A Reunion of Sorts

I will always remember the weekend that came and went so quickly. It was such an eventful weekend as if it was filled with the stuff of a week. Yes, I am talking about the last weekend of August 2005.

One of my best friends was getting married and another one was about to leave for US to pursue MS Finance. Some other good old buddies from our MBA class made it there. All of us were so excited about it and were waiting for the time. But it came and flew so fast. Of course, it left us a spate of wonderful sweet memories.

It was Reetu's wedding and Namita is one who has already left for US. Arshad and Rashmi came up from Bangalore. I must not forget to mention that Maryam bhabhi accompanied Arshad too. Kashif has plans to come but he got engaged with Typhoid. May God bless him with speedy recovery. Among others present were - Hemant and Richa, Mita - Kama and Aishani, Manish Narisetti and some others from Junior batch. Of the juniors, the ones I know, were - Rohit Mehrotra, Manjusha and Anuj Kapoor.

We had a gala time together. The wedding photos and movie are ready. The next day, I spent some quality time with Arshad, Maryam bhabhi and Rashmi. It was when we had lunch at Lasani's and went for a walk around Husain Sagar.

The weekend is over. All of us are back to our mundane things. It feels like I have just paid a visit to my dreamland. But this was worth it... Pray for many more of such visits.

Mission in Life!

“There is one way for you to know whether you have fulfilled your mission on Earth: If you’re still alive it’s because you haven’t fulfilled it yet.”

Many of us give it a thought. At least, I am regularly haunted by this question. What am I sent on this Earth for? Well, the above quote says it all. I will cease to be on this earth once I served the purpose of my creation. Of course, apart from fulfilling the purpose, there is a time limit as well. Every test has to be taken for some fixed duration of time.

Here, I would like to quote a sher from a ghazal by Mughal Emperor Poet - Bahadur Shah Zafar. It goes like this -

na kisii kii aa.Nkh kaa nuur huu.N na kisii ke dil kaa qaraar huu.N
jo kisii ke kaam na aa sake mai.n vo ek Musht-e-Ghubaar huu.N

Qaraar - Peace/Harmony

Musht-e-Ghubaar - Fistful of dust

The Complete Ghazal

I never want to lament my life in this way. I wish God answers this supplication from a sinful servant.

To be your own man

To be your own man is a hard business.

If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened.

But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.

Trip to Mahabaleshwar

I will remember this independence day all through my life as I spent it in a very special way. Clubbed with Saturday and Sunday, it was a long weekend for most people working in IT sector.

I had already planned to pay a visit to Pune. So I was there to meet my brother. Somehow, some other relatives also planned their visit to his place at the last moment. When all of us reached his place, we decided to go somewhere. My cousin suggested that we should go to Mahabaleshwar - a hill station in Maharashtra which is over 4000 feet above from sea level. We didn't want to spend much time deciding where to go so all of us agreed.


Next morning, we set off. It is about 140 kms from Pune and anybody can imagine the topsy turvy roads that lead to hill stations. The trip seemed like an adventure to me. All along the way, I could never take off my eyes from the lovely green hills and mountains. They looked so fresh after being washed with rain. I could never stop marvelling at the steep curves on the road, view of the clouds covering the top of mountains as well as blocking the view of villages down the valley. The air was so fresh and pure. Every breath was fulfilling.

While I was still busy in adulating what I was watching, we reached Panchgani - a place before Mahabaleshwar. Panchgani has a lot of those Hill-station boarding schools. One of them was where my cousin studied too. We went to a spot which is like a table mountain, that is, the top of the mountain has a stretch of flat land which is as flat as a table. This point was supposed to give a wonderful view of the valleys but the day we were there it was full of clouds. We could not see beyond 30 feet or so. We enjoyed ice-creams in the slight drizzle which went on throughout the day. At times, it got heavier and we had no other options. We didn't take any umbrellas or rain jackets. After spending some time in Panchgani , we started for Mahabaleshwar.


The waterfalls and the lakes in Mahabaleshwar were such a delight for one's eyes. A first time visitor from fertile lands could do nothing but keep gazing at the exotic locales. A lot of tourists had thronged the place because of the long weekend holiday. Finding a parking place in the small market area of Mahabaleshwar was a problem but after a little effort, we got it. Apart from people and cars, the streets were occupied by a number of Horses. Taking a horse ride seemed a popular game for tourists. One could have a ride on Sikandar, Saddam, or Shahrukh for a paltry sum ;-). However, I didn't take a ride as I couldn't find the one I was looking for. I guess, Basanti's Dhanno would have been very much in demand. Who knows she would have gone to Mumbai to shoot for the new SHOLAY. ;-)

Well, that is all about it. We picked up some Chikki, Chana packets and inexpensive Fruit Jam bottles from one of Mala's many factory outlets lined on the road. We also brought some ever-lasting memories with us. Some trapped in our cameras which are yet to come and others - fresh in my mind which let out this write-up.