bhande kali kara lo..!

in the pic: all the akhil mehtas. me, puneet, nimit, akhil, pralav.

Ok. So this post is all about our marketing trip on 25-01-2008, friday. Well, our motive was to promote Quark '08 (http://www.bits-quark.org/) in Goan colleges. And so Nimit, our respected and feared Marketing Head, Member-of-Organizing-Committee ordered all of us to be at the main gate at 7:15 sharp.

Now, before i continue, i suppose you must know the main characters in this story. These are:

1. Akhil Mehta aka TylerDurden aka Tillu. 2nd year. Bigshot on DC. And the reason for the title of this post.

2. Lita Das aka Bhonpu (according to NIMIT). 3rd year, very highly noticeable. And her 6 feet plus height is not the only factor.

3. Puneet Gupta aka Akhil Mehta. (reasons will be clear to you once you are done reading this post). 3rd year. by far the quietest 3rd year. Especially useful when you need wisecracks to be well, cracked.

4. Pranshu Sharma aka me aka Akhil Mehta. ME.

5. Pratik Mandrekar aka Akhil Mehta. 2nd year, quiet Honda Activa (aka Kinetic Honda) driver. Smart 'local Goan'.

6. Pralav Dessai aka Akhil Mehta aka Driver Bhaiyya. 3rd year, 'local Goan' guy again. Drives the car well, including situations where a sonic boom occurs very close to his left ear.

7. Nimit Mehra aka Akhil Mehta aka THE ORGANIZER aka THE MARKETING HEAD. Boss, basically. The 'senapati' of this vaanar sena that went all around Goa on Friday.

So my day started with Lita whispering (for a change) at my door at 6 am to wake me up. So then finally we sign out of the campus by around 7 45 am. Now the plan was that Pratik and Puneet would go on Activa while the rest of us would be in the car. Then we realize the guy who rented us the Honda Activa (aka Kinetic Honda) needed to be dropped off to Vasco. So with me and Lita stuffed on the front seat next to the driver we almost reached Vasco following Pratik who had the bike-guy sitting behind him. And then we realize, that we could have just left Puneet at the campus gate and continued.

And then we realized the road through the jungle to Vasco had a huge huge hole in it. So Pralav tried getting us all back on a road. And I tried saving myself from being squished between the door and Lita while Lita shouted out stuff like "Hum nahin bachenge... we can't reach Vasco.. we can't reach GEC (goa engg college)... Akhil Mehta! Shut up Nimit Mehra.. Pralav bewkoof look at the road. Akhil Mehta!.."

We survived. And soon were on our way to Goa Engineering College. We reached there before 9, when the classes start. I got a good audience. Told them all about Quark, the events, the workshops, the special nights, and I told them that a London troupe of jugglers who have performed at Olympics 2004 were coming to our campus (http://www.feedingthefish.com/), and that magic shows are not just "pulling the rats out of habits" (double-slip of my tongue). So we finished with our job and soon were on our way to RIT (forgot the full form).

So we were having fun, singing songs, making Pralav change the radio station every 30 seconds and laughing uncontrollably whenever Lita would say something and Nimit would try to counter her point. "Akhil Mehta!... Nimit bewkoof.. Pralav do not drive fast. I wanna sleep... Akhil Mehta!.. Itna tez nahin... Radio chalao bewkoof!... Akhil Mehta!..." No matter who took her case/did something that annoyed her, Lita would utter 2 words "Akhil Mehta". Hence all non-Litaeans belonging to Quark-teamus kingdom, Marketingae phylum and Friday-teamus Order have a genus name of Akhil Mehta.

Well, our respected and revered and feared and non brain-severed boss was having a good time too. We all are very scared of Nimit. And we all respect him a lot. And he is a good boss. And he is not getting married to Lita. He was totally cool with us teasing him with her. And he totally was not avoiding being in the same vehicle. Pralav will not be the chauffeur of the newly-married lovebirds. Me and Tillu will not be the two witnesses needed to register a marriage. Nimit is well respected by all of us. So, he was laughing and not calling anyone a 'dumba$$'. This is when Tillu decides to tell us all about this song which is now our marketing anthem (as Nimit put it). "Bhande kali kara lo".

Now, this song fills you up with the same feelings as "aie hiphopper' and 'tic tic tic tic tic tic' do. Bhande in Punjabi means utensils. The feel that comes in this song, is unmatched. You gotta listen to it to know what i mean. Ultimate song!!! Totally cracked the Punjabis (Nimit, Tillu and Puneet) up.

Anyway, so we were continuing with "kali-karaoing the bhandes" ie our going to college, meeting students, handing them flyers worth 11 bucks each, being reminded not to be so generous with the flyers as they were expensive, put up our posters on top of every other techfest's posters, talk to some more people, and then run to the car/activa, where Nimit and Lita would mock-fight with each other. ("gimme my wallet Lita" "you give me my cellphone first" "ek haath de, ek haath le" "Im throwing your wallet outside" "Lita..." "bewkoof..."). And the rest of us would just be content with having a good laugh at their expense.

And so we continued with our trip, and then stopped in Madgaon to have lunch. Which is when we got to know Tillu speaks brilliant chaste Hindi. He told us he had just missed winning a Hindi poem-reciting competition on Hindi Diwas. Later Nimit told me the piece of Hindi literature which he had brought to life with his serene and captivating manner of speaking was "machhli jal ki rani hai".

So well then, on and on we went. Lita went on about Akhil Mehta and Kinetic Honda. I was well, just very happy 1. Tillus shorter than me 2. Litas crazier than me. Pralav was amazed Eeshan was right about what would happen on friday (he had imitated Lita very well, I believe) and happy his speedometer's 'kaanta' had the capacity to go upto 120 and not get stuck at 100. Nimit was happy we were done, and that since he was not in the car, his case would not be taken (quite wrong though, Tillu me Puneet and Pralav had fun). Puneet and Pratik were well, themsleves. All cool and calm and quiet. Enjoying the show. Tillu was being Tillu and happy that for once Lita was not yelling his name out once every 2 minutes. We had another round of Bhande kali kara lo.

And then we came back to campus where Lita finally got her Kinetic Honda and I got to sit behind her. We covered the entire campus, I believe. Hoping someone we know would see us. Which they did. :D

Brilliant trip. And our boss is going to blog about it too!

subconscious takes over

Well, have no clue what's happening. Am in my senses but, well, there's a but'. Listening to Coldplay does that I think. Oh well, am obsessed with putting lyrics up I guess. This is one of my favourites. Yellow by Coldplay. Hope, love and optimism. All about giving yourself, and the joys associated with it. :)

Look at the stars
Look how they shine for you
And everything you do
Yeah, they were all yellow.

I came along
I wrote a song for you
And all the things you do
And it was called "Yellow".
So then I took my turn
Oh what a thing to have done
And it was all "Yellow."

Your skin
Oh yeah your skin and bones
Turn into something beautiful
You know, you know I love you so
You know I love you so.

I swam across
I jumped across for you,
Oh what a thing to do.
Cos you were all "Yellow"
I drew a line
I drew a line for you
Oh what a thing to do
And it was all "Yellow."

Your skin
Oh yeah your skin and bones
Turn into something beautiful
And you know
For you I'd bleed myself dry
For you I'd bleed myself dry.

It's true
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine for,
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine.
Look at the stars
Look how they shine for you
And all the things that you do.

snow in delhi

The lowest temperature (till the time today's newspaper was printed) in Delhi was 1.9 degrees. That too daytime temp. Heard an NDTV reporter wondering what things would be like if Delhi hits zero degree celcius. Freezing point of water. So got me thinking (as some or the other Delhiite I know does every winter), what would it be like if it snows in Delhi...

I tried imagining snow on Rajpath. The golden glow of India Gate diffused through the pearly white of snow. NH8 all covered up in snow. Snow on the 'mast' of 'That Ship-Buliding' in Gurgaon. Snow on all the round-abouts the city has. The huge expanse between the North and South Blocs, all calmly white.

Snow around the numerous pillars in Connaught Place. On the neon lights. On the stars (stars with names and stuff of Bollywood's who's who) at PVR Saket. Lotus temple standing pure and serene, the pools surounding it all frozen and still, and a beautiful white carpet laid on the stairs there. Snow on the roof of Palika Bazaar. The streamlined Metro busily streaking along the snow-laden bridges. Yamuna ambling along, while the snowflakes fall merrily on her... White mingling with blue (well, at least before the sewer and other drains pour their black and dark venom into it). The airport would be in a sorry state though. The trains, with their yellow boards showing the destinations covered with dollops of fresh white snow.

Snow at the flyovers, with the reflectors peeping out from their white blankets and blinking as you pass them by. Snowflakes sitting playfully on the LEDs on traffic-signal (red-yellow-green lights) that tell you how much time till the signal changes; almost teasing and taunting you. Snow on the watch-tower of my school, the silvery white confetti that the Big Bell would spray around while chiming at 3 pm every weekday.

Snowfall at Aravalis (that is the Jawaharlal Nehru University region - also close to my place). Snowfall on my window. Doggie and Co. being Rudolph and other reindeer inc.

Beautiful, wouldn't it be?

:)

Taare Zameen Par :)

It was supposed to be just five of us meeting up, hanging around for a while on 31st evening. Simran couldn't come, and Pranay and Manohar were gonna take a lot of time. So me and Agastya just hung around, roaming around Basant Lok market and talking (me doing the most of it, robots aren't exactly known to be excellent conversationalists) and then i saw there was a show for TZP beginning at 6 : 45 pm. So on an impulse, I decided we would watch the movie. So after a long long wait till 6:45 (these two made it in time, surprisingly) we went in to watch the movie, me dreading I'll sleep through it as I hadn't slept properly the last night. And the movie began.

Now I had heard a lot about the directorial debut of Aamir Khan. It's good, but really senti. Maybe a little too serious for New Years, i thought. Well, with a little help from hindsight, I'd say this was one of the best ever ways to bid goodbye to a year.

No drama, no dance/romance of typical Bollywood movies. Mindblowing performance by everyone, especially Darsheel, who plays Ishaan in the movie. The beauty lied in the fact that the film said just enough. Nothing more, nothing less. Portrayed the innocence and the dreams of childhood brilliantly. The wonderful feeling of not knowing any fear, when terms and conditions attached with every darn thing of the adult world don't exist. When it makes perfect sense to bunk school and roam around the streets without any tensions when you haven't done your Math homework.

It's so easy to admit that you were wrong, that you made a mistake when you are a kid. Child has a belief that there is always a possibility that something beyond his/her thoughts exists. Something we lose as we grow up. The simplicity just touches a chord.

Taare Zameen Par shows all this, and what happens when a child is not given a chance to make himself understood. The parents blinded by their expectations just push the kid where the stereotypes tagged with success demand everyone to be. And the rigidity in our society, where everyone has to follow a set pattern, when every one is a distinct individual.

TZP is a sensitive and simple account of one such struggle of an 8 year old. A must-watch, and not just because it solemnly sensitizes the viewer towards the dyslexic and the mentally-challenged. Also as it urges you to think different, to be open-minded about people. To let the kids blossom into what they should be.

And also how simple things in life leave a greater impact on you.

Way to go Darsheel! and Aamir too. :)