to be a hailed as posh area in the developing city of Pune. Pls visit: www.magarapattacity.com to have an idea of the serenity, beauty & poshness of the place, which I actually wanted to convey myself, but due to poor power of expression, I hope you would excuse me pls.
Well the first 2 weeks in Amdocs here was a lean period & it was all free time for me to either engage in doing with the joining formalities or being a member of the ubiquities technical training courses, necessary to equipp me for the project in pipeline. Well I enjoyed a good time there, with fixed time schedules of work hours, 9 AM to 6 PM sharp & nothing extra, plus it was a calm environment here, with no hundreds of mails on daily basis in my outlook, & the most soothing thing, no phone calls for getting the work which I am supposed to do. I needed this break. Really.
I am still to settle here, for the projects are still to arrive sometimes in the month of Feb, & till then my boss assured me of a good time & asked me to make merriment. I thought he was being modest. Well I feel the mental peace was the need of the hour, after having a previous record of strenuous work culture & timings, before I can make myself ready for another plunge into the river of corporate life without knowing the depth.
I have put up with my old colleague Punit Singla in Vimanagar, & to tell you what, yesterday we shifted into a new flat nearby. Majestic residential house it is, fully furnished & in very good condition. Its a new building adorned with all basics & decoratives. When we enetred, we thought this is really going to make our life cool & easy. But then the very next moment, the elderly neighbour walked in & asked to excuse. He instantly quoted: "You guys are bachelors; & bachelors are not allowed in this society; be it girls or boys"!
Oh God, why didnt you make us all bachelors married in an instant? The uncle kept on with his views & rules in the society & he did actually served us an ultimatum that either we should get this sorted out with the landlord & move to some other place, or else, he would advise the security to disallow us from entering the society. Frankly, all through the time when the resptected elder citizen was lecturing us, my mind was occupied in search of a solution to the normal mentality of the society towards the bachelors.
The bachelor plight is by far too overlooked an issue & much ignored by the society. I am not against anybody; but the mentality of society. Yesterday I felt dejected, rather bethroted by similar concept of untouchables. No denying the fact, some bachelors do create hullaboo, & may disturb the peace of society, but I felt based on the grounds of some immature acts of some persons, the same rule should not be generalised to a particular section of the society. After all, society is made up of all classes of people & not the other way round. Different criterias could be made applicable to different classes, but you cannot play with the fundamental rights of classes.
The utter helplessness & indifference to the plight of bachelors was an alarming point tickling in mind constantly. Just understand the plight of a bachelor guy or gal, far from his hometown & family being treated in a way like 'outsider' or may be even thought of to further extremes as being terrorists. While I understand the justification & seriousess about this concept; but this should not be acheived at cost of completely denying the rights of a particular section & treating them with vulnerable thoughts. I felt that is incorrect if the complete young generation is treated in a way of suspicious attitude by the one society. & it is not completely that only such section of the society are wrong doers & others are all bathed in the ganges. If the young generation or the so called hapless bachelors are shown the way to nowhere, I doubt what the society must expect of bright future & still expect them to come ahead for the lead everytime & always.
Oops, I forgot my country is still a developing nation.

Cheering to non bachelors of the society
Bhola

Parting thoughts...

Its 20th of Jan'09 & I am in a new city & in a new company & yes I took a long time to put this as a latest blog entry. You can well understand my plight, all throught this time, though I was not so busy frankly; but I had to wait for facts & ideas to make a blog entry.
The last day in Tata was calm & I didn't make it an emotional affair. There were sentiments of old emotions which tried to hit the strings deep somewhere in my heart, but I subdued them all inside & happily made merriment since I was leaving for a good cause for myself. The farewell get-together was touching & comforting. I realized people had actually a genuine concern of me leaving them by resigning from the company. Few words of genuine appreciation were expressed & I too humbly expressed my gratitude to all members. Special advice to my team members to work smart, for they are already hard working enough. All things apart, I will really miss those guys a lot. Cant ever get a wonderful team as the ever hardworking, sincere CLR team.
I will take another blog entry to describe many of the new aspects of a new life in a new city in a new company. Right for now, I would like put excerpts from my last parting words to all colleagues in the email I sent to them. This is just for a rememberance point & recollections of my gratitude & thankfulness to them.
Here it goes:

"This could have been one of the most sentimental mails I could ever write, but I choose to let the words flow straight from my fingers. There is indeed no much enthusiasm involved but certainly I felt my parting words should not be too much of a formal affair. Of all the official communications to many amongst you, I knew this mail would not be a thing to be read for the sake of reading, neither it could be thought of as a usual forward mail straight from the mailbox of unique source of resource, Bhola Prasad, the name was so famous for.Yes pals, fortunately or unfortunately, this date happens to be my final day in Tata Communications.The 3 & half year journey saw me transformed into a professional team lead from a fresher straight from college. It was a no special journey & it actually is no different from many of my other colleagues who started from the same line. Like others, I found it easy to get to the terms of knowledge acquisition & made significant advances in both professional as well as personal front. It is true my journey during my stay here had moments of happiness & remorse; I don’t deny that. It was a long period & I had witnessed a change in environment from VSNL to Tata Communications; not only that I also saw my section changed to Back Office Provisioning from the famous group TM -the Traffic Management. Oh yes, I had even witnessed all members from my old section changed to different ones (some even changing the company) & I only thought I had all the more reasons to be much loyal to the section & to the company.It was indeed a fortunate opportunity when I got involved into the CNMS project & got to work on the network IMS dataload, the Cramer tool. The project provided me the platform to showcase the best of my talent & expertise. It was a crucial phase & required completion in stringent timelines & amazingly it helped to improvise my technical & professional skills. Bhola Prasad like many others became a famous name involved in this project. I must thank to each member who was involved in the CNMS project, for it was a sole team effort & nothing individual. Fortunate enough I was to move back into the Provisioning section & yield the fruits from the seeds we sow in the project. Well time has set limitations for all things & my luck too wanted a change for me. So here I go & this is the e-mail signifying just that. Needless to say I could ever forget such a wonderful company of co-workers. You were ever helping directly or indirectly & this was the way I took all the things I dealt with any member. Let me just thank to each one of you for contributing to my growth. I wish you all the very best in life & in all your endeavours.Lest I should be allowing more of my thoughts to consume your valuable moments, I just bid you a good time ahead."
Cheers
Bhola Prasad
bhola.megh@gmail.com
bhola_megh@yahoo.co.in
9223276028
“The next morning, this amazing kind of a thing happened; the sun came out again”

New Year 2009

1st Jan 2009, new year day, & again a fresh mood set in for start of a new period & phase in life.
The celebrations were low, the people couldnt forget the trauma the terrorist attack had rocked mumbai recently. Mumbai stepped in quietly into 2009 without much hullabaloo.
All parties were indoors & many just chose to walk outside without much hype of enthusiasm.
Bandstand was a busy but a serene place at 12 midnight of 31st Dec-08. We were there for 20 mins to have some satisfying moment of new year celebration. Then Kamlesh finally gave up the the thrill, given he was having a sore throat & in we came at home at 00.30 early morning. That was the new celebration in 2009. Of course we had a good dinner at linking road. The KFC & McD had good stuff for us.
The morning saw a peaceful attitude in mind when the eyes opened up. It was again a serene environment & was I felt so blissful. At that moment the cellphone buzzed & when I picked up there were 9 uread SMS. All from friends & colleagues wishing new year from deep heart. I responded too with better wishes I could convey. Quite it was as though but this being a new year holiday, I could hardly let this vacation get wasted. 2 movies, a visit to a distant relative, & finally this blog, I thought this could be a fair enough day as the first day of the year. Well of course again like in Diwali few months back, this new year again had seen the best of only me. I devoted much of the day to myself & came out with a bright attitude to boost the significance to my lonliness. Well, this has been the way for me in most of such occasions. Happy New Year day today, Mr Bhola Prasad. Wish you a great time ahead. Yes go on.

Cheers
Bhola