रिश्ता

एक वक़्त था, जब पेंसिल रंग छोड़ती थी कागज़ पर
प्लास्टिक के बटन, आवाज़ तो करते हैं
पर रिश्तों की वो चुभन कहाँ

उँगलियाँ चलती हैं की-बोर्ड पर
नज़्म लेती जाती है रूप अपना
पर कुछ फ़ासला सा लगता है दरम्यान दोनों के

just another weekend 5 years ago!

from my blog dated June 12, 2006! when adi was not yet adee, my best friends sachin and amul both were unmarried, sapna was really the gudiya of our gang and my 'hagrid' appu was still my hagrid :)

sunday was supposed to be sachin's treat-giving-day. what a promise of free movie and fun can do to your spirits... we were supposed to have everything sorted out before i reached sachin's & amul's place, because the evening was already booked for shooting of 'we the people' - Barkha Dutt's op-ed show on ndtv india.

now, the last person in the world to be trusted making a feasible programme would be sachin, and yeah i know, i did this huge mistake by trusting him this time too. what he did, was to wait for me till i reached their place at 12 and then undeciding whatever we'd decided till then.

the next two hours were spent in utter confusion, what to & what not to do; where to & where not to go; gudiya, amul, sachin, me all taking part in one of the most hopeless discussion of our lives. their idea was to scrap the ndtv bit and go out for a movie & some useless shopping for gudiya. which i was very apprehensive to do as i'd already invited my dear hagrid for the evening show.

till 1:50 we were unsure of everything. the idea of a movie with sachin's financial backing had fallen flat on its face. the two things, movie & the shooting, were not destined to be together. i could see some sort of hopelessness shadowing gudiya's face. that was that.

with a flush of rage, the great adi, the protector of people's smiles & the master of wasteful expenditure declared, we're going to enjoy this evening like we'd never done before. and distant thunderstorms clapped up in delight.

actually nothing like that, all i was greeted was with a curious arch of gudiya's brow, a slow turning around of amul's body lying stomach-flat on the centre table and that horrible look on sachin's face which says he's not very happy with the prospect of money leaving his hands.

but gudiya has faith in me. she was up and all prepared in fifteen minutes whilst my gentle proddings had managed to get amul on his feet and sachin started wearing his smelly socks. so, we found ourselves at the auto stand thinking which movie to go now, which'll let us balance both the movie timings & the ndtv show. all for nothing. no auto-wallah would help five youngsters in need without extracting his slice of the pie, which frankly speaking we were not allowed to do with sachin controlling the purse strings.

in the end it was decided that amul and gudiya will go back home and shop in the evening, while me and sachin will go to gk1 for the shooting. and i really didn't like that dejected look on guddu's face. we'd to save the evening for her, and we were gonna do it. but how?

the movie was out of question. the heat was taking its toll. and time was running fast... but how?

bingo! got an idea. we'll all go to cp in the metro. we'll roam around till evening. from there me n mr. smelly socks would go to gk1 for the shoot and amul-gudiya wud come back home for some mall hopping. the metro will be all temperature controlled, so no hassles to the fair skinned one.

we the people landed at the regal metro station, greeted the first ice-cream wallah with tired smiles and got all the flavours we'd asked for. exccept sachin. the ice-cream he asked for was buried deep beneath 300 odd ones and in the end he'd to settle for the same one as mine. from there on we strolled on to the regal & rivoli building, still undecided what were we going to do then. the movie-fare on offer was still tempting us. on the way i'd called apsy and asked her opinion on we-missing-out-the-ndtv-and-watching-a-movie-or-play-at-nsd in exchange. and hagrid has never been more disapproving of harry. that closed it there.

god, am tired of writing this all. hope somebody will manage to go through it atleast once. and in full. no skipping around.

and i'm also tired of generating brilliant ideas like the flash of a bulb. gee, actually, am very fond of it... wonder whether 'dee' would agree.

why not we ALL go to the ndtv shooting and then as a repentace of boring them all to teeth, i'll take them to the theatre festival at nsd. i think the play did it for me. most reluctantly, i managed a sleepily-bored amul and a totally exasperated gudiya into an auto... and off we flied to greater kailash 1, that is gk1.

this was the first time i'd managed to arrive before apsy. 60 bucks for that. we roamed around in the m-block market, apsy called and we roamed around to the archana shopping complex where the studio was.

i wonder who's gonna read all this. except apsy and me. perhaps tintin because he'll have to be interested in whatever dee is readin and dee because, apsy will tell her how funny and hilarious all this was. hai na hagrid?

so, we reached the place. apprehensive, excited and tense. like the mood students are in when they know they'll have to bunk this class or else... there were lot of people around. nobody won't notice us for sure, the first thought to cross our mind. i bet, all of us thought exactly same. but we braved on. didn't bunk the class. took our positions in the audience which meant we were all separated like chickens in the stock. everything nice and settled, we were waiting for the moment barkha will arrive and the recording will commence.

can anything normal happen with me? just at the last couple of seconds, i got this strong urge to pee. that strong urge which you can't control for an hour on the stretch. that too when u r already tense and excited.

so i'd to answer the nature's call and when i came back, shooting had already started. till the first break, i'd to sit in the shadow on the director's & camerapersons side. which was nice in way, i viewed it all from the technical aspect also.

after the first break, i scampered around to my original seat with apsy. the show was a discussion, about drugs, the rahul mahajan case and all. it was a good, well-informed audience that decided to keep its mouth shut and hands clapping. i wanted to ask a question, got my hands several feet up in the sir, but barkha was somehow not convinced by my new french cut. in the end, all i'd to do was to talk with apsy and be contented with being the 'passive audience'.

the end result? sachin is not completely out of it yet. still keeps saying, 'yeah definitely' in his sleep. which is what all he did during the show. gudiya, well wouldn't mind coming again as long as the weather is not hot and there is a new dress to wear. and amul would like to wear a more formal shirt next time. as for apsy, she is fairly experienced in these kinda matters. and yours truly will make it sure his voice is heard above all the next time around.

we came out of the shoot which went very well and decided straight to head towards nsd. which seemed highly improbable cause of the half hour gap left for the show to start. but no stopping adi that day. so we all grabbed a few samosas, piled us in to another autorickshaw and went flying to mandi house.

reached just enough in time to miss all the cheap tickets and be left with empty tummies and hearts. but there is a thing about this lady, apsy wonder is her name. she arranged a few cheap tickets, using baba's clout and we got to sit in the aisle at 'abhimanch'.

and if you think that is it, whosoever you are reading this, the story is still on my dear friend. the pace is going to be a little too much to handle now onwards. there is still one more franctic auto ride to follow. and you thought mission impossible III was racier.

halfway through the play, apsy managed to get some severe stomach cramps. so much that i cud feel her pain in my stomach. what to do now? sachin, amul & gudiya were asked to continue the play and i was handed the big and heavy responsiblity of taking apsy to home.

another auto, from mandi house to mayur vihar phase I, at breakneck speed and while trying to avoid pothole shocks. with a crying and swearing hagrid and a scared, but trying-to-look-composed harry in the back seat, we carried ourselves to apsy's home.

ma was worried, baba appeared calm and tintin fairly like the weasly twins combined. tintin, as he has not been introduced on this blog before, is apsy's kid brother towering above us all. and he is directly in competition with me over hermoine, with a third mysterious personality hovering around in the vicinity like ron. wonder when i'll find my ginny. *sigh*

stayed at apsy's place for a while. had a little chat with ma and baba, glossing over the very excited tintin about dee's coming visit the next day. but that all is very healthy competition.

reached home a bit tired. had my dinner. and talked to dee on phone till around 12. sleep came around five minutes later and monday greeted me with a shrill reminder of all the pending jobs in the office.

if anyone has managed to stay with me, greetings dear, we both must be exhausted by now. so, i take your leave and don't know what. still missing ginny somewhat. take care.

today - writing a day in the diary of life

a page from my diary, dated October 12, 2009 at 07:29pm

today.


such a short word can have so many different connotations. (today i met dee.) such a little word and the experiences, the emotions it generates! (today i went to the book bazaar with her.) the single word that captures everything done or thought of, things or thoughts long forgotten as if they never happened. (today we bought so many books and left so many more behind.) 

perhaps the very purpose of writing a diary is to record these many 'todays' that happen one after the other and suddenly you've a lifetime of them looking back at you, making you wonder where has all the time gone. (today we dared to go upstairs in a shady little restaurant that turned out to be a gloriously kitsch example of the 80s middle-class India.) perhaps the idea of writing a diary is to dare yourself, because at the ends of the day when you'll put pen to paper, you won't like to be reminded of how badly you spent your allotted time. (today we lost dee's wallet due to our foolishness.) it is said that when people are dying, they remember their life in detail, what went wrong, what was right, the agony, the ecstasy, all of it rolls by as in a flashback scene from an old Bollywood movie. (today, we laughed, we shopped, we hoped, we dreamed, we loved, we hated, we smiled, we unsmiled.)


so writing a diary entry at the end of the day, something that starts with the word 'today' is almost like being those dying individuals, reminiscing about their lives, maybe wishing for one more chance and preparing for the long night ahead, because no matter what, tomorrow will be another 'today'. (it was a wonderful day, with almost everything that life could throw at us was accepted and lived through, it was a day worthy to be remembered always.)

i don't think i'll ask for one more chance to relive this day. (may our lives be full of many such 'todays'.)

news flash: my first published article

"As a part of my New Year resolutions, I decided I’ll start writing a diary about my favorite sport - cricket. You see, while growing up I was dubbed the ‘Rahul Dravid’ of my mohalla cricket team. Though my playing career didn’t go any further, I feel am as much a student of the game as the esteemed Mr. Dravid. And now that life has brought me into a position where my main job is daydreaming and writing advertisements that not many like to read, I can devote ample time to writing about my passion that cricket is."

So here it is, my first cricket related article in a mainstream website.

Childhood Memories

Do click on the title and leave a comment or two at the page. I'll be really glad if you share it with your friends as well :) Hope you'll like it enough!

Mukesh lives for ever in our hearts

very early in life, Pa instilled in me a love for good words and quality writing. more often than not, it came by in the form of lyrics written by Shailendra for mostly Raj Kapoor movies, composed by Shankar Jaikishan. and Mukesh was the voice of many characters played by Raj sa'b.

in an age glittering with gems like Md. Rafi, Kishore, Talat, Hemant Kumar and Manna Dey, Mukesh holds his own for the sheer simplicity and sonorous quality of his voice.

on his birthday today, here is a compilation of some of my favorite songs sung by him. hope you'll enjoy this ride back in time :)

 

blue, red & new year wishes

Its been some time...

I was blue, i wrote about the reds and now i'm watching the whole spectrum play around. Have been watching some great illustrative blogs and was truly amazed at the detail and skills and efforts people have and put in their work.

These days are being spent doing practically nothing at office and at home. Not much work happenning here.

So, I was blue. Because, I suddenly realised some people have left me, perhaps for ever. I hope not. There is Dudo - supposedly my soul mate. There was Sunshine - my bestest lady friend outside the inner circle. And some other friends like Joyi who havent bothered to talk since ages. And some friendships were like one-way roads. Like Boni's. It was all triggered by one Sweetheart who rules my life these days. But now i'm over that. Still, it sends some shivers down the very existence of my soul. How will I manage to lead a life without these people. They were my life. And that's why, I was so blue. Never felt this strange before.

Sachin called in this Saturday. Instantly lifted up my spirits. Because he is Sachin. If there was someone who was an example of friendship, he is. We promised to meet each other at his place. That's on Christmas Sunday.

So, what my Christmas Sunday was like?

I'd an appointment with the Doctor. Was in a slightly better mood as I'd talked to Sachin and the Sweetheart. Took lots of notes while travelling. These will outpout later in the following days. Man, I like travelling on a Delhi Sunday. There is some laziness wafting through the air. Even the always aggresive DTC drivers took people on board without hurry. I'm thinking of some Sunday trips to familiarise myself with Delhi. It feels really strange sometimes, I don't know anything about the city I was born and brought up in.

Meeting the doc was good. Just some little problems with the liver. Nothing serious. After that. God. No Sachin. He had to hurry for some unexpected realtives. Tried Walia. He couldn't come outside his house. Tried Senior. She didn't pick the phone. Tried Amul & Gudiya. They were not going to come home till late evening. Seemed everything going against me.
Tired, I trudged back home. Okay, not trudged but flied.

Monday, was good. And the after days are also going good. Tomorrow, will be leaving for the Mountains for the new year bash. Me and the office gang. Hope to have a good time there.

And oh,
Happy Holidays and
hAppy neW yEar to y'all.

This is 19:30 hrs. on the 28th of December and me, Adi is signing off.

and the time flies by...

this is something i recently tried in Urdu...

bachpan - kuch shabd

talk, share, speak...utilize the gifts,;!

i think this wonderful image is more apt for my previous post.
this world has become a smaller place due to modern means of communication.
but we still need someone to talk to, even if it is a friend hundreds of miles away.
blessed are those who have someone they can share their hearts with.
i'm adi and this is a heartfelt thanks to all my friends & family people.
bye,
adi

bye the way, this is 9:30 in the evening, i'm still at office, will be home in an hour or so, and i'm missing some key people in my life today, dunno when i'll be able to meet them or talk to them...