Turn back time!

In the history of Aashay-years, this year will be known as 'The one with all the travelling'... A quick run through the year that was-

1. January

 Happy New Year 2009 while huddled around a bonfire with a group of friends on a hill overlooking the Diveagar beach

2. February

 The chuttis & the sneak preview of the Goodbye & farewell season that was soon to come

3. March

 Stupid examinations and the fear of flunking in the final semester… Actually I think I came close to that an lot of times

4. April

 Teary farewells… End of an era…Life without the college… All pervading sadness & a sense of apprehension… Kya hoga next??

5. May

And the travelling begins… First on the list: Bhopal, followed by the ultra-awesome Vaishno Devi trip where I realized that climbing up 8 kms can be less painful than riding down 8 kms on a horse… followed by the amazing trip to Sikkim & Darjeeling

6. June

 Travelling continues…Ultra-Royal welcome to ITC… 15 days of luxury at Sonar Bangla, Kolkata… Followed by the First Training Stint at Bangalore

7. July

Feeling of a work life begins to sink in… and let me be frank.. Its not very exciting… First month south of the Vindhyas..

8. August

 Work life continues to drag on… But the arrival of my cousin & his family implies entertainment galore…

9. September

Season of reviews gone horribly wrong… Both at Bangalore & Kolkata… Second stint at Kolkata

10. October

Work life isn’t all that bad… and what do you know… Cigarettes do sell like hot cakes…Trip to Vishakhapatnam & Agartala....Finally become a Phoren Return following the sneaking in of that solitary toe into Bangladesh…

11. November

Back to Munger after summers 2008… Only this time, the shock value is missing…

12. December

 Off to Kolkata and back to Munger…New Year 2010 to be welcomed in Munger!!

Paa... Maa... Tata!

Let me straight the tone of this article straight. Paa is one of the worst movies that I have ever seen... If I were ever to release a list of the worst Hindi movies ever made, Paa would far outrank, such disasters as Ghajini, DevD & even Rakht!...I think of the movie as an experiment gone horribly wrong... After all, a movie about a boy afflicted with a rare disease should have been interesting & different to watch... But No!... the directors of Paa made sure that it was another of those nonsense hindi movies that ruined an awesome concept!

I mean, look at so many Hindi movies, and that is what they do.. They come up with mind blastingly awesome concepts and then ruin them with stupid dialogues, interspersed with idiotic songs & unnecessary pelvic thrusts, known as dancing!... Remember Rock On!?.. It was an awesome idea, and the movie even had brilliant songs but the dialogues... My Gawd!!... Remember Luke Kenny's unforgettable dialogue... "Ye brain tumour mere brain ka ek hissa ban chuka hai"... I mean What the hell is that!...

Remember Ghajini's heroine ( I forget her name) and remember her stupendous theatrical skills??... Every syllable in her dialogue had a matching hand movement, lending the actress a marionette like quality...

And now Paa...

Question no. 1) What in God's name was Jaya Bacchan doing in the beginning of the movie, reading out the names of the charatcters... Did the Bacchans sign a family-pack deal?..If you want the father & the son, then the mother comes at a discounted rate ??

Question no. 2) Which bloody Indian politician has the time to cater to the tantrums of a child?.. Remember Auro refusing to go inside the rashtrapati bhawan becoz usko potty aayi thi!!!... More like the crew couldn't get a permit to shoot inside the Rashtrapati Bhawan!

Question no. 3 ) If a mother knows that her child is sick & sensitive, would she EVER send him away with a stranger to another place??... And if she did, isn't the question "aaj tumne khichdi khaai naa?" a little redundant!...

And to top it all there was the memorable dialogue about "Sperm Lending" that Vidya Balan delivers to AB jr...

All said & done, Vidya Balan looks FANTASTIC in the movie and I think that is the ONLY reason to go see Paa!

And for those, who say that paa wasn't that bad and that I am exaggerating (as usual), I would strongly recommend a movie titled "Lorenzo's Oil" starring Susan Sarandon...

I also managed to see "Rocket Singh" in the last week... It was certainly more entetaining than Paa!!

Engineers Ahoy!

Well, I have always known that I wasn't really great with my technical skills... I mean I knew that my engineering fundaes were shaky at best and only God knows how I passed those horrendous practical exams... But, there has always been the feeling that I could have managed a techincal career... Of COurse I would have to struggle...but then... ho jaata...


Anyways... Thats not the point..An acquaintance called me up yesterday enquiring about the final year project that I had "done" (so to speak) in my final year of Engineering...Now, the strange thing is , I couldn't, though I tried to recollect as hard as I could, remember the project title.It was something to do with Microprocessors... or was it Microwaves... or Micro-minis!!!... By the way, this project was the highlight of my resume till my summers...I still remember going through my final project report before summers began...Awkward, embarrassed and ashamed at the same time, I told the caller that my mind has just blanked out and that the title will come back to me & I will communicate the same... I tried thinking of the project, but my mind refused to accommodate this query.... I tried thinking hard of the group of people I had done my project with... but No... Nothing there as well...

In the meanwhile, a friend of mine called up and I asked him if he remembered the project I had done...Although, he couldn't tell me my project, I was surprised to find out that he at least remembers his... Agitated & Embarrassed at the same time, I decided it was time to regain some pride... So, I generally said that although I couldn't remember the project title, I could clearly see the circuit diagram in front of my eyes...You know... how a little showing-off never hurt anyone... Now, in an ideal world, this should have been the end of the conversation and other better thinbgs should have been brought forth for discussion... Alas!... He chose to ask me what the circuit diagram was...

Brimming with fake confidence, I repiled in my boldest voice... There was this chip in the centre.... IC-814!!!...

That is it... A loud guffaw from the other end made me realize the futility of continuing this conversation any further...All hope at regaining lost ground was lost by the utterance of those syllables.. IC-814!

The sad part is I still don't know what my project was... The good part is that I have been able to track down my team members...I probably will harangue them one of these days to remind myself of "My Project"....2 years of MBA have washed away 4 years of Engineering... And that is not to say that I remember anything that was "learnt" during 2 years of MBA!...

What was the old adage again?...

"Engineers forever"!!