Bye Bye Year

I have got only three words: Happy New Year!

To A Friend

She has always been there for me. Always...whatever has happened, she has stood by me-supporting me, cheering me up, caring for me, and loving me as I am. Never has she tried to change me but has always accepted me just as I am. She is sometimes irritated with my whims and fancies, but seldom has she shown that.

She is bubbling with energy, full of life. For her, life is to be lived to the fullest. No short cuts. She suffers, she toils, she endures pains and heartbreaks. But when she is happy, she is exhilarated, not just for herself, but for each and every friend she knows. Each of her friends' happiness and joys are her own. She is crazy at times, a lot times confused, seldom careless, and always talkative. She is one of my best friends.

It's her birthday today. Here's wishing her a very Happy Birthday! May all your wishes and dreams come true. God bless you!

Kahi Paryayi Vakprachaar

छत्री बंद करणे = छत्री विझवणे

उन्हाचा तडाखा कमी असणे = ऊन हळू असणे

नख कापणे/कापलेली असणे =  नख टकली करणे/असणे

घसरगुंडी = सुई सटक

Anay ne tayaar kelele special words:

Microwave = Cup Gugu (because we warm milk in a cup in the microwave)

Computer = Compit

चमचा = चमचम

चटई = चटक

Friends Who've Come And Friends Who're Gone

Can you count them?

I haven't kept a count. But I always wonder if the overall total always remains the same.

Friends from school who grow with us for ten so years and then are lost once out of the school. By the time we complete our education and start our career, we forget half of them. Then one fine day, you are abroad and someone calls you out. Least expecting to find a friend there, you will find a long-forgotten classmate and memories are rejunivated.

While you get back some friends, you also make new friends. Each friend falls in a particular group. And only a handful transcend these groups. There are generally very few friends who will know each and everything that's happening with you. They are your pillars to lean on in unhappy times. They are the ones you go to for advice, suggestions, and solace. These friends are constant.

You will find newer friends as you progress in your life...college friends, colleagues, trekking friends, club friends, gym friends. As you pass each day, you will meet each one of these and they perform their task to accompany you till you get someone else. It is just like a train, stopping at a station, picking a few people up, taking them to the next station, and dropping them there. All these friends serve their puropse. And that is all they are for. For that matter, even you serve the same purpose for them in their lives.

And in this journey, some friends, perhaps long lost, leave an indelible mark on you. They have affected your life in some way. Whether it is the way they communicated with you, the way they helped in you your first ever job, the way you were comfortable with them, your togetherness, you cherish it all. You still wish that things had not changed between you two and you were still friends. But that can't happen. Because you have to move along as life moves on. If you don't move on, there's a chance that you won't catch the friends who are waiting for you in the future.

Move on, but don't forget to turn around and glance back once in a while!

Cheers to all my "constant" friends and all my friends perhaps long-forgotten, long-lost, or even long-left!

Begging With An Attitude

I was driving the other day and missed the signal because the car ahead of me was not moving. Even after honking, it didn't move. I saw a limping beggar crossing the road ahead of that car and felt ashamed. The car moved on and got the signal. I was not fortunate enough.

I was waiting for the signal to turn green. That's when the disabled beggar came at my window. Initially he thumped on my car door. Then he knocked unceremoniously on my closed window. I saluted him and shook my head. Then without any warning, he closed my right mirror. And the reason...I did not give him anything. He walked away from my car cursing me angrily.

I agree that all these beggars have a very hard life on the streets. Harder than we can even imagine. But does that give them a right to behave rudely with people like us?

We are as much responsible, perhaps. We dehumanise them, insult them, and behave improperly with them. And that is wrong, completely wrong. But what that beggar did to me, was that correct? When we behave with others, we are always supposed to be decent and not be affected by our financial and social background. Why isn't that applicable to others too? Why can't we just behave humanly with everyone?

Perhaps, I am wrong. But what that beggar did to me was completely uncalled for.

Does his "beggar-ness" give him the freedom to behave in whatsoever manner he wants? I doubt.

A very good friend of mine has honoured me by translating this post in Japanese. To read it in Japanese, see http://blog.goo.ne.jp/cprajwal85/e/fe462f2fd439b86d2f2561adbcb7be8c.

No Conjugal Bliss This

Place: Wedding Hall
Time: 12.52 p.m.
Occasion: Cousin's wedding at some far away place

What's your frame of mind?

The first thought that comes to your head is, when the hell is the buffet going to start? You have probably not had your breakfast in hopes of having a sumptuous lunch, and waiting for the food is as difficult as waiting for your friend to tell you the juiciest gossip. So, you have no option to keep an eye on when the food counters are finally thrown open. With the other eye, you at least pretend that you are interested in listening to all relatives and friends who are gathered around you.

In one corner, you observe a stack of gaddis on which little boys and girls are loitering on. All bacche log are having the time of their life jumping, playing, and rolling about on the gaddis. And you envy them so much!

That's when one of your aunts lands up next to you and fires away the usual questions: how's your job, what's new with you, so when are your wedding bells ringing. You curse the caterers for not having opened the food counters. Then you could have wandered off to get some more of your favourite sabji, if nothing else. But now, you have no escape and you answer the questions as politely as possible.

You casually turn towards the bride and bridegroom and find that they are still engrossed in all the rituals. Most of the elderly people are watching whether the panditji is performing the shaadi rituals correctly. Perhaps they are remembering their own weddings and how scared and tired they were then.

Your attention is caught by the constant flashes from a camera. A group of youngsters, mostly beautifully decked up girls are having their pictures taken. They are mostly the bride's friends who have nothing more to do than wait for her to get done with the rituals and hope that their turn comes soon. Till then they will enjoy themselves fully. A few of them will also be on the lookout for handsome, still-single dudes. These guys are mostly the groom's friends and they too are flaunting themselves openly.

In the meanwhile, a small kid gets hurt in the gaddi-jumping play and bawls loudly for his mother. After a couple of minutes, the mother rushes to the child and takes him away. You are relieved not only because the child found his mother, but also because the bawling stopped.

A group of mostly men in their thirties and forties will be busy discussing the latest happenings. Every one will have an opinion about Obama's Nobel-prize-receiving speech, the Copenhagen summit, Kasab's case, and of course India's latest match.

And suddenly, you will find people thronging to the food counters like bees rushing to flowers and you know that you are finally saved from starvation.

Reasons Why Things Go Wrong

Murphy's Law:
If anything can go wrong, it will.

Gumperson's Law:
The probability of anything happening is in inverse ratio to its desirability.

Simon's Law:
Everything put together falls apart sooner or later.

The Unspeakable Law:
As soon as you mention something...
...if it's good, it goes away.
...if it's bad, it happens.

Hane's Law:
There is no limit to how bad things can get.

Bedfellow's Rule:
The one who snores will fall asleep first.

Ballance's Law of Relativity:
How long a minute is, depends on which side of the bathroom door you're on.

Lemar's Parking Postulate:
If you have to park six blocks away, you will find two new parking spaces right in front of the building entrance.

Bell's Theorem:
When a body is immersed in water, the telephone rings.

Bess's Universal Principles:
1. The telephone will ring when you are outside the door, fumbling for your keys.
2. You will reach it just in time to hear the click of the caller hanging up.

Boob's Law:
You always find something the last place you look.

Law of the Search:
The first place to look for anything is the last place you would expect to find it.

Maryann's Law:
You can always find what you're not looking for.

Lewis's Law:
No matter how long or how hard you shop for an item, after you've bought it, it will be on sale somewhere cheaper.

Richard's Complementary Rules of Ownership:
1. If you keep anything long enough you can throw it away.
2. If you thro anything away, you will need it as soon as it is no longer accessible.

Etorre's Observation:
The other line moves faster.

Worker's Dilemma:
1.No matter how much you do, you'll never do enough.
2. What you don't do is always more important than what you do do.

Aigener's Axiom:
No matter how well you perform your job, a superior will seek to modify the results.

Shapiro's Law of Reward:
The one who does the least work will get the most credit.

Seay's Law:
Nothing ever comes out as planned.

Ringwald's Law of Household Geometry:
Any horizontal surface is soon piled up.

Horowitz's Law:
Whenever you turn on the radio, you hear the last few notes of your favourite song.

Zadra's Law of Biomechanics:
The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.