Aapan Yala Pahelat ka?

Have you seen this person?

She was last seen blogging around this blog and has not been heard of for some days now. All we found is this picture. Help us tracing the whereabouts of this soul as we know how important it is for all you reading right now that she keeps blogging for your entertainment! (attempt to murder with stares, pinches and god alone knows what not!)

Here is a rundown of some of her distinct features... for you to help unearth her....

1. Most of the days she wakes up late having forgotten to set the alarm the previous night and is seen or say unseen by her family whizzing in and out of doors.
2. Grooms herself in record time and knowingly ignores those small unidentified stains on her outfit.
3. Reaches 30 minutes late to work and hopes no one notices, blames it all on her "insomnia" phenomenon.
4. Gets caught in dusty winds passing through her cab windows all the time and ends up looking like an electrocuted cat. (Rakesh are you reading?)
5. Gets kicked around for not informing, forgetting or rather unintentionally slipping people out of her mind... afterwhich shes showered with superlative filled messages and comments.
6. Smiles through clenched teeth (still looking cute) when ma calls to remind her of the evening wedding reception and that shes to dress up since shes the eligible in town. Oh Man... Y Y Y... the woes of being in your late 20s...
7. Falls on her feet and thanks God for giving her some releavant topic to write for her blog and sighs, thinks of her exercise and diet routine and a ballooning back with a much deeper sigh.
   

We are currently trying to dig her out of her boredom and get her to finish some of the posts that she has been accumulating on a notepad along with her growing pile of unwanted clothes at home which threatenes to flow out of her door and cause a tsunami into the coridoor.
Meanwhile keep her in your thoughts and wish her speedy recovery onto this blog.

Laaga Chunari Mein Daag - Surf Excel Hain Na!

See cobwebs? Smell mothballs? ... I am a little confused here – What was Pradeep Sarkar thinking? Why go back to the tried, tested and often shredded subject of the fallen women... It's a leave-your-brain-home-and-don’t-ask-too-many-questions genre.

One daag may have happened as a form of exploitation in Rani's life but that doesn't mean you have to stain the whole chunari with daags :-) Laaga Chunaari.... does nothing but reinforce stereotypes that millions of Hindi movies like Chandni Bar, Astitva and Page 3 have made an attemp to break and had hoped to have left behind in the Eighties.

Frankly speaking, Its the bygone days that this used to work... Laaga.... is just not daagi enough, as I would have liked it to be. Go watch it for just one reason... Konkona Sen Sharma and Kunal kapoor.... Don't miss the sizzle between the two... :-) Nevertheless, What we can definately do is.... wash away this Daag with a spoonful of Surf Excel... kyunki Daag Ache Hote

Traffic kare Behaal

Footpaths or mud tracks… Deep Ditches or overflowing gutters... nothing stops the Mumbaites from taking the route that would make sure he gets to his destination at least a minute early. At an impatient traffic signal, pizza and death delivery boys fidget with their helmets, cabbies glancing at the mirrors just to get a peek at his fares, drumming fingers and necks straining to see ahead, to find an inch of space where a two or a four wheeler can squeeze itself. Blaring horns, cursing voices (Chal be...Dikhta nahi kya?) and a girl in a cab will add, “Oh Bhaiya... Sambhal ke"

Then, a great initiative will change all — a clean entry spot, deft manouveurs, driving along hawkers, pedestrians and double parked cars, will get someone right in front of the cars, autos, trucks, buses and slow-witted bikes. Not to worry, the traffic cop won’t chase him. After all, it’s nothing out of the ordinary… for him or for the cop :-) Plus, as our brave traffic spartan leads at least 15 other someones would’ve followed suit. Yes. Even if there’s a maddening jam on the road, traffic flows freely in these roadless by-lanes. —“Adjustment” at it’s best.

It seems as if all the world comes together, bursting at its seams with people, Vegetable Bhaiyas, cauliflower stalks, beggars, flower sellers, wadapav walas, ricksaw smoking beedis, marwadi pan shops, parked Santros and Carts… BEST buses trying to get to the bus-stops where people have queued up to get atleast one foot inside, artisans waiting with their tools for someone to give them a call,newspapers trying their best to draw attention to whats going on in and around them, all just wanting one common thing - a desperate need to squeeze into that wee bit of space we proudly and Oh so lovingly call Mumbai.

Windmills of your mind

Pictures hanging in a hallway
And the fragment of a song
Half-remembered names and faces
But to whom do they belong?
When you knew that it was over
You were suddenly aware
That the autumn leaves were turning
To the colour of her hair
Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning
On an ever-spinning reel
As the images unwind
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind
- Dusty Springfield

This song always reminds me of all that I've lost, and all that I may have found. Things. Clothes, Books, People, Scribbles - and I had many. To the memories I've spun, to lots of laughter and conversations, to friendship and love...It takes a loss to unlock memories. But now there are only echoes of symphonies. This week has been mostly Blank. The enormity of stories around, of experiences and so much more. Time to absorb, to formulate responses. Sigh! Such a long journey, but still have miles and miles and miles, thousands of them, everywhere I turn

Distances... Within!

I came across this article on a friend's blog and was amazed at what it said.... because it said what I want to... so naturally... so precisely... as if its me whos written it... It says all that my heart does ... so i though i would post it here... as i cant find another perfect way...

It's an article by Ms. Shipra Shrivastava on an HT tabloid site i visited after catching this on someone elses blog...

Oh this long distance love!

"It is very well said that "distances grow fondness among people". It indeed creates fondness but takes a toll of emotions, efforts, time, energy and many times tears to keep it going. I might sound like a 'guru' of relationships but no; I am myself a victim and member of the Long Distance Club.

I guess people are right when they say that men are from mars and women are from Venus. 'We' are so different in every way. Apart from being different biologically, we are different to a great extent in the way we think. Something which holds great importance for me might just be a normal issue for my boyfriend.

And of course, dare I disturb him when he is at work. "I am busy. I have work. We will talk when I get back home" This is the response I get. But these things are quite a normal feature and easy to handle when you stay in the same city, meet everyday and can always explain things and make up for it if something goes wrong. But what happens when you are trying to measure the relationship across thousands and thousand miles on the globe?

And how can I forget the time factor? I mean why do we have different time zones? It's like when one is free to talk, the other one would be snoring and vice versa. When I call my boyfriend and ask him to come online, he is either sleeping, or at gym, or at work and ultimately either I stay awake till morning waiting for him.... What pain!

With the advent of technology and the conversion of the world into a small global village, we find it quite easier to contact people through emails and chat programs.... Email might sound as a substitute for phone calls but it is surely not. The tone, language and intensions can be often misinterpreted and infact that's exactly what happens. But then being a little diplomatic on emails is much better than being answerable for looong phone bills. And phones? What can I say for them? The time you call, you are more worried about keeping the phone down thinking about the huge amount of tariff on international calls and at the same time you end up discontented and unhappy for not being able to express what you really wanted to.

There are surely times when one starts remembering all the good moments spent together and the next thing is you pick up your phone and start dialing. But what if your boyfriend/girlfriend doesn't answer? You call again? Again he/she doesn't answer? Here is when our minds start going on a wild goose chase. Has he run away? Has he started dating someone else? He must be with a girl, that's why he is not taking my call and so on and so forth. And in the end, one ends up being unhappy and upset. I call these MUS - "Missing U Syndrome"

To sum it up in one word, Trust is an important thing in any relationship but it is the "most" important thing in long distance relationship. It is like a stone on which the relationship rests. It can make thousands of miles seem like just a phone call away.

A huge list of things including phone calls, letters, cards, gifts, sweet messages, voicemails, SMS, emails, chats and so on are needed to keep a long distance relationship alive and kicking. And one should always remember, Distance is not the end of the world in a relationship. Rather at many times it's the beginning and a strong one. How? Well, I said in the beginning, "Distances grow fondness among people". And trust me…it surely does!!!"

Fairy Tales...Really?

Books lie scattered. A glass of water teeters on the edges of The Maximum City that lies close by waiting to be read. I pace. I sit back to write. Everything is hazy except the space filled with words. Words arranged a certain way, words that want to say specific things but I don't seem to get the arrangement right. Voices of people jostle for space in my head.

Today words seem wild, unmanageable. Theres this vehement need to restrain them and I love this feeling. This absorption of the body, mind and soul while creating - the restlessness outside and the stillness deep inside me.

Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and of course not to forget Cinderella - I believed in those fairy tales. They promise us a world that is not! As we grow up and get into the real world, we have our innocence kicked out of us everyday. In my case, what little was left, I was holding onto it for dear life But Alas! Now No More....

Experiences of people around me has started troubling me. Can you love and hate someone at the same time? Can you wish someone out of your life, while knowing you'd be the first one to miss them if they were gone? Why does life take such sudden turns and Why are you stranded at such a crossroad all alone?

Don't you sometimes wish that people could read your mind? That you didn't have to say, they just knew? That you didn't always have to ask, they would just say what you wanted to hear. I've been feeling like that for the last few days. And then I realized how futile it is and It's just hard to snap out of it.

STILL, I can't shake those tales off. Damn them! Everything I've seen in the movies, sung or swooned over in books is turning out to be baloney. My romance with life seems to have come to an end and I feel like somehow I am supposed to realise it and shake it off…But something inside me just doesnt let me... just tells me that it'll fly by. And my smile might just reach my eyes again.

I think I just want what everyone wants, something real, that I can't corrupt with my pessimism. And I want to share these moments with somebody and have them feel it too. But where's my joy? Right now somewhere faraway…. I Guess! :-(

Chak De!

No musical numbers, No people jumping into any song and dance (terrified of these after the 'Cash' debacle) and for once no romantic angle... 'Chak De India' was a breath of much needed fresh air. In fact it’s a tried and tested path, but, in it, is such a different film.

This is one film that celebrates women power!!! Right from the Haryana ki laundi Komal Chautala to the Rowdy Punjab di puttar Kaur... What was more interesting was the reaction of the crowd to the movie. Take note of the the male bashing scene at McD's... could practically see almost every women in the theatre jumping out of their seats in celebration.

One of the reviews I read said "Chak De! India now running across the US is a commentary on sexism in India"... But is it that really? Rather, the film acknowledges that it is harder for women to choose to play any sport in India, at the same time, Women needn’t be given an easier way out because of the sacrifices or the stereotypes they have represented.

There’s so much I felt while watching the movie. No women discussing clothes, Women with filthy mouths, rough,competitive and in control. These girls are not ficitonal figures. They are touching reminders that one of them might be living right in our own backyard. You don’t relate to the film just because you are a woman. Most the guys I saw the movie with, appreciated the movie because there’s a certain rawness to the whole movie.

For once everyone took an instant liking to the King of Bollywood - He has his fair share of critics (me being one of them) but... this time... underplayed with finesse, Kabir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan become one and the same.

It’s a feel-good movie with some great new actors and a terrific turnaround by a well established star. See it! It has an inspiring message behind it, without being too preachy.

This is a film about team spirit in its truest sense. Just that we need that spirit to fight and speaking of the fighting spirit... the adrenaline rush that the movie evokes led apna Sid and a manikchand chewing family wale uncle to punches...with a prompt "tujhe toh mein bahar dekhta hu" which added the much needed spice to the whole experience... Chak De Sid!

Bhaiya Sion Jayega?

"So where did all that water come from?" That's probably your question.

And it was mine as well as I waded through ankle-deep slimy water towards slumped shadows seeking refuge, from a strong evening shower just around the corner at Laxmi.
"The heavens," some would say but am not quite sure... Oh i can see some of my office mates shaking their head in wonder.... am sure at my sense of humour.... Ah! I know I know... if looks could kill I would have been dead with R, P and N's stares...

Getting back to our wettime story ... Yonder, a taxi had stopped and the spray of the filthy water mushroomed in delight of catching up to the car but before any of us could even get our voices past the music of the raindrops it had vanished.

Priyanka and myself, after a hardly working day, (attempt to murder with another stare) had only enough energy to stretch an arm out and say, 'Bhaiya Sion Jaega?' to which we recieved a prompt 'King Circle mein paani hoga toh wahi ruka dunga" Well, So much for choices... Those are the cabbies for you.... Our saviours.... The taxi lurched and the water took to chase again.

Hide and Seek

As I sit here with everyone else in bed, now seemed as good a time as any to say hello. I had dinner with a friend the other night, and he asked me (again) if I was ever going to take up blogging as a profession. I want to, I really do but the only problem is that when you write for a living, writing on a blog can be real difficult. I say “can be” because I know plenty of writers who maintain glorious blogs; I just don’t know if I can be one of them.

As usual, I have a million different ideas in my head, and I want to write about them all but don't really know if anyone would be interested in reading them as much i would writing them.

An office friend today wasnt too happy with my last post... thought ' it was senti' didnt have the usual spark that my previous posts have had.... and it made me think.... what had happened suddenly... What has triggered off this emotional adventure... Sometimes I think I have a lot to say and just put it up here in words.... but then I realize that it is nothing but a conversation I am having with myself, putting up feelings that I probably never would tell anyone, maybe not even myself. After 26 years, I’ve suddenly realized that I have never listened to myself with even half the care or concern I’ve given others.

Anyway, life is doing fine dear reader (the one who is around). I do not know what value this blog will ever hold for you or for me. For me, It just seems like an elaborate game of hide and seek i play with myself. What about you?

...Pitter Patter...

There is certainly a lot of magic in Mumbai's monsoon. Of course, it is hard to hide away from what we get to normally see, when we snake our way through the working day, lost in our thoughts and memories that plague our mundane daily existence.

But when the rains turn up, like they did today, while walking back home with only my own reflection and the rains for company, it was indeed sheer magic. For most parts I was rediscovering silence. I was rediscovering nothingness. I have a million memories to let go of and thousands of instances to step aside. But strangely, the rain wrapped itself around me not ready to let anything go. There was almost a feeling of mutual acknowledgement, but that’s just my imagination speaking.

Raindrops played tricks on my window panes, The twin towers yonder danced to the tunes of the rains, then fade away in verdant mist, so near and yet so far. I hear a slow sigh of relief expelled by the sky. Finally, an unburdened soul, dark and widespread. It can’t feel, but it does touch you. It can't speak, but it certainly walks with you.

Past Continous!

For the first time in nearly a year, I stood in the room where I had spent my earliest days. My old little wooded bedroom. It felt so strange and so spooky as if it was just yesterday i had been here.

If it’s true that we leave a part of ourselves, in every place we ever spent our lives in then imagine the ghosts that might dwell in the space where I spent my childhood? Look! - There’s me, getting up in the morning all sulky and bleary-eyed, making excuses for not going to school, reading about Nancy Drew's huge crush on Ned, post-its' gooey marks on the wall - their own lil 'forget me nots', stickers lining my mirrior doing their best to hold onto the past, my favourite books in a neat little row on the bookshelf just yonder and my brothers barging in on my birthday every year, until now!

I hadn’t been to my place in over 6 months and I hadn’t even thought about it, but when I stood in it today, it felt as if nothing had changed, which seemed wierd and sentimental as I know, for everything has changed.

Kkrap Syndrome

The other evening, my brother; who if rumours are to be believed works with an events company, and me just happened to catch one of the K-Serials and man did we squirm in our sofas... MAN Don't they have those censor boards for TV serials... keeping a check on what gets showed on T.V.

These Kkrap serials portray a senseless world where you just know for certain that the other
person is either a bitch or a superbitch. Loud and gaudy make-up, light contact lenses, half a ton of costume jewellery, a wicked expression and is found screaming at the top of her voice! .Oh! and not to forget they have connections to the under of the underworlds!
Everybody in the K-world is either completely good or hopelessly bad. There's the scapegoat; oh did i just mention the heroine and everybody nice to her is good and everybody who's not is just plain evil. Black and white. A world so cleanly divided you can almost see a thick painted line running down it.

Their lives are so warped that i think the main reason that our so called liberated women watch these serials, is because it gives them a kind of dim hope. She thinks - so I’m struggling to keep the house in order, am paying off 300 bills a months, have a kid starting engineering college and an indifferent yet significant husband, but at least my evil sister is not trying to mastermind a murder plan, My husband doesnt have a second wife stashed away in some faraway world... And atleast I know who my parents are....Thank god for that!

26th July - Lest we forget

26th July! Mother nature ripped through Mumbai and left lives shattered. Those cries of loss, hopelessness and chaos still echo all around me. Floating bodies, Dead Cattle strangulated in their attempt to run away from shelter, Abandoned life - Images that will stay with me forever. Marooned in office, stranded somewhere in between and Millions of people trying to find a way (me and a dear friend being one of them) - Right from wading through murky water to halting an outstation train midway to climb aboard just to get that one step closer to home

I lie silently with my eyes wide open thinking of places and the people i came across who for no reason helped me.... whom i wouldn't have met if not for this night. Memories linger - That one call to Pa to tell him I'm allrite just minutes before the network went kaput to the warmth of the soup to keep my hands warm given by an unknown friend, to the frantic call of the cow that mooed all nite.

Strangely enough it made me fight DRENCHED, SOILED AND BATTERED. Likewise Mumbai moved on... But has it really? Though the common man might already have wiped off the memory... There are hundereds of families who still wake up with tears in their eyes, go through their daily wanderings with a dull ache coursing through them.

Mumbai... Today Take a moment to remember those who died and those who survived. Those who helped and those who made sure Mumbai moved on. Our greatest failing will be to forget.

Bollywood Love Affair

A friend of mine who’s in the UK inspired me to put this post up… He came across this story on one of his many travels and I just thought of giving it my own interpretation. Don’t know if I do justice to it but nevertheless here goes….

If you thought Bollywood was only about Shilpa Shetty in the UK then you’ve got it wrong. Long before Shilpa Shetty the small town of Southampton (UK) was bedazzled by all things Bollywood. With Europeans having acquired a seemingly insatiable appetite for Indian culture in all its forms be it art culture or the films, it seems that it cannot get enough of the vibrant colours, passion, glamour and energy of India.

One would think it would be our very own Indian Janta spreading the spice and flavors, but surprisingly that is not the case. Mr Afghan (no names and I Kinda like the sound of Mr Afghan) Afghan has a different story to tell. 5 years ago, Mr Afghan came to the UK, leaving behind him memories of a war torn country. Not the one to give up, He has been having a 5 year long love affair with Bollywood. Today, he boasts of the best collection of Bollywood films and music in Southampton.” His quaint little shop is a definitive anthology of all Bollywood music right from the evergreen classics to the current foot tapping fusion and you might just find locals dancing along with Shah Rukh Khan or Aishwarya Rai doing their Bollywood routine!.

The local Indians and all Bollywood lovers alike swear by Mr Afghan’s collection and come from all across Southampton to get their dose of Bollywood Films and music! –As they say Cinema has no language…and no barriers. It merely blurs the shadow lines that separate countries through the arts of expression be it music or films.

So, if you are ever in this part of the world make sure (take me along!) you visit Mr Afghan because his love for Bollywood and the music in its own special way will make you feel at home far-away from home.

P.S. am trying to source some pictures of Mr. Afghan or his shop to put up... But until then, its only words that I have for you.

Until Next time!

One precious hour was all I had, and is all that I have to remember him by until the next time...

I know I'm going away
How I wish....wish it weren't so
Take this time to be with me
Let's delay our misery

Save tonight
Come tomorrow

'Cause girl you know I've got to go
Lord I wish it wasn't so

I don't realise the distance when he isn't here, but when he is and then leaves, it hits me and it's unbearable.... but theres always until next time!

A Room with a View

I sat here one evening and looked out my room window and this is what I saw.



Darkness! Beckoning! as if to say- "Let me set you free!" for it gives me hope and it keeps me waiting ... in want to see if there’s a real me. Light filters and covers me with its mask, leaving me to my small little world, a world that makes me see that it’s for me to set myself free...

Woman - Get a Life!

One of my morning's post was quite a sad one so i went ahead and deleted it. Even I, while reading it, was thinking to myself, "Man, someone get this woman a life. And quickly." The low self esteem corner is already quite overbooked. Even the violins aren't playing the right tune.

I never wanted to be a copywriter. For one, I've never believed I was creative. For who in their right mind would want to spend 15 hours in an office with a bunch of people who have toys lining their desks. :-) But I slipped on logical reasoning and landed in a job in which really, I have no business being. I can't write a headline or a tagline or transliterate in Hindi. I get my Hindi bits checked by 3 ppl and all their looks say just one simple thing - "Isko writer kisne banaya" :-)

Ok! So let's pretend that I'm retiring and there are five things about me that somewhere an old hag is paying big money to know about.

1. I always read the back of the book before I read it. It's nice to know whether my time will be worth it in the end and I don't do sad endings.
   
   
2. I often feel that I'm in the wrong profession and for a fact I have absolutely no idea what the right profession actually is.
   
   
3. I'm a chronic approval seeker. So if you tell me you love me, I think I'm pretty much perfect. :-)
   
   
4. This post is getting boring. and My leg just broke off (just checking if I've lost you as yet.)
   
   
5. Am wondering if you'll ever comeback and visit my blog...

All my writings and musings sound and look like novels. Well that aint so bad is it? because thats what eventually I want to do. Atleast somethings are turning out for the good, right?

Are you Listening Now?

I picked Listening Now by Anjana Appachana from a bookstore with just the thought of discovering Indian literature by reading more and more Indian authors after a brief introduction to Amitav Ghosh's Shadow Lines in one of my Literature lectures during college. Nobody had recommended her or prepared me and was I stunned!

Listening Now for me is the most intricately and beautifully written book. You cannot put this book down. It is a journey through the psychological terrain of five women, who tell us their way of looking at the world. You begin to see their pain and at some point their pain became my own. I could see my mother's and aunts' lives unfold as i was reading: Arranged marriage, initial passion, indifferent husband, rapid disillusionment and lots lots more.

I have read alot of books which are much better in plot and characterisation but the narrative stlye of Listening Now is what captures me the most. One incident seen by 5 different women in 5 different ways and 5 different conclusions!

So many events and emotions are bottled up. And believe me when i say that the pleasure is going to be totally yours and the effort (if you want to call it that) totally worthwhile.

Weekend Wanderings

Managed to catch the new Harry Potter movie last weekend. It was pretty good - Though most of whom i saw it with didnt think the same which I thought was pretty interesting - What was it they expected? The same kid flying brooms, learning to cast spells and playing Quidditch and trying to outdo kids his age?

Though havent read the book, the movie was a visual treat on the big screen inspiring me to go sky diving just to get a feel of how it is to actually be suspended in air. It's the first time I've seen one of the Harry Potter movies and said to myself "I really want to read the book" which, given my gut feel, will be especially impressive.

Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter is becoming increasingly impressive and hopefully won't end up getting typecast as the cute and adorable Harry Potter for the rest of his career owing to his act in The Order of the Phoneix. Also, it's really impressive and intelligent how the characters in the movie have developed (though Ron was a bit of a let down), given that most of the actors are portraying the age they actually are.

Frankly If you didnt like the Order of the Phoneix and are not excited about the final Harry Potter movie, Guys you're really missing out. Harry Potter needs to Grow Up people and so do we!

A doodle---of sorts

A few assorted thoughts on a Tuesday evening and In case you're wondering, this blog which had been my online home since first venturing into the blogosphere some time in early 2005, got taken over and squatted by some idiot. Unfortunately, in my subsequent efforts to get back my original posts, all of the old content got munged. Frankly, it's just too much of a brainache to try to figure out if i could rewrite it. So do Drop by this new place and see what's happening!. The new blog really is much, much more interesting. Really.

Month and weeks since I've written in here as I haven't known what to write. I kept waiting for something interesting to happen as thats what blogs used to be to me but Just for the record, let me say that I was wrong..

I once drew a sketch without any plan and I had fun drawing it and now it stands on my pin up board at work and am proud of it. This is a doodle---of sorts. So i am going to treat this 'mindset' of mine a slate for me to doodle in and have fun.

It's here that i will try and book my life. My life - just another blog with all the other blogs out there. It's more a place for me to talk about the things that I love, a place where i put my life into words and try making sense of it... So instead of trying to post up quickly, I'll give myself some time to see how my impressions grow but that said, every once in a while, I'm just too excited to wait and today is one of those times - the reason for so many posts in one single day. Phew quite an orfer nevertheless fun!

It's going to be bizarre seeing my writings and realising that they won't belong to me anymore and everyone can peek into. And hopefully now at long, long last, i can move along and think that these are just words, just, just words... But it hasn't been easy letting go of them. U Bet!

Googling it up!

You hate it.... You love it but you still use it!
Google rules our life. I have started using "Gyan ki Duniya" (as i lovingly call Google) with an increasing frequency. I have Google search on my desktop. I have Google in my favourites. It's here, it's there, it's everywhere.

I have the inclination to use the big G on occasions when I shouldn't normally do. Wish I could store most things on email and could Google search when required. I wouldn't have to rely on memory any more. I just have to look it up! I guess the only thing is that I have to remember it is stored there in the first place... Secondly Google Earth with its Mapping means that if I am lost I no longer have to ask anyone for help - I just google the address and walk the streets.

I now use it for everything. If I hear a name or a certain thing in a conversation or through work and I want to find out more, I Google the name to see what I can find out. Does it make to the first page ranks? Does it have a site of its own? is it really worth it? Does it even affect my life to the least?

The downside is I am leaving my tracks all over and very soon the evil G monster will take over the world and haunt me with my search strings. I can see it now - being convicted for Google searching "The Actor Himesh Reshammiya" in July 2007.

Oh, and if you want to find out how my "foot" is doing, just Google and look for the results! :-)

Another day, Another XRAY

I have been off since a long time now. Learning to do alot of things in life. Getting back to a 'working' routine after about a year. Always thought would be a piece of cake but guess what dont have any time for myself anymore.... No time for blogging whilst in the grind as a result my previous blog seemed to have vanished in thin air, but have now planned to change all that. Plenty of time on my rear end since falling over and almost breaking my legs. Plenty of time sitting at home today waiting for my reports to come in so thought Why not get back in here.

Another day, another XRAY. It's not the first time I have had one of these tests, but with the panic attacks i get when am in there...it is probably surprising that they have never wanted to look at my head. :-) This time it was my foot - apparently I might have some alien-like hairline fracture for all they know - someday soon I will be an entry in the X-Files with the amount of "X" rays and tests i have got done the last few years. Not much has changed about the X-RAY experience since my last visit. The noise the machine makes is still like some sort of machine-gun fight - only less dangerous.

Fortunately, I survived the ordeal in one piece. At the end of the process they plan to give me a nice CD not jazz or rock or pop- but pictures the machine produces as it slices through the layers of my foot to get to my bones. (didnt know XRAY could be on CD) -I will probably play it on the TV the next time I have guests for dinner or put it up as my screensaver at office... it should make a good conversation piece. What say?