Crappy monday!

I've somehow always looked forward to a Monday - theres a lot of work waiting to be started and its always like I'm starting with a clean slate...:-)

Yesterday was, however, an exception...I've been under the weather (and not under the climate as Khyatiji likes to claim) and feeling totally horrible with a headache, a runny nose, budding fever, teary-burning eyes, sore throat, over sensitive skin and bouts of weakness...:-( - all of which sent me into a generally cribby-grumpy mode. Didnt do a lot of work and came back early from office to sleep it off...woke up latenight to decide it was'nt going away, so staggered to a medicine shop (suddenly realised yesterday that I dont have any medicines at home) and brought a motherload of medicines for all kinds of common ailments...have never been a hypochondriac and quite dislike taking medicines but decided its better being safe than sorry, esp if you're all alone!

Earlier, whenever I fell ill, I made it a point to hit the gym and work it out of my system - guess I'm now too old to be able to do that too..and the Bombay weather currently doesnt allow me the luxury to run.

Also realised yesterday that of late I havent been doing much apart from working, coming home, surfing the net, hanging out with a couple of friends and watching mindless tv...here's an indicative list of things I'd like to do apart from work:

1. pour over the newspaper
2. keep better track of my investments
3. find out about new mutual funds
4. catch up with friends out of my immediate geographical vicinity - who probably hate me by now for not having kept in touch
5. Work out more at the gym
6. Stock up the fridge with healthier eats and drinks (including throwing out all the beer filling it up)
7. Take a holiday and oh god oh god, TREK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *Sigh*
8. figure out my camera better
9. Get back to practising karate
10. Spend more time with WSD first aid trails
11. Visit the Khotachiwadi festival

Am feeling pretty crappy right now too with all the above symptoms and also blocked ears - been swallowing hard since morning to unblock them:-( dont even feel like going home coz I know I'll simply put the tv onto some stupid movie channel - something that I'm swearing off for the next few days.

Lets see how long this crappiness lasts - my current medicine is Vicks Action 500 and Vitamin C - which seems to be working for now.

Current Music -
1.Tocatta and fugue in D Minor and Vivaldi's 4 seasons - Vanessa Mae
2.Baat Niklegi to Door talak jayegi - Jagjit Singh

Current Mood - crappy

My Sin Quotient

Oh Please!! I'm not as lusty as they paint me out to be...!:-)...but then it sounds like a better sin compared to others...haha...so be it..:)

Your Deadly Sins

Lust: 60%

Pride: 20%

Sloth: 20%

Envy: 0%

Gluttony: 0%

Greed: 0%

Wrath: 0%

Chance You'll Go to Hell: 14%

You'll die of a yet to be discovered STD.

How Sinful Are You?

HTML tags for posting pics

I'd long been trying to figure out the rocket science behind posting pics on a page and also posting thumbnails of pics which when clicked upon, would open into another page. Finally figured it and posting it here...haha as much as for others who want to do the same as for me...so that I can easily come back and copy the HTML code for posting a thumbnail pic.

Here's what one needs to do.
1. Go to a photohosting site..like www.photobucket.com
2. Open an acocunt there and upload your pics to the site
3. Below each pic are HTML tags that you simply need to copy-paste onto the page. A typical HTML tag would look like:

<img src="http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y108
/raccoonraccoon/Moon.jpg" alt="me and the moon">

It comes out looking like this:



Simple, huh? Ok here's the nuclear science extension to this rocket science that you wont get in your primary-level books:

Often, these pics take up a huge amount of space and take a long time to open - so you'd want to create a thumbnail of the pic on your page which when clicked upon, opens another page with the full pic in it. In that case, you need to use a diff set of HTML tags which I outline below:

<p align="center"><a href="http://i4.photobucket.com
/albums/y108/raccoonraccoon/Moon.jpg"target="_blank">
<img src="http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y108
/raccoonraccoon/Moon.jpg" width="140" height="125"
alt="the moon">

This, on the other hand, would look like this - you can click on the thumbnail to get the main pic on a diff page:

Please note: "http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y108/
raccoonraccoon/Moon.jpg" is the address of the picture where it has been uploaded. So you'd need to know this address where your pic is uploaded and just replace it wherever it appears in the HTML tag given above...and see the results..:)..Also, while copying the tags, please note that these should all be in a straight line (i had pressed 'enter' to push some tags to the other line when they started eating up the side margins too)....copy-paste ki jai!!!

Happy posting!

The long (and largely wasted) weekend

This was a 3-day weekend and I'd planned to:

1. Categorise all of last years bills for the tax filing thing
2. Call/meet up all the friends and make up for the last 3 weeks of being (almost) incommunicado
3. Finish 100 years of solitude
4. Catch up on investments
5. Write CDs to free up my comp of the heavy duty downloads
6. Make that early morning trip to Crawford mkt for photography
7. Finish up pending work
8. Work out extra at the gym!
9. Catch up on a week of unread news..!

What I actually did:

1. S.L.E.P.T (yaaayyyyy...slept for half of Sat and full of Monday - totally sinful but totally happy)

2. Pictionary - pheeewwww! If I thought the last game of pictionary was competitive, you should have seen the game happening on Sat night!! We were 7 people in 3 teams and it was madness from the word GO..!! First there were fights on who'd team with whom (never seen perfect adults changing into 10-yr olds so soon, before!), then there were fights on rules and then there were fights every turn on who shouted out the word first....gosh!!!! But it was huge fun! And as the pictionary game says clearly (and very perceptively) - 'Remember, Pictionary is just a game while friends are for life' (or something similar to the effect...:-) )

3. Welfare for Stray Dog (WSD) workshop on Animal Behaviour and first aid - this was an awesome workshop...esp liked stuff on dog behaviour and Homeopathy for dogs!!!! I'm a convert and have now decided to transfer all my dogs to homeopathy ASAP now...it has cures for everything, and I esp liked that they had a cure for the fright induced by Diwali crackers...:-)

4. Afternoon snooze at a friends' place, a few min of photoshoots at the Barista (I'm quite happy with the way I take portraits!):

5. Naina movie - semi-scary and just about ok

6. 1 hour of karaoke-ing

7. 1 hour of photographing the moon today (buddha poornima, full moon) at marine drive:

Sounds like fun, huh? But I still dont feel happy coz nothing of what I had planned got done..!!

So I wont plan anymore...:-)...:-)

Your Birthdate: January 27

Your birth on the 27th day of the month (9 energy) adds a tone of selflessness and humanitarianism to your life path. Certainly, you are one who can work very well with people, but at the same time you need a good bit of time to be by yourself to rest and meditate. There is a very humanistic and philanthropic approach in most of things that you do. This birthday helps you be broadminded, tolerant, generous and very cooperative. You are the type of person who uses persuasion rather than force to achieve your ends. You tend to be very sensitive to others' needs and feelings, and you able to give much in the way of friendship without expecting a lot in return.

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Random evenings out

Came back from office around 7, all ready to go to the gym, but fell asleep almost immediately (note: sluggishness from previous post).

Was woken up at 9 by friends who had been planning to hang out, so went with them, had Chinese at this place in the Crossroads mall whose name I always manage to forget.

Free starters as usual because of a celebrity friend (ok lady if you're reading this, I'll now think twice before going out dining with you;-)),and the worst part was we got so stuffed on the starters and the soup that we never had the main course...so there we were - free dinner inspite of our vociferous protests (though I admit I quite liked the free starters concept the first time it had happened:-) ).

Then rolled over to this (new) friends' place - more like her den with a huge acryllic painting done on her door and super brownies with icecream. And then it started!

Pictionary!!!

Had'nt played this game for about 5-6 years now and only had faint memories of really enjoying it. And there it was, all over again...2 teams, clawing against each other, trying to express themselves on paper as creatively and lucidly as possible, trying to beat each other and also the little hourglass (minuteglass?). the competition was sweet when it started out but we got into the 'crush-em, pulverise-em' mode with a totally nail-biting finish:-)

I discovered that I generally suck at drawing animals and am somewhat better with expressing more esoteric concepts like scratching all over the paper, or trying to break the pencil nib in frustration..:-D or making strange shapes to get my point across :-)..says a lot about my ability to communicate...;-). But the game was super and we now look forward to another, more charged round of Pictionary on Friday night...followed by a game of taboo!:-)

And am majorly sleep deprived today X-)

Oh and my team lost the game :-))

Saturn or the summer??

I've been feeling unusually sluggish and not wanting to work at all all through last week and some of this too!

Would have attributed it to the Bombay heat and humidity (notwithstanding the fact that am in office for all of the day), but its seems everyone who's working and has a specific mindset has been effected by it.

A couple of very close friends in the US have been feeling the same, a cousin in the UK reported feeling very sluggish and out of sorts and many of my close friends in Delhi/Bombay had it!!

A friend who's into astrology tells me its the effect of Saturn in his last house (or something similiar) that affects all the brilliant people (haha, I made that up) and makes them not want to work! This will continue till the end of May and then go away when Mercury will be on the ascendant.

And it affects only a very specific personality type! Dont know which specific personality type..but I can safely assume that its my personality type thats being affected - since I have it and so do all close friends/family! Others seem to be plodding along quite nicely with their lives:-)

Have you been affected by it too? Write in..haha..we might just make excellent friends;-)

A year in Bombay

I've been in Bombay for 13 months now and am totally in love with the place.

Its like no other place I've ever lived in. I think comparisons with any other city would be unfair but what never ceases to amaze is the amount of dynamism and vibrancy in the city. The amount of wealth being created here and the speed with which it is being created - both physical and intellectual wealth.. is truly awesome.

Bombay, I think is much more disciplined than other cities in the country..there is system even in a traffic jam with cars neatly spaced out behind each other (though I heavily discount the traffic at SV road at all times!) and this has to be the first place I've seen people standing in queues for a bus.

People always seem to be rushing off to a place with a very definite purpose in mind and that, in all ways adds to our GDP (reminding myself of the GDP - need to get off ryzing to add some, there!)..though am quite surprised by the number of hangers-on..below any office building at Nariman Point - I wonder what they're all upto- disguised unemployment?

I dont associate Mumbaikar with being Marathi - its that particular breed of people who have come to Bombay with dreams of growth and are working towards it in one way or the other, from glitzy offices on the 20th floors to the pavements, from apartments on cuffe parade to slums at Dharavi...in their own purposeful ways. They are the ones contributing to the dynamism of the city.

Everyone in Bombay have their own ways of having fun - from the well heeled crowds at Enigma to the legless beggar with his pariah dogs and kids near Bandra Station.

I quite like the Maharashtrian snacks in Bombay - unfortunately not many are very healthy. The public transport is just about ok - very useful but quite inadequate. I can imagine it'd be a huge task to manage all the local trains and the buses - hats off to those administrators/planners. Though if any city needed the metro, it was bombay and not delhi/cal more. I do wish they built more flyovers here - especially for the bottleneck at Kemps Corner where our own nightingale lives!

I love the fact that I've seen only 2 power cuts in the last 13 months - each not lasting for very long. Have never had a water problem (though these might be confined to my building/area, I tend to associate it with bombay in general).

I admire the taxi and autovaalas - anywhere else in the country, either their meters are heavily tampered with or they refuse to go by the meter (exception - Hyderabad) - though even here they'll happily take you for a ride - but I've never been fleeced for more than Rs10 here. Some quick operators on the airport try to print their own rate cards which show imaginative rates, but thats enterprise...:-)

I do wish the people living in slums were rehabilited to other areas with better and more hygienic facilities and parks built in the areas cleared. Bombay needs a heavy dose of green - god bless BNP, but its not enough! The BMC really needs to pull up its socks and be more accountable for its functions of maintaining general cleanliness and order.

I quite admire the way the police functions here - apart from few recent unfortunate incidents, they've managed on the whole an aura of being quite omnipresent...a local friend was saying the following, which quite aptly summed up my feelings: 'Pandu log ka bahut kehar (=fear) hai mumbai me'.

The lack of space makes people come out to public places for seeking entertainment, spawning a huge industry comprising of restaurants, pubs, discs, chai-coffee waalas, chana jor garams etc(esp around make-out points like juhu, bandstand). Love seems to be in the air and local people thankfully dont embarrass the lovers by staring a lot...!!! though theres never a dearth of open mouthed new-to-bombay outsiders! All the people having fun out, give bombay the aura of a bustling city by night...which is quite overrated and attributed (my opinion entirely) to the lack of adequate space at home to stretch out.

The winters (or the lack of them) were a total pleasure here - I didnt have to strain through dense fog to drive, I didnt have to get loaded with jackets and sweaters and though I missed sitting out in the sun in the garden or in the 'razai' with steaming tea and 'pakoras', it was fun on the whole - i could get many more things done than I would have, in Delhi, during the winters.

I love the fact that within 2hours of Bombay are the Western Ghats with so many trekking/outdoorsy options over the weekend without having to travel to far-off places. I love the fact that people in Bombay are generally much more enthusiastic about trekking/travelling than in any other place - have never had to look hard for serious trekking company here.

I do miss the Delhi food (though there are amazing places here to eat out, which I've been discovering slowly with friends), I miss the large roads and flyovers, I miss the huge green spaces, I miss having a garden, I miss having my dogs around, I occassionally miss the Jaats cussing away to glory, I definitely miss a lot of friends and family I left behind, but Bombay has been very good to me -both professionally and personally - and am grateful for that. I've found my way around this place and am quite comfortable here now.

I dont treat it as a city of dreams, though...my dreams are hardly of the materialistic variety. I probably would'nt want to settle down in Bombay, especially when am in a phase where I'd need to spend time with my family, but, as Mc Donald's say..I'm Loving it...atleast for now...:-)

Of Surnames and me

Got inspiration for this blog from Mayuri, so all due credits to her for the posting...:-)
I had posted this blog a day earlier and was'nt very satisfied with it...so M very nicely went and edited it - reformatted, spaced, rearranged and added her own lines...:-)...I refuse to disclose which are her lines else (what is now) my blog will become totally lifeless...:-D
***********************

'Sharmaji sharmate hain, gali ke chuhe khate hain' was a refrain I grew up hearing, after which I took to beating people up.

So, understandably, I wasn’t too enamoured by my surname to begin with!

To me, my surname always sounded like that of an orthodox panditji wearing a white dhoti with a single choti on his bald-as-the-day he was born head!

I tried not to pay much attention to it. ‘Tried’ being the operative word hereJ

I always noticed how all Amitabh Bachchan-Shashi Kapoor pics would have the macho heroes being called some Verma or the other and I secretly wished if somehow, someday I could become Verma too.

Its only since the last 7-8 years that I've actually started loving the Sharma appendage and feeling pretty proud of it too!

No external reasons there - I think it all came with an increasing confidence in my abilities. It started with the way I sign my name...it goes psharma in a neat cursive with the m working out like avery pretty w.....i quite like it.Yes, I do!

Then at mgmt school i got my first web based email id-sharmapranav..and that was the first time I thot...hmmm...that looks pretty cool(though the management school id was psharma - which again I didnt like too much)!

I also begun to like how well my name goes with my surname It also helped that somehow none of the Sharmas I've ever met have been blots on the surname..all have upheld the banner in some form or the other.

I also happen to have a special weakness for females with a Sharma surnameJ Ah! I feel so very kindly towards them, like they're all under my benign protection.

A Sharma male can, of course, do no wrong. If the choice today was between a Sharma and a Kapoor/Verma - cool titles from my childhood those, I'd now happily take the Sharma.

I now associate the surname with poise, dignity, grace, honesty, uprightedness and street smarts. (sometimes makes me think if I am sharma in drag only..;-D )

A Sharma is bound to be successful in his/her calling,a Sharma is bound to be the guy you can bank upon, come heaven or hell. No other surname sounds good enough to me now...atleast not with my name and personality. And I look forward to bringing many more little Sharmas on the earth...;-)

Also a little research on my surname here, to add to your GK;-)

Sharmas are mostly found in Rajasthan/Punjab and are thought to have been natives of that area. These Sharmas are Brahmins. However, some Sharmas also originate from Bihar and could belong to the carpenter(badhai) caste or the bhoomihar(landlords). For purposes of this post, we will assume Sharmas to be originating from Rajasthan/Punjab. There are a number of schools of thoughts about the origins of the word Sharma:

1. One believes that the word Sharma refers to Srinatehimsayam-dhatu — the sacred person who eradicates his own sins and those of mankind with acquired powers of self-consciousness

2. According to another school of thought, the surname Sharma finds its origin in the commentary of Sakuntala by Kalidasa. The Brahamans (in the remote past) who, used to offer 1/10th of their earnings for the welfare of the king and the subjects, were known as Sharmas

3. Another school of thought and more popular believes that the word Sharma refers to a universal well-wisher or sublime personality, who has achieved the highest state of concentration. Manu, who hailed from Gupta clan, did not segregate the Indian society, but gave the concept of unification of mankind by virtue of karmas (deeds) and heredity. The scholars opine that virat is composed of four parts viz., the mouth symbolising thoughtfulness i.e., Sharman; the forelimbs representing the protector i.e., Kshatriya ; the belly represents secrecy i.e., Gupt and the hind limbs signify the working class.

Sharma is hot, Sharma is cool..Sharma is totally in. For me atleast!