Pujo Barshiki

The Start of this puja was not very exiting.

I was home way before the start, still I remember to be in Kolkata as always special just before the start of Puja's, you can actually feel the excitement and anticipation in air..the sweet and intoxicating smell all across the city, it actually happens to be my favourite time in Kolkata, alas...this time it was different, the air was thick all right however with two other things.
1. Will NANO get built2. Will DADA play the australia series.
infact apart from meeting Shubho there was nothing much happening....




Some of the pics clicked during the pujas and a bit of funda..



MA Sarbo Mangola Mandir (Pink colour top) - actually all the land belonged to the diety, it is said that the land will be enough to feed the diety and its fllowers... ... The Second and the older structure you see in the background is Someshwer Mandir it is more than a 1000 years old..
Intrestingly there are many such shaped buildings which are more of buddhists architecture rather than Hindu temples







Two generations during the puja's











Sindur Khela- this has almost turned out to become HOLI now a days, earlier only the married woman were allowed to play




My mother in Joipur her home with her sisters....














I just liked this photo...not sure of the significance ...Shubho...please help











Two old freinds sharing some time together... (incidentally both of them are my relative now, one is my brother in law and the other is my cousin brother) .. catching up on years of comraderie






The most memorable time for me...this is called binge.. group of men carry there deities all accross the village and gather in front of the Sarbo mangola temple for viserjan





Colours of my village







The old and depleted Jamindar badi.... nobody to take care of ....but the splendour of yesteryears could still be felt..... on Nobomi the old queen died,

as per traditions and beleifs all the festivities stopped, no AARATI nothing till her body was in the village.

She must be more than 100 years old when she died...sadly she came in wealth and left in a state of dispair..with two of her four sons dying before her....








The all impartant DHAK

and the DHAKI











The most gruesome sight....BOLI..or animal sacrifice..wathched and celebrated by many ...













The glee and the dance that followed was scary...it really brings out the animal instincts in Humans...men and woman alike were cheering wildly,in fact there was a lady who was standing beside me calmly shooting the full video, I was not able to click the last few pictures...you actually can't ..after getting the front row seats ( the head of the family sacrificing the animals happened to be my father's friend) and watching about 50 animals getting slaughtered the last scene was just too much...it involves cutting the head of the buffolo and then dancing with the head with blood streaming down their heads and faces......and I did turn shakahari...no meat for the next 7 days.


All in all it was a good time....I enjoyed it, will go again next year, will be better prepared for this ...don't know when but I will doa documentry...probably next year....fingers crossed...

Just for the record

Shubho is in kolkata...
Prashant is somewhere in America
Shaji is going to chennai
Gaurav is in Chennai
Sunil is in Airtel
Soumya is in germany now
Sanjit is in office
Sulogna is in office
I still do not have net at home

I AM BORED, (hastily)... aur shadi is not the answer

I was born today...33 years ago...

there is something special about these...11,22,33,44...e.t.c something like the eleventeenth birthday of Bilbo Baggins...though I do not think I will live that far or long....it is like crossing the line, so today I started the journey of crossing this threshold...unfortunately nothing can stop this process now...the time machine has not become popular and it is certainly not cheap for a single household to buy..mass production never took off..


Just the question of getting old has eaten my brain for sometime now....Question is have I done anything ...problem is nothing I do will ever satisfy me after the Madhya pradesh trip...

So what I have not done...

1. travelled in a bike to LEH
2. been to the everest base camp
3. travelled the silk route
4. seen amazon forest
5. seen a Hayena
6. LEFT MY JOB again


In short nothing special... in the last 33 years.. though my father would disagree...saying that I completed my formal education itself is hugh task in only 15 years ,I should be awarded a Nobel prize for such great feat


Never mind ...life is hard...I chose to live it....hopefully.

Let's see what changes in the next 10....

Worst thing I had today

hmm...this POST is dedicated to Shaji Cherian...
The man who made something and called it TEA....the worst one I had in my life...I propose that he should be given that "something " that he calls TEA forever pity Betsy makes awesome tea...

Let me try to describe it............................

half cream milk mixed with water in a ratio of .5 to 3 where .5 is water, boiled and with sugar with a green tea dip.....

So weall said that it is no good at all...

Second try...

The above mix with the green tea et all and a packet of earl gray tea bag....uguh.....

Result...

White tea with uh... skin

If you can imagine..we saw and suffered

Meaningful

Very few...understand the meaning of a meaningful life, and i for one is a living example... just do not have my priorities right, unfortunate as it is Job is still the top dog in this list.

"Part2:Hazrat Nizammudin to New Delhi Via Madhya Pradesh --- The SALS

The problem with these kind of posts are that it takes a long time to complete them...and especially for me who has to go to a cyber cafe to complete these kind of things it is hell but then " life is a bitch and then some"

So I am stopping now on this posts....

Part2:Hazrat Nizammudin to New Delhi Via Madhya Pradesh --- Ahoy to Kanha

The train journey itself remained quite uneventfull except for a few instances,
1 Making friends with the kids2 Food from commesum in Agra3 Sitting in the attendant bench at night looking out of the door4 listining to actual Hindi after a long time with words like swastha, aavashyek e.t.c.... 5 Making plans to buy a toothpaste in one of the stations6 Taking our bunk back after giving it to somebody else as the TT would have required it
After food in Agra we decided to sleep, with Prashant on the top bunk and me on the middle one. With the bed being set the night quitly passed and gave way to the morning sunlight...
Being woken up by Prashant is not a pleasent feeling you can ask Alok Aggarwal....
Anyway the day started with me smoothly sliding down the bunk, realizing\told that we do not have any toothpaste...nevermind...Datoon hai...chalega....is the potty clean...yup...with liquid sopa....amazing ...three cheers to Indian railways..... life is good
( For those who do not know me...Potty is the most essential work a human does... there is nothing heavier than a ass full of potty)
Well with my mind and heart clear and most importantly with my Stomach crystal clean...I set upon the grim task of chewing on the datoon...after a considerable time... my mouth was clean...only thing foul coming out of it was the language...the breath was clean...lovely..
Jablapur....I have been here...actually...Madhya Pradesh is one place you can say I have been to.... did my Hotel Management from nagpur some 5 hrs of bus drive from here....... Also it is close by to Katni...the gateway to Morwa and to Singrauli...I did my schooling from there... so all in all I kinda belong even without knowing anything I somehow know...
All right...onwards we move...decide that we need to have a plan...and after a lot of planning again using sophisticated methods of initiution and feelings we decided that we will take the train from Bhopal to Delhi...with all the plans being crystal clear we walked to the reservation counters and filled in the form... filled everything except for one small detail the name\number of the train... never mind I said I will ask and fill it in.....as we do not know what is the avaiabitlity situation....
Stand in the queue ...my number ...5...after about 2 min the person in front of me moves out and joins another queue...Why??? Impatient people....ah after about 40 min my turn comes in and I was told that the form needs to be complete .....
KILL, DROWN,HACK,....just a few feelings that were coming to my mind so after a little bit letout we went back to the station for something not sure what and baught the Madhya pradesh MAP, still not toothpaste though...took a rickshaw to the place in Jabalpur where we could get some internet....cool...reached the square...had DOSA, idli e.t.c.. and onwards we walked to the internet cafe...booked our tickets and startedthe long march to the bus station...I did not realize that it was that far off...or that I am so out of practice ...unfit e.t.c..
Reached bus station, tore the sleeve of my shirt...ok....just rolled it a bit more...got the bus that we were lookin for ...and actually slept....this happens to me...I can sleep anywhere..anytime...poor Prashant...I ave no clue what He was doing...I guess clicking....
Mandla...again woken up by Prashant..abused...reminded him that I am elder to him and he should give respect.. :)
Sat down and after a lot of talk went out to get some food, drinks and most importantly Camera Rolls...
A new bus, definately better but slower than the previous one...it had to be...people in Calcutta would know of these buses ..1B, 2C e.t.c.Same speed, and same intentions...maximum filling...
There in after a few breaks the chai shop, with a difference, you can ask for some salt in your tea's and nobody will ask any questions or raise eyebrows apparently it is quite normal to do something like this...great.....I am with the freaks....I am home......

I AM IN KANHA

Part1:Hazrat Nizammudin to New Delhi Via Madhya Pradesh -- Delhi to Jabalpur

Bit of a strange journey for me as well.... never having been to a journey without any final destinations
Actually the plan crashed quite at the start itself....I forgot that there was a training that i need to attend...small oversight .. big problem.... all but ended the plot...what an anticlimax...then standing on the verge of cancelling trip I get mail saying that I am not eligible as I had not responded to a set of questions related to the training ...Yahoo .......ignorance again bailed me out....HA HA HA HA AH A... i am going for the trip...nothing can stop me now.. the next steps were taken call up Prashant....Make plans I say....Tell my superiors that i will be gone for 5 working daysSend emails to my client about my inability to communicate for the next five days
Confirm the plan again...Prashant was thinking of going with some girl...made him realize that I am a better travel companion(young guys...do not see the point right away)Any ways with the plan all set and knowing that I would need to be in NOIDA by 12:30A.M to close on the complete plan, So the plan is to reach NOIDA by 12:30 and latest by 1 p.m because I need to be in office to fininsh up a few work items....(bugger)
obviously I was late...now that has to be expected.... so le3:25 PM 3/23/08ft office late reached home late requested Sanjit to drop me to NOIDA he agreed, left home late...as in the time that I was supposed to be in NOIDA i was leaving DWARKA (my place)...but this is normal....people who know me won't be shocked.....anyway as I do not travel on the same road twice( Main RAJA HUN) however I had to reach the same destinantion...heregoes....
DWARKA-DHAULAKUAN-SOMEWHERE IN DELHI Prashant calls up, gave him the longitude and latitude he gave us another set of directions and voila we were supposed to reach somewhere we reac hed cannaught place...ah...never mind...35 min of high tech tracking through satellites and a talking GPS systems with great speech patterns kinda like the computer in HITCH HIKER'S GUIDE TO GALAXY...and NOIDA it is where we reached after about 2 hrs to speed driving
Lunch...love it food here, the best veg. food in NCR....
Next up get everything, put in Sanjit's car and start of to the station, reach the station, and get in the train sit in the allocated seats and incidently the train started right on time, quite unexpected I say.......
And Peta takes his camera out and starts connecting with people in the train especially the attendants......
And i start contempleting about my life...had a tough week\year needed this journey to unwind

Social networking and net

That would be my next topic

Old City new city

Ahh...Chandani Chowk...a fairytale place I tell you... the word amazing is just not the correct word to describe it...there is so much there.... u really need to look really...for me personally...it is definitely heaven...people, emotions, drama u ask for it and it unfolds right in front of you as if by Magic... nothing else can explain the open arm friendship, the " Oh you need help ..here I am" attitude.. and the most important " Being Humble"...you want to see it ...come here people...it is a different world.

It is usually the old parts of a city which have LIFE. be it CAl, or Delhi or Bangalore ... you just need to know the rules and you are in the team...

Whichever city you are in just for a day...leave your pizza huts and Mcdonalds and visit these dhabas, sweet shops in the old city... trust me when I tell you...you will enjoy like you hav never done ever

Pregnent

I am pregnant with ideas and the possibilities about what I will become.... I think an abortion is about to happen.....

Stop

yup that is what my life has come to.....total stagnation...complete stop....full burnout....

It is said that rolling stone does not gather moss...I think i have become a tree...dead at that, rooted to one place neither growing tall nor increasing spread....

Nothing exites me anymore...recently saw the result of lot of hard work in my work... amazing by any standard...received a lot of accolades ...however just did not get exited...did not think that it mattered...people in my line of business would understand my problem I guess....

Need something to excite me...I think my 2006 failures has at last caught up.....need something to move myself mentally.....

As they say roll with the punches.... I wish I could

Things

I have often noticed, of things past that we do not do any more....

I probably ate (yes siree , ate...well chewed rather) on a sugarcane after such a long time, it is years...so long ago that i don't even remember when was the last time

Saw my Father getting up at 5 in the morning to watch India in Australia ( Last time I remember was probably in the 80's in front of a black and white portable TV in Ranchi in the winters with the whole family in one room)

Ofcourse the culinary delights ..that my mother regularly churns out.... dying art I say...dying art...we are definately the blessed generations...cause the next one won't have any idea about Gujia's pithe's, e.t.c....

Failures

hmmm..won't lie...the phiolosphopy is definately my brain child, however I got this idea after reading Prashant's post on relationship failures ....

Philosophy is a simple one....

If i don't do something I won't fail at that ...

Confused....

E.g....

I am not a failure in relationship cause...I am not in relationship....

Amazing...

Life is definately simple all you need is a correct vision

Marraige

A Human must marry....WHY????

Is marraige the ultimate goal in life...is there nothing else...kya yehi hai akhari Manzil....and questions like it keep on flowing in my mind.....

You need a companion...you do not realize it now but when you are 50 you would know...

Well I think I will do just fine...as it is I do not like a lot of people...adding another emotional balance is not a requirement....

The house would become home....and yo would like to come back from work....I still like to come back from work...the problem is going to work ...

Are you afraid to take responsibility...no I am not, i am not ready to take unnecessary responsibilities..

I like the way I am..

Photos Updated

Jaiselmer is updated in flicker

Din soman jaye na

This is what my great grand father used to write in his diary every day...basically means that a " Day does not pass in the same way"....

Talking to DAD and MOM..and trying to know them better...also somehow...always seems to have a fascination for stories from their time....

I think their generation is the most blessed one.... they have seen so many changes...amazing....

Kudos to all of you.....

Jaiselmer

hmmm... actually disappointing...especially from the sonar kella point of view.

The fort looks more like a hugh house with big walls, it is a city fort, did not find it impressive, the fort at Jodhpur was my measure... it was a disappointment, anyways, the thrill was there ...i guess all feluda fan's would understand...taking the same route of barmer e.t.c to Jaiselmer.

Things that Put you off : People... everybody seems to n\be the tout there, you are walking on the road, just stop and ask about anything as small as a pan ki dukan and you set yourself for the range of questions from them...

Where are you staying, how much does it cost, are you going to see the sand dunes....STOP.... I wish I could shout...

Anyways after reaching Jaiselmer got on a SUMO to take us to the hotel, it was located inside the fort, good place, nice rooms and more importantly clean bathrooms.

Time to eat: it seems none of the resturants are open between 3 and 6 so we had to do with a road side stall of pao bhaji and dahipuri...e.t.c...

Next day started out well.. saw the fort itself and then the taxi wala came to take us to the sand dunes.... ohhh man...the only thing missing here was water otherwise I would have thought that we are in Mumbai much less in Rajasthan...so many people....offff....

I did not like this place.


TOOOOOOOOO Commercial

Going to Jaiselmer

A road going nowhere, that is where I want to be.

Have taken a lot of pics in the last few months, all I need to do now is to upload them, will do so after the Jaiselmer trip.



Yup parents are in I think I will be traveling now....

Change is Constant

We invest on our insecurity

Not much, just made a few changes here, house is clean, parents are coming in, going to be fun...I hope