A Short-lived Adventure!

This entry is a part of BlogAdda contests in association with Zapstore.com

I spotted a man

Hovering suspiciously beside a van,

I said, "Here's my once in a lifetime shot at adventure."

So I followed him around

Until I found,

That the poor old guy was only 

looking for his dentures!!

............................

A muted sigh,

An unshed tear,

Somebody...

Send me a cold beer

Summer 2010

56 days, 10 movies, 8 blog posts, 7 1/2 books, 3 reunions, 1 Tuesday Pick, 1 play, 1 blog meet, countless love, homecooked food, endless hours on Facebook and Twitter, a long impending end, and a new beginning...
Does my vacation have to really really end?

Headlines 2020- Facebook kills the reunions

So thanks to Facebook, Orkut and other social networking communities, I had a blast with the past. Nice to catch up with people, squeal  in excitement and at times in shock to see how your friends have turned out. And yeah, catch up with them finally after so many years.

I sometimes wonder how people managed to stay in touch before the advent of social networking sites. How effective really were alumni associations?

With all and sundry now being connected on social networking sites, you KNOW what's happening with your friends, on a daily basis. You know where they've been, you know how they look like, you know what they do, what they do for a living, relationship status, employment history, et al. How will reunions look like, 10 years from now? Will there be reunions at all? Won't social networking take the whole fun out of reunions?

Facebook Friend Hunt

The last one month has been hectic and thanks to Facebook, quite interesting too! I've been jobless (read on a vacation) and with nothing much to do, I attacked Facebook with a frenzy that I've never known before. I unearthed several friends and have had  at least 3 reunions, not counting the friends Ive met on an indivual basis. Connected with ex- colleagues, students, college friends and even some school friends... It was real nice to catch up with long-lost buddies after almost 17 years, and get to know what was happening in their lives.

Mind you, finding old friends can be quite a task given that you get 89 results once you hit the search, and scan through pages that give you only a limited access of their profiles. Some of them have cartoon characters as display pics, or worse still, no pics at all, and well if the friend has added oodles of weight, the way I have, it is quite a herculean task to figure out if the person in the pic was the same one who stole 18 Rs. from you in seventh grade, or the same girl you used to bunk lectures with. To find out old friends belonging to the female species can be quite ardous, given that most of them would have married  and changed their second names. So exercise your brain cells and retrieve the names of their brothers from your already rusty memory! It actually worked for me, at least once...

So what happens when the friend you are looking for had no brothers that you knew of, or couldnt recall their names?  This was a dilemma I faced when I was looking for RP, a dear friend of mine, who unfortunately I hadn't managed to stay in touch after college. All of a sudden I remembered a guy- RK whom I had a huge huge crush on, and since he was her neighbour I hoped she had stayed in touch with him. So I type in his name and manage to find him on Facebook, given that he has a rare combo of first and second names. Plus his DP made it quite obvious that he was the same tall guy I had a crush on. A peek into his Info confirmed this further and before I knew it, I sent him a message.

After a week long wait, he responded at a time I happened to be online.
Here is what ensued between THE Ex Crush and me:
RK: hello
Me: hi R
RK: how r u? after long long time
RK: surprise
Me: yeahhh im good n how r u doing?
RK: all is well
RK: do u still write marathi poems
Me: (Geez, you don't waste time do you? This is getting a bit awkward, me thinks, what the heck!!)
i never wrote marathi poems...hahahaha they wr stolen from somewhere 2 impress someone....now give me RP's number
RK: oh god
RK: to impress whom?
Me: aree....thats history
RK: ha ha ha ha ha
Me: chal now dont embarass me.....just want RP's number

What do you call a moment when you are undescribably embarassed and having fun at the same time?

Well, all's well that ends well. He did manage to give me RP's number and we (RP and I, what were you thinking?) met the very next day. Another Facebook conquest...

Teacher's Day

Who is/was your favourite teacher, and why? Post your tweets @mumbaiteacher or email your entries to mumbaiteacher@gmail.com Sub line- My favourite teacher. 

All your entries will be posted on mumbaiteacher.blogspot.com on 5th September, Teachers' Day. Hurry!! Send in your entries before 2nd September, 2010.

Toeragz on BlogAdda

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!! My blog post Once upon a time has been selected by BlogAdda @ http://adda.at/Tangy11 as one of the top posts for 'Tangy Tuesday Picks'.

Toeragz on BlogAdda Tangy Tuesday

Once upon a time

A not-so little bird, happy and gay

Once looked up in the sky,

Saw birds flying high above,

Twittering and chirping away.

She wanted to be with them,

Know new birds and trees,

She went and met their Chief,

He welcomed her,

And put her at ease.

So she left her lovely nest,

In search of a new one,

But when she reached there,

She saw the birds,

Who once she thought, were so much fun,

Had not kept up in the race of evolution.

She remembered her lovely nest,

And sang a beautiful song,

But all the birds looked at her

And said her song was wrong

She felt terribly sad,

In her grief,

She went to the Chief,

And asked him to help fix things,

He said all would be OK,

The bird found her wings.

As we read the poem,

She still waits and wonders,

Will she lose her voice?

Or will she rejoice?

Memories

I remember waking up to the sounds of the whistle of the pressure cooker in our small and modest one room cum kitchen every morning. I must have been around 4 years old then, and unlike most kids my age I wouldn't ever complain about being whisked away for a bath, coz I would eagerly await the routine that followed next. Watching my mom getting lunch ready was a visual treat every morning. Sometimes, mom would get annoyed with me for getting in her way (it was a small place after all) but more often than not, I would be allowed to stick my fingers in the dough and play with it till mom was ready to roll out perfectly rounded yummy chapatis. Mom would then pack dad's lunch box with chapati and the subji of the day and then drop me off at the babysitter's.

One day, it got into me to make a chapati for my dear pappa, to earn a proud look from him. As mom wouldn't let me anywhere near the stove, I waited patiently for her to place the hot tawa under the cooking platform. As soon as she got busy, I pressed the tiny bit of dough that I had stolen, on the tawa making sure that it was brown on both the sides. Voila! I had a mini chapati prepared by me. I ran to mom and showed her my creation. It didn't earn the appreciation that I had expected. : ( Not knowing what to do next, I slipped the tiny chapati into my dad's tiffin box and told her to tell dad that I had made it for him.

All day long, through school day and later, I waited for my dad to come home, sweep me in his arms and tell me how he loved eating the chapati that I had made for him. Finally, it was time for him to come home, time for my sterling moment. Alas...no such thing happened...he hadn't noticed the tiny chapati I had made for him. It was as if it had never existed, it remained in my memories...the immortal chapati....

Rant- unedited

it breaks my heart to see kids treat their parents shabbily when they grow up. Kids who mock their very own humble beginnings and feel embarassed to acknowledge their parents coz they dont fit into their new 'social set' which they wdnt have gotten into had it not been for the hard work and sacrifices made by their parents. Sad to see such self proclaimed successes who straitjacket their parents into their new lifestyle without considering whether or not their parents are comfortable with it.
Sorry guys...no matter what u earn and where u live and what u drive, .if you cannot treat ur own parents well, you fail to impress me. Can u really find true happiness after hurting the ones who gave u birth and brought u up with such pains?