Re-living the good old days of just listening to music on a music system..

I guess we all would remember the good old days of Michael Jackson and “BAD” ….. those were the days I was still in school… a small little tape recorder which had just one slot.. for an audio cassette…. And I used to just love “blasting” music on that small little piece of hardware… I used to be so damn happy that I had a music player at home… Tv was secondary… mostly because DD1 and DD Metro was hardly any fun… The only problem was that I did not have a lot of money to keep buying audio cassettes every now and then to play the new, happening songs everytime they got released…. Friends used to be the main source of new song downloads… that too, people who had stereos which had dual cassette players, 1 for playing and the other for recording…. And then once you get that from them, it was just such an awesome feeling that you are actually playing the latest songs…. It used to be like a competition.. Neighbours against you…

Those were the good old days… I still remember my sister having a walkman… yes one of those things we just do not see anymore nowadays.. but was a rage at that point in time… Get cassettes from your friends.. and then use the walkman to record the songs for yourself… at the same time you have to make sure that there are not a lot of sounds in the background such as dogs barking, neighbours fighting etc…. it was such a difficult task… J

Slowly we moved on from that to Discmans, CD’s and burning them on to the CD and then playing them… But computer speakers were never good enough… one because they were never that loud, so competition could go out the window…. Secondly, you could not move the desktop to where you wanted it to be… It just felt so bad….

But the point I am trying to make is a bit different from all this…. It so happened that today there was nothing good on TV, and I thought .. why not just listen to music… and I sat on the balcony after putting on some music that I would love to hear… some of the oldies…. I just felt so nostalgic.. and at the same time I realised that this is one thing that we hardly do nowadays…. Yes, we do listen to music.. but mostly on out ipods or phones… we do not listen it out loud anymore… the only time that happens is when someone has thrown a party and we have gone there to have a good time… I, myself, have also become part of that same group… My music system is lying in one corner of the room.. well dusted and alone… as well as unused.. for a very long time…

Everything said and done.. I do not think anything can ever take away the power of a good music system.. and just having some alone time with the music you want to hear playing at the background… I miss those days… But, now, I am more than determined to start bringing back to my life…. It just felt so good somehow thinking about those days and re-living them all over again… Some things of the past can never be overlooked.. Ever..

Nothing happening in my life....

I guess there comes a phase in every person’s life, when things just don’t seem lively at all… We prefer to stay at home, doing nothing… hardly attend calls because we do not want to speak a lot… don’t really wanna hang out with friends too much either.. and spend almost all the time available by ourselves…. Other people looking at us, then start sympathizing with us thinking something went gravely wrong … but its just that we want to spend time with ourselves…. I am going through such a phase at present…

Since my childhood days, I haven’t really mingled with a lot of people… yes, I did play games such as cricket and football in school and on weekends… or just hang out with some friends doing “Tafrigiri”…. But somehow all this seems to have just blanked out of my life at present…. I guess too much of anything is always bad for the heart and soul.. and my saturation point arrived when I moved back to Bangalore in August 2011.

Since the time I came back, I have practically stayed at home on all the weekends.. there were a few weekends when I did go out, but then it was more like me going for a movie that I wanted to watch badly…. This, coming from a situation, where I was out of my home for 14 hours daily back in Hyderabad… After office hours (as mentioned on paper), I would go and play TT like crazy… From 6PM to 9:30-10:00 at night… and I used to enjoy every moment of it… Nowadays, I get bored after playing a few games, and prefer to just come back home and relax…. Sometimes, I wonder if this happens with a lot of people… or is it that I am just “acting up”….. whatever be the situation.. I prefer to ignore all suggestions at present.. and like they say… ignorance is bliss…

Mere yaar ki shaadi hai - Assistance required... :)

From the days I started talking to girls, I realized that I was a good listener. They would talk to me for hours altogether, and I would quietly listen. This is probably one of the major reasons why they would confide in me a lot. And, at the end of it all, I would give them my “expert advice”, something that they would really look forward to. I did help out most of them with my advice, and it always felt good that I could lend a helping hand.

This feature also helped me “expand my services”, free of cost, to other friends of mine as well. Experience also started playing a vital role as I would have first hand information to share with them, that they could relate to. Hardly did I know at that point in time, that this would be one of the most important aspects, which would come in handy for my friend Ayan.

I met Ayan, in Hyderabad when I went there to join Datamonitor. From the first instance, we shared a strong connect, and had a similar thought process. This was the building block of our great friendship. Even after he shifted out of Hyderabad due to a job change, I kept in touch with him on a regular basis, something that I am not very good at. But over time, I started talking to him more often and we became the best of buddies.

Well, enough of context… a couple of months back, ayan tells me over the phone that a girl is interested in him. I actually fell from the sky… Someone was interested in him.. WOW!! That was news… and apparently he also liked her a lot… that was even bigger news.. mainly because he studied in NIFT Hyderabad, and had no-one in his life.. and also he didn’t seem particularly interested in anyone from his or other batches as well.

This is where my “experienced services” came in play. Obviously when he told me all this, I congratulated him, for his delayed but finally came through efforts. Then on a day to day basis, I would advise him how to tackle certain sensitive situations. I stepped in in a major way when he finally called me one day and told me that he has decided to get married to the same girl. Talk about hit and succeed at one go.. Well, anyway, Ayan is very good at delegating responsibilities to others, and make them help him out. Thus, he delegated the responsibility of handling his mama and maami to me, people whom he is very close to, and since I know them as well and speak to them often, it would make more sense. They, on the other hand were to handle his parents, and make them realize what the situation was in a subtle manner. Well, that went smoothly and finally Ayan calls me up last night at midnight, to tell me that the entire conversation process has gone smoothly and now there is a different task for me to fulfill.

I couldn’t even imaging what he was going to ask me at that point in time. Finally, he said… My parents are going to meet her parents and I need you to be MY REPRESENTATIVE. So.. now I am finally looking forward to the day, I am supposed to book flight tickets to go along with his family members. Mere yaar ki shaadi hai… ab itna toh karna hi padega na…. have you ever had such an experience??

Love-ly arranged???

Marriage… that’s a word that pretty much scares the shit out of every person.. whether the person is going for a love or arranged marriage… Since my childhood, I have always been a shy guy… this was predominantly because I was studying in a guys school, and I never had the confidence to walk up to a girl and ask her out..

This status changed once I entered college. I joined the commerce stream and thankfully it was a co-ed class. I started talking to girls more often, and became more comfortable around them. But, my first relationship came, when I was studying in B’Com 1^st year. Yeah!!! That late J Well, my inexperience was very much visible, and the relationship dragged on for a couple of months before I finally called quits. Hardly did I know at that time that this was the beginning of a series of disasters to follow.

My ultimate disaster was probably when I was in my 3^rd year of graduation. I was going around with the girl for nearing about a year I guess, and when I finally moved to Bangalore for my higher studies, she conveniently dumped me and moved on with her previous boyfriend. That was a big thing in my life at that point in time.. but I moved on.. I think it was more out of anger and the want to get back at her that I started a random dating spree. Well, truly speaking I did enjoy at the beginning. But, like its said, good things last for only that long.

Like a fool, I moved on from one relationship to another. I kept getting introduced to different girls, and then I would find myself in a relationship sooner than I would expect… MAN!!! These were probably the worst days of my life… But, I would also never seem to give up. I kept going at it.

Finally, my last relationship brought a lot of stability in my life. From my first relationship which lasted just a few months, this relationship would see me go through more than 2 years before it ended. Well, at this stage, my maturity levels also rose, and I like any other person, thought it would be best for me to maintain this stability and get married. Another reason was that I was also reaching the proper age for marriage and I didn’think it was right for me to drag on.

SO, finally, I also registered myself in to the infamous matrimonial sites to search for a bride. Well, to start with, I always had the feeling that 90% of the Bengali girls are very beautiful. This coming from most of the girls I had met or seen till date. Man did this opinion change instantly. IT WAS THE BIGGEST HORROR SHOW I have ever witnessed. From girls posing in picnic hats, to aunty looking “girls” sending me interests, I kept on wondering, if I had made the right choice. Initially, me and my friend Ayan, who had also enrolled himself for this “COURSE”, started looking frantically for the best looking girls we could possibly come across. This stance, slowly changed and we started realising that “The law of demand and supply” was totally different in the case of the girl as opposed to the boys. We came back to earth very soon and started looking for prospective brides, more suitable to our tastes, looks and everything else.

This search then started turning into a fun exercise, and the both of us used to discuss some of the profiles and make fun of them as well. This was purely out of frustration as well. Today, its been more than six months, and I am still searching through the database to find someone who would be able to tolerate me. More than that, I feel that the entire feeling of getting married in an arranged fashion, is just so not me. It kinda scares the shit out of me as well at times to think that I would be married to a girl whom I would know for only some weeks to months. But, well, like its said, no-one can ever understand a girl completely, so I and still waiting to take my leap. J Are you?? J

My bachelorhood experience....

For practically my entire life, I have been living with my family. I always used to wonder how it is like to stay in a PG or a hostel, how everyone adjusts their lifestyles, yet, enjoys every moment. And, most of all, WHAT actually makes this experience so memorable for everyone.

Like its said, you have to experience it, to understand it. My wishes also came true last year, when I moved to Hyderabad due to a job change. Hardly did I know at that time, that this move would not only be the experience of my life, but also lead to the begining of a great friendship, with a guy whom I knew from my days in college.

It is usually said that when things have to happen, they WILL happen, and thats exactly what happened with me. I was looking out for a job change from my first company in Bangalore. During those days, I, like any other person was giving a number of interviews. One day, Abhijeet ( a friend from my college days as well) calls me up to tell me that a common friend of ours, Ayan, had come down to Bangalore, and if I would be interested in catching up with them. Interestingly, I agreed, even though I had not met up with Abhijeet in the 5 years that I had spent in Bangalore. Ayan was in a hurry that day, and had to leave for hyderabad, so we met up for a while, recalled the good old college days over a couple of cups of tea, and after that I dropped him half way off to the bus station. Just before he got into the auto, we happened to exchange numbers, which conveniently gained a spot in my "Probably never gonna call again" phonebook records.

A couple of days later, to my astonishment, I receive an offer from Datamonitor, who have their only India office in hyderabad. So, I recall Ayan's number from my "Probably never gonna call again" phonebook records, and give him a buzz. To my surprise, Ayan was also staying in the same area, where my company was located, and he would also help me get an accomodation in the Men's hostel he was residing in. Everything was set, and a week before i was leaving for Hyderabad, Ayan calls me up to tell me that his current roommate is leaving, and if I would like to be his new roommate. I could not believe what I had just heard, and i readily agreed to his proposal.

The first month in Hyderabad, turned out to be more adventurous than I had planned or even thought of. Lack of places with good food and getting hospitalised probably become the highlights according to anyone. But, for me, it was the great frequency that I shared with Ayan, that made my stay in Hyderabad so damn memorable for me. Well for one, we shared practically the same taste in music and food. Listening to music on a laptop was always problemmatic for us, because it would go on hibernate mode after a while, and we would have to stop lazying around and log in again and again. Thus, we decided that we would transfer all the good songs from his laptop to my phone which had a good memory space, and listen it from there. We also bought computer speakers so that we could connect them to the phone via the 3mm jack and get a "FEEL" of the music. Well, with regard to food, i just cant forget Calcutta cabin. It was our haven, everytime we started craving for some Bong food. Our regularity was rewarded by the fact that the owner actually let us customise the items in her "NON CUSTOMISABLE" thaali as well. Even the gods could not deter our spirits to get good food, and we used to go in shorts, fully drenced from head to toe, just to enjoy a good meal.

Within the first month itself, Ayan and I started sharing an immensely strong bond. Our movie spree’s that included watching movies in theaters till 1pm in the night was a regular, while our passion for travelling was another strong factor, linking our thoughts.

These, were very short lived though, as fate had other plans for him. He managed to pass an SBI examination, without any preparation at all, and got relocated to some remote village in Punjab. This incident was again going to alter my bachelorhood experience. In an act of desperation, to find good friends, with whom I could gel well, I turned to the most likely source… My COLLEAGUES.

The TT table located at the entrance of the company’s leased floor, was my haven. Known as the “INITIATOR” of the TT games everyday, I soon became popular among a lot of people who were interested in playing table tennis. But, beyond this popularity, was the answer to what I was looking out for.. friends with whom I could spend a lot of time… Roopak, Vinay, Varun and Pranay.

Since Roopak, Vinay and Varun stayed at the same duplex apartment, their home soon became the perfect spot for weekend slosh parties, indoor football and cricket games. Sitting at the balcony practically every weekend, having some non-productive, yet interesting discussions… I would keep pondering on how many days these wonderful days would last. Sitting at the balcony of the penthouse apartment, sipping to alcohol, while the slight breeze would render the entire weeks hot atmosphere a memory alone, varun would slowly utter…… “kahaan milega yeh sab”……….. Truly…. Those words seem to be etched into my memory till date, and I can’t help but remember how much fun we have had every single weekend.

It is always said that the friends you choose, can determine you’re the path you will choose in future. Well, according to me, I had chosen the best path. Be it the time I spent with Ayan, or with Roopak, Vinay and Varun, those days were probably the best that I have ever had. A famous saying goes as ‘You don’t forget things that you want to remember; and you don’t remember things that you cannot forget”. Ironic isn’t it… Memories are all that we seem to have as every day passes by in our lives… and both parts of this saying apply to every memory that we have…. My Hyderabad… and bachelorhood experience has been earmarked by the wonderful memories spent with these good friends of mine… and everyday I keep repeating these words …. “kahi nahi milega who sab”………

Social networking, Everyones poison.....

After a number of years of entering the social networking sphere, I realised that social networking has become an integral part of our daily lives. People updating their profiles with status updates that have no meaning, no need and on top of that a number of idiots will keep "LIKING" the posts.

I mean, seriously, what is there to like about a post that reads.. "Just landed in Delhi".... Good for u man.. many other people must have landed along with u right?? Its not like you landed on the moon... and to top it all, there will be someone liking this status update... WOW!!!

I am no better.... for the past few months, I have realised that I probably have never been this active on any website ever, as I have been on Facebook... I keep logging in to the website and stay logged on for hours altogether, just waiting for status updates to comment on, or pictures to be uploaded.

The common thought that harbors in every mind is that, Social networking, though, has helped us all to come close to the people we want to keep in touch with, has also made us very lazy and dependant. I mean, lets face it, if we wanted to keep in touch with someone, we would have made the effort to keep in touch. We dont need a social networking site to help us out. Topping it off, will be that fact that many "friends" on the friends list will be there because you need your "MAFIA WARS" family or "FARMVILLE" family to grow.

Many people, including me, would keep saying this that it has helped us get back in touch with our school friends with whom we had lost contact. NOW, on a more serious note, lets take some time, and think this out. We would have probably a minimum of 100 plus friends from which our school friends could amount to about just 20. Do we actually keep in touch with those 20 on a daily or even a weekly basis?? Lets face the truth.. We dont!!!!

What we probably need to do, is to start realising who actually mean something to us, and make the effort to actually talk to them and make them feel that they are special to us........ just a thought....