Blogger Meet

This concept of Blogger meet is new to me. In fact, the concept of blogging is also not very old (for me). Bilbo told her story so I thought, “why not Apy also write something.”

One fine day, I log on to Yahoo messenger and, *tring* I get an IM..." Hi Apy". I spontaneously reply with a "Hi... How are you?" and then start wondering, who is this and why was I pinged. (Strangers pinging Apy is not a normal phenomena). This person had read my blog, got my Yahoo ID from there and had pinged me and the conversation that followed went on for hours. According to people working at Yahoo, the first message was received at 20:46 hrs and the last message was sent at 23:40 hrs. Have you ever been in a situation where you start talking to a person and both just click? Well, something like that happened on that day. We discussed all non-sense stuff that we could think of (well... some sensible stuff too...) and all I can say is that the stranger turned out to be a very nice person (Well... You can ignore 'very' if you want to... I am just trying to be nice :P), who has the same thoughts on a lot of things as I do.

One week later, a Blogger meet was planned. She had to hang herself and I was eager to help or should I say, she wanted to hang some wall hangings and (ahem) I was asked for help. The deal was that I will help her with that n she will feed me with something good from her foodblog.

Now, I was confused. I really wanted to give her something on this day but I had no idea what she likes or dislikes. Apy was in major trouble. And then it struck, Bang!! Gals like flowers... So Apy dude! Take flowers...Now Apy is one of the major illiterates when it comes to names of flowers and which ones to pick. So, Apy goes to the florist and checks out some flowers. He likes the purple ones but what the heck do they call those flowers? (Please don't forget that this is Japan and florists don't speak English and as a matter of fact, almost no one does). Apy comes back, talks to another colleague whose also a Japanese (luckily can speak English) and tells her the trouble he is in. Side by side, he also starts looking on net. Online Florists come handy in these situations and I found what those purple flowers were called... Tulips. (Don’t you give me that *you couldn’t even recognize Tulip* look! Yes, as I said... I have no knowledge of flowers. Only flower that I can recognize is Rose :D..I learnt about flowers long ago and don't remember anymore)

Now, the second question that popped up was, is it all right to give these flowers? I mean, didn't want to end up in a weird situation by giving flowers that are meant for sorrow or something like that. So again, to my Japanese colleague for help and finally decided on Purple Tulips.
In evening, Bilbo tells me that she is planning to buy bright yellow flowers. Apy was like... Aha... Okay... Nice... And then later she tells me, she couldn't find any and Apy says "Oh! That's bad", but what Apy meant was " Great! That's superb."

So next day, on his way to the rendezvous point, Apy picks up bright Yellow tulips. Taking the accurate directions from the lady, Apy lands up nowhere. (Okay Apy, be nice.... At another station, nearby). Turns out, she forgot to mention some details. In a way I don't blame her, it was my fault. I admit it. How could I expect a girl to give me correct directions?

Anyway, how to recognize each other? (though, In Japan, if 2 Desis plan to meet somewhere, there is no such question as "How will I recognize you?”) Still, Apy gives the weirdest description he can think of. He says, “he s wearing bright Pink Sweat Shirt and Purple Jeans (ek Dum Govinda Ishtyle...well actually I had thought of some weird green and yellow combination but then I thought she might not turn up at all :P. could not take that risk after such a long travel) and then asks, "Are you still coming?" She said, "Yep. With a huge board that says, 'I don’t know him' “ :D.

Met her. As wonderful a person as she sounded, a wonderful person she is (again Apy trying to be nice). She treated me with Aaloo Tikkis.. (Whoa!! Long-time -no -see kinda feeling just surrounded me after having a look at it). Along with that there were 2 more dishes and of course, how could I forget? Aaloo Parantha was also there :). It seemed that she put in a lot of effort in cooking. So Apy *bows and says Thank you*.

Had a great time talking and talking and talking. She seemed to have liked the flowers so Apy was relieved. Then we went out to check out her neighborhood and boy! It was a nice place.

Felt good to meet someone whose mind works at same frequency. In short, had a lovely day.

P.S. Nothing happened about the wall hangings, as the lady did not have the required resources to hang.

The Seven

ROS gave me huge home work. So Here I am, doing the needful. I took ages to complete this... Darn Laurel and Hardy who gave me loads of work (for a change :P).

7 things I wanna do before I die ..
1.)Ride my own Merc (hehe... How materialistic can I be.. But why stop dreaming)
2.)Give my parents all the comforts of life.. They have done a lot for me.. n I feel like its my turn now.
3.)Learn to use English properly. (Bhery Impartant)
4.) Improve as a person... I really need to improve on a LOT of things (*trying real hard to look modest*)
5.) Travel ... No specific place as such... Just want to explore to the Max..
6.) Fall in Love again (but don know if I ll ever find the right gal *shrugs*)
7.) Have a Labrador (or may be Golden Retriever)... (that's one of the most important things in my list)

7 things I don't enjoy doing ..

1.) Dealing with hypocrites. I hate those @#$@%@$%#@$
2.) Doing Dishes.
3.) Ironing (miss India a lot for this..U can get ur clothes ironed fr 2 bucks...Wish I could get some one here who could do the same at same cost ..Okay okay.....A lil extra price )
4.) Waking up early in the morning (on any given weekend, 10:00 am is midnight and 11:00 is early morning.. This is a universal rule..So don't argue)
5.) Talking when I am working.. (coz if I start..Then I neva get to complete the work :P)
6.) Bitching (but sometimes you just cant help... :P )
7.) Waiting ... (simply HATE to WAIT)

7 things I say most often ..
1.) Kaa Batayen Mausi... Ladka heera hai heera
2.) Yeah Yeah
3.) Wateva
4.) Yeah right
5.) Oye kake
6.) wats up
7.) koi na

7 books I like:
1.) Harry Potter series
2.) The Promise
3.) The Client
4.) Digital Fortress
5.) Used to read a lot of Sydney Sheldon once upon a time.
6.) Rich Dad Poor Dad
7.) Da vinci code(still reading... like it till the page I have read :D)

7 English movies I can watch again and again ....
1.) Behind enemy lines
2.) Hitch
3.) Notting Hill
4.) Finding Nemo
5.) Monsters Inc.
6.) Top Gun
7.) You ve got mail

7 Hindi movies I can watch again and again ....
1.) Munna Bhai MBBS
2.) Dil Chahta hai
3.) Sholay
4.) Don
5.) Amar Akbar Anthony
6.) Sarfarosh
7.) Andaz Apna Apna

7 things that attracted me to blogging ..

To write my heart out
To improve on my Englees
To get to know how people think (and I realized I am not that weird after all... A lot of people think like me :-) )
To vent off when I am low
To share when I am happy
To write even when I am normal (coz usually I am abnormal) (I guess ..Now you don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand that ..Apy likes to write)

7 pieces of music I enjoy .. ..
That's totally dependent on my mood...Varies from Hard rock, Metal, Soft Rock to Hindi Oldies and Punjabi (n please... I don't mean Daler Mehendi when I say Punjabi)

Some bands/singers who are regular in my Playlist:
1.) Metallica- Almost all but... Nothin else matters and The Unforgiven are my favoritess
2.) Guns N roses .. Sweet child o mine is again my fav.
3.) Rammstein
4.) Linkin Park
5.) Kishore Kumar (Kishore da's list is a long one ..But two songs are there which are close to my heart "Musafir hoon yaaron"and "Jaane Jaan Dhoondhta Phir raha". Me n my best buddy often sing these when we are riding together on bike)
6.) Rafi
7.) Malkit Singh

7 people I'm tagging ..

Er.. I m kinda new around here so donno many.....So no tagging shagging.... (u pervert... shagging has been used here as it rhymes with tagging..No other meaning intended :P)...

On second thought, I m gonna tag Wbix .. Dude... start workin on it.. :P

Phew !!! Home work done.......

Bored

Its late Friday evening, (late as it's 7 and it's FRIDAY!!) and I am still at my desk in office planning what to do tonight. I am bored to death. I look around and still not able to get into weekend mood. Nobody has left. Darn client, always working. In fact for them, it's just mid day. Everyone *seems* to be busy.

OK! Lets do an analysis of what's going on around me.

Let's take this guy sitting opposite me. We call him Laurel and the guy sitting next to him is Hardy for the obvious reasons. So, for the past 15 mins, Laurel has checked out his watch 30 times. On an average, twice in each minute (I am not trying to prove my calculation skills, but if you still think its good, Thanks...). Still this poor guy is stuck here. Looking at him, it seems as if someone has slapped him real hard and made him sit there. Poor fellow. Carry on dude. Shakes his transparent empty bottle every now and then to check if there is any drink left in it (May be he is also trying to pass his time). Then again, check the time game (3..2..1..and he did it again).

Then there is this 'Laughing guy'. I have never seen him but he seems to be quite contended with life. Laughing away to glory the whole day and trying harder each time so that Japan can hear him. Can't describe how irritating he can be at times. When I am in the middle of something serious(well!! Sometimes) and things are not working out (well!! usually) and he starts up his Raga (AAARGH... If I have to give credit to someone for the patience that I have today, he has a great contribution.)

Then there are those Love birds. Both sit next to each other and I have never actually seen them working. (May be they work when Apy is working but :D, When is Apy working?) So these love birds keep each other occupied. Gosh, such hard working people.

Then there is.. Oh forget it... I ve neither seen this guy's face nor heard his voice. He is always glued to his laptop. The only thing I have seen him do is scratch his head sometimes. So, Apy doesn have much to write about this guy.

There are more of those but if I write about everyone today, What will I do on Monday?

Monday Blues

Its that day of the week again. I hate this day to the core and still it comes back after every 5 days (okay okay.... 6 days.. Just wanted to express that it comes back really fast.. Got the point right?). MONDAY. A friend of mine says, If you can just manage to get past Monday, your rest of the week flies off after that (and I agree with him 110 percent) but this Monday takes centuries to end. May be today I m so sleepy that's why I feel like that but its not just today, its EVERY DAMN MONDAY!!!

I have hated this day since I don't know when (I think it started when I was in school as I don't remember anything before that :D) and my feelings for this day has never changed. I can say the Hate was intensified with time but the hate meter neva came down. I am bored to death. Head hurts as if there is a cricket match going on inside and even eyes have gone inside as much as they can so that they also get to "see" the match.

How can anyone expect me to work in this condition? I hit the sack at 10 last night just to avoid this situation but Woila!!! No sleep. I tossed in bed trying so hard to sleep but no baby no, still no sleep. I kept asking myself, "Why the hell am I not able to sleep? So what if I slept at 3:30 AM on Friday night(or sat morning) and 4 AM Saturday night(Sun morning to be precise).It was supposed to be a weekend. Party time right. But today I don't know what's wrong..."

Okay I have made a resolution now. I will not sleep too late on Friday and Saturday nights.(I know I made this resolution last Monday also but this time I will pakka se keep it :D .. fevicol wala pakka)

I don't know when this day will end..Bohooooo!!!

Guess what!!! Just got the news... Tomorrow is a Holiday.. Yipppeeeeeeeeeeee.. So party time tonight... I m so fresh now... Suddenly Monday has turned into Friday and I love Fridays.

I will try to keep that resolution.

Aaloo Parantha

"Do you know that they sell Aaloo Paranthas in one of the Indian stores here?" This statement of my friend suddenly excited me. "Aaloo Parantha... In Japan?... Seriously?" My friend made such an earnest face that there was no way I could resist the temptation of trying it. Suddenly, I remembered the Aaloo parantha I used to have at home. Hot Parantha with yellow butter (Amul wala) and thick curd. Nothing can beat that combination. Suddenly my taste buds could feel the same taste and I decided that I have to eat those paranthas but as the rule says, you need to work hard to get something good in life

The Indian store is approx. 1 hour journey by train and nobody seemed to be interested in joining me for that. Everybody had work. Busy guys. I thought, " No Problemo!!!, I will go alone", and suddenly everyone asked me to get "few" packets for them also. By the time I left the hotel, I had an order of 20 packets(each packet has 5 paranthas in it). I know that sounds ridiculous but me poor me accepted. (I am such a nice guy you see or may be an Ass).

Some how managed to reached the Indian shop. But shopkeeper (an Indian dude) said that paranthas were out of stock. "Sab nikal gaye sir jaise Mandir main Prasad bat rha ho".

"WHAT ???? I traveled 1 hour to hear that there are no paranthas. You are kidding right?" But there was no smile on his face (So no kidding.. shidding). But on my request and an extensive search in his freezer, he was able to find two packets of paranthas. I must be really lucky. "WOW!!! Something is better than nothing".(I know I know I was supposed to take paranthas for others but he was out of stock remember... *Devil Grin*). I asked him how much did that cost. He said,"400 yen each". "400 yen??? But my friend took it for 300 yen. Kya bhaiya theek theek lagao. See, I came here for TWENTY PACKETS (with a huge stress on 20). I will come here again when you will have the stock". After 10 minutes of bargaining, he agreed. ;)

After coming out of the store, I just couldn't stop laughing. I had never done bargaining in Japan before this but this was heights. "Bhaiya theek theek lagao". I mean what was I thinking. It just reminded me of bargaining in India and I realized that some things can never change :D. I mean when I was talking to him, I kept thinking, "What the hell am I saying?", but at the same time I was having fun and I didn't want to spoil it.

Started my journey back. All planned out. Butter is there at room, will buy curd on way. So, dinner tonight is going to be aaloo parantha just the way I like it. By the time I reached home, I was starving as if been fasting for ages (I totally forgot the Big Mac burger that I had from Mc Donald's on my way to the store). Kept the parantha for heating.. All set.. Fried it properly...Butter also ready and here comes the parantha.

"HOLY COW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" "Where the HELL is AALOO in it and why does it taste WEIRD???"

I don't remember when was the last time I uttered that much amount of profanity.

Life sucks. *sigh*

The First Trip

"Where is the check list?? Oh! Have I picked up everything? Ok! Kept Passport. Got Tickets. Forex also collected. Oh! Have I picked up everything?" Something like this was the state of my mind when I was supposed to leave for Japan. Yah, That's right... My First Trip to Japan.

It all happened 8 months back, when I got the news that I will have to fly to Japan for a project. When I got the news, my first reaction was a mixture of excitement, confusion, anxiety and I don't know what not. Suddenly, I had so many questions and at the same time I was totally blank. Anyways, the preparation for the project began. It was hardcore study for 4 weeks after which we were supposed to travel.

Travel date arrived. Till then, people had told me enough about Japan (like they eat Frogs, Lizards and Snakes there). Though food is not an issue with me. As long as some thing is edible and tastes good, I am cool with it but frogs and lizards... Yuck!! Who is going to eat that ? So, with this apprehension, I boarded the flight.

Reached Japan. Kept waiting for the checked in luggage to arrive but it never came. Everybody went off and my team members were waiting for me but how could I come? My bag had not come out yet. After a while, a Japanese lady came to me, she seemed to be very polite and she asked me something in Japanese. I told her that my bag has not come out and she again repeated something in Japanese. Suddenly I realized, I am in Japan. No one speaks English here. In the mean time she said something again and my reaction: HUH??? So from here, sign language came into picture and I was again in stone age where they was no language just symbols. So, we played like this for a while and after some time she managed to tell me that my baggage was coming in a different flight and they will deliver it in 3 days. My reaction: WHAT??? This cant be happening with me. I told her my bag has all my stuff and I cant wait for 3 days. After a long discussion and sign language game it was decided that she will try to send the bag on same night to my hotel. I had a map of my hotel in which there was an address that I gave her. So, just keeping my fingers crossed, I came out of the airport with my colleagues but the day was not over yet.

With a lot of difficulty and by pointing again and again on map we were able to explain the taxi driver where we wanted to go. The complete journey till the hotel was in prayers, "Please god, Please get me my luggage!!!".

Reached hotel but there was no one at concierge. We started asking each other the same question, "Are you sure we are at the right place?" So after another horrible 1 hour (since no one on street also spoke English), we came to know that we are at a wrong hotel. In fact, the complete map and address was of some different hotel and we were supposed to go to a different hotel.(Since everything was written in Japanese we could never know just by looking at the map). My heart suddenly came into my mouth. I had given this address to the airport staff and airport was around 2 hour journey. We called our manager(who has been in Japan for a long time now and knows Japanese very well) and he told us how to get to "our" hotel. I also told him about my luggage "situation". Luckily I had given his mobile number to airport officials for "Just in case" situation.(and It was a "Just in case" situation).

At 1130 at night I got a call from hotel reception. He somehow managed to tell me that someone called from airport and my luggage is going to come to the hotel in some time. My reaction: "Thank god... Thank god ...(around hundred times)".

Finally the moment arrived. Door bell rang and there he was, standing, with my bag in one hand and receipt in the other, smiling away to glory. I don't know how many times did I Thank him that night.

The day had finally ended.

After that there had been 2 more trips which were equally adventurous. May be will write about it some other time.

By the way, (Just for the sake of information) people dont eat frogs, lizards and snakes here.

And I started blogging...

First of all.. A BIG HELLO to all those who came to the inauguration of my blogging. Yah I guess inauguration is the word as it seemed to be a huge project when I thought about it.

I started reading blogs just a few weeks back. I think people who write here are wonderful at writing. Read so much stuff. Interesting stuff. Funny stuff. Left comments. With time, I got so engrossed in this stuff that I finally made up my mind. Apy will also write. I mean... How cool is it that you get to know how people think... What they think and How much others(who leave their comments) can make them feel comfortable, relieve them of some issues they have been carrying for a long time.

But then suddenly a question popped up in my mind. Who would like to read me? People like to read someone whose interesting, who writes cool stuff and who can get a grip on others emotions.

Am I good enough?

This thought made me rethink about what I was going to do. The decision that I took sincerely to write my heart out seemed to be fading out. I sat for a long time looking at the screen. There was a huge tussle in my mind. A part of my mind said, "Enter this world, You ve always done what you ve liked. If you like this, just believe in yourself" and the other part said, "Who will read you? Do you seriously think that you are good enough?"

So the fight went on and on. Eventually I thought... May be its time... May be people who write so well today went through the same thing once... May be they also chose to start off instead of backing off thinking they were not good enough... I like to learn and may be I will also improve with time... So with this hope I made up my mind. To write. To share. May be there are others out there who also think like me... Feel like me... So here s Apy giving a try...

Some might think I have real confidence issues but then who doesn't? I think its purely Human
but then if I had real confidence issues, Could I possibly write on this topic?

That was heavy i know. But jus got a little Ekshtra senti :-)