17paranoid_glances

A short story about Love

2010-07-06T02:42:00.000-07:00

It would be their last train ride together. They climbed into the green first class compartment of the 6.15PM local train at Panvel station.With their black backpacks and a pair of books cradled in their arms, they looked like the archetypal young college going couple in their twenties.

He was tall, dark and handsome in an Indian way with thick bushy eyebrows and eyes that reflected a boyish innocence, a ticklish sense of humor that had almost everyone around in splits. What drew most people to him though was his impish smile. A smile that never left his face in his worst moments, when he had failed a few subjects, when he missed a crucial penalty in his team's football finals or at the time when, he was insulted by the Principal for being late. It was as if he laughed at some private joke all the time, as if he had seen the futility of it all.

She was as tall as him, slim and fair with silky long hair. Her pretty angelic face had a pair of eyes that reflected a tinge of green. In fact there wasn’t a guy in the class who did not find her cute. And for all that beauty, she didn’t cover herself up with a ton of “I am beautiful!” attitude. She was dignified, intelligent and smart and could crack people up with witty one-liners.

Together they formed the humor tag team of the class, supplying a daily dose of the lecture hall’s entertainment. They ate lunch together, traveled together always meeting up at Thane Station and getting off at Panvel. Over the course of four years they had become thick friends. The bond had always been confined to friendship, though. He was adept at hiding his feelings and in spite of her intelligence she sometimes missed the obvious.

Today was the last day of their engineering career, the final exam had ended a few hours back and college would formally end. No more train rides together he wondered.

Almost each day as they traveled to college together she would try to covet the window seat and like a chivalrous knight, he would almost always give up the window seat for her, his Madame’. He loved her, of course. But being shy, he never gathered the courage to share his feelings for her.

As usual he allowed her to take the window seat today. It always amused him, this fascination she had for the window seat. He was feeling groggy and restless possibly due to staying up all night for covering a few more problems in Robotics, yet he smiled his ever present grin and looked at her. She looked tired and sleepy from the previous night’s studying.

He closed his eyes and tried to doze off. Yet he couldn’t sleep. He was too overwhelmed with feeling to sleep. She could never sleep in a moving local train. So they chatted on about their future plans. At Vashi the singing beggar children entered the train. They started with an old song from the movie Dhadkan. He had never fathomed why the beggar children always sang this song.

“Jitna bekaraar hoon main,

Tum bhi bekaraar banlo,

Tum bhi Dhadkano ko samjho,

Tum bhi Mujhse Pyaar Karlo!”

And then in that crowded Bombay local train, as the beggar children sang of unrequited love, for the first time he comprehended the true meaning of the song and of love. In the four years that they spent together he forever debated with himself whether to tell her how he felt. Perpetually he would argue with himself, “It would ruin the friendship if she didn’t feel the same way.” Each time friendship won the argument over love.

But in that magical moment he decided he would tell her. “Umm!” just as he cleared his throat, a cell phone rang. He cursed the freaking phone as she picked up the call, “Hey! Yeah, the exam was fine. I will see you in an hour. Love You!”

He looked at her in surprise. She flashed a conspiratorial smile and said “That was my boyfriend. Sorry, I never told you about him. I didn’t want anyone to know. You were saying something…”

“Nothing! When do you think will they declare the results?” he replied hiding back everything and looking away at the setting sun in the Arabian Sea. For once the smile had left his face.

Google - Caffeine

2010-06-29T05:24:00.000-07:00

Google's new search index shall be powering the Search Engine peppering users with fresher results and an emphasis on real time results, videos and social media. Here's the official Google update.

Photography!

2010-06-21T23:14:00.000-07:00

A camera in hand,
Guevara on the back,
I trudge along taking snaps!

Handling Budgetary Deficits - A summary of an Economist Article

2010-04-07T05:52:00.000-07:00

I happen to read The Economist,which has a rather different view of handling budgetary deficits of nations.
It articulates that popular thumb rules like government debt being 60% of the GDP for rich countries don't necessarily apply anymore. A government should aim at not passing on the burden of debt to future generations to come so as to leave them maneuvering space for future recessions.
So how can countries cut debt? One could tackle it through inflation by defaulting. Budget tightening along with boosting growth should be the focus. Evidence from the past suggests that tax cuts and cutting down on public infrastructure is has had negative impact on economies employing such strategies.
Increasing consumption tax than income tax would be a better way to boost growth.

Like a rolling Stone

2010-02-03T02:04:00.000-08:00

I am caught up in a whirlpool of weirdness without an escape route! So help me Lord!

Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid pummel Bangladesh

2010-01-25T01:29:00.000-08:00

Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid both knocked centuries in the 2nd Test against Bangladesh. India are now 368/2 at the end of 81 overs with a lead of 135 runs. The world no.1 team seems to be in a very strong position to win this test match and the series. In what has been the purplest of purple patches Gautam Gambhir looked on course to score another hundred, yet got out at 68.
Things look increasingly difficult for Bangladesh after their dismal batting performance in the first innings. Bangladeshi bowlers have looked clueless so far against the two Indian legends.
I think my brother is going to be proud of Tendulkar's innings.

India is a sixty year old teenager

2007-08-16T06:39:00.001-07:00

India completed 60 years of independence on 15th august 2007.All newspapers,channels,political parties had a field day to talk about development and terrorism and cricket and Gandhi.......I say
stop it....yup stop.Right from the day i watched the seven new wonders of the world i realized this world was becoming commercial.Indians have trivialized the Taj by voting for it.We have sold ourselves ourselves on the ideas of tying friendship bands on a certain day.We remember that our moms and dads exist on father's and mother's days.Phew i am straying from the topic.........but it was worth straying.
people (who care to read my blog!)we got our independence due to the efforts of lakhs of freedom fighters who laid down their lives,sweat,blood and toiled for our freedom.They were merchants,farmers,businessmen,unemployed,journalists,and many others.We didn't see the religion/cast/sub caste of the people when thousands were killed in jallianwala bagh.We didn't sway when we saw the iron lathis hitting people.We fought,we won ,we died,we cried but we finished with a smile.We are proud indians and India isnt old it is young.
It sees non co-operation movements by parties and it sees page3 parties.it sees fights and it sees non-violence.it sees farmer committing suicides and it sees a new baby every second.It sees hindu-muslims fighting and it sees hindu-muslims celebrating diwali and ramzan.This is a land of diversity of equality.........We are indians and we are hypocrites and proud to be so........
India 60 and will be going ahead with our support .

जय हींद !!!!!!!
i know it is not rightly spelt but thats because of technical mistake.blame blogger!!

Shantaram-gregory david roberts

2007-07-12T06:03:00.000-07:00

the name itself looks so boring at the first glance.add to it the dull cover.......appearances are so deceptive..Do not be deterred by the book's simple showing.check out the inside.
The first time i saw this book was at a friend's place.I had just started reading it when my mom called and i had to go home.Sadly the book was not seen by my eyes for more than a year.Blame it on studies.Finally when i caught hold of it i was not ready to let go.It revolves around the life of a foreigner who is a wanted fugitive.it is his fight against the forces ........ he recounts his experience living the maximum city(mumbai).His english is impeccable and often astonishing.There have been times i have been compelled to look up a thesaurus.The content is good and with his recitation it is excellent.Though in the third part the story goes a little a awry.
The description of the characters given by him his great.The main reason of his best selling novel is the description he gives.The character of madame zhou sends a shiver through the spine.Prabaker is also a nice character .Overall the book sums up a nice reading and one more important advice..........Don't forget your dose of caffeine!!

Book:Shantaram
Author:Gregory david roberts
Rating:

In the end.......

2007-07-11T02:25:00.000-07:00

@July 8 Wimbledon,
Roger Federer,defeated Rafael Nadal in getting his fifth consecutive title.He equaled the record of bjorn berg(a legend).Pretty good you will say.But I happen to think otherwise . I thought Rafael Nadal(hence forth rafa) deserved to get the glory.The last result read federer beat Nadal .But the story was otherwise.He had to struggle to beat him in five sets.Five sets that's close to not beating.Federer later said that he was lucky.At that time he wasn't modest, he was honest.The same could be seen in his joy after having winning on the greens.At that ultimate moment,when he won , all our eyes glued to the t.v. sets saw only Federer.Nobody gave a glance to Nadal who was also crying like Federer but his tears were different as Gold is from brass.nadal must have practiced as hard as federer but did we ask?
Just then i realized one thing in life that however,hard we try if not the first , we are nothing.Just the also-rans in a rat race .Slogging but never winning.Nobody applauds the runner-up.Nobody cheers the second one.Nobody but the first shares the headlines on the dailies.The only reason could be explained through the worldy wisdom giving song of Linkin park....I tried so hard,got so far But in the end it doesn't even matter..............

Of Green cabbages and green peas

2007-07-04T06:04:00.000-07:00

A man comes to my building every Monday.A man with big bushy mustache,a forehead with thousands of wrinkles and teeth which have not been near a brush for more than a decade.He balances on his head his livelihood ,some green often black things called vegetables and a speech which wont be called vulgar in any rajnikant movie .He has a sense of knowing who will buy his wares for that day because I
have never seen him returning without selling something.He has a sort of diplomatic alliance with our watchman because the watchman does not have to bring vegetables for his wife on Mondays.In return our dear old vegetable wala is allowed to sell his green things in a building whose policy is "No hawkers allowed".Ha! speak about bribe free India.
This man is the center of attraction of about every housewife in my building (sorry , no adultery here)Not for his looks but for the fresh vegetables he brings.He come every Monday never missing that day .He walks a very upright proud walk and his speech very rough.I don't know why I observe him so minutely .He rarely has a change of dress wearing his whitish Grey dhoti as such like an uniform .He has a thread around his neck probably to ward of evil powers.Once suddenly he didn't come for one Monday.I agree that his absence wasn't the talk of the town or my building but his absence was recorded.Suddenly all of a sudden on a Thursday he appeared.He came without his characteristic wares and green things.But i noticed some thing was going in on his mind.Then suddenly as my eyes followed he had pressed the siren(electric bell)of my house.The circuit was completed and a clear harsh sound of he bell was heard in my house.The door opened and all of sudden I heard the crying , no rather wailing of that man.I was surprised and i ran to the door to see whether that man had gone insane or something.I noticed that between his wailing sobs he was saying something about "daughter........operation......daughter......money......rs.50,000....."At that moment I realised what providence can do to a person.I realised even that man had a life
Talismans or threads can ward of evil spirits but not luck.

MORAL :-Luck favours not the brave but the rich