Read Day 1 Today seemed to be a better day in the society. Very few announcements. Means people were not roaming around aimlessly. People were seen going outside for getting the daily stuff like milk and groceries. Govt has allocated a special budget for taking care of needs of the poor people during this lockdown period. Hope it reaches the needy and can help them through this hard time. They are the ones who are going to face the most challenges. ...
As we all know the world is going through a really difficult time and there are a number of countries placed under lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19. India is also one of them. Imagine 130 crores of population shut indoors. Most of the private companies have given work from home to their employees. Govt offices are also running with limited staff. Out generation hasn’t seen anything like that earlier. ...
meharbaan ho ke bula lo mujhe chaaho jis waqt, main gaya waqt nahi hoon ke phir aa bhi na sakoon - Mirza Ghalib (Turning kind towards me, call me back any time you want; I am not like the time bygone that cannot be recalled*) *Translation from Love Sonnets of Ghalib by Sarfaraaz Niazi As Mirza nausha said " ke phir aa bhi na sakoon” the year 2013 is about to say good bye and it would never come back. Personally for me new year isn’t something that grand of a celebration time but it does signify a unit of time; one more year has ended. Of course there would be many disappointments everyone of us faced in the last year but here is a chance to look forward to new hopes and opportunities in the new year. ...
The Dussehra celebrations at the place where we live in Delhi are pretty huge. The local residents arrange a big function every year where there some local singer is called for performance and then there is burning of the effigies of Ravana. In our language there is a kind of mela where there are many stalls for different type of food, toys for children and more. Looking from the 3rd floor balcony the scene in the street looked somewhat like: ...
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 ! ...
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. httpv://youtu.be/yg9b5eEUwtE 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. ...
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. ...
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. ...
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 :( . ...
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 :D . 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. ...