Thirties Here we come!!!

So we turn Thirty!!!!!

It hasn't sinked in yet, but I will look back at those 30 years sometime soon. In short, the last 30 has been a busy one with studies, start-ups, jobs, love, heart-breaks, friendships, life-long bonds, parties and many more unforgettable moments. It was fun. But there is a gut feeling that th enext 30 will be the ones that I will be remembered for.

As Selene put it to me

The only time you really live fully is from thirty to sixty. The young are slaves to dreams; the old servants of regrets. Only the middle-aged have all their five senses in the keeping of their wits. - Hervey Allen

Only that I refuse to be called middle-aged :P.

It's been an amazing birthday till now. Friends gathered for my cake cutting. I was down with food-poisioning, yet, we braved a lot of vomits to welcome the thirties with a satisfying sip of single-malt, cake smudging on the face and amazing gifts. And I do want to boast about the best gift ever. I was looking for this elusive out-of-print copy since ages. And Selene made it possible for me

Next sweet thing was my mom waiting all day long, before calling me at 4:36pm and saying "Now you have turned 30".

Week long parties have been planned. Small party today, followed by few card parties, and a big bash on Sunday afternoon. Should be fun :)

So I haven't planned how my next few years are going to be, but some things I want to do are

• Have my own start-up
• Visit one country each year for the next few years
• Watch as many sports events as possible (This itself is a long list)
• Get back to playing sports everyday
• Brush my teeth in the night
• Improve my dietary habbits
• Have a large collection of alcohol
• Keep on dodging the marriage bullet

And some more things that I will add to this list soon.

Cheers !!!!

To Selene - Part III

It's that time of the year when I have to log in and wish you at a place that reminds us of the beginning of the "beshtest" friendships of our lives. And suppose that you don't like the gifts (which I doubt) , I can always say that I am updating this blog just for you, after 9-10 months so you cannot complain (I am cheap like that :) )

A VERY HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY TO YOU

Its a milestone birthday and you must be looking back at the things you achieved, the people you met, the bridges you made and the moments that made you smile or cry. And when you do that , I am sure you will see us like the icing on the cake ( spot-light hamesha hum pe bani rehni chahiye). I am proud to say that the last two and half years that we have spent together is like thirty years if not a lifetime.

And the last one year was no exceptions. And the highlight of it was the trip to thailand. I was going through a previous post of yours of thirty things to do before turning thirty. The trip puts a check on one of the items :). I can proudly say that this was by far the best vacation I had ( Goa vacation ko bhi neeche karna padega iske liye toh :P ).

Last year was full of interesting food ( your south india recipes and my bihari mutton) , long discussion and debates ( I have to admit that I still can't beat you in a debate:) ), crazy dancing nights at our favorite watering hole, vacations, gambling (:P that would be mostly me ), watching movies, shopping, shifting houses and running around to make both our houses a party place and uncountable number of beers.

We did have our share of fights, those difficult and sad moments and those disappointments , but like always, we have come a long way and our friendship is all the more beautiful. You have been my biggest support and like I always say , I have grown with you beside me. Thank you :)

I strongly feel that your decade is here with this 30th birthday. This will be the decade because of which you will be remembered for. No one might believe what I say , but my gut says so ( and you know my gut is never wrong). Even though it's your birthday i am putting a wishlist for you for the next decade

• Write at least five books.
• Learn 10 different cuisines from 10 pars of the world ( refer gift :P)
• Visit 10 new countries (strictly on vacation and of course with me )
• Become very famous
• Earn a lot of money (its only for me so that you can fund my ventures, give me expensive gifts and take me to fancy places)
• Have at least 10,000 books in your bookshelf
• Have a smile for at least 64800 hours while the rest 21600 hours are spent in deep sleep.

I will keep on adding to this list from time to time :)

And after you have done all of it (of course with me being around), I can so imagine celebrating your 40th birthday with you in a hot cotton saree and me in linen shirt, both of us with salt an pepper hair, saying cheers to beer :)

A very happy birthday to you. The magical number always is and always will be 42 :)

Tere jaisa yaar kahan
Kahan aisa yaarana
Yaad karegi duniya
Tera mera afsana

Meri zindagi sawaari
Mujhko gale lagake
Baitha diya falak pe
Mujhe khaak se oothake
Yaara teri yaari ko
Maine to khuda mana
Yaad karegi duniya
Tera mera afsana


Mere dil ki yeh dua hai
Kabhi door tu na jaaye
Tere bina ho jeena
Woh din kabhi na aaye
Tere sung jeena yahan
Tere sung mar jaana
Yaad karegi duniya
Tera mera afsana

2011 : Koi Roko Naa ....

I am definitely late for a birthday post or a year ending post or even a year-beginning post, but yet here I am with a "better late than never" post.

One of the main reasons for such a delay is my job which has been really keeping me busy. Oh!!! Did I tell you I have shifted jobs? :) Yes, now I can be put in the one-that-changes-jobs-every-year club. But, this job is really interesting, just the kind I had been itching to lay my hands on. It's a successful start-up in the internet industry. And for a change from my previous job, majority of my colleagues here believe more in working and not indulging in politics. BTW, the firm is into fashion and luxury items, which means that now, I know what pumps, hobo bags, ivy-caps or faux-fur outerwear are :P.

So, coming back to 2010, there were three major things that happened.
Firstly, I managed to dodge the marriage bullet. There were many proposals and some close shaves. I am sure this year will be the toughest of all. But I am equally convinced this year that marriage is not my cup of tea and also that I don't like this particular "tea". I want to concentrate on my career, do a lot of travelling and many more interesting things on my own.

Second important thing was my job shift. And finally after ages I am actually working more than eight hours a day. I am working on weekends and that too by choice. I am enjoying every moment of it.

And the third and the most important thing is that I am no more a virgin when it comes to Goa. Yes, I finally got to to see Goa, thanks to Selene. There were innumerable occasions in my life when I was very close to doing a Goa-trip and every time something or the other happened. And I was tired of hearing Goa stories. And it was Selene who always said that Goa is one place so made for me. And after one and half years of planning, we finally did Goa. And what a place that is. I like the water a lot, I like beer a lot and I like lazying around a lot. And all of it happened in Goa. There was beer, the sea, more beer, the beaches and yes more beer. We sat for hours sipping beer, devouring sea-food, watching the waves and not uttering a word. We did party a lot in the night and lost money in the casino , but my favorite moments were the quiet ones, sitting on the beach and watching the waves rise with grandeur and collapse in front our feet in total submission. Majestic!!
And I have promised myself that I have to do a Goa trip every year. Sher ke mooh mein khoon lag gaya finally ;)

2010 was a good year for me. I bought my dream car, partied like animals and traveled to a few places . And yes, I shifted to a new house which i intend to make a perfect bachelor's pad. So what what plans for 2011, you ask?

Well, no big plans but some things that I want to do are

• Work harder and build a name in the industry
• Concentrate on my health a little more. I haven't played a sport in ages and that's so not me. 2010 will be the only year in my life where I didn't play at all. But I don't want it to happen anymore.
• Travel to Ladakh. Again, you can blame Selene for that because she says you can travel to whatever part of the world, but if you haven't seen Ladakh, you haven't seen anything. So, hopefully in July will make a plan.
• Also, want to save some money and do a trip to a firang country. The idea is to see at least one country every year.
• There's a strong urge building up inside me . And that is to go the start-up way again. I don't think it's going to happen in the near future, but the itch is growing every day, so you never know :)
• And finally, dodge the marriage bullet again :)

The anthem for 2011 is

Koi Roko Na Deewane Ko

Mann Machal Raha Kuch Gaane Ko

Koi Roko Na Deewane Ko

Mann Machal Raha Kuch Gaane Ko

Koi Roko Na ..

... because …

ik raasta hai zindagi

jo tham gaye to kuch nahi
ye qadam kisi muqaam pe

jo tham gaye to kuch nahi

Experience Life !!!

I am 29 going on 30 , dil kyun na dhak dhak kare

We begin the last year of our twenties and so this decade will henceforth be known as the talli twenties. Thriving thirties we will see you next year.
Details of my 29th birthday in the next post.
Happy birthday to me

To Selene - Part II

Dear Selene,

The time of the year has come when tumko footage dene ka time aata hai. Toh humne socha ki since I am such a gentleman, I should oblige.

The last year has been one hell of a ride.We had loads of Mahabharat between us and and we had numerous drunken revelries. But the moments I cherish are the Saturday afternoon conversations that we generally have. We have discussed people, relationships, career, life and what not. And like always tumhaare gyaan ko koi beat nahi kar sakta. And I say this because we have always been on the same plane, and hence your gyaan has always forced me to think about life in a saner way.

We did so many vacations together. But the special one is, by far, Goa. (Yes readers, I am no more a Goa-virgin, details later). And it has been the best vacation ever. Goa turned out to be just the way you had described and yes I loved every bit of it. Thank you for that. And next time as promised, we will definitely do Leh-Ladakh.

And I am really happy about your new job. I strongly believe that this is the job that will take you places. You totally deserve it. ( Dear readers , Selene is all set to become a hi-flier and is now a "BlackBerry Boy"). I now have the licence to tease you about your BB. Muwahahahaah

Now, coming to your birthday. Your gifts have been bought as requested (err I mean as commanded). And I so love your whining right now about not having a dress to wear for the party. *evil laughter* ;).

Now let's make a todo for you for the next year

- You should be more regular with your blog

- You better start thinking about your book

- start planning a vacation in Ladakh

- Be prepared for more parties at TC.

It's been an amazing experience being a part of your life. You really know how to take care of the people around you and that's the best thing about you. In other words aage bhi hum peecha nahi chhodne waale.

Happy birthday to you. I know you will have a blast this year. Waise bhi aakhri saal hai jawaani ka. Agle saal se 30 ka budhaapa hai.

The song for you this birthday is

Tum Kya Mile Jane jaan
Pyaar Zindagi Se Ho gaya
Aji Izzat Afzayee Ka Shukriyaa Shukriya
Is Nacheez Ko Aap Ne Kaabil Toh Samjha
Tum Kya Mile Jane jaan
Pyaar Zindagi Se Ho gaya

Hum Toh Yeh Samjhe The
Kahaani Khatam Huyee
Naaz Humein Tha Jispe
Jawaani Khatam Huyee
Tera Mera Yeh Saamana
Naye Ek Subhaa Ki Iktida
Tum Kya Mile Jane jaan
Pyaar Zindagi Se Ho gaya

Yeh zindagi hai ek juwaa

I love Poker. I used to be a big fan of Teen Patti, but the day I started playing Poker, Teen Patti looked childish. Its like discovering beer after years of drinking coke.

In the last few days while playing poker I started noticing a lot of things that are relevant in life too. Yes, poker has an element of luck, but not entirely. There are a few other aspects of life that poker teaches

1. Risk
Poker is about risk. There are two kinds of unsuccessful poker players - one kind who don't ever take risk and two who risk a lot hoping to strike lucky. Whether its Poker or life , if you fall in any of the two categories, you are doomed to fail. A successful risk is a calculative one. Its not a blind risk. You risk your chips/life keeping in mind the probability of you winning with the cards in hand (read - things/opportunities that you own), probability of failure of your opponents with the cards on the board and finally the probability of the next card opening on the board and giving you a winning hand. Risks are good. I have taken a lot of risks. some have worked some haven't. But, all the risks that failed for me were ones where I was short-sighted and where I didn't hedge my risks.

2. Ego
In a normal game of poker (and by normal I mean players who are not professionals), I believe, 90 % of times someone loses a hand because of her ego. Having Ego is good. But never mix ego with risk and never have an ego-war with your opponent - have it with yourself. A lot of times you keep on playing (even if you don't have a good hand) because you want to defeat a particular person. You think the opponent is bluffing. You believe that your success is in her failure and not in your winning. Take my word for it - you will eventually LOSE everything. Learn to give your ego a cold shoulder once in a while. Learn to withdraw in time : You might not have won the round but you have succeeded in being in the game ready to strike the next time opportunity comes your way. Jab taang hi nahi rahegi toh daudoge kaise?

3. "How much" after "when"
You might have mastered the art of "when to risk", but is that enough? Methinks NOT. Another aspect to understand is "How much to risk". My advice is that when you believe that you are in a winning position, back yourself with higher stakes . There's always a chance of luck playing a spoilt sport but then you will always take back the thought that you lost to a better hand. In life, this is what we call backing ourselves up. We fail because a lot of times we don't back ourselves well when we have belief in ourselves. All our lives we win some, we lose some. I feel the successful ones are those who risk big when it really matters. Obviously, if you lose, you lose a lot more but you will know that you fought well and you will not be disheartened and will be up for it the next time.

4. Losing is winning
You get better at poker by losing and not by winning. And same goes for life. When someone asked Edison why he persisted in inventing a light bulb after his numerous failed attempts , he replied 'I haven’t failed. I have discovered 5000 ways of how not to do it. These can now be eliminated from my experiments.’

P.S. - Next time a Jai tells a Mausi that Veeru kabhi kabhi Juwaa khel leta hai, give Veeru a brownie point because he knows a trick or two about life :)

P.P.S. - And the whole point of the post was not to give you gyaan, but to entice you to a game of poker at my place :P :P .

Twitter ki haseen duniya

In the past few days I have been reading and hearing a lot about twitter. Barkha Dutt hosted a show on "We the people(tweeple)" (too lazy to put the link) where people discussed what's ethical on twitter, whether twitter can be regarded as an alternate form of journalism, whether twitter is invading our privacy, and of course Chetan Bhagat cribbing about how he was wronged etc. Then there were a few people who went on a Twitter detox. They stayed away from twitter for about 15 days. All these people went on a detox because of various reasons. But some of the reasons were really lame like

• We were first to join twitter
• We used to have intellectual conversations on twitter and now it's just noise
• Twitter is invading privacy

I am no brand ambassador of twitter, but being in the Internet Industry and also following social-media closely , let me tell you how I feel.

Twitter is the new age journalism : People say that twitter is not credible enough. But you got to realize that it's an individual who builds credibility. If I am a budding journalist and I keep on pushing good content/news on twitter, people will start following me. Yes, there is a lot of noise, but that's the beauty of twitter. It's your prerogative to follow the right kind of people for a particular subject(in this case news). People have an issue with false breaking-news (especially local news) published on twitter by individuals. But again you got to realize, it's just a starting point of a news. If I tweet that there's a fire in the next building, you are not supposed to believe me. Instead you have got a lead, you need to verify the fact through other sources.

Also, it works as a great tool to market your blogs, flickr albums, graphic art etc. There are no strict rules to define what qualifies as media. One-to-many flow of information has every right to be called a news medium.

Twitter ethics : I have argued about this a lot with friends and colleagues. General stance is that no one has the right to take a dig at some person (generally celebrities). But I say, my twitter account is my space. I haven't asked you to follow me. If you do , then you have no right to question what I tweet. The best moderation on Internet works on the fundamental principle of all users becoming moderators. WikiPedia is a success because the users make it a point to moderate what other users are writing. You cannot moderate everything on your site. Involve the users to report spam, and it works wonders. Similarly, on twitter if a guy keeps on cursing people, he will be shunned in general by all. So, don't be a moral police on Twitter.

As for the whole detox thing :

• If you were the early twitter good for you. But yes, its not your own property. People will join , like it or hate it.
• We used to have intellectual conversations on twitter and now it's just noise : Dude , I was a party to your conversation. Exchanging rhyming drunken tweets is not being intellectual. Chances of finding 10 intellectual tweets from 1000 users is much preferable than 2 intellectual tweets from 100 users. And I know what your problem is. You enjoyed the early-movers advantage and you enjoyed the twitter celebrity status. Now, there are many more tweeple who are more witty and and their tweets are much more informative. Accept that. Don't like it get out of twitter. As for the noise part, yes, that's bound to happen. But you should know the art of separating grain from chaff. If not, your loss. Also, if you don't like a celebrity tweeting about his toilet habits, don't follow her. It's your choice so learn to deal with it.
• Twitter is invading privacy: Twitter is a platform. It's your choice to share what you want on twitter. You can control who wants to see your personal tweet. But if someone sees your tweet you don't have the right to complain. If you feel your virtual life is taking over your real life and friends, it's your problem and nobody else's. You have mixed your priorities. Don't find an scapegoat.

In all, Twitter is a medium. Enjoy it. Use it like the way you want to use it. Just like in life, be judgemental of your own tweeting habits and not of others.

MOTS: Jab tak meri jaan rahegi main tweetoonga