Life is…My thoughts…

So here I am sitting at Paris Airport for the second day waiting for my flight to Madrid…

I had to fly from Delhi to Madrid and there were no direct flights. So I booked the one via Paris. It was my first experience with a connecting flight as I always try to take direct flights and haven’t had even the experience of a domestic connecting flight (where the things obviously are less crazy than an international one). All was well till I landed in Paris to find that the connecting flight has been cancelled . There was another colleague of mine who has to come from China and board the same flight to Madrid. She reached well before me and had already done the research and asked the Air France guys to put us on some other flight. It was snowing like heck in Paris and so many flights were cancelled. Almost everything was messed up. Long queues at all the desks, people running around to get their flights changed etc. Finally that guy put us on another flight that was 2 hours later but it was departing from the other airport (Orly). And as we were boarding a different flight so we needed to collect the luggage manually and check in again. When the time is bad everything you touch goes wrong. We followed the process to claim the luggage manually and got the luggage ticket. We went to the corresponding Air France desk (after asking 3 or 4 guys) and the reply we got was ! “We have got too much of luggage collected over here, we aren’t handing over any luggage. So you need to tell us the address where the luggage has to be sent.” . In the mean time a lot of time was wasted and there were not much chances of catching the flight in which they put us. So both the luggage and the flight got missed !

While running around, one guy had told us that there was an evening flight to Madrid and he could put us in that. So after missing this morning flight we went back to ask him to put us in the evening flight. oh boy ! all the flights leaving in the evening were full. damn !!!

So now back to another Air France desk. That kind lady took around 30 mins or so and said that I can put you in an Iberian flight that leaves in the evening from Orly. What could be better than that. We said yes. There was a plenty of time so we thought of grabbing something to eat and then leave for Orly (by bus). At this moment I swallowed some amount of chocolate also (People who know me can understand what that means).

So we started looking for the bus stop and found that due to snow all the buses have been cancelled ! Other options were to catch the train to half the way and then get a taxi or get a taxi from here itself. But people here said that taxi is really expensive. They charge some 90 Euros. Moreover due to weather it was really difficult to find a taxi and also it may take long time to reach.

So we chose the train option, went to the train station and with the help of someone got the tickets. Boarded the train with a map in the hand to match what all stations were on the way. One, two, three, four stations passed but we cant find the names of the map. Something is crappy again man ! Then a dude told that the stations on the map were yet to come on the way forward on this route. well finally the next station was there on the map. We DIDN’T board the wrong train !

We got off at the station where we were told to and started looking for taxi. It again was a struggle but anyway after some 30 mins we got a taxi and reached the Orly airport…to find that the Iberian flight in which they put us has also been cancelled ! We queued in the line at the Iberian desk for 1 hour or more to get the answer “we cant do anything”.

Some more research and we were back to Air France desk (some other desk dealing with all such crap that we faced). They told us that no more flights for Madrid were there so the only option was to fly the next day. She arranged accommodation and taxi for us and put us in one of the morning flights. I said when time is bad…there were two hotels with the same name and the taxi guy dropped us at the wrong hotel !!! Again walked in snow for 25-30 mins and finally found the actual hotel.

It was a nice hotel and stay there was good too.

In the morning we left for the airport to catch the flight to Madrid. Here we reached and that one was also CANCELLED !!!

Back to the Air France crap dealing department and after a lot of struggle they put us on another flight that leaves an hour or so later.

So here we are waiting for that flight. Lets hope for the best !

Oh yes and the baggage status says “received at the airport”. God knows it is Paris or Madrid airport ?

Lets  hope for the best .

It was while going through Morning With Farah videos on Youtube that I came across this interview of Arfa Karim with Farah and came to know that she was the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional who cleared MCP at the age of 9.

Then from comments I came to know that she had suffered a cardiac arrest attack and was in hospital. Since then there used to be an on and off update about her health through twitter or news. Yesterday was the unfortunate day when she lost the fight and said goodbye to this world. Life seems to be so unfair at times. Such a brilliant, intelligent kid and she had to go from this world at the age of 16. But  strange are the ways of God. We are the mere audience.

May her soul rest in peace. You were a brilliant kid Arfa and will remain an inspiration for many others.

waqt rehta nahi kahin tik kar, iski aadat bhi aadmi si hai – Gulzar in Marasim
(time has an attitude like that of a man…it doesn’t stop anywhere…)

…so another year is gone and we are welcoming the new year 2012. In most parts of the world, the first sun of 2012 has already risen. 2011 was an year of mixed emotions. Along with the personal & professional achievements & happiness, this year snatched from us legends like Jagjit Singh & many others. Also this year was marked with political turbulence in many parts of the world. Many innocent lives were lost.

In India, we saw a big change when people came on the streets to challenge the way governance was being done. It sparked a ray of hope of some betterment. Hope 2012 brings even more, people get their long lost rights and the administrators are held accountable for the goof ups that have become so frequent.

For me, on the blogging front it was a lazy year; could write very few posts. I will try to be more frequent in blogging in the new year 2012.

I am ending this post on a sad note with this song by Legend Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan:

I hope the answer to the question asked in the song is 2012. Hope it marks the end of pain & suffering of the innocents in this world. Hope everyone gets justice.

A very very happy and prosperous new year to you and your loved ones. Hope you achieve all that you ever desired for. Stay blessed !

Just few random thoughts taking the shape of a post. How good it feels to be in a new city and then exploring things as they came. Things as simple as finding where to find good food and where to buy your daily need items. I have not experienced a traveler’s life but whatever few cities i have been to, i always found the initial time there to be very nice. You are almost a stranger with very little knowledge about the city. Looking for almost everything is a new exploration, most importantly without any pre-assumptions, taking things as they come. I have lived in Amritsar, Chandigarh, Noida and then Delhi. It was always a nice experience exploring the cities.

Well, not much to write…just playing a Jagjit Singh’s ghazal and loving it. Enjoy

Day before yesterday morning, while coming back from office after doing a night lost my wallet somewhere. Man it is so disturbing. Firstly due to the loss of so many important things and secondly due the feeling of carelessness i am getting that i couldn’t take care of it and lost it somewhere like this. Absolutely no clues how and where it happened but i am feeling so so bad about it .

Another cause of headache for last two weeks have been finding a new accommodation. So many things related to this one suck, so we have been planning to change it since long. Finally when some stuff got out of control, we had to take the decision and start the hunt. Man it is such a shitty job. Finally after 2 weeks or so and compromising a bit on our choice and all, finalized one and will be shifting by this month end.

On the little better side, finally managed to watch Rajneeti yesterday night. A good movie after pretty long time. Nana Patekar, Manoj Bajpai and especially Ranbir Kapoor gave brilliant performances. Katrina did a pretty nice job too. A good enjoyment overall.

Looks like an incomplete post . Not much to write, just hoping for the things to be in little better order in coming time .

In the evening, me and my roommate went out for a round of market and i was telling him this story. Just felt like writing it.

It was in Jan or Feb of 2004 and i hadn’t got a job by then. I was doing my final semester 6 months training. 2 of my good friends were in Delhi for the training. One day they came to know about some job opening in some not-really-a-BPO company (yea, something like handling calls about some networking or some similar stuff…not that dishwasher can wash under wears or not types). So they called me in the evening, say 5 PM and asked me to take the night train to Delhi, as the interviews were scheduled for the next day. So it was the time to pack bags and leave for Delhi. I packed the necessary luggage and started getting ready to catch the night train. It was just my 3rd or 4th time in a train. So i was not aware about the reservations thing and different types of tickets. Just knew one thing; ticket to Delhi . I reached the railway station well before time, bought one ticket and started waiting for the train. It was just a general compartment ticket so had to board that only. Finally the train arrived and man this general compartment thingie was crowded like anything. But there was no other option available so had to enter somehow. After entering i adjusted myself and the bag i was carrying. It was a long journey (around 6 hours) and it was really difficult to travel in this position. Finaly after 1-2 hours i got a half seat; yea exactly half. So it was little better but still traveling on half seat in the night, that too in such a crowded compartment is no fun, for sure but oh yes…there was no other option.

It had started to dawn and the train reached Delhi railway station. As i had to go to Noida so there was another mission pending to be accomplished. As i was explained, i started looking for a bus to Noida (It is such a pity that even being called NCR, traveling from Delhi to Noida/Gurgaon or opposite is the most pathetic thing to do). It took me around half an hour or more to look for the place from where i would get a bus to Noida. And by the time people had directed me to 3 different places that you would get it from here, here or there etc etc. As they say that people in Delhi don’t say NO. They do tell you something, may be wrong only ! So finally i succeeded and got the bus to Noida. As luck would have it, there was some problem with the engine of the bus and the driver spent around 15 minutes trying to do some jugaad-ment. Anyways, just taking it as part of the mission, i was sitting quietly, half sleepy and tired. Oh yes…then the stop where i had to get off came. I took rickshaw from there and now the target was just 10 minutes away . As expected, i reached in the room in 10 minutes. The next task was to skim through some books and get ready for the interview. I took half-bath (yea half as there was no hot water and moreover i was tired and sleepy so could mange half only ). Then i skimmed through some technical stuff. 2 of my friends had to leave for their office but there was another friend who had to accompany me to the company as i was totally new to the city…

He told me about some interview tips and all and in the afternoon, we left for the venue. In 45 minutes or so we were there. Went to the company’s office and found that actually there were no interviews happening that day ! Oh boy hit the shit ! I was with totally blank head and the only thing i could think of was to come back. Again there was no other option . But my friend was already doing a job in some BPO, so he was aware about the recruitment process of BPOs. There was another BPO’s building adjacent to this one and he said that we should check there also. As we went there, we found out that there was some recruitment planned and a chance to appear for that. Oh man some luck at last. We went inside, filled the forms and started waiting. My friend said that he would also sit in the test to avoid some boredom. As otherwise also he had nothing to do . Finally i cleared the test (he didn’t as he sat in the test to just kill some time…). There was an interview after that and they asked me to wait for HR round.  After sometime they called me for the HR round and oh YES it was done. The final wait was for the offer letter. I can’t express in words that how good it feels after clearing  2-3 rounds of interviews and waiting for your offer letter. And boy if it is your first job, it is pure magic ! My friend had to go for his shift so he left. It was evening already so my 2 other friends got free from their office and directly reached there. I was still waiting for the offer letter. Finally they gave us the offer letters and we left for the room happily. I would again say that the feeling of getting your first job is really awesome. Though it was not an A class job, but still a job is a job and something is almost always better than nothing. We had got really late and reached at room around 1 in the night. In the society, we even met the UP police’s night patrolling guys  and they congratulated for the job and asked for a treat .

So that was how i landed the first job of my career .

One day, after 2-3 weeks, i was coming back from office and met the same guys and they said “bhai tune party ni di abhi tak” . Their party is still pending…

There are some people in this world who are plain *#&(#&$#*($*& and they would not mend their ways come what may. What would you do if you see someone like that in trouble and you seem to be in a position to give a helping hand ? Would you help him/her ? Would it be a pre-decided thing that whether to help him/her or not  or it would depend upon the state of mind at that time ?

Once more…coffee…oops…its getting too much probably . This time we went to Barista . Getting seats was also a struggle. We had to get our name listed and he told us to wait for 15-20 mintues. The guy who was managing all this was almost a complete idiot, so the first impression was not so good . We were three guys. After getting the seats, we ordered 2 hot and 1 cold Cappuccino (Oh yes, this time also i googled for spells ). After some time he got 2 cups; in one cup something hot and cold in the other one. We were surprised to see the third cup missing but just waited. It was not Cappuccino actually, as we rightly guessed (What i was dead sure was that Cappuccino, at least contained some milk ). By the time we were done with this, he got the actual order. So we started enjoying the coffee we had ordered . By the time we finished it, i decided to screw him up and ask for the feedback form if he added that wrong-order-on-our-table stuff in our bill. But but but…he charged only for the right order and we spared him from the not-so-good feedback

This time it was Costa Coffee. And this time the question is that why nobody was speaking anything there ? All their waiters were silent. Even when we asked for the bill he came back with a piece of paper which read “Cash/Card ?” So any clues whats that ?

Time flies; they say. Its so true. Day before yesterday i was exploring youtube and came across few videos of Lux style awards held in Karachi where Atif Aslam & Shehzad Roy paid tribute to the legendary singer Reshma.

Given her age (she has turned 60+, i think), she was not able to sing properly. It made me recall my childhood days. We used to listen to Lahore radio station which frequently played Reshma’s songs. The most popular was haye o rabba naio lagda dil mera. Since childhood her voice has been so familiar and she has been a respected and “motherly” figure in my eyes. Then it was the articles in Punjabi newspapers about her, her life that how simple living she had, she will always keep dupatta on her head (she says jokingly that dressing style of Reshma & Sikhs has never changed and will never change) and will cook for all her guests at home. Also the stories that how hard it was for her to read and memorize his first Urdu song. It has been almost 14-15 years to all this. Still the memories are so fresh in my mind. And now when Reshma was on stage and looking old it reminds of how grown up i am; an “old” boy. Time flies…really !

May God bless Reshma ji with a healthy and long life ! Respect !