well its me again

2006-10-05T08:47:00.000-07:00

Well Ladies and Gentleman i am Back so are Jackie Shroff and Baba Sehgal :)

This is awesome http://in.rediff.com/movies/2006/oct/04msg.htm . This is the thing I was waiting for ages now ..time has come for my salvation . Jackie Shroff as Jack Sparrow .

So seeing all this if Jackie Shorff,Baba Sehgal can make a come back why cant i .So i am back blogging .

Now its aapdo jha from US blogging :)

Time never went so quick it seems yesterday only I landed in Atlanta .Its been whole 8 months now I guess enough to be branded as an "NRI" hehe .I wanna write about my experiences in US so far which mostly have been overwhelming .

A Simple love story

2005-08-08T01:41:00.000-07:00

here comes my favorite story ....author is anonymous and edited by yours truly .
I love this story 'coz the protagonist is just another guy(read software pro) like me .
This story is dedicated to my first love : XXXX , she is getting married this november to some software pro .... i wished i could go back in times to tell her how much i love her ....

here begins , prem kahani .......

It was a lovely December morning in the hottest city
in the world. All right, so that was a little unfair.
Chennai is not the hottest city in the world. But it
certainly is the city with the most uncomfortable
weather among the cities that I have lived in. And
I've been around. But I digress.

I was in the company bus on my way to work, as usual
trying to catch up with my sleep. On this particular
day, a girl got on the bus, came to my seat and sat
down. "Good Morning," she said. I looked back at her
through half closed eyes, replied "Good Night," and
then proceeded to return to my half hour nap before
the bus reached the office. Unfortunately, I was
woken up by a punch in the arm.

"Wake up, bozo!" She was looking at me with a big
smile on her face. "I'm not sitting next to you to
listen to you snore."

Half-heartedly, I opened my eyes and turned to her.
"What's up?" I asked.

Preeti Mehra was tall, good-looking and slightly
tomboyish. She was also my best buddy. "Come on," she
said. "Don't look so disappointed. You'd rather sleep
than talk to me?"

"I talk to you everyday, Preeti."

"You also sleep everyday."

"It's not enough."

"So you've had enough of talking to me, eh?"

You can't argue with a statement like that, so I had
to give up. I grinned and said, "OK, sweetheart.
What's on your mind?"

"I wanted to tell you what happened yesterday. Can you
guess?"

"Anurag called you last night."

"How did you know?" She was stunned.

"Oh, he asked me for your number yesterday."

"And you gave it to him?"

"What else could I do? And stop complaining. You've
been drooling over him for weeks now. He must have
thought he had a chance."

Preeti was the kind of girl who would openly ogle at
every other guy she saw. And yet, she would not
respond to any advances o f a romantic nature.
She'd happily join a group of boys to go to a cricket
match, but if asked out to a movie, dinner, or even
coffee, she'd never say yes. She defined
'Hard-To-Get'.

"You like putting me in these situations, don't you?"
she said.

"No. That's not true. I love putting you in these
situations!"

That invited another punch in the arm.

I had known Preeti for a year. We'd tell each other
about our joys and our sorrows, our victories and our
defeats. I'd tell her about all my crushes and she'd
scold me for being silly. She'd drag me to classical
music concerts and I'd add them to the list of things
she 'owed me' for. And though I never let it show, I
must say that she punched pretty hard.

~*~
It was 12:00 am and my phone was ringing. "Hello," I
said, as I picked it up.

"Happy Birthday!" It was she.

"You're supposed to throw me a surprise party,
sweetheart. Not just call to say Happy Birthday."

"Well then open your door, dumbo!"

So I did and found her, cell-phone in hand, at my
doorstep -- with what seemed like half the population
of my company. My roommates were supposed to be
working late that night. Now I knew why. I blew a lot
of candles (seemed like much more than 25), cut my
cake, got kicked in the behind, and got painted with
the cake's icing. If Preeti had had her way, she'd
probably have preferred to use a paintbrush and a can
of paint. But I bribed her with a copy of the book
"Lord of the Rings".
She'd borrowed it from me three times already. I
thought it was about time I gave her a copy for
herself.

We chatted for an hour after everyone had gone. "I
think it's time I left," she said finally, trying to
stifle a yawn. I nodded. I dropped her home in my
roommate's car. As she was getting out of the car, I
stopped her.

"Hey, Preeti."

"What?"

"Thanks."

"Hey, don't get senti on me now!" she smiled. "Are you
trying to worm out of that gift you promised me?"

"You know, it's interesting how I'm getting you a gift
on my birthday."

"That's just because you're stupid," she grinned. "And
you better get me that book, or I won't return your
copy."

"Hey, that copy was a gift to me from my dear friend
Preeti Mehra. I can't let you keep that."

She wasn't falling for that. "Your dear friend? And
what about me? Am I not dear to you?"

"Very smart. That won't work with me. I'm not one of
your Love Crazy suitors. Why do you need the book
anyway? You've read it umpteen times already."

"That is besides the point. You are getting me the
book. We both know that." She smiled that wide
confident smile of hers. "Good night." And she got out
of the car.

I sat there for some time, just thinking. Our
conversations were always like this - a little joking,
a little teasin g and a lot of demanding. But somehow,
I felt that something had changed since the moment she
had turned up at my door that night. I was still in my
reverie when a paper ball landed on the windshield. I
craned my neck out of the window and looked up. She
was standing in her balcony.

"What are you still doing there?" she whispered
loudly.

"Waiting for you to start a paper-ball fight," I
whispered back.

"We can do that tomorrow. Go home now. It's way past
your bedtime!"

"Ok, mommy," I grinned back. "I'm going home now!"

~*~
I'm an extravagant gift-giver, and it is definitely
going to be my downfall some day. I made her wait for
it, but finally bought her the book. That, and
half-a-dozen other omnibus collections of various
authors, including a copy each of `The Complete Works
of Shakespeare' and `The Complete Short Stories of
Charles Dickens'. All I got for it was an "I told you
so."

I started sp ending a lot of time at her place after
that. Mostly because I wanted to read all those books,
and she wouldn't lend them to me.

"I'm not as stupid as you, ape-man. I'm not falling
into the same trap I laid for you. Plus, you dog-ear
your books. You're not doing that to these
masterpieces. So if you want to read them, you read
them here. And if you want to mark your place, use a
bookmark."

So that's what I did. She'd even make me wash my hands
before I touched the books. It was as if they were
sacred.

"Need I remind you that it was me that bought you the
books in the first place? For my birthday!"

"So? They're mine now."

"Well, then. I've been meaning to ask you this for a
long time. Where exactly is my birthday gift?"

"It was in your tummy at one point of time. It's
probably been washed into the sea by now."

"Huh?"

"Remember the cake I baked you on your birthday?"

"You what? You c an't bake cakes!" That was a mistake.
She looked hurt.
"You baked me a cake?" She didn't say a word. She just
shrugged.

I was stunned. "But you never told me."

"You didn't ask." That was typical of her.

"It was fantastic! And you wasted most of the icing on
me!"

"The cake was for you, dumbo."

"How long did it take you to make the whole thing?" It
had been a two-layered vanilla-chocolate cake with
three flavors of very creamy icing. She had done all
that!

"Well, the chocolate cake took an hour and fifteen
minutes, and so did the vanilla. Then cutting them up
and putting them together took another 15 minutes.
Each flavor of icing took 20 minutes for preparation,
and then putting it on the cake took another half
hour. Cleaning up the mess took an hour."

She seldom claimed the credit for anything, but once
she started bragging, there was no stopping her.
However, I wasn't thinking about that ri ght then.

"You spent over five hours on that cake?"

"A little over four hours preparing it, and an hour
cleaning up. Yes."

I was speechless. I didn't know how to react. She
hated cooking.

"I forgot to mention," she continued, "the hours I
spent the week before that, practicing. Even the birds
wouldn't touch the first three cakes!"

I couldn't help but ask. "Why?"

"Because the first one got burnt, the second one was
only half cooked, and in the third one, I forgot to
add sugar."

It was just like her, to try to divert the
conversation. "I mean why did you spend so much time
on baking me a cake?"

She looked at me like I'd asked her why the sun rises
in the east. "For your birthday, stupid. Of course, I
also wanted to beat every gift you've ever got me. Try
beating this one." She was grinning like she'd won the
world championship.

As far as I was concerned, she had. I'd never spent a
week making her anything. I'd never even spent an hour
making her anything. Getting her a gift normally
involved me taking her to the store, letting her
choose and use my credit card. Suddenly, I felt cheap.
"Thanks," was the only thing I could say. "Thanks a
lot."

"Hey. Are you getting senti on me again?"

I was.
~*~
I was still mulling over my feelings for Preeti the
next day at work when my boss asked to speak to me.

I went over to his cabin and he started with the usual
greetings, asking how work was going and whether I was
comfortable. He then told me that the company wanted
to send me to New York for a couple of years.
Normally, this wouldn't have made much of a difference
to me. I could work anywhere and didn't have too much
love for visiting places foreign. But right then, the
first thought that came to me was that I'd be away
from Preeti for two whole years. Twenty-four hours
before, I'd have been disappointed to lose her
company. But right then, I was devastated. That was
when I knew I was in love with her. I'd had crushes
before. Lots of them. But this was different.

"Do you have any problem in going?" my boss asked,
since I hadn't responded.

"Not really," I replied. What else could I say? That I
was in love, and couldn't bear the separation?
"When do I have to leave?"

I had a month.
~*~
"Wow! New York! Great! I've heard it's a fantastic
city! Did you know it snows there in winter?" Preeti
was obviously very excited about my going.
She didn't seem to share my disappointment on what I
now saw as 'separation'.

I had not decided then if I was going to tell her how
I felt. We'd known each other for a little over a
year, and we were very close, but beyond some mild
flirting, the relationship had never got even close to
romantic. That was, of course, until I found out she
had spent a week bakin g me a cake. It's funny how
small things seem to make such a big difference.

"What happened?" she asked. "You don't seem very
happy."

"Oh," I replied, "it's just that it's so sudden,
that's all. And you know I was never all that
interested in going to America."

"What an idiot. Go see the place. I've heard the women
there are amazingly beautiful." She had a sly smile on
her face. I wanted to tell her I didn't care if I laid
my eyes on another woman again, if she wasn't with me.
But I didn't.

I realized that I only had another month with her.
She'd rejected every guy who'd asked her out ever
since I'd known her. I didn't want the same to happen
to me, and I didn't want to make it awkward between
us. I didn't want to risk that month. I wanted it to
be the best time I had ever spent with her. After I
came back from the US, I might not even get to meet
her
again. Two years was a long time.
We ate out almost every night. We visited some of the
best restaurants in the city. She also helped me shop
for warm clothes, formalwear, shoes, toothpaste and a
million things I'd never have thought of on my own.

"You need to buy a nail-cutter." My roommates and I
shared one.
"I've prepared a list of must-have medicines that you
should carry."

"Your iron won't work in the US. No point buying one
here as you need one that works at a hundred and ten
volts and has flat pins. You can buy one at a K-Mart
or Wal-Mart as soon as you get there."

"You need at least two pairs of formal shoes and at
least ten pairs of dark socks. The East Coast has a
formal dress code. And you won't do your laundry more
than once a week or two."

"How many ties do you have? And which trousers do your
blazers go with?"

"Better get a haircut before you leave from here.
Knowing you, you'll postpone the first haircut for too
long."

She'd call me up at one in the morning to tell me to
add 'one more item' to my list.

And with every passing day, I was falling more deeply
in love with her.

The month swept by quickly. The day I was supposed to
leave, I asked her to come with me to the airport. "Of
course, dumbo. You think I'd let you go just like
that, or what?"

After packing my bags for me and checking the lists
for the hundredth time, she finally pronounced me
"Good to go."

We reached the airport four hours early to beat the
rush, because it was an international flight. She got
a visitor's pass to sit in the waiting area while I
went ahead and checked-in my bags. Preeti had got a
spring balance from somewhere and so we knew my bags
were well within the weight limit. I finished the
formalities and came to sit with her. We had only a
few hours before I had to go for my security-check. We
decided to get something to eat at the food court. And
all the ti me, the one thing that was going through my
head was that, after this, I wouldn't see her for at
least another two years.

"Hey, Champ. Why so glum?" She saved 'Champ' for
special days. Normally, it was just 'dumbo', 'bozo',
'ape-man', 'matchstick man', 'weirdo', or if she was
very irritated with me, 'nutcase'.

"I don't want to go," I said.

"I don't want you to go either."

"No, you don't understand." I couldn't hold it in any
longer. "I can't stand the thought of living without
you by my side."

She stared at me. There was a strange look in her
eyes. I couldn't read it.

"I am madly in love with you, Preeti."

At this, a sound escaped her lips that sounded like a
cross between a sob and a laugh. "Well, dumbo, you've
picked an absolutely fabulous time to tell me about
it!"

A tear escaped her eyes. It was all I could do to stop
myself from wiping it off her cheeks.

"How long have you felt th is way?" She seemed amused,
though she was definitely crying. I didn't know what
to make of it.

"From the day I found out you had baked me a cake."

She laughed. "That's all it took? Well, bozo, I guess
a way to a man's heart is certainly through his
stomach! Hold it. A month? You waited a month? You
were the one who kept saying that if you really liked
a girl you wouldn't waste a day in telling her!" She
was smiling widely now. It looked funny, with her eyes
all wet.

"Well, I was confused. How did I know how you'd react?
In fact, I still don't understand your reaction. I
thought it would change things between us. You've
rejected every guy who ever proposed to you!"
"That's because I'm in love with you, you overgrown
idiot!"

"What?" Somehow, I'd never expected her to say that.
She was in love with me? "How long have you been in
love with me?"

"Ever since the day you offered to carry my suitcase
for me."

"But that was the first day I met you!"

"I guess I was always a sucker for chivalry."

"All this time you've been in love with me and you
never said anything! Then you go and complain that I
waited a month!"

"You guys are so bad at reading a girl's mind."

"You women are so good at keeping your thoughts a
secret! Even Einstein couldn't figure you out."
"Einstein was a nerd. Casanova, on the other hand,
understood us very well."

"I love you."

"I know."

That moment, my dear friends, was magic. I looked into
her eyes and took her hands in mine. Physical contact
for us had been limited, until then, to a punch in the
arm, a slap on the back of the head, or giving each
other a 'high five'.

"You realize, don't you," she said, "that this is our
first date?" Leave it to her to notice the little
things.

"I really don't want to go." I'd always maintained
that love is a bucketful of emotions. I wasn't exactly
delighted to be proved right.
"Don't worry. I'm coming there in a couple of months."

"How? On a dependent visa?"

She laughed. "For that, I'll have to wait, won't I?
I've got a project in New Jersey."

I couldn't believe my ears. "What? When did that
happen? You never even told me!"

"Well, I wasn't sure you'd propose before you left.
And I couldn't exactly sacrifice you to those New York
women, could I? I had to watch out for myself. So I
went on a project-hunting spree. There is an
opportunity coming up for a project in about two
months. Someone is coming back to India, so I'll be
taking his place. They want me there for a little less
than two years." She was beaming. "I realized I had
struck gold!"

"And if I'd not told you how I felt? When were you
planning on telling me about it?"

"Around a month before I reached there. I had to make
it look natural. Or you'd think I was desperate."

"Well, you are desperate!" This was incredible. All
I'd done in the past month had been to mope around,
listen to sad songs and write her letters that I never
intended her to read. "You've been scheming all this
while! How come you didn't lay a trap for me a year
ago?"

"I tried giving you hints, dumbo, but you just
wouldn't pay attention!"

She was laughing. "You're the only guy I ever spent
any time with. Wasn't that a big enough hint?"

That was true. She would happily join a group of boys
to go to a cricket match, but I now realized, only if
I was one of them.

"What if I had rejected you?" I was extremely
flattered that she'd been crazy about me for a year.
My ego was swelling.

"You must be kidding!" she was clearly amused. "I get
proposed to every few days. You are the one who's been
rejected more times in the last year than I can count
on two pairs of hands!"

She really knew how to burst my bubble.

"Hey," she said softly, "don't look so dejected. I
said 'Yes', didn't I?"

I grinned. "Yes, you did. And you've made me a very
happy man. But you know what would make me even
happier?"

"What?"

"If you learn to cook as good as you bake cakes."

So she punched me in the arm again.

Thats it folks

Just a mere Coincidence

2005-08-07T23:22:00.000-07:00

Well,
I finished reading Rich Dad Poor Dad by Saturday . The book is all about making money work for you ..and identifying your assets and liablities . So i was working on it , trying to figure out how may liablities i have ,found out i have many .Next afternoon while going for lunch , i lost my Nokia 2300 cell .... i lost a liablity .. Coincidence ...god knows.
I am running through the toughest patch of life monetary wise .
But spiritually i am on all time high .

War of the worlds

2005-07-02T06:21:00.000-07:00

yes , typical of me ..movies on back to back days ..
saw war of the world ..kinda okay movie no quarms after watching it

so kinda busy

sarkar

2005-07-01T05:51:00.000-07:00

Sarkar ....Wow what a beautiful movie ..Amitabh as usual is cool in the movie ..but the guy who steals the show is Abhishek . I always knew this guy has got mettle up in his ass ... roles in yuva and now sarkar have only vindicated the fact .. Movie has got big inspiration from "GODFATHER" ...but is was expected ...
katrina ..as always Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm man how can anybody look so glamorous and innocent as the same time ..

thats it for now ....

with love from chennai ...

2005-06-30T23:42:00.000-07:00

I have been to most part of the indian sphere but never ventured into south barring 10-15 days stnt in bangalore ....but destiny has chennai in store for me ...so landed in chennai .. Barring Food , chennai is quite a nice place ..it has got a fair nos of hangouts for every starta of people ... It doesnt have the affulent's MG-Brigade but has the common man's Usman Road-panagal park . It has biggest Enfield biker's club , i love this stuff . People who are educated(quite a lot of them) are amiable . The thing i found here is respect for money ... the people here have not inherited the money from their forefather's as their counterparts in gujarat and maharashta have ..so they know the value of it .. Crime charts i beleive would give run for money to those in Saudi Arabia and Oman . Once in a blue moon you will hear of buglary , loot .
Problem Area here is Whether ..Quality of fairer sex ...
Language and stuff are managable as i dont go to buy vegetables ....

thats it guy

E word

2005-06-17T04:10:00.000-07:00

1942 , an US author wrote a novel of 80 pages without using letter "e". This is 2006 , that letter "e" is now more used than any other letter . This blog is dedicated to US-airforce who invented "e" ...electronic . I am satish jha, bohemian . for my bread and butter i write software and for my ciggarate and booze i trade in stocks .