Dont know, dont care

Published on December 2, 2008 in Favourite posts, Life as it happens and No good. 10 Comments Tags: , , , .

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I hate family gatherings. The last time I was in the midst of one, at least six people commented on the way I looked, talked or even breathed for all I knew. They had a gala time being boisterous and smart mouthing about most things which they’d never be able to say out loud in the real world, at least thats what I inferred.

Almost every person beckoned me over and asked – Did you recognize me? Heck, I dont even recognize the same person I met six months back and we’re talking about years and years of reunion here. The only option was to bare my teeth and nod furiously saying – Of course I do! How can I forget.

For instance, I was summoned by someone who’s my great aunt, when in truth I couldnt tell the nature of our relationship to save my life. I walked up to her and a couple of her friends sitting inside, assumed what I felt was a respectable position and then started getting grilled about my life since I was born to 30 years hence.

Then suddenly, this lady at her right snorts out of the blue – Hah, now she doesnt recognize me! Do you know who I am? DO YOU!?!

I assured her that I didnt.

(I didnt want to start knowing her anyway since she seemed to get real angry by this point)

Continue reading ‘Dont know, dont care’

Have you voted yet?

Published on November 29, 2008 in Good things. 8 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Now I dont believe in excessive propagation of thine own blog. But if I could nominate my own posts for these popular blogging awards, I can ask my faithful readers to vote for me as well.

Avant Garde Bloggies Awards is this really fun thing wherein you get to vote for your favourite posts in various categories. I had a lot of fun going through the posts that made it to the finals and believe you me, there are some seriously interesting bloggers flaunting their stuff.

I got nominated for two categories, Best “About Me” and Most Interesting Tag Post.

Did I tell you to vote for me already?

The prize for the best posts are these nice badges that one can put up in their blog. Which is why I for one cannot understand why this guy’s ranting about a judge being nominated over 20 times and all that jazz.

Its all in good fun and one should participate in good spirit, knowing that winning isnt everything.

Or is it? ;)

If you’re wondering which posts are nominated but are shy to ask, here’s my post for Best “About Me” – 28 things about me. This one is for Most Interesting Tag Post – The A to Z’s of me.

I should have asked you to vote a long time ago since the contest closes on 6th of December and the results will be out by the 11th of December. If I dont win, I’m blaming it all on my preference for procastination.

I had a great time reading some very cool posts. And I hope so will you.

The lunch that wasnt

Published on November 20, 2008 in Life as it happens. 19 Comments Tags: , , , .

A friend called me for lunch yesterday. It was some holiday so it was also a wednesday off from work. I had no plans and was looking forward to a day of pleasant nothingness. Lunching at her place meant a two hour travel but I thought, what the heck – she’s called me early in the morning (at 7:30 am to be precise) and kept asking me to get there as early as possible AND that she’d make lunch.

I’m game for free lunches as much as the next person so sure, I was in. Reached her place by 12 noon and started chatting. Drank two cups of tea (in huge mugs) and was thinking – its nice to catch up after ages. Thats when two of her cousins arrived and she walked off to talk with them. Leaving me alone, sitting and waiting for a long time AND feeling slightly neglected. Also start feeing hungry around the same time.

“What do you want to have for lunch? Noodles or roti?” asks my friend emerging from nowhere.

I am hoping either of them are already cooked since the last time I looked at the clock, it was already 1 pm.

“Noodles will be fine.” said I.

 ”Its meat noodles, isnt it?”

“Oh you wanted meat, huh? Okay, I’ll tell the cook to chop up some”.

Again, the last time I checked, I was and still am a pure non vegetarian.

Continue reading ‘The lunch that wasnt’

Why the 30 year old had a bad morning

Published on November 10, 2008 in Musings. 18 Comments Tags: , .

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One of my best friend turned 30 today. I gave her a wake up call and asked her how to feels to be THIRTY. She in turn called me mean and said something about not having a heart. I gloated about being 29 while she already turned 30, hahaha. How does it feel to be on the old side of the age and so on.

She has promised to get back at me when my turn comes. Yeah, right! As if her old grey cells would live to tell the tale!

Happy birthday, Rikzing. You’re really and truly old now. I love you nevertheless and please dont kill me if you ever read this.

Dear Karuna

Published on November 2, 2008 in Musings. 14 Comments Tags: , , .

You were my favourite senior in college. I thought you were the coolest girl ever who was so nice to everyone around you. I admired everything about you, be it your linguist skills or your absolutely gorgeous smile.

You know, I discovered the game of Word Challenge in Facebook couple of weeks back. When my friend, Priya had a high score of 9153, I personally thought she was a being of much higher dimension with equivalent intergalactic word powers. The reason being – the first time I played the game, I scored a measly 2000 something which left my ego hurting for days. I felt like a Word Retard; someone who couldnt even unscramble six alphabets to make as many words as humanly possible.

I played the game for days, weeks even – I dont remember. I neglected everything around me and concentrated on getting a better score even if that meant the dog sometimes having to eat her dinner at 12:00 midnight. Yes, I didnt give up at all.

Slowly, my scores improved. I started averaging around four to five thousand and once even made it all the way to eight thousand; a day that my spirits soared and I felt vindicated for all the countless wasted hours, not to mention eyeballs about to pop out of their sockets.

And then it finally happened! The day I had been waiting for a long time. Out of the blue, I managed to score 10112! Oh, you cannot imagine the over extended fist pumps that repeated itself long into the night. Little joys of my life.

That is when I made the mistake of inviting you to the game.

I thought we were friends but then you went and scored 28000. Yes, I did get the zeros right and incredibly so did you. A feat that I thought was Unbelievable.

And as if that wasnt enough, you went on to score 38105. You know something else? The little girl host of the game occasionally pops in to give me this message – Do you know your friend Karuna has scored 38105? I didnt know she had the vocabulary of an Amazing Cyborg!!!

Well, neither did I. I accept defeat. If you’re thinking of scoring even higher than this, oh great Cyborg – our friendship is highly in danger please consider teaching me how you manage to score this high.

With love,

Your envious enemy junior

Rinchen :|

While we celebrate diwali

Published on October 29, 2008 in Making it better. 8 Comments Tags: , , .

One of my friends wondered – as to why the festival of light is confused with the festival of sound. I agree wholeheartedly with him. Now, dont get me wrong – I love diwali, who doesnt? The lights, the sweets, the merriment and most importantly – some days off from work. I might as well add festival bonuses too while I’m at the subject. The only thing that I dont like about it is – yes, the noise.

Some of my married friends say that their kids love bursting crackers so therefore cannot completely opt for a noise-less diwali. Good point there. We as kids too loved all the magical fireworks so naturally I can understand their, i.e., the kid’s point of view.

What I’m not down with is the totally inconsiderate cracker-bursting spree thats rampant on the streets, localities and almost everywhere one walks past by. Like last night when we went out to buy some sweets, people were bursting crackers right in the middle of the highway as well in the market.

One fool of a kid burst a particularly loud cracker (that one’s called a chocolate bomb here – I dont what its called in your city) right in front of our moving car – we had to hit the brake all of a sudden and ended up swerving the car a bit. Thankfully, the street was empty or else there’d have been an accident. Stupid, idiotic kids who dont have anything better to do.

Then, when we finally reached the market, I opened the door to get out and BANG! goes a cracker right at my feet. I get a near-heart attack and end up cursing the kid with the small brain who was responsible.

Why I’m talking about this now is because when a friend of mine wrote about this same topic in her blog a few days back, I didnt really think much about it. I was more like – well, if people want to burst crackers, what’s stopping them… I’ll have wool in my ear anyways – But after yesterday, I feel strongly about people at least being responsible for supervising kids bursting crackers.

Besides the rant, happy diwali to everyone. Hope you dont get assailed by treacherous crackers out of the blue and may you not have to visit an ENT doctor the day after too.

30th All India Governor’s Gold Cup

Published on October 26, 2008 in Sikkim. 23 Comments Tags: , , .

Photograph by: Shital Pradhan

Sikkim’s all about football frenzy. Went to watch the final of the Governor’s Gold Cup yesterday where the match was scheduled between Army XI and Three Star Nepal. I’m not a football buff or anything neither did I watch the earlier games. But I missed last year’s final too so I wanted to watch this time for sure. 

The stadium was packed and the first thing that I thought was – God, I hope no one’s planted a bomb or anything. Yeah, I know I was being paranoid but couldnt help myself. After the cultural programme ended and the match was about to start and I was still alive, I relaxed a bit.

I wasnt paying much attention while the team announcements were made so when the match starts, I dont know which team is which. I nudge my aunt, sitting next to me (who’s The football buff) and she doesnt know either. I dont think she cared much; she was busy cheering most of the time and gossiping with the other lady sitting next to her anyway.

I wanted to ask the other people sitting around me but I think – what the heck, I’ll figure that soon enough once they start playing. And thats how by the time the match reaches near half time, I still dont know which is the Nepal team so I can cheer for them! By this time, its too late for me to ask other people for fear of appearing extremely stupid! I look closely at the blue team and catch the words ARMY on their jersey – then went, aahh… All this when the Nepal team was playing in its national flag colours of red and blue.

In the meantime, a kid sitting behind announces – Mama, I feel like going for toilet number two. I felt sorry for the poor mother who had to miss a most exciting start by obliging to her son’s bowel movements.

Somewhere behind me sat the most negative man in the world. He started cribbing when the Army XI players played very well in the first half of the game. He critisized the Nepal players for lack of ball control, slipping and falling on the grass a number of times, playing out long, drawn out injuries and wasting time and so on.

His best comment was – Surely this player doesnt have to run with the ball so much along the entire breadth of the field!

I was initially partial to the Nepal team, just like any other person there but ended up cheering for Army XI, which I felt was the better team except for one inopportune goal which led Nepal to victory. 

More photos of the match here: http://sikkim-himalayanreview.blogspot.com/2008/10/photo-features-of-30th-all-india.html

 

Bhutan

Published on October 20, 2008 in Wanderlust. 14 Comments Tags: , , .

I want to visit Bhutan. My friend did last week and she said that the people there are very hospitable, friendly and helpful. She talked about huge, red apples being sold for 30 rupees/kilo and the hotels being run by local families. When they asked for the bill at checking out time, the owner said – How many plates of food did you have? Its okay, just pay an approximate amount. Quite unbelievable.

Almost every business in Bhutan is run by women. It is a very safe place to visit. The cops are extremely smart and incapable of bribes. And also , Bhutanese people know hindi and are major Bollywood fans!

I then got a copy of a Bhutanese movie called Travellers and Magicians which deals with a young government official, trapped in a remote outpost – harbouring a dream to escape to America. Loved the movie and fell in love with this wonderful place called Bhutan. Want to go there soon.

Disadvantage in my car

Published on October 16, 2008 in No good. 14 Comments Tags: , .

My one year old Blaupunkt Maui CD player went kaput. CD Error, it kept displaying. All this while, I kept thinking – perhaps those cheap CDs were the reason. Finally when I told the friendly dealer about it, he said it was a company lens problem and asked me to bring it back for replacement with any other equivalent CD player. Thank god for warranty period.

So I go and choose a Sony X-plod. Dealer says, sorry cant let you switch over from Blaupunkt to Sony. Those are the rules.

I exclaim – but you said ANY OTHER CD player!!!

Dealer apologises profusely but stays adamant. I have no other choice but to select from about 10 models of Blaupunkt, each crappier than the next.

I fret and fume but am sure that this time, I want a CD player with USB because I was sick of writing CDs to death before. Every time I downloaded a new song from the net, I had to go through a whole process of CD writing. It was too much work.

I chose one with USB and by the time I finished pointing, the mechanics are already half way through installing it in the car. The demo goes well till I insert my 2 GB USB and then - gasp - USB ERROR!! 

I cringed inwardly, oh no – back to square one.

The dealer unconvincingly tells me – it just doesnt play 2 GB, thats all – see it works perfectly fine with a 1 GB USB. I feel like wringing his neck.

I dont want a new replacement which has USB size issues after which the dealer tells me (politely though not explicitly) to take it or leave it.

I eat his brains for about 3 hours, trying and testing all other models and eventually ending up with the one that gave me a USB error for 2 GB. 

By this time, the smile on his face’s been wiped out and so’s mine. We’re both feeling slightly hostile towards each other.

As I drove back home, I realized – maybe its okay I at least got a new replacement. The old one had completely stopped playing CDs and was only capable of FM. Have been using the new CD player and it works fine fine fine except for 2 GB USB.

Now I’m confused whether to feel happy about the replacement or to be unhappy about the entire problem to begin with. Or maybe Blaupunkt should change their logo of The Advantage In Your Car to the one in my title.

People can think what they want

Published on October 13, 2008 in Life as it happens and No good. 12 Comments Tags: , , , .

I was at the bank sometime back and had nothing to do other than listen in on a most personal conversation between two women, well… due to lack of having anything else to do. They had just finished hugging and greeting each other in such a manner that it was safe to assume they hadn’t seen either in years. In the mean time, a kid kept tugging at one of the woman’s dupatta, wailing about something or the other.

The other, apparently older friend then proceeds to generally fawn over the little dumpling and after getting over with the mandatory cootchiecooing, she turned her attention back to the mother.

“So how many kids do you have? How old is this little tyke?”

“Oh, he’s five. And also an only child”

“Hmm… so you have ONLY one kid?? I guess thats okay too. But I hope you guys are planning to have at least one more kid, you know. After all, you’ve been married for what? Ten years now?”

Embarassed laughter. “I guess we could always try…”

“Yeah, well – you know what people say when you have only one kid…”

What do people say when you have only one kid??? Poor sperm count? That they were apparently lucky that one time and god knows if not for that, they’d be childless and lets not even go to that kind of situation?

This WHAT WILL PEOPLE THINK syndrome, which is a common enough topic in India, doesnt just stop at that poor ONE kid. For all we know, its an offense to:

1. Be a spinster/bachelor after 30 perhaps.

2. Have a live in relationship.

3. Be a childless couple.

4. Get separated.

5. Get divorced.

6. Get re-married.

7. What else? Perhaps think for yourself too?

I knew a chronic bachelor who was hounded by matchmakers all over town in the hope that some lucky girl would one day snag him and cut short his freedom. Another friend of mine’s a happy go lucky 38 year old spinster who doesnt mind categorizing marriage at the bottom of her priority list.

P.S. What will people think, eh? Answer in  # 24 of http://ringchen.com/things-about-me

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